WO2021212557A1

WO2021212557A1 - Mask plate, and display panel and manufacturing method therefor

Info

Publication number: WO2021212557A1
Application number: PCT/CN2020/089411
Authority: WO
Inventors: 全海燕; 吕晓文
Original assignee: Tcl华星光电技术有限公司
Priority date: 2020-04-21
Filing date: 2020-05-09
Publication date: 2021-10-28
Also published as: CN111413846A

Abstract

A mask plate, and a display panel and a manufacturing method therefor. The mask plate comprises a transverse shading strip (10) and a longitudinal shading strip (20) crossed with the transverse shading strip (10); and the mask plate is provided with at least one hollowed-out region (30) at the corner of the transverse shading strip (10) and the longitudinal shading strip (20). A metal corner closer to 90° is prepared by using the principle of MPC compensation, and thus the non-vertical or parallel state of metal and a polarizing sheet in a display region is improved.

Description

Mask plate, display panel and preparation method thereof

Technical field

This application relates to the field of display, in particular to a mask, a display panel and a preparation method thereof.

Background technique

In the field of liquid crystal display (Liquid Crystal Display, LCD), contrast is an important indicator, which refers to the ratio of the brightness of the brightest case and the brightness of the darkest case in an image. By increasing the brightness of the brightest situation, or reducing the brightness of the darkest situation, the contrast of the image can be improved.

The liquid crystal display panels currently on the market include a color filter substrate (CF Substrate, CF Substrate) and a thin film transistor array substrate (Thin Film Transistor Substrate, TFT Substrate), and there are transparent electrodes on the inner side of the substrate. A layer of liquid crystal molecules sandwiched between two substrates (Liquid Crystal, LC). The liquid crystal display uses the electric field to control the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules to change the polarization state of light, and realizes the penetration and blocking of the light path through the polarizing plate to achieve the purpose of display.

Metal light leakage refers to the phenomenon that when the metal on the TFT substrate is not perpendicular or parallel to the polarizer, the electric field excites the escaped electrons to change the polarization state, thereby causing light leakage. In the display area, the metal is designed to be parallel or perpendicular to the polarizer; the corners are due to process limitations, even if the mask is designed to be at a right angle at the corners, the actual metal wires will inevitably form arcs. The corners, as shown in Figure 1 and Figure 2, cause metal light leakage and affect the contrast of the panel. For liquid crystal display panels, methods such as reducing metal light leakage can be used to reduce unnecessary light leakage in the dark state, thereby improving contrast.

At present, the attention of metal light leakage is not high. One way to improve metal light leakage is to block it by black matrix (BM), but considering the amount of shift between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate, the area of the BM has to be changed. Large, this will sacrifice a certain aperture ratio of the pixel. However, for high-resolution products, such sacrifices need to be avoided as much as possible.

technical problem

The embodiments of the present application provide a mask, a display panel, and a manufacturing method thereof, aiming to provide a method for improving metal light leakage and thus increasing contrast without losing the aperture ratio.

Technical solutions

The present application provides a mask plate, which includes a horizontal shading strip and a longitudinal shading strip intersecting the horizontal shading strip. The mask plate has at least one hollowed-out area at the corner of the horizontal shading strip and the vertical shading strip.

In some embodiments, the hollowed-out area is one of a circle, a diamond, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape.

In some embodiments, the center point of the hollowed-out area is on the center axis of the corner.

In some embodiments, the horizontal shading strip and the longitudinal shading strip include a target intersection area, and the target intersection area forms a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other, and the first corner and the second corner are respectively provided with a cutout. Empty area.

In some embodiments, the hollowed-out area of the first corner and the hollowed-out area of the second corner have the same shape.

In some embodiments, the distance from the original vertex of the corner to any point of the hollowed-out area is 0.2-1 μm.

In some embodiments, when the hollowed-out area is a square, the side length of the square is 1.3-2.1 μm.

The present application also provides a display panel including at least one metal wire, the metal wire is made of a mask plate, the mask plate includes a horizontal light-shielding strip and a vertical light-shielding strip intersecting the horizontal light-shielding strip, the mask plate There is at least one hollowed-out area at the corners of the horizontal shading strip and the longitudinal shading strip.

In some embodiments, the lateral shading strip and the longitudinal shading strip comprise a target intersection area, and the target intersection area forms a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other, and the first corner and the second corner are respectively set There are hollowed out areas.

In some embodiments, the hollowed-out area of the first corner and the hollowed-out area of the second corner have the same shape. 13. The display panel of claim 8, wherein the distance from the original vertex of the corner to any point of the hollowed-out area is 0.2-1 μm.

The present application also provides a method for preparing a display panel. The mask used in the mask design stage includes a horizontal shading strip and a vertical shading strip intersecting the horizontal shading strip, and the corners of the horizontal shading strip and the vertical shading strip are hollowed out. To get at least one hollowed out area.

Beneficial effect

The embodiment of the present application provides a mask plate, which includes a horizontal shading strip and a longitudinal shading strip intersecting the horizontal shading strip. The mask plate is partially hollowed out at the corners of the horizontal shading strip and the vertical shading strip. The embodiment of the application uses the principle of MPC (Metal peak compensation) compensation, that is, through the design of digging the mask to compensate for the light shadow in the photolithography process, and reduce the metal in the metal line prepared by the mask. The arc remains, thereby improving the non-perpendicular or parallel state of the metal and the polarizer in the display area, so that the metal leakage can be reduced without losing the aperture ratio, reducing the dark state brightness and improving the display image of the display panel Contrast.

An embodiment of the present application provides a display panel. The metal lines in the display panel manufactured by using the principle of MPC compensation have a metal corner closer to 90°. This metal line can improve the non-metallic and polarizers in the display area. The vertical or parallel state can reduce the light leakage of the metal without losing the aperture ratio, reduce the brightness of the dark state, and improve the contrast of the displayed image of the display panel.

The embodiment of the present application provides a method for manufacturing a display panel, which can improve the contrast of an image displayed on the display panel.

Description of the drawings

In order to more clearly describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application, the following will briefly introduce the drawings that need to be used in the description of the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments of the present application. For those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without creative work.

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a mask in the prior art;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of a metal wire produced by the prior art;

3 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of a mask provided by an embodiment of the present application;

4 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a mask provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another embodiment of a mask provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Wherein the reference signs explain:

10-horizontal shading strip; 20-longitudinal shading strip; 30-cut out area.

Embodiments of the present invention

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present application. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present application, rather than all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments in this application, all other embodiments obtained by those skilled in the art without creative work shall fall within the protection scope of this application.

In the description of this application, it should be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "transverse", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", " The orientation or positional relationship indicated by “back”, “left”, “right”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “inner”, and “outer” are based on the orientation shown in the drawings The or positional relationship is only for the convenience of describing the application and simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation of the application. In addition, the terms "first" and "second" are only used for descriptive purposes, and cannot be understood as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of indicated technical features. Therefore, the features defined with “first” and “second” may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. In the description of the present application, "multiple" means two or more than two, unless otherwise specifically defined.

In the liquid crystal display technology, the metal light leakage of the pixel will increase the brightness of the panel in the dark state, thereby affecting the contrast. Metal light leakage generally occurs at the metal corners in the pixel display area. When there is no MPC compensation at the corners, due to the limitation of the manufacturing process, even if the metal mask is designed at a right angle at the corners, the actual pattern produced will be The arc-shaped corners are inevitably formed. If the metal light leakage is reduced by BM occlusion, it will inevitably lose the aperture ratio of some pixels. For high-resolution products, it is necessary to minimize the loss of aperture ratio, so we need to find a way A method to improve metal light leakage under the condition of loss of aperture ratio.

Since metal etching generally uses a wet etching process, the wet etching process has the characteristics of isotropic etching. When the wet etching process reaches the end point of the downward etching, the side metal etching will continue at the same etching rate simultaneously. Therefore, the pattern with obvious fold line design, the angle edge will become smooth and smooth. The metal and polarized light here The chips are in a non-vertical or parallel state, and metal light leakage generally occurs at the metal corners in the pixel display area.

Based on this, the embodiments of the present application provide a mask, a display panel and a manufacturing method thereof, which will be described in detail below.

First, an embodiment of the present application provides a mask plate, which includes a horizontal shading strip 10 and a longitudinal shading strip 20 intersecting the horizontal shading strips. The mask plate has at least one cutout at the corners of the horizontal shading strips and the vertical shading strips. Empty area 30.

In one embodiment, the hollowed-out area 30 may be one of a circle, a diamond, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape. Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, it can be understood that in some other implementations of the present application, as long as A right angle close to 90° that can be obtained by MPC compensation is the solution mentioned in this patent.

Specifically, before the corner is hollowed out, the distance from the original vertex, that is, the original vertex to any point in the hollowed-out area 30, ranges from 0.2-1μm, preferably, the distance is 0.2μm, 0.8μm, 1μm, and it is made at this distance. The metal wire coming out is closer to the 90° angle.

Specifically, when the hollowed-out area is a square, the side length of the square is 1.3-2.1μm, preferably, the side lengths are 1.3μm, 1.5μm, 2.1μm, and the metal wire produced under this side length is closer to 90° Of the horns.

Specifically, the center point of the hollowed-out area 30 is on the center axis of the corner, so that the hollowed-out areas 30 on both sides of the center axis are more even, and the effect of reducing the metal arc-shaped residue is better.

Specifically, the horizontal light shielding strip 10 and the longitudinal light shielding strip 20 include a target intersection area where a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other are formed, and the first corner and the second corner are respectively provided with a hollowed-out area 30 .

Specifically, the hollowed-out area 30 of the first corner and the hollowed-out area 30 of the second corner have the same shape.

Specifically, the size of the hollowed-out area 30 can be determined according to the line width of the designed metal line. For example, the area of the hollowed-out area is proportional to the line width of the metal line, A=K*B, and k is a preset coefficient. A is the area value of the hollowed out area, and B is the line width of the metal wire.

In the embodiment of the present application, a mask plate is provided, which includes a horizontal shading strip 10 and a longitudinal shading strip 20 crossing the horizontal shading strips. The mask plate is partially hollowed out at the corners of the horizontal shading strip 10 and the vertical shading strip 20. . This embodiment uses the principle of MPC compensation, that is, through the design of digging the mask to compensate for the light shadow in the lithography process, to prepare a metal corner close to 90°, thereby improving the metal and polarizer in the display area. The vertical or parallel state can reduce the light leakage of the metal without losing the aperture ratio, reduce the brightness of the dark state, and improve the contrast of the displayed image of the display panel.

On the basis of the above embodiments, an embodiment of the present application also provides a display panel, which includes at least one metal wire, and the metal wire is made of any of the above-mentioned masks.

In the embodiments of the application, a display panel is provided, and the metal lines in the display panel manufactured by the principle of MPC compensation are closer to the metal corner of 90°. This metal can improve the non-perpendicular or non-perpendicular or non-perpendicular metal and polarizer in the display area. The parallel state can reduce the light leakage of the metal without losing the aperture ratio, reduce the brightness of the dark state, and improve the contrast of the displayed image of the display panel.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a method for manufacturing a display panel, and the manufacturing method includes:

(1) A metal film is formed on the base substrate;

A mask is provided, which includes a horizontal shading strip 10 and a longitudinal shading strip 20 intersecting the horizontal shading strip, and there is at least one hollowed-out area 30 at the corner of the horizontal shading strip and the vertical shading strip.

Specifically, the hollowed-out area 30 is one of a circle, a rhombus, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape.

Specifically, the center point of the hollowed-out area 30 is on the center axis of the corner.

Specifically, the size of the hollowed-out area 30 can be determined according to the line width of the designed metal line. For example, the area of the hollowed-out area is proportional to the line width of the metal line, A=K*B, and k is a preset Coefficient, A is the area value of the hollowed out area, B is the line width of the metal wire.

(2) Coat photoresist on the metal film, expose and develop the photoresist through the mask, remove the photoresist except the metal line to be formed, and then use the remaining photoresist as a shield to wet the metal film Etching to obtain metal lines, and finally remove the remaining photoresist to obtain a TFT substrate;

(3) The TFT substrate and the CF substrate are bonded together, and liquid crystal is added between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate to produce a display panel.

Specifically, the metal wire is the common electrode line of the liquid crystal display panel. At this time, the number of the horizontal light shielding strips 10 and the vertical light shielding strips 20 on the mask plate is set to match the number of common electrode lines of the liquid crystal display panel. Each corner of the shading strip is provided with a hollowed-out area 30 to reduce or avoid the arc-shaped corners appearing at each corner position, effectively avoid diffraction and light leakage, and improve the display effect.

Specifically, the gates and scan lines are also formed at the same time as the metal lines. Of course, in order to form the gates and scan lines, the mask plate also has gates corresponding to the positions of the gates and scan lines. Light-shielding patterns for poles and scan lines.

Specifically, a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, a source and drain metal layer, a passivation layer, and a pixel electrode layer are sequentially stacked above the gate, scan line, and metal line. Wherein, the source and drain metal layer includes a data line, a source and a drain, the pixel electrode layer includes a pixel electrode, the gate is electrically connected to the scan line, the source is electrically connected to the data line, and the drain is electrically connected to the pixel The electrodes are electrically connected.

Further, the liquid crystal display panel may also be a liquid crystal display panel adopting a technology of no black matrix above the data line. In this case, the pixel electrode layer further includes a light-shielding electrode that shields the data line, and the light-shielding electrode is connected to the common electrode line. A common voltage is loaded on them, so that the liquid crystal corresponding to the light-shielding electrode is not deflected, and the light-shielding effect is achieved. Furthermore, the liquid crystal display panel without black matrix technology above the data line may be a curved liquid crystal display panel. In the liquid crystal display panel with no black matrix technology above the data line, the display panel manufactured by the manufacturing method of the display panel of the present application can reduce the brightness in the dark state and improve the contrast of the display image of the display panel.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a method for manufacturing a display panel. In the manufacturing method, the mask used in the mask design stage includes a horizontal light-shielding strip 10 and a vertical light-shielding strip 20 intersecting the horizontal light-shielding strips. There is at least one hollowed-out area 30 at the corners of the light-shielding strip and the longitudinal light-shielding strip.

In one embodiment, the hollowed-out area 30 has one of a circular shape, a diamond shape, a square shape, a triangle shape, or an irregular shape.

Specifically, the size of the hollowed-out area 30 can be determined according to the line width of the designed metal line. For example, the area of the hollowed-out area 30 is proportional to the line width of the metal line, A=K*B, and k is the preset value. Set the coefficient, A is the area value of the hollowed-out area 30, and B is the line width of the metal wire.

The embodiment of the present application provides a method for manufacturing a display panel, which uses MPC (Metal Peak compensation, metal sharp angle compensation) compensation principle, that is, through the design of the mask to compensate for the light shadow in the lithography process, to prepare a metal corner close to 90 °, thereby improving the metal and the display area The polarizers are in a non-vertical or parallel state, so that the metal leakage can be reduced without losing the aperture ratio, the dark state brightness is reduced, and the contrast of the displayed image of the display panel can be improved.

The above is a detailed introduction to a mask, a display panel and a preparation method provided by the embodiments of the present application. Specific examples are used in this article to illustrate the principles and implementations of the present application. The description of the above embodiments is only used To help understand the methods and core ideas of this application; at the same time, for those skilled in the art, according to the ideas of this application, there will be changes in the specific implementation and scope of application. In summary, the content of this specification It should not be construed as a limitation on this application.

Claims

A mask plate, comprising a horizontal shading strip and a longitudinal shading strip intersecting the horizontal shading strip, the mask plate has at least one hollowed-out area at the corner of the horizontal shading strip and the longitudinal shading strip .
The mask according to claim 1, wherein the hollowed-out area is one of a circle, a rhombus, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape.
The mask according to claim 1, wherein the center point of the hollowed-out area is on the center axis of the corner.
The mask according to claim 1, wherein the horizontal light-shielding strip and the longitudinal light-shielding strip comprise a target crossing area, and a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other are formed at the target crossing area, and the first corner The corner and the second corner are respectively provided with hollowed out areas.
4. The mask according to claim 4, wherein the hollowed-out area of the first corner and the hollowed-out area of the second corner have the same shape.
The mask according to claim 1, wherein the distance between the original vertex of the corner and any point of the hollowed-out area is 0.2-1 μm.
The mask according to claim 2, wherein when the hollowed-out area is a square, the side length of the square is 1.3-2.1 μm.
A display panel, wherein the display panel includes at least one metal wire, the metal wire is made of a mask plate, and the mask plate includes a horizontal light-shielding strip and a vertical light-shielding strip intersecting the horizontal light-shielding strip, so The mask plate has at least one hollowed-out area at the corners of the horizontal light-shielding strip and the longitudinal light-shielding strip.
8. The display panel of claim 8, wherein the hollowed-out area is one of a circle, a diamond, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape.
8. The display panel according to claim 8, wherein the center point of the hollowed-out area is on the center axis of the corner.
8. The display panel according to claim 8, wherein the horizontal light-shielding strip and the vertical light-shielding strip comprise a target intersection area, and a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other are formed at the target intersection area, and the first corner Hollowed areas are respectively provided on the second corner and the second corner.
11. The display panel according to claim 11, wherein the hollowed-out area of the first corner and the hollowed-out area of the second corner have the same shape.
8. The display panel of claim 8, wherein the distance from the original vertex of the corner to any point of the hollowed-out area is 0.2-1 μm.
The display panel of claim 9, wherein when the hollowed-out area is a square, the side length of the square is 1.3-2.1 μm.
A method for manufacturing a display panel, wherein, in the manufacturing method, the mask used in the mask design stage includes a horizontal light-shielding strip and a vertical light-shielding strip intersecting the horizontal light-shielding strip. The corners of the longitudinal shading strips are hollowed out to obtain at least one hollowed out area.
The method for manufacturing the display panel according to claim 15, wherein the hollowed-out area is one of a circle, a diamond, a square, a triangle, or an irregular shape.
The method for manufacturing the display panel according to claim 15, wherein the center point of the hollowed-out area is on the center axis of the corner.
The method for manufacturing a display panel according to claim 15, wherein the horizontal shading strip and the vertical shading strip comprise a target intersection area, and the target intersection area forms a first corner and a second corner opposite to each other. The first corner and the second corner are respectively provided with hollowed out areas.
18. The method of manufacturing a display panel according to claim 18, wherein the hollowed-out area of the first corner and the hollowed-out area of the second corner have the same shape.
The method for manufacturing a display panel according to claim 15, wherein the distance from the original vertex of the corner to any point of the hollowed-out area is 0.2-1 μm.