JPH09138111A - Alignment apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) Abstract: An alignment apparatus and method of the present invention aims to perform a cost-effective and highly reliable inspection of a light-transmissive panel by accurate alignment. SOLUTION: When a probe pin 5 is brought into contact with a metal thin film terminal of a liquid crystal display panel 20, a probe pin light 6 is used.
And a coaxial incident light 11 to illuminate, the CCD camera 9 captures an image, and the monitor 10 displays the image.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an alignment apparatus and method suitable for inspection of a light transmissive display panel such as a liquid crystal panel.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A light transmissive display panel such as a liquid crystal panel is inspected by bringing a probe pin for inputting an electric signal into contact with a metal thin film terminal. At that time, since the light transmission type display panel such as the conventional liquid crystal panel has a large terminal portion, the probe pin can be sufficiently contacted by the rough alignment only by the mechanical positioning by the jig assembled by only the design values. However, as the definition of the light-transmissive display panel has become higher, a rectangular alignment mark has been provided in the light-transmissive display panel to perform alignment using a CCD camera with high magnification.

FIG. 6 shows the relationship between the rectangular alignment mark and the probe pin. The position of the alignment probe pin erected on the probe block is confirmed by a high-magnification CCD camera, and brought into contact so as to correspond to the diagonal position of the rectangular alignment mark.

Further, in the automatic alignment apparatus, as shown in FIG. 7, the center of the rectangular alignment mark in the light transmissive display panel is recognized by image processing, and an automatic XYθ stage automatically reaches an arbitrary alignment point. Move to.

[0005]

In recent years, with the progress of high definition of the light transmission type display panel, the terminal width and the terminal pitch of the metal thin film terminal have been miniaturized, and the alignment mark and the alignment probe pin have been formed. Just make it correspond,
It became difficult to perform accurate alignment.

Therefore, the contact between the metal thin film terminal and the probe pin is deviated. As a result, there is a portion where the probe pin does not contact the terminal, and a signal is not input to the pixel portion connected to the signal line corresponding to the non-contact terminal through the switching element. In the normally white panel that is used, light is transmitted as it is and looks like a line defect. Therefore, the reliability of the inspection was low. Further, in order to eliminate a defective display portion due to non-contact, it is necessary to finely adjust the contact position of the probe pin, which causes a problem that the inspection work time becomes long.

Although the automatic alignment apparatus is excellent in reliability, the number of apparatuses that can be adopted is limited in terms of the effect on the investment amount, and there is a problem in terms of price.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention solves the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an alignment apparatus and method which are cost effective and highly reliable.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an alignment apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises:
Holding means for fixing and holding the light-transmitting panel, a stage for moving the holding means in the front-back, left-right, and rotation directions, a probe pin in contact with the metal thin film terminal of the light-transmitting panel, and a lamp for illuminating the probe pin. And an image pickup means for picking up the light transmissive panel from a direction facing the probe pin, and a display means for displaying an image picked up by the image pickup means.

An alignment apparatus according to a second aspect of the present invention comprises, in addition to the means constituting the alignment apparatus according to the first aspect, an epi-illumination means for illuminating a light transmissive panel in a direction coaxial with an image pickup means. It is characterized by doing.

An alignment method according to a third aspect of the present invention comprises a step of bringing a probe pin into contact with a metal thin film terminal of a light transmission type panel held by a holding means, and a step of illuminating the probe pin with a lamp. A step of picking up an image of the light-transmissive panel with an image pickup means installed in a direction facing the probe pin and displaying an image thereof on a display means, and based on the display result, the front-back, left-right, and rotational directions And the step of moving the holding means by the stage moving to.

[0012]

1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an alignment apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. (A) is an overall view of the device, and (B) is an enlarged view of a portion B where the probe pin 5 contacts the terminal portion of the liquid crystal display panel 20. In the present embodiment, in order to confirm the point defect and the line defect of the liquid crystal display panel 20, an electric signal is input to its terminal portion so as to drive the liquid crystal display panel 20. Therefore, the liquid crystal display panel 20 is sucked and held by the suction table 2, and the probe pins 4 having a mechanism capable of absorbing height variations are embedded in the probe block 4 made of ceramic.
Contact with the 0 terminal. At this time, the probe pin light 6 illuminates the terminal portion from the probe pin side, and together with the illumination by the coaxial incident light 11, an image is taken by the CCD camera 9 and displayed on the monitor 10.

Next, FIG. 2 shows a mechanism diagram of the alignment apparatus according to the present embodiment. A suction table 2 for suction-holding the liquid crystal display panel 20 is installed above the lifter 1 on which the liquid crystal display panel 20 is placed.
XYθ table 3 which is moved by the motor in each direction of Y and θ
It is fixed to. Further, the XYθ table 3 is provided with a vertical mechanism for bringing the liquid crystal display panel 20 sucked and held by the suction table 2 into contact with the test head 7. The test head 7 is created according to the specifications of the liquid crystal display panel to be inspected, and in the present embodiment, according to the specifications of the 4-inch panel, the probe block 4, the probe pin 5, and the probe light 6 (jujube ball, 100 cd or more, It is installed near the probe pin). The probe block 4, the probe pin 5, and the probe light 6 are
Two sets are mounted so as to be compatible with the terminals in the X and Y2 directions. Further, a high-brightness backlight 8 for lighting the liquid crystal display panel is provided below the XYθ table. Further, a CCD camera 9 for specifying the positions of the terminal portion of the liquid crystal display panel 20 and the probe pin 5 of the test head 7 and a coaxial incident light 11 for illuminating the CCD camera 9 coaxially are provided on the upper portion of the device. , In addition, it is equipped with various peripherals necessary for alignment. The CCD camera 9 and the coaxial incident light 11 are also provided in two sets so as to correspond to the terminals in the X and Y2 directions.

FIG. 3 shows a state in which a probe signal of a test head is brought into contact with a 4-type liquid crystal display panel to input a drive signal. The drive signal from the signal generator is input to the substrate 31 via the connector. From the board 31,
Drive signals are transmitted to the source-side flexible substrate 32 and the gate-side flexible substrate 33 via the probe pins 34. The source-side flexible substrate 32 and the gate-side flexible substrate 33 are converted into an array suitable for the terminal pitch of the metal thin film terminals of the 4-type liquid crystal display panel, and are connected to the metal thin film terminals of the liquid crystal display panel via the probe pins 5. Transmit drive signal.

FIG. 4 shows a probe light 6 when the probe pin 5 is brought into contact with the metal thin film terminal of the liquid crystal display panel 20.
Is illuminated by the coaxial incident light 11 and the shadow of the tip of the probe pin is projected.

Next, the alignment method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, the liquid crystal display panel 20 is placed on the lifter 1 (step 1). Then, the slide portion of the suction table 2 is pulled out (step 2), the liquid crystal display panel 20 is suction-held (step 3), and the slide portion of the suction table 2 is pushed in (step 4). Next, the terminals of the liquid crystal display panel 20 are positioned so as to contact the test head 7 (step 5), the terminals of the liquid crystal display panel 20 are projected on the monitor 10 (step 6), and the suction table 2 is lowered. , The probe pin 5 is temporarily contacted with the terminal portion of the liquid crystal display panel 20 (step 7). And the probe light 6
The terminal portion and the probe pin 5 are illuminated with the coaxial incident light 11 (step 8). The operator recognizes the deviation amount between the terminal portion and the probe pin 5 by the tip shadow of the probe pin displayed on the monitor 10 (step 9), raises the suction table 2 once (step 10), and according to the deviation amount. Then, the XYθ table 3 is moved to perform alignment (step 11). Then, the probe pin 5 is again brought into contact with the terminal portion of the liquid crystal display panel 20 (step 1
2). Then, the operator confirms that the liquid crystal display panel 20 is turned on (step 13).

By performing the above-mentioned alignment method, the probe pin can be brought into contact with the metal thin film terminal of the liquid crystal display panel in a highly aligned state, and a highly reliable inspection can be performed in a short time.

[0018]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention,
With the alignment apparatus and method according to the third aspect, the tip shadow of the probe pin can be recognized through the metal thin film terminal of the light transmissive panel by irradiating the probe pin with light. Therefore, the shadow of the tip of the probe pin can be projected using a CCD camera, and the probe pin can be accurately guided to the fine terminal portion of the high definition panel. As a result, the electrical signal for inspection can be accurately input to the light transmission type panel, and it is possible to improve the reliability of the inspection and reduce the alignment time at low cost.

Since the alignment apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention is equipped with the epi-illumination means coaxial with the CCD camera, the terminal portion of the light transmission type panel can be clearly confirmed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an alignment apparatus of the present invention, (A) is an overall view of the apparatus, and (B) is an enlarged view of a main part B.

FIG. 2 is a mechanism diagram of an alignment apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how a drive signal is input to a liquid crystal display panel via a probe pin of a test head.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a state in which a tip shadow of a probe pin is projected on a liquid crystal display panel.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an alignment method of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a relationship between a conventional rectangular alignment mark and a probe pin.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing automatic alignment of a conventional automatic alignment device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Lifter 2 Adsorption Table 3 XYθ Table 4 Probe Block 5 Probe Pin 6 Light for Probe 7 Test Head 8 High Brightness Backlight 9 CCD Camera 10 Monitor 11 Coaxial Epi Light 20 Liquid Crystal Display Panel

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A holding means for fixedly holding a light-transmissive panel, a stage for moving the holding means in the front-back, left-right, and rotational directions, a probe pin for contacting a metal thin film terminal of the light-transmissive panel, and a probe for the probe. An alignment apparatus comprising: a lamp that illuminates a pin; an image capturing unit that captures the light-transmissive panel from a direction facing a probe pin; and a display unit that displays an image captured by the image capturing unit. 2. The alignment apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising epi-illumination means for illuminating the light transmission type panel in a direction coaxial with the imaging means. 3. A probe pin is brought into contact with a metal thin film terminal of a light transmission type panel held by a holding means, the probe pin is illuminated by a lamp, and an imaging means installed in a direction facing the probe pin. And an image of the light-transmissive panel is displayed on a display unit, and the holding unit is moved by a stage that moves in the front-back, left-right, and rotational directions based on the display result.