Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Apparatus – Assembly means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-05
2004-08-03
Patel, Nimeshkumar D. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Apparatus
Assembly means
C445S024000, C349S187000, C349S189000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06769948
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of fabricating a display panel and a method of relocating a display panel, and more particularly to those methods including a step of relocating display panels from a first cassette to a second cassette.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic devices are generally designed to include a display panel for displaying an output. A liquid crystal display among display panels is in particular widely used for a personal computer, a word processor and other similar apparatuses because of small power-consumption, small thickness, light weight, and ability of being driven at a low voltage.
FIG. 1A
is a perspective view of a liquid crystal display panel, and
FIG. 1B
is a cross-sectional view of the liquid crystal display panel illustrated in FIG.
1
A.
The illustrated liquid crystal display panel is comprised of a thin film transistor (TFT) substrate
1
composed of glass, a color filter substrate
2
composed of glass, and a sealing material
3
coupling the substrates
1
and
2
to each other so that there is formed a space in the range of 5 to 6 &mgr;m therebetween. Liquid crystal is sealed within the space between the substrates
1
and
2
.
As illustrated in
FIG. 1B
, the sealing material
3
is formed at a lower edge thereof with a cutout
4
through which liquid crystal is introduced into the space.
FIG. 2
is a flow chart of a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel.
First, a glass substrate is subject to steps
201
of washing, drying, printing of an alignment film, rubbing, printing of a sealing material and other necessary steps to thereby fabricate the TFT substrate
1
. Another glass substrate is subject to steps
202
of washing, drying, printing of an alignment film, rubbing, distributing spacers and other necessary steps to thereby fabricate the color filter substrate
2
.
The thus fabricated TFT substrate
1
and color filter substrate
2
are coupled to each other so that a gap is formed therebetween, in step
203
.
The coupled substrates
1
and
2
are diced in step
204
into a plurality of liquid crystal display panels having a size, for instance, in the range of 12 to 15 inches. The dicing step
204
is comprised of the steps of scribing both the TFT substrate
1
and the color filter substrate
2
by means of a diamond cutter, applying impact to the scribed substrates
1
and
2
, and separating the substrates
1
and
2
into liquid crystal display panels along scribed lines.
The thus separated liquid crystal display panel has such a shape as illustrated in FIG.
1
A.
Then, liquid crystal is introduced into a gap formed in each of the thus fabricated liquid crystal display panels, in step
205
. The step
205
is carried out as follows.
First, as illustrated in
FIG. 3
, a plurality of liquid crystal display panels P and a container containing liquid crystal
10
therein are put in a vacuum chamber
12
. Then, air in the vacuum chamber
12
is exhausted.
When a pressure in the vacuum chamber
12
lowers to a sufficient degree, the liquid crystal display panels P are immersed into the liquid crystal
10
through the cut-outs
4
. Thereafter, air is introduced into the vacuum chamber
12
to thereby raise a pressure in the vacuum chamber
12
to an atmospheric pressure. As a result, the liquid crystal
10
is introduced into gaps in the liquid crystal display panels P due to capillarity and a difference in an internal pressure between the liquid crystal display panels P and the vacuum chamber
12
.
After the liquid crystal
10
has been introduced into gaps in the liquid crystal display panels P, the cutouts
4
are closed in step
206
to thereby hermetically seal the liquid crystal display
10
. For instance, the step
206
is comprised of sweeping the liquid crystal, coating resin sensitive to ultra-violet ray, and radiating ultra-violet ray.
Thereafter, steps of polishing, attaching a deflecting plate, making inspection and so on are carried out, and thus, there is completed a liquid crystal display panel.
In the above-mentioned steps, cassettes are employed for containing, transferring and processing display panels in each of the steps
204
to
206
. In general, cassettes employed in each of the steps are designed to have the same shape. The reason why cassettes having the same shape are employed in those steps is that if a cassette has to have different shapes for different liquid crystal display panels, it would not be possible to automate fabricating liquid crystal display panels, because liquid crystal display panels have different sizes.
If liquid crystal display panels having different sizes are to be fabricated in a fabrication line, those liquid crystal display panels are contained in a cassette by moving a partition plate in a cassette to thereby conform the cassette to the liquid crystal display panel in size.
However, the above-mentioned method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel is accompanied with the following problem.
In these days, a liquid crystal display panel has been requested to be large in a size because of variety in fields in which a liquid crystal display panel is used, and to have a smaller gap in order to ensure a wider angle of visibility and enhancement in responsibility. A larger size and a smaller gap in a liquid crystal display panel cause a step of introducing liquid crystal per a unit number of panels to take longer time than other steps. For instance, with reference to
FIG. 2
, the step
205
of introducing liquid crystal takes time four to five times greater than time which the step
204
or
206
takes. Hence, it is quite necessary to shorten time which the step
205
takes.
In order to shorten time the step
205
takes, the number of apparatuses for introducing liquid crystal may be increased, for instance. However, those apparatuses are expensive. In addition, if those apparatuses are newly introduced into a fabrication line, a fabrication line and/or other fabrication steps might be modified accordingly.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 7-153816 has suggested a method of relocating a substrate, comprising the steps of supporting one of substrate vertically standing in a first cassette, at side edges thereof, taking the substrate out of the first cassette, and vertically inserting the substrate into a second cassette.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2-122647 has suggested an apparatus for relocating a semiconductor wafer, comprised of a first wafer carrier containing a plurality of semiconductor wafers, a second wafer carrier containing no semiconductor wafers, a lift arm which lifts a semiconductor wafer up through a bottom of said first and second wafer carriers, and a clamping arm which clamps a semiconductor wafer upwardly lifted by said lift arm. The lift arm raises and lowers, and the clamp arm laterally moves to thereby relocate semiconductor wafers from the first wafer carrier to the second wafer carrier. The apparatus further includes a plurality of hands which can hold one to five semiconductor wafers, which hands can be automatically exchanged into the lift arms.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the above-mentioned problem in the conventional method, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method of fabricating a display panel and a method of relocating a display panel both of which are capable of enhancing a fabrication yield in fabrication of display panels, in particular, shortening time which a step of introducing liquid crystal into a space formed between substrates takes.
There is provided a method of fabricating a display panel, including a first step and a second step which is to be carried out immediately before the first step, the first step taking longer time to be carried out per a display panel than that of the second step, the number of display panels to be processed in the first step being greater than the number of display panels to be processed in the second step.
It is preferable that the first step includes the relocation step of re
NEC LCD Technologies Ltd.
Patel Nimeshkumar D.
Santiago Mariceli
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