JPH0822010A - Method for manufacturing liquid crystal display substrate and apparatus used therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] When the upper glass substrate is fixed to the lower glass substrate, no displacement occurs in those substrates. A process of forming a sealant on a liquid crystal side surface of at least one transparent substrate among transparent substrates arranged to face each other with a liquid crystal interposed therebetween, and this transparent substrate and another transparent substrate via a spacer The method includes a step of facing each other and a step of solidifying the sealing agent. The sealing agent is made of a UV-curing resin agent, and the sealing agent is solidified by irradiation of ultraviolet rays.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, and more particularly, to assembling a lower glass substrate and an upper glass substrate which are outer frames of the liquid crystal display substrate.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A liquid crystal display substrate has a lower glass substrate and an upper glass substrate, which are arranged to face each other with a liquid crystal interposed therebetween, as outer frames.

Here, each of the lower glass substrate and the upper glass substrate has at least a transparent electrode and an alignment film or the like formed on the surface on the liquid crystal side thereof so as to cover the transparent electrode, and these are separately formed. It is designed to be formed in the process.

Then, a sealant is formed on one of the lower glass substrate and the upper glass substrate on the same surface, and the sealant is placed so as to face the other glass substrate via this sealant and then the sealant is applied. Liquid crystal is enclosed in the agent.

That is, the sealing agent formed on the surface of one glass substrate has a shape surrounding a display area formed as a group of pixels, and a liquid crystal sealing port is provided in a part thereof.

Conventionally, a so-called thermosetting resin has been used as a material for the sealing agent, and when it is accurately aligned with another glass substrate, it is cured (solidified) by applying heat. It has become.

The liquid crystal display substrate is completed by injecting the liquid crystal from the liquid crystal filling port and then sealing the liquid crystal filling port.

[0008]

However, in the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate having such a structure, the lower glass substrate and the upper glass substrate are assembled by applying heat and then gradually hardening. It is pointed out that the upper glass substrate is misaligned with the lower glass substrate during the bonding because the resin is bonded.

Since each glass substrate has already been processed to have a display function, it has been desired to avoid applying heat as much as possible. In particular, when a switching element (film transistor: TFT) made of a semiconductor device is formed on a glass substrate, the characteristics of the element may be deteriorated.

Positioning of the upper glass substrate with respect to the lower glass substrate via the sealant is performed by a drive mechanism that supports the upper glass substrate.
If the drive mechanism itself has an error in accuracy,
It has been pointed out that it was not possible to accurately form a gap in each of these glass substrates.

Further, in order to assemble the upper glass substrate with respect to the lower glass substrate with high accuracy, a method improved in each step is additionally applied, and for that purpose, the above-mentioned series of steps are performed in one apparatus. It was pointed out that it was difficult to do everything in.

Therefore, the present invention has been made under such circumstances.

It is a main object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate in which when the upper glass substrate is fixed to the lower glass substrate, the substrates do not shift.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate which does not use heat when fixing the upper glass substrate to the lower glass substrate.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate capable of accurately forming a gap between an upper glass substrate and a lower glass substrate.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus capable of accurately performing a series of operations when fixing the upper glass substrate to the lower glass substrate with one apparatus.

[0017]

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention comprises the following respective means.

Means 1. A step of forming a sealant on the liquid crystal side surface of at least one of the transparent substrates which are arranged to face each other with the liquid crystal interposed therebetween, and the transparent substrate and the other transparent substrate are arranged to face each other via a spacer. It is characterized in that it comprises a step and a step of solidifying the sealing agent, wherein the sealing agent is made of a UV curable resin agent, and the sealing agent is solidified by irradiation of ultraviolet rays.

Means 2. In the invention of the above means 1, when the sealing agent is solidified by irradiation of ultraviolet rays, the surface of one of the transparent substrates is exposed to the atmosphere while the other portion is depressurized.

Means 3. Any one of a mounting table on which the first transparent substrate is mounted, a drive mechanism that causes the second transparent substrate to face the first transparent substrate via a sealant, and one of the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate. Irradiating means for irradiating the sealant with ultraviolet rays through one of the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate, and a decompression mechanism portion for decompressing the other part with the surface of the substrate exposed to the atmosphere. And having.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the invention, the solidification of the sealant from the UV curable resin agent can be instantaneously carried out by the irradiation of ultraviolet rays.

Therefore, the upper glass substrate and the lower glass substrate are adhered to each other without giving a chance of displacement.

Further, since the bonding is performed without applying heat, the characteristics of the semiconductor device built in the liquid crystal display substrate will not be deteriorated.

According to the invention of the means 2, the pressing of the upper glass substrate with respect to the lower glass substrate can be made uniform, so that so-called gap formation of each of these substrates can be accurately performed.

According to the invention of Means 3, it becomes possible to carry out all the series of steps consisting of the methods shown in Means 1 and 2 with one apparatus.

[0026]

1 (a) and 1 (b) are process drawings showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to the present invention.

Now, the lower glass substrate and the lower glass substrate of the liquid crystal display substrate handled in this manufacturing method will be described first.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the surface of the lower glass substrate 1 on the liquid crystal side, and an effective display area 2 is formed in the central portion excluding its peripheral portion.

Of the peripheral portion of the lower glass substrate 1,
Video signal line terminal groups 3 formed by extending from the signal lines in the effective display area 2 on each of the x-direction sides in the drawing.
A and 3B are formed, and a scanning signal line terminal group 4 formed by extending from the signal line in the effective display area 2 is formed on one side of the y-direction side.

FIG. 3 is an equivalent circuit diagram formed in the effective display area 2 and is drawn corresponding to the actual geometrical arrangement.

In the figure, scanning signal lines Y1, Y2, ..., Yend extending in the x direction and arranged in parallel in the y direction.
There is. On the other hand, there are video signal lines X1, X2, ..., Xend extending in the y direction and arranged in parallel in the x direction.

The scanning signal lines Y and the video signal lines X are insulated from each other at their intersections, and the region surrounded by the respective signal lines is a pixel region having a thin film transistor TFT.

That is, when a voltage is applied to the scanning signal line Y, the thin film transistor TFT is turned on, and the image information (voltage) from the image signal line X is supplied to the transparent electrode ITO via the turned on thin film transistor TFT. It is like this. This transparent electrode ITO forms one pixel by interposing a liquid crystal between the transparent electrode ITO and a common electrode (transparent electrode) formed on an upper glass substrate described later.

In this embodiment, adjoining pixels are in charge of coloring red (R), green (G), and blue (B), and these three pixels constitute one pixel in color display. .

Further, a portion 5 shown by a dotted line in the drawing shows a portion to which the sealant 8 formed on the upper glass substrate 6 is adhered when it is arranged so as to face the upper glass substrate 6 which will be described later, and is an effective display. It is positioned so as to surround the area.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a surface of the upper glass substrate 6 on the liquid crystal side, and an effective display area 7 is formed in the central portion except the peripheral portion.

A sealant 8 is formed so as to surround the effective display area 7, and a part thereof is provided with an opening 8A for enclosing the liquid crystal.

This sealant 8 is, in this embodiment,
In particular, it is made of an ultraviolet (UV) curable resin agent, for example, a polyurethane diacrylate ester containing a photosensitizer, and the photosensitizer is, for example, one that is exposed to ultraviolet light having a wavelength of 365 mm.

In the effective display area 7, although not shown, color filters are formed in corresponding pixel areas, and a common electrode (transparent electrode) is formed so as to cover the color filters.

The common electrode is drawn out to the terminal on the lower glass substrate 1 side through the silver paste 9.

The present invention will be described below in the order of steps using each of these glass substrates 1 and 6.

Step 1. (FIG. 1A) There is a glass substrate mounting table 10, and this glass substrate mounting table 1
At 0, the lower glass substrate 1 is fixed and placed at a predetermined position. In this case, the lower glass substrate 1 is
The surface opposite to the surface on the liquid crystal side is placed in contact with the glass substrate mounting table 10.

Here, spacers are uniformly dispersed in the effective display area 2 on the upper surface of the lower glass substrate 1. These spacers are in the form of granular bodies or cylindrical bodies whose diameters are all uniform, and are made of, for example, resin material.

Then, on the glass substrate mounting table 10,
An opening 11 is formed in a portion of the mounting surface near the lower glass substrate 1.
An exhaust pipe 11 having A is provided.

The glass substrate mounting table 10 also serves as a moving table which can move in the x direction, the y direction, and the θ direction, respectively.

On the other hand, there is a table 12 arranged in parallel to face the mounting surface of the glass substrate mounting table 10, and the table 12 is separated from the glass substrate mounting table 10 by operating the air cylinder 13. It can be moved in the changing direction (z direction in the figure).

The upper glass substrate 6 can be attracted to the surface of the table 12 facing the glass substrate mounting table 10 by, for example, a vacuum chuck mechanism (not shown). In this case, the upper glass substrate 6 is adapted to be attracted by bringing the surface on the opposite side of the surface on the liquid crystal side into contact with the table 12.

The upper glass substrate 6 adsorbed on the table 12 by the operation of the air cylinder 13 opposes and is close to the lower glass substrate 1 on the glass substrate mounting table 10. At this time, the glass substrate mounting table 10 is moved in the x direction, the y direction, and the θ direction, respectively, and the upper glass substrate 6 is aligned with the lower glass substrate 1.

The alignment in this case is performed by the monitor camera 1
4 is performed while observing the image through 4.

Step 2. (FIG. 1B) In this way, the alignment of the upper glass substrate 6 with respect to the lower glass substrate 1 is completed, and the upper glass substrate 6 is placed on the lower glass substrate 1 via the sealant 8. It

After that, the covering member 15 covering the periphery of the upper glass substrate 6 descends. This covering member 1
As shown in FIG. 5, reference numeral 5 has a shape that exposes only the central portion of the upper glass substrate 6 excluding the peripheral portion and covers the surface of the glass substrate mounting table 10.

As shown in FIG. 1 (b), this covering member is adapted to be in close contact with the periphery of the upper glass substrate 6 and the surface of the glass substrate mounting table 10, and at the same time as the upper glass substrate 6 and the lower surface. The space 16 is formed in the vicinity of each end surface of the glass substrate 1. In this case, the opening 11A of the exhaust pipe 11 is provided at a position connected to the space 16.

After that, exhaust is performed through the exhaust pipe 11 to reduce the pressure in the space 16. Along with this, atmospheric pressure is applied to the central portion of the upper glass substrate 6 exposed from the covering member 15, but the pressing by the atmospheric pressure has the same value per unit area. That is, a uniform pressing force is applied to the upper glass substrate 6.

As a result, the so-called gap between the lower glass substrate 1 and the upper glass substrate 6 can be accurately formed through the spacer.

This means that, for example, the stage 12 that moves in the z-axis direction by operating the cylinder 13 is tilted at a slight angle in the z-axis direction, and the upper glass substrate 6 is uniform with respect to the lower glass substrate 1. Even if it is placed without such a gap, the adverse effect can be removed by the method described above.

Then, in such a state, the UV irradiation light source 17 is slid so as to face the upper glass substrate 6, and the spacer agent 8 is irradiated with ultraviolet rays through the upper glass substrate 6. As a result, the spacer agent 8 becomes U as described above.
It is made of a V-curing resin agent, and is instantly cured by irradiation of ultraviolet rays, so that the upper glass substrate 6 and the lower glass substrate 1 are bonded to each other.

After that, after the liquid crystal is filled from the opening 8A of the sealing agent 8 thus hardened, the opening 8A is formed.
The liquid crystal display substrate is completed by sealing the.

According to the above-described embodiment, the sealing agent 8 made of the UV curing resin agent can be cured instantaneously by the irradiation of the ultraviolet rays from the UV irradiation light source 17.

Therefore, the upper glass substrate 6 and the lower glass substrate 1 are bonded to each other without giving a chance of displacement.

Further, since the bonding is carried out without applying heat, the characteristics of the thin film transistor TFT built in the liquid crystal display substrate will not be deteriorated.

Further, since the upper glass substrate 6 is pressed by the atmospheric pressure, the pressing on the lower glass substrate 1 can be made uniform, and so-called gap formation of each of these substrates can be accurately performed.

Further, the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 has an effect that the upper glass substrate 6 can be accurately assembled to the lower glass substrate 1, and it is not necessary to use a plurality of apparatuses.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the sealant 8 is the UV curable resin agent, but it goes without saying that this UV curable resin agent may be used in the silver paste 9 portion as well. .

Further, only in the portion of the silver paste 9 U
Needless to say, even if the V-curing resin agent is used and the sealing agent 8 is an ordinary resin agent, the assembly can be performed accurately.

[0065]

As described above, according to the method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

(1). When the upper glass substrate is fixed to the lower glass substrate, it is possible to prevent the substrates from being displaced.

(2). It is possible not to use heat when fixing the upper glass substrate to the lower glass substrate.

(3). It is possible to accurately form a gap between the upper glass substrate and the lower glass substrate.

Further, according to the apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to the present invention, a series of operations for fixing the upper glass substrate to the lower glass substrate can be performed accurately with one device.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are process diagrams showing an embodiment of a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a lower glass substrate applied to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing an embodiment of an equivalent circuit formed in an effective display area of a lower glass substrate applied to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an embodiment of an upper glass substrate applied to the present invention.

5 is a plan view showing an example of a covering member of the apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ………… Lower glass substrate 6 ………… Upper glass substrate 8 ………… Sealant 15 ………… Coating member 17 ………… UV irradiation light source

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A step of forming a sealant on the liquid crystal side surface of at least one of the transparent substrates which are arranged to face each other with a liquid crystal interposed therebetween, and a spacer is provided between this transparent substrate and another transparent substrate. And a step of solidifying the sealing agent, wherein the sealing agent is made of a UV curable resin agent, and the sealing agent is solidified by irradiation of ultraviolet rays. Substrate manufacturing method. 2. The invention according to claim 1, wherein when the sealing agent is solidified by irradiation with ultraviolet rays, the surface of one of the transparent substrates is exposed to the atmosphere and the other part is depressurized. A method for manufacturing a characteristic liquid crystal display substrate. 3. A mounting table on which the first transparent substrate is mounted, and a second mounting table.
A drive mechanism for arranging a transparent substrate so as to face the first transparent substrate with a sealant interposed therebetween, and one of the first transparent substrate and the second transparent substrate is exposed to the atmosphere while the other part is exposed. A decompression mechanism unit for decompressing, a first transparent substrate and a second
An apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising: an ultraviolet irradiator that irradiates the sealant with ultraviolet light through one of the transparent substrates.