JPH0872221A - Screen printing machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To measure the shift quantity of the length measuring marks of a screen plate and a glass original plate by performing the centering of the screen plate and the glass original plate by utilizing the aligning function of an automatic aligning screen printing machine. CONSTITUTION: In a screen printing machine having automatic aligning function, a small-sized length measuring machine 5 of one short scale is fixed above the screen plate attaching position of a printing press for the purpose of confirming the image dimension accuracy of a screen plate 2 and measures the shift quantity of the length measuring mark applied to the screen plate 2 and the length measuring mark on a plass plate 7 becoming a standard formed based on the same plan value. The small-sized length measuring machine is attached to the squeegee head running on the screen plate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a screen printing machine for checking the dimensions and accuracy of a large screen plate used in the field of precision pattern formation of electronics.
In particular, it is a necessary technique for controlling a large and precise screen printing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Examining the size and precision of a large screen plate is essential for controlling the screen printing process for large products such as flat panel displays. Even if a plurality of screen printing plates made from the same photomask original plate have variations in size and accuracy, it is necessary to check the screen printing plate dimensions in advance and select the screen printing plates by rank. Printing by screen plate making is superposed on a work such as a substrate.
That is, a plurality of types of platemaking are used to print different patterns on one work in a superimposed manner. At this time, if the precision of the screen printing of a plurality of types varies, the positions of the patterns to be overlaid and printed deviate. As a result, a board failure or a circuit failure may occur. Therefore, it is necessary to check the dimensions of the screen printing plate in advance and use the screen printing plates having the same dimensional accuracy to improve the printing accuracy on the work.

[0003]

The dimensions of a photomask (glass) original plate, which is an original plate for screen plate making, are measured by the method shown in FIG.
As shown in Fig. 9, a long length measuring machine capable of handling external dimensions up to about 1000 mm × 1000 mm has been developed. However, the size of the screen plate made using the photomask has an outer peripheral area up to the screen frame even if the pattern area is the same as that of the photomask. It becomes 5 to 2 times the size.
Therefore, in the case of measuring the dimensions of the screen printing plate, a length measuring machine larger than the photomask original plate is required. However, in terms of accuracy and price, it was very difficult to commercialize a length measuring machine of such a size.

Therefore, in order to measure the length of a large screen plate, a uniaxial glass scale is directly aligned with the length-measuring object or is superposed on a photomask which is an original plate, and the deviation amount is measured with a microscope. I have no choice. As described above, the length measurement of the screen printing plate depends on human hands, the reproducibility is poor, and it takes a lot of time and labor.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a screen printing machine capable of measuring the size of a screen printing plate.

[0006]

A screen printing machine according to the present invention comprises a screen printing plate and a positioning means for positioning the screen printing plate and an object in correspondence with each other. When the screen engraving and the object are positioned in correspondence with each other, a length measuring machine is provided for measuring the amount of deviation between the mark on the screen engraving and the mark on the object corresponding to the mark on the screen engraving of the object. And

A screen printing machine according to the present invention is characterized in that it has a moving body which moves on the screen plate making, and the length measuring machine is attached to the moving body.

In the screen printing machine according to the present invention,
The screen printing plate and the object each have at least two corresponding marks, and the positioning means positions the central portion between the two marks of the screen printing plate so as to overlap the central portion between the two marks of the object. The length measuring machine is characterized by measuring the amount of deviation between at least one pair of corresponding marks on the screen printing plate and the object.

In the screen printing machine according to the present invention,
Alignment means for individually aligning a reference object of known length and a measurement object of unknown length, each having a measurement mark, at the same position, and a reference object and a reference object individually aligned by the alignment means. It is characterized by comprising a length measuring machine for measuring the position of each measuring mark on the object to obtain the amount of deviation.

[0010]

The screen printing machine according to the present invention uses the positioning means of the screen printing machine for automatic positioning to align the screen printing plate with an object such as a glass original plate, and the screen printing plate and the object (glass Measure the amount of deviation of the length measurement mark of the original plate quickly and precisely with a length measuring machine.

Further, in the present invention, the length measuring machine is attached to a moving body such as a squeegee head. If the length measuring machine is attached to a moving body that travels on the screen plate making such as a squeegee head, it is possible to position the length measuring machine on the mark on the screen plate making without using the parts for attaching the length measuring machine. it can.

Further, according to the present invention, the screen printing plate and the object (glass original plate) are superposed so that the central portions of the plurality of marks are overlapped with each other, and the length measuring machine measures the deviation amount of the pair of marks. Then, the shift amount is used to calculate the shift amount between the screen printing plate and the object as a whole.

In the present invention, a reference object whose length is already known, such as a glass original plate, and a measurement object whose length is unknown, such as a screen printing plate or a printed image, are separately aligned at the same position, Find the amount of deviation between the two. The length of the measuring object whose length is unknown is calculated from the calculated shift amount.

[0014]

【Example】

Example 1. FIG. 1 is a side view of an automatic alignment screen printing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. Also, FIG.
FIG. In FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is an X, Y, θ table, 2 is a screen plate, 2a is a screen frame of the screen plate 2, 2b is a screen plate 2
, 3 is a screen frame holder, 4 is four alignment cameras, 5 is a small scale small length measuring machine, 6 is a squeegee head, 7 is a reference glass plate, and 8 is a ski which slides the squeegee head 6. It is The Head stand.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, in a screen printer having an automatic alignment function having four cameras installed above an X, Y, θ table 1 movable in X, Y, θ directions, A short scale small length measuring machine 5 is attached above the plate making attachment position. The length measurement marks are attached to the four outer peripheral portions of the image on the screen plate 2 to be measured. Furthermore, four measuring marks M1, M2, M with the same design value on the glass (photomask) original plate, which should be used as a reference
Attach M3 and M4, and measure the length accurately with an ordinary measuring machine. The value measured from the length measurement mark of the glass original plate 7 is herein referred to as length A. Here, the case where the length measurement marks are separately provided on the screen plate 2 and the glass original plate 7 has been described, but as shown in FIG.
The length measuring mark may be provided as a pattern, and the length measuring mark may be printed on the screen plate 2 and developed to be used as the length measuring mark of the screen plate 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, when a glass original plate 7 is created from a design drawing (design value), or when a screen printing plate 2 is created from the glass original plate 7, or a printed image is created from the screen printing plate 2. In any case, a shift amount occurs. A particular problem in this embodiment is to accurately and easily measure the deviation amount when the screen plate 2 is made from the glass original plate 7.

As described above, the length A is a value measured by an ordinary length measuring machine using the length measuring mark of the original glass plate 7. By adding the deviation amount between the glass original plate 7 and the screen plate 2 to this length A, the screen plate 2
It will be possible to calculate the length of. In order to calculate the amount of deviation, it is necessary to attach a length measuring mark corresponding to each of the glass original plate 7 and the screen plate 2 and to measure the amount of deviation of the length measuring mark by the small length measuring machine 5 provided in the screen printing machine. This is a characteristic point of this embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a length measuring procedure of the screen printing plate 2 in this embodiment. Also, FIGS.
FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining a length measurement procedure. It should be noted that, in FIGS. 5 to 13, for simplification of description, only components necessary for explaining each step shown in FIG. 4 are shown.

Step S1: As shown in FIG. 5, the screen plate 2 to be measured is fixed to the screen frame holder 3, and the measuring mark C1 among the measuring marks C1 to C4 is small-sized. Put in the field of view of the machine 5, mark C1 for length measurement
To the cross line L of the small length measuring machine 5,
The origin coordinates of (0, 0).

Step S2: As shown in FIG. 5, the dummy substrate D is fixed to the X, Y, θ table 1 and is moved below the screen plate 2 as shown by an arrow W1. In this way, in the state shown in FIG. 6, the length measurement marks C1 to C4 of the screen plate 2 are printed on the dummy substrate D to form the alignment marks D1 to D4.

Step S3: The X, Y, θ table 1 is returned to below the alignment camera 4 as shown by the arrow W2 in FIG. 6, and the alignment mark on the dummy substrate D is shown as shown in FIG. The positions of D1 to D4 are stored in the computer.

Step S4: Remove the dummy substrate D,
Instead, as shown in FIG. 8, the reference glass original plate 7 is set on the X, Y, θ table 1, and the fixed position is determined by using the automatic alignment function of the printing machine. This positioning uses the same algorithm as positioning during actual printing. For example, an operation called centering described below is performed.

9 and 10 are views for explaining the centering operation for fixing the position of the original glass plate 7. When the glass original plate 7 is placed on the X, Y, θ table 1, as shown in FIG. 9, the length measurement marks M1 to M of the glass original plate 7 are measured.
4 is at an arbitrary position. The positions of the length measurement marks M1 to M4 of the glass original plate 7 are measured by the alignment camera 4. Then, the alignment marks D1 to D1 of the dummy substrate D
Positioning is performed using the position of D4 and the positions of the length measuring marks M1 to M4 of the glass original plate 7.

As shown in FIG. 10, the position of the original glass plate 7 in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction is set so that the center DC of the alignment marks D1 to D4 and the center MC of the length measurement marks M1 to M4 overlap each other. Make a match. Furthermore, the straight line connecting the alignment marks D1 and D4 is the length measurement marks M1 and M.
Positioning in the θ direction is performed so as to be parallel to the straight line connecting the four. The length A of the above-described glass original plate 7 measured by an ordinary measuring machine is a length between M1 and M4 in FIG. Further, here, the length between M1 and M2 is also assumed to be the length A.

Step S5: X on which the original glass plate 7 is placed,
The Y, θ table 1 is moved to the lower side of the screen plate making 2 as shown by the arrow W1 in FIG. X, Y, θ table 1
Even when the screen is moved to the lower side of the screen plate 2 as shown in FIG. 11, the center MC of the length measuring marks M1 to M4 of the original glass plate 7 and the length measuring marks C1 to C of the screen plate 2 are measured.
4 and the center CC will overlap. In this way, the screen printing plate 2 and the glass original plate 7 are positioned by using the alignment function of the screen printing machine, and the screen printing plate 2 and the glass original plate 7 are in a state in which the centers of the two plates overlap each other. The alignment function of the screen printing machine is for correctly positioning the substrate and the screen printing plate. Here, the screen printing plate 2 and the glass original plate 7 are positioned by using this positioning function. At this time, the length-measuring marks C1 to C4 of the screen plate 2 and the length-measuring marks M1 to M4 of the reference glass original plate 7 are equal in displacement amount.

Step S6: The screen plate 2 is removed, and the original glass plate 7 serving as a reference on the X, Y, θ table 1
Move the field of view of the small length measuring machine 5 to the length measuring mark M1 of
The cross line L of the small length measuring machine 5 is aligned with the length measuring mark M1 and the amount of movement is read in the X and Y directions. The coordinates at this time are defined as coordinates (X, Y). FIG. 13 shows step S1.
It is a figure which shows the relationship between the coordinate of the length measurement mark C1 measured by 1., and the length measurement mark M1 of the glass original plate 7. If the screen plate 2 is made in the same size as the original glass plate 7, the length measurement mark C1 and the length measurement mark M1 should overlap. However, in reality, a deviation occurs in the process of manufacturing the screen plate 2 from the glass original plate 7. This deviation is shown as a movement amount X and a movement amount Y in FIG.

Step S7: Next, the length of the screen plate 2 is calculated. Twice the respective movement amounts X and Y are the X direction of the screen plate making 2 and the reference glass original plate 7,
The difference in length in the Y direction makes it possible to measure the screen printing plate 2. As described above, the standard length of the original glass plate 7 is set to A
I am trying. As shown in FIG. 13, when the shift amount in the X direction is X and the shift amount in the Y direction is Y, the screen plate making 2 and the glass original plate 7 are centered, and therefore these shift amounts are Since X and the shift amount Y are shift amounts from the center to one side, the total is 2X.
And a shift amount of 2Y has occurred. Therefore, the length of the screen plate 2 in the X direction is calculated by A + 2X. Similarly, the length of the screen plate 2 in the Y direction is A + 2.
Required by Y.

Incidentally, these steps S1 to S
During the operation of 7, the main body of the small length measuring machine 5 does not physically move at all. As the small-sized length measuring device 5, a device that can measure a length in a range of 1 cm without physically moving the position is prepared. The positional deviation between the measurement marks on the screen plate 2 and the glass original plate 7 is not so large as to exceed 1 cm. As long as the small length measuring device 5 can measure the length on a short scale of about 1 cm, even if the position of the small length measuring device 5 is not moved at all, by moving the field of view of the small microscope with the cross line L, the maximum It is sufficient to measure the length in the range of 1 cm.

As described above, in this embodiment, in the screen printing machine with the automatic alignment function, in order to confirm the image dimensional accuracy of the screen printing plate 2, one screen printing machine is installed above the screen printing plate mounting position of the printing machine. The short scale small length measuring machine 5 is fixed, and the deviation amount from the length measuring mark on the reference glass plate 7 made with the same design value as the length measuring mark attached to the screen plate 2 is measured. It is characterized by doing. In addition, the small length measuring machine 5 is attached to the squeegee head 6 that runs on the screen plate 2.

As described above, according to this embodiment, since the short scale small length measuring machine 5 for measuring the minute difference between the screen plate 2 whose length is unknown and the reference glass original plate 7 is used, When measuring the screen printing plate 2, the length can be measured with high accuracy using a simple device.

Embodiment 2 FIG. In the above embodiment, the case where only one small length measuring machine 5 is provided and the deviation amounts X and Y are measured at only one location has been described. However, as shown in FIG. 14, two small length measuring machines 5 are provided. It is also possible to measure the amount of deviation between two pairs of measurement marks.

Example 3. In the above embodiment, the case where the small length measuring machine 5 is not physically moved has been described, but it may be moved. As shown in FIG. 15, since the squeegee head 6 is attached so as to be able to travel on the screen plate 2 by attaching the small length measuring device 5 to the squeegee head 6, the small length measuring device 5 moves in the Y direction. Can be moved to. Thus, by moving in the Y direction, it becomes possible to measure the amount of deviation at two locations in the squeegee stroke direction with one small length measuring machine 5.

Although not shown, as shown in the second embodiment, two small length measuring machines 5 are attached to the squeegee head 6, and the squeegee head 6 is moved to measure at two points in the squeegee stroke direction. In this case, it is possible to measure at 4 or more points in total.

Embodiment 4 FIG. 16 and 17 are views showing another mounting method of the small length measuring machine 5. 16 and 17, 6 is a squeegee head, 6a is a squeegee, 6b is an air cylinder for moving the squeegee 6a in the Z direction, and 6c is a rotary shaft for rotating the squeegee head 6 in the R1 and R2 directions. The rotating shaft 6c is the squeegee head 6
Is a shaft for rotating the R in the R1 and R2 directions, and printing is performed in the state shown in FIG. Further, the squeegee 6a can be cleaned in the state shown in FIG. The measuring work and the printing work by the small length measuring machine 5 as described in the above-described embodiment are exclusive. Therefore, the measurement is performed when the printing is not performed, and the measurement is not performed when the printing is performed. In order to perform such contradictory work, the feature of this embodiment is that the measurement is performed in the cleaning state of the squeegee 6a as shown in FIG. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 17, the small length measuring machine 5 measures the length measuring marks as described above while the squeegee 6a is in the cleaning state. Thus, the screen stencil 2 can be removed while the squeegee 6a is being cleaned, and as described above, the screen stencil 2 must be removed when measuring the length measurement marks of the glass original plate 7. , As shown in FIG.
It is very convenient that the small length measuring machine 5 can measure the length measuring marks while the squeegee 6a is being cleaned.

Example 5. FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a case where screen plate making and substrate length measurement are performed. In the above-described example, the case where the deviation amount between the glass original plate 7 and the screen plate 2 is measured has been described. However, when the small length measuring machine 5 is attached to the screen printing machine, the screen plate 2 is used for actual printing. It is also possible to measure the printed result of the printed board.

In this embodiment, a case where the amount of deviation between the screen plate 2 shown in FIG. 3 and the printed image is obtained and the length of the printed image is obtained will be described with reference to FIG. First, in step S11, the screen plate 2
Measure the position of the upper measuring mark. Next, step S
At 12, the screen plate 2 is used to print on the substrate. By the printing on this substrate, the length measurement mark on the screen plate 2 is also printed on the substrate as a printing mark. Next, in step S13, the screen plate 2
Remove and measure the position of the printed print mark.
Next, in steps S11 and S13, a deviation amount is calculated from the difference between the measured position of the length measurement mark and the position of the print mark, and in step S14, the length of the printed image is calculated. In this way, the shift amount between the screen plate 2 shown in FIG. 3 and the printed image is calculated,
The length of the printed image can be determined.

Example 6. In this embodiment, a case will be described in which the deviation amount between the glass original plate 7 and the printed image shown in FIG. 3 is obtained. The method of obtaining the amount of deviation between the glass original plate 7 of known length and the printed image can be performed without setting the screen plate making and, of course, without printing the length measurement mark. That is, a glass original plate is used instead of the dummy substrate in step S3 in FIG. 4, and a printed image is used instead of the glass original plate in step 5, and the shift amount can be obtained. In this way, not only the length measurement of the screen printing plate 2 but also the actual printed matter on the substrate can be easily measured by the same procedure. Also,
Since the automatic alignment function of the printing machine used for the actual screen printing is used, there is consistency between the centering when measuring the length of the screen printing plate 2 and the centering when printing. Therefore, it is easy to predict the stretch of the image after printing.

As shown in FIG. 3, the shift amount of the screen plate 2 is calculated for the glass plate 7, or the shift amount of the printed image is calculated for the screen plate 2, or for the glass plate 7. By obtaining the shift amount of the print image and statistically analyzing these, how the final shift amount of the finally generated print image is related to the shift amount of the glass original plate 7 or the screen plate 2 You can analyze whether or not. Therefore, it is possible to predict what the final printed image will look like based on such statistical analysis.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, the length of the screen printing plate can be measured by using the screen printing machine. Also, the length of the printed image can be measured.

Further, according to the present invention, since the length measuring machine is attached to the moving body such as the squeegee head, it is possible to measure at a plurality of points with one length measuring machine.

Further, according to the present invention, the entire length can be calculated by performing the positioning operation called centering and measuring the displacement amount at one location.

Further, according to the present invention, the length of the measurement object can be obtained by aligning the reference object and the measurement object at the same position and measuring the measurement marks respectively.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view of a screen printing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a screen printing machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing each step of screen printing of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a length measuring method of the screen printing machine according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing each state of the length measuring method of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a screen printing machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a screen printing machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a view showing a mounting portion of a length measuring machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a view showing a mounting portion of a length measuring machine according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing a length measuring method according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a conventional length measuring machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 X, Y, θ table, 2 screen plate making, 3 screen frame holder, 4 alignment camera, 5 small length measuring machine, 6 squeegee head, 7 glass original plate, 8 squeegee head stand.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A screen printing machine comprising a screen printing plate and a positioning means for positioning the screen printing plate and the object in correspondence with each other, wherein the screen printing plate and the object are positioned in correspondence with each other by the positioning means. 2. A screen printing machine, further comprising a length measuring machine for measuring a deviation amount between a mark on the screen plate and a mark on an object corresponding to the mark on the screen plate. 2. The screen printing machine according to claim 1, wherein the screen printing machine has a moving body that moves on the screen plate making machine, and the length measuring machine is attached to the moving body. 3. The screen printing plate and the object each have at least two corresponding marks, and the alignment means has a center between two marks of the screen printing plate is a center between two marks of the object. 3. The screen printing machine according to claim 1, wherein the length measuring machine measures the deviation amount of at least one pair of corresponding marks of the screen printing plate and the object by positioning so as to overlap the portion. . 4. In a screen printing machine, a positioning means for separately positioning a reference object of known length and a measurement object of unknown length, each having a measurement mark, at the same position, and the positioning means, respectively. A screen printing machine characterized by comprising a length measuring machine for measuring the amount of deviation between the positions of the measurement marks of the reference object and the measuring object which are separately aligned.