JPH01175146A - Manufacture of gas discharge panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow the high-speed production by positioning multiple spherical spacers, discharging them one by one, baking them to gasify a solvent, depositing the spherical spacers on a dielectric substance layer, then supporting a mating substrate. CONSTITUTION:Multiple spacers 4 and a viscous solvent temporarily fixing them to a substrate are mixed in advance, the mixture is packed in a cartridge 40 and guided to a discharger 30, and the spacers 4 are discharged one by one through a discharge nozzle 31. The spacers 4 are wetted with a solution having sublimation property and viscosity and fixed to the substrate after being dried at 150-200 deg.. At this time they are located at the position completely apart from discharge points P. Subsequently when a dielectric substance layer 3 is heated to about 500 deg. to be slightly softened, partial surfaces below the spherical spacers 4 are put along the dielectric substance layer 3, and they are blended and fixed when returned to the normal temperature. The spacer sphere to be used is a glass sphere, its diameter can be a value smaller than the electrode pitch: tens 200mum.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Summary] The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a gas discharge panel, and provides an efficient method for installing a spherical support at a fixed point on a substrate to maintain a constant gap between two opposing substrates. For this purpose, a plurality of spherical spacers mixed with a viscous sublimable solvent are positioned at a fixed point on one of the substrates using a positioning mechanism, and then discharged one by one and fixed using the viscosity. This is a panel manufacturing method in which the spherical spacer is placed and then fired to vaporize the solvent, and the spherical spacer is fused to the dielectric layer, and then the other opposing substrate is supported.

[Industrial application field]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a gas discharge panel.

More specifically, the present invention relates to a new installation method for installing spacers for setting the discharge gap of the panel using a discharge machine.

[Conventional technology]

Generally, in a gas discharge panel, a gas space is defined by interspersing a plurality of spacers between a pair of opposing electrode substrates.

Conventionally, the method of installing this spacer was
It is known that a spacer such as that disclosed in No. 166 is adhesively fixed onto a dielectric layer for electrode & fi edges using water glass.

However, with this method, each spacer must be placed and fixed by hand, which requires a large amount of man-hours and time, resulting in high manufacturing costs.Also, work errors such as misalignment of spacers are likely to occur, and the panel This was an inconvenience in terms of quality.

In addition, conventional methods often use relatively large spacers, such as 0.5 mm square spacers, so that they can be handled by humans, and the electrodes are arranged at a relatively fine pitch (e.g. 0.3 mm or less), there was a problem in that, together with the use of water glass, a number of defective spots that did not emit light were formed in the vicinity of the spacer.

Furthermore, in order to reduce the weight of the entire panel, the substrate 1 is required to be made thinner, and in order to maintain the discharge gap, a higher density of spacers is required, which cannot be met by conventional methods.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the conventional situation as described above, an object of the present invention is to provide an efficient method for installing a spacer at a fixed point on a substrate to maintain a constant gap between two opposing substrates.

[Means for solving problems]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention uses a plurality of spherical spacers mixed with a viscous sublimable solvent.
The spherical spacers are positioned at a fixed point on one of the substrates using a positioning mechanism, and then discharged one by one, fixedly arranged using viscosity, and then fired to vaporize the solvent and place the spherical spacers on a dielectric layer. This is a method of making a panel in which the other board is supported after being fused to the board.

[For production]

By applying the above means, it becomes possible to individually arrange the spherical spacers 4 at accurate positions on one of the substrates on which the spacers are to be arranged, using the discharge machine 30 and the position setting mechanism 20. The spacer position can be determined in advance so that the spacer and the electrode 7 do not overlap with respect to the electrode 7 on the other substrate, so this spacer has trFi! Spacers can be placed so as not to obstruct the After the spacer is installed at a fixed point avoiding the discharge point in this manner, it is stably fixed so that the spacer is partially wrapped around the surface of the dielectric layer. In this way, the spherical spacer realizes a gas discharge panel without impairing the discharge point, so a display panel with no display defects caused by the spacer can be manufactured.

〔Example〕

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to an AC-driven gas discharge panel in which the electrode surface is coated with a dielectric layer will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gas discharge panel showing spacers installed in the method of the present invention.

1 and 6 are substrates, 2 and 7 are electrodes, 3 and 8 are dielectric layers, 4 is a spacer, 9 is a gas space, and 10 is a seal for sealing discharge gas.

FIG. 2 is an example of a plan view of the cross-sectional substrate 1, and the symbols written are the same as those in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2, Yl, Y2, etc. indicated by dashed-dotted lines are the electrodes 7 on the opposing substrate 6.
The center line position of is shown virtually on the substrate 1. A representatively drawn point P, which is a three-dimensional intersection with the electrode 2 and the electrode 7, indicates a discharge point. The figure shows that the spacer 4 is installed at a position avoiding all electrodes.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating one embodiment of the method of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 designates one of the substrates on which the spacer is being placed, and the substrate 1 already has an electrode 2 and a dielectric layer 3. 20 is a discharger 30 while stably holding the substrate.
It is a position setting mechanism that determines the relative position with respect to the robot, and uses a mobile robot that can digitally move in two dimensions. The mechanism using a pulse motor or the like used in the robot can easily achieve a positional accuracy of several microns.

Reference numeral 30 denotes a dispensing machine for dispensing a constant minute amount of the above-mentioned fluid mixture of the spacer and the solvent, and the dispensing port has a syringe whose inner diameter is about 1.2 to 1.7 times the spacer diameter. It is equipped with a needle-like discharge nozzle 31. 40 is spacer 4
This is a cartridge containing a well-stirred mixture of a viscous solvent and a viscous solvent, and is connected to a discharger 30 to supply the mixed liquid.

Reference numeral 50 denotes a control panel that controls all the above devices of the present invention as one system.

The diameter of the spacer sphere 4 used in the present invention is a sphere of a certain size selected in advance based on the value of the distance of several tens to 200 microns that will be the discharge gap, for example, a glass sphere with a diameter of about 100 microns is used. .

One of the substrates 1 can be completed by creating a pattern of electrodes 2 on the substrate 1 using photolithography technology or thick film technology using screen printing, printing a dielectric layer material thereon and baking it. On this one substrate 1, in a position that avoids the electrode 2, and in a position that also avoids the electrode 7 on the opposite substrate,
The position setting mechanism 20 sets the position of the discharge nozzle 31 where the spacer is to be placed. Thereafter, the position at which the spacer is to be installed is accurately set by the program at a predetermined position for each spacer installed by the position setting mechanism 20 via the control panel 50, and the spacer discharge operation is also managed. Cartridge 4 through control panel 5°
0, and the discharge machine 3o. That is, a plurality of spacers 4 and a viscous solvent (for example, several percent ethyl cellulose) to temporarily fix the spacers 4 to the substrate.
(dissolved in an organic solvent) and packed in a cartridge 40, and the liquid containing the spacer spheres 4 from this cartridge 40 can be guided to a discharger [30]. , 1 of the outer diameter of the spacer.
Syringe needle-shaped discharge nozzle 3 having an inner diameter of about 2 to 1.7 times
1 is installed, and in response to the ejection pulse from the control panel, the spherical spacer 4 and an appropriate amount of solvent to wet it are digitally ejected one by one from the nozzle by a precisely controlled ejection function.

Since the discharged spacers are wetted with a sublimable and viscous solution, they can be temporarily fixed to the substrate surface by drying them at 150 to 200 degrees. As described above, this position is a position where the opposing electrodes are avoided on both the upper and lower substrates, and preferably the center of the blank space completely away from the discharge point P.

However, even if the above conditions are broken and the spacer ends up on one of the electrodes, as long as the other electrode is avoided, the spacer placed here can be prevented from blocking the discharge point.

After being installed in this manner, the spherical spacer 4 is fired to ensure that it does not move permanently. When heated to about 500 degrees so that the dielectric layer 3 is slightly softened, a portion of the lower surface of the spherical spacer 4 comes to follow the dielectric layer, and when the temperature is returned to room temperature, it is fused and fixed.

Here, in more detail about the size of the spacer sphere,
The diameter of the spacer sphere used can be smaller than that of the electrodes, from several tens of microns to 200 microns, so as long as the placement position is in the center of the gap, there is no need for strict positional accuracy and the discharge space can be maintained without blocking the discharge point. can support.

According to the method of the present invention, one spacer can be set in at least the order of seconds, which is several times faster than the conventional manual method, which takes time on the order of several seconds to minutes. It is possible to

In addition, in modern times, where substrates are becoming thinner and more flexible due to economy, the method of the present invention, which is much more efficient than manual labor, uses a large number of thin spherical spacers to make the discharge gap uniform. becomes possible.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this, and the following modifications and applications are possible. That is, as a modification, in addition to a spherical spacer, a polyhedral, rectangular parallelepiped, or cylindrical spacer can also be used. The material is not only the glass bulb used in the present invention, but also the alumina bulb,
Anything that is inorganic and resistant to deformation, such as a metal ball, falls within the scope of the present invention.

As an example of application, it is also possible to apply the present invention to a direct current discharge type gas discharge panel in which the electrode surface is not covered with a dielectric layer. In this case, a spacer is fixed between the electrodes, and a dielectric layer that softens at a lower temperature than the substrate or an equivalent fixed layer is required.

If a colored layer with low reflection is used as the layer for fixing the spacer of the present invention, such as a dielectric layer, the light reflected from the spacer may be reduced and the contrast may be improved.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, it has become possible to arrange the spacer only in the discharge gap on one substrate using the discharging machine technique.

For example, compared to the conventional method of manually placing spacers,
The method of the present invention is several times faster, allows installation at multiple points, eliminates the need for dusty manual labor, and also ensures uniform and accurate spacer position and adhesion. The result was obtained. Furthermore, since the amount of spacers can be increased, the weight of the panel can be reduced, the uniformity of the discharge gap is improved, and brightness unevenness is clearly reduced, so the effects of the present invention are significant.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a gas discharge panel in which spacers are arranged according to the method of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of an example of a substrate 1 of a gas discharge panel in which spacers are arranged according to the method of the present invention, and FIG. 3 is a diagram according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an embodiment of the method. In the figure, 1 and 6 are substrates, 2 and 7 are electrodes, 3 and 8 are dielectric layers, 4 is a spherical spacer, 20 is a position setting mechanism, 30 is a discharge device, 31 is a discharge nozzle, 40 is a cartridge, 50 is the control panel.

Claims (1)

[Claims] A plurality of electrodes (2), (7) and a dielectric layer (3) covering them
A pair of substrates (1) and (6) having
), a plurality of spherical spacers (4) mixed with a viscous sublimable solvent are placed at fixed points on the one substrate (1) using a positioning mechanism (20). After positioning the spherical spacer (4), it is discharged one by one, fixedly arranged using viscosity, and then fired to vaporize the solvent and fuse the spherical spacer (4) to the dielectric layer. A method for manufacturing a gas discharge panel, characterized in that the panel supports a substrate (6).