Semiconductor device manufacturing: process – Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal – Including integrally formed optical element
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-21
2001-12-04
Niebling, John F. (Department: 2812)
Semiconductor device manufacturing: process
Making device or circuit emissive of nonelectrical signal
Including integrally formed optical element
C359S016000, C359S016000, C141S070000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06326225
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to technology for improving the productivity of an active matrix liquid crystal device. The present invention relates to technology of injecting a liquid crystal material into a panel forming a liquid crystal device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, when an active matrix liquid crystal device is manufactured, the process of injecting a liquid crystal material into a panel forming the liquid crystal device utilizes vacuum injection. Vacuum injection is a method of injecting a liquid crystal material utilizing capillarity and difference in pressure. A general method of filling a panel with a liquid crystal material according to vacuum injection is described as follows.
It is to be noted that, in the present specification, an element substrate means a substrate provided with an active matrix circuit and peripheral driver circuits thereon. A counter substrate means a substrate which is provided so as to face an element substrate and on which counter electrodes, a color filter, and so on are formed.
FIG. 5
shows a conventional process of injecting a liquid crystal material. In
FIG. 5
, an element substrate
505
and a counter substrate
506
of a panel
501
are provided so as to face each other interposed a sealing material
504
therebetween.
The element substrate
505
has a pixel region
502
of an active matrix structure and peripheral driver circuit regions
503
provided with a circuit for driving the pixel region. The peripheral driver circuits provided on the element substrate
505
may be directly formed on a glass substrate, or, alternatively, may be formed by sticking an IC chip later.
On the other hand, the counter substrate
506
is provided with color filters and counter electrodes both of which face the pixel region
502
but are not shown.
Except for an injection hole
510
for the liquid crystal material, the sealing material
504
is provided so as to surround the pixel region
502
. Here, the size of the counter substrate
506
is large enough to cover the region where the sealing material
504
is provided. The sealing material
504
is provided between the pixel region
502
and the peripheral driver circuit regions
503
. The peripheral driver circuit regions
503
are provided outside the region occupied by the counter substrate
506
.
A single or a plurality of the injection holes
510
for the liquid crystal material are provided on a side among the peripheral portion of the panel
501
where the end faces of the pair of substrates
505
and
506
are aligned.
The panel
501
is arranged inside a vacuum chamber
521
. In
FIG. 5
, the panel
501
is supported by a holder which is not shown. Here, the panel
501
is perpendicularly disposed so that the injection hole
510
comes to the bottom.
In order to improve the productivity, batch processing is often carried out with a plurality of panels being disposed inside the vacuum chamber at a time.
The vacuum chamber
521
has an evacuation pipe
523
connected therewith through a valve
522
. The evacuation pipe
523
is connected with a vacuum pump which is not shown to enable the pressure inside the vacuum chamber
521
to be reduced.
Further, a liquid crystal vessel
525
containing a liquid crystal material
524
is disposed on a stage
526
. The stage
526
is vertically movable.
After the panel
501
is disposed, the air inside the vacuum chamber
521
is evacuated from the evacuation pipe
523
so that the pressure inside the vacuum chamber
521
is reduced to be on the order of 1×10
−5
Torr.
Next, the stage
526
is moved up to soak the injection hole
510
in the liquid crystal material
524
in the liquid crystal vessel
525
. Here, both of the liquid crystal vessel
525
and the panel
501
are often heated to enhance the flowability of the liquid crystal material
524
.
With the above state being maintained, by gradually raising the pressure inside the vacuum chamber
521
, due to the difference in pressure and capillarity, the liquid crystal material
524
is injected into the panel
501
as shown by an arrow in FIG.
5
.
Next, the valve
522
is released to terminate the state of the reduced pressure, and the panel
501
with the liquid crystal material
524
injected therein is taken out from the vacuum chamber
521
.
Thereafter, both sides of the panel are pressurized to extrude excess liquid crystal, and, with the state maintained, ultraviolet curing or heat curing resin for sealing is applied to the injection hole
510
, and then, the pressurization is removed. Then, the resin for sealing comes a little in the inside of the injection hole. With the state maintained, the resin for sealing is cured to seal the injection hole
510
. In this way, the process of injecting the liquid crystal material is completed.
With the process of injecting the liquid crystal material according to vacuum injection, with respect to every panel or every batch, the processes of carrying the panel into the vacuum chamber, reducing the pressure, injecting the liquid crystal material, terminating the state of the reduced pressure, and taking out the panel are required to be repeated.
Among these processes, the injection of the liquid crystal material often takes an hour to more than several hours, even with respect to a panel having a diagonal on the order of 10 inches long thereof.
Particularly, recently, as a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal device of high productivity, a method referred to as “multiple” has become the mainstream. This is a method in which plural sets of a pixel region and peripheral driver circuit region that constitute one panel are formed on one substrate, a large panel (multiple panel) is formed by sticking a counter substrate with a sealing material, and thereafter, the large panel is separated into individual panels.
However, even in this method, injection of the liquid crystal material into the panel is conducted after separating the large panel into individual panels. Thus, when the liquid crystal material is injected into the respective panels, for example, in case four panels are taken (from one multiple panel, four panels each of which constitutes a liquid crystal device are to be obtained), the multiple panel is separated into four panels, and, injection of the liquid crystal is carried out separately with respect to the respective panels, and thus, the process of injecting is required to be repeated four times, which prevents the time necessary for the manufacturing process from being shortened.
Therefore, in order to improve the productivity of a liquid crystal device, the time necessary for the process of injecting the liquid crystal material is required to be shortened.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to shorten the time necessary for the process of injecting a liquid crystal material when manufacturing a liquid crystal device, to thereby improve the productivity of a liquid crystal device.
According to one aspect of the invention, as shown in
FIG. 1
as an embodiment thereof, there is provided a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal device comprising a process of injecting liquid crystal between a pair of substrates for forming a plurality of liquid crystal panels simultaneously, characterized in that a common injection hole
110
for injecting liquid crystal between the pair of substrates is commonly formed with respect to a plurality of liquid crystal panels
111
-
114
, and by injecting liquid crystal between the pair of substrates from the injection hole
110
, liquid crystal is injected into the plurality of liquid crystal panels
111
-
114
from seal openings
115
-
118
formed in the respective liquid crystal panel portions.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal device, characterized by comprising: using a multiple panel including an element substrate and a counter substrate formed thereon so as to face each other via a sealing materi
Nishi Takeshi
Yamazaki Shunpei
Fish & Richardson P.C.
Niebling John F.
Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co,. Ltd.
Simkovic Viktor
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