Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US8196543
Timestamp: 2018-04-19 13:46:54
Document Index: 530552316

Matched Legal Cases: ['arts 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'arts 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40', 'art 40']

US8196543B2 - Defect repairing apparatus, defect repairing method, program, and computer-readable recording medium - Google Patents
Defect repairing apparatus, defect repairing method, program, and computer-readable recording medium Download PDF
US8196543B2
US8196543B2 US12226500 US22650007A US8196543B2 US 8196543 B2 US8196543 B2 US 8196543B2 US 12226500 US12226500 US 12226500 US 22650007 A US22650007 A US 22650007A US 8196543 B2 US8196543 B2 US 8196543B2
US12226500
US20090304916A1 (en )
A defect repairing apparatus (1) capable of efficiently repairing defects includes: a substrate-mounting plate (3) for securing a substrate conveyed; a plurality of droplet discharge units (11) disposed along a direction different from the direction of conveyance of the substrate as seen from a direction perpendicular to the substrate secured by the substrate-mounting plate (3), which discharge droplets onto defects scattered about on the substrate; a head gantry unit (7) on which the plurality of droplet discharge units (11) have been mounted; and a gantry sliding mechanism (4) for moving the head gantry unit (7) relatively at a constant velocity along the direction of conveyance of the substrate, the droplet discharge units (11) moving each independently along a direction different from the direction of conveyance in accordance with data indicative of the positions of the defects scattered about on the substrate, while the head gantry unit (7) is moving along the direction of conveyance of the substrate.
The present invention relates to a defect repairing apparatus, a defect repairing method, a program, and a computer-readable recording medium for repairing defects in accordance with data indicative of the positions of defects scattered about on a substrate.
In recent years, an ink-jet technology is expected to be applied to a manufacturing apparatus as well as a printer apparatus for forming an image on a paper medium. For example, Patent Document 1 discloses, as an apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display, an organic EL display, a plasma display, an electron-releasing element, an electrophoretic display device, or the like, a manufacturing apparatus equipped with an ink-jet droplet discharge element. In order to improve the accuracy of position with which droplets land on a substrate, Patent Document 1 uses a substratum of the apparatus as a stationary stone platen having a stage provided directly thereon so as to convey substrates in one direction and a carriage mechanism provided directly thereon so as to move an ink-jet head in a direction orthogonal to the direction of movement of the stage.
Usually, a general-purpose ink-jet printer forms an image with use of a single ink-jet head unit having several ink-jet head elements mounted for each color so as to serve as elements for discharging droplets. Each of the ink-jet head elements has a width of ½ to 2 inches, and has nozzle holes arrayed at regular intervals of 150 to 300 nozzles per inch. As for a method for forming an image, an image has been formed on a recording paper sheet by passing the ink-jet head unit more than once in a direction orthogonal to the direction of conveyance of the recording paper sheet while feeding the recording paper sheet by a paper-feeding roller.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 191462/2003 (Tokukai 2003-191462; published on Jul. 8, 2003)
Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 66218/2003 (Tokukai 2003-66218; published on Mar. 5, 2003)
Patent Document 3: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 185978/2005 (Tokukai 2005-185978; published on Jul. 14, 2005)
Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 337707/2004 (Tokukai 2004-337707; published on Dec. 2, 2004)
However, an attempt to repair the color filter substrate of Patent Document 2 by the line-head system of Patent Document 1 is met with the following problems.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the appearance of a defect repairing apparatus according to Embodiment 1.
1 Defect repairing apparatus
The sub-stage 2 c is a stage on which the maintenance mechanism 15 is mounted, and as such does not need to be as accurate as the main stage 2 a.
The sub-stage 2 b is a stage that is used for moving the substrate-mounting plate 3 to an end of the apparatus in carrying in a substrate onto the substrate-mounting plate 3 or in carrying out a substrate from the surface of the substrate-mounting plate 3.
The stages 2 a, 2 b, and 2 c have gantry guides 5 a, 5 b, and 5 c mounted thereon, respectively. The gantry guides 5 a, 5 b, and 5 c are linked together with seams formed therebetween, in order that the head gantry unit 7 can freely slide across the gantry guides 5 a, 5 b, and 5 c.
In FIG. 1, the head gantry unit 7 is always staying up in the air with a floating sliding mechanism 8 floating above the gantry sliding mechanism 4. It is linear motor control between a magnetic linear scale 6 provided on the gantry sliding mechanism 4 and the floating sliding mechanism 8 that enables the head gantry unit 7 to move.
(b) of FIG. 7 shows an apparatus having a plurality of droplet discharge units 11 a each equipped with a plurality of nozzle plates that discharge three types of liquid. Each of the droplet discharge units 11 a is arranged so as to have a line of nozzle holes 23R that discharge a first droplet material, a line of nozzle holes 23G that discharge a second droplet material, and a line of nozzle holes 23B that discharge a third droplet material, the lines of nozzles holes being each inclined at several degrees with respect to a direction perpendicular to Directions B, the lines of nozzle holes being substantially identical in projected area to one another in Direction B. Further, each of the lines of nozzle holes may be able to move slightly in Directions B within the droplet discharge unit 11 a.
The nozzle pitch Q projected in Directions B is defined as:
Q=p×sin θ,
It is preferable to use discharge elements, inclined at θ=3 to 10°, each of which has 20 to 80 nozzle holes at a pitch of 100 to 200 DPI (i.e., an array of 100 to 200 holes at equal pitches per width of 1 inch). The reason for this is as follows: As the number of holes per discharge unit becomes smaller, the total width of a droplet discharge unit composed of an array of such discharge units becomes smaller, so that a region of incapability can be made smaller. Further, the inclination of the 100 to 200 DPI discharge elements, which are low in manufacturing cost, within the range of θ=3 to 10° makes it possible that the nozzle pitch projected in Directions B is made as high as 5 μm to 35 μm in density once control of the timing of discharge is performed by performing a test discharge, without strictly aligning the plurality of discharge elements with one another. This makes it possible to realize an array higher in density than the size of pixels of a color filter, an organic EL display device, or the like.
Having dimensions of approximately 2.2 m×2.8 m, the target substrate 35 has approximately 30 to 300 discharging spots (defects) scattered about thereon. In cases where there are not less than 30 defects, an arrangement in which a plurality of droplet discharge units move individually in a direction different from the direction of conveyance brings about a greater takt-time shortening effect in comparison with the case of a single droplet discharge unit, albeit depending on the size of a substrate. Meanwhile, in cases where there are not more than 300 defects, color unevenness due to repaired portions of a repaired color filter substrate or organic EL display substrate becomes nonproblematic for actual use, so that the substrate can be obtained with high quality.
The “defective parts” here mean portions obtained by correcting defective portions by a laser or the like so that the defective portions are shaped into depressions of a given shape. Examples of the defective portions include portions commingled with dust in a manufacturing step and portions formed with blank depressions. Assuming that all the droplet discharge units 11 discharge the same type of droplet material, the following shows a method for repairing a deficiency of one type of pixel (red, blue, or yellow). Therefore, defective parts of all the colors can be repaired by either providing three defect repairing apparatus according the present embodiment for separate color materials or, as exemplified in Embodiment 2, arranging a droplet discharge unit to be able to discharge droplets of a plurality of colors.
(a) of FIG. 18 shows that each of the defective parts (defects) 40 a, 40 b, and 40 c on the processed substrate is a depressed portion, having a width of approximately 2 μm, whose opening has a rectangular shape, having dimensions of approximately 200 μm×70 μm, whose longer sides are parallel to the directions of movement of the head gantry unit 7. (a) through (d) of FIG. 18 are drawn as if the longer sides of each of the defective parts (defects) 40 a, 40 b, and 40 c were parallel to the directions A of movement of the head gantry unit 7. In reality, however, the longer sides of each of the defective parts (defects) 40 a, 40 b, and 40 c are inclined at several degrees as shown in (a) and (b) of FIG. 7. The nozzle discharge surface of the droplet discharge unit 11 faces in parallel with a surface of the conveying stage, and the nozzle plate 22 has a plurality of nozzle holes 23 formed therein. The plurality of nozzle holes 23 are arrayed along the directions from side to side on the drawings, i.e., along the directions of movement of the head gantry unit 7. Each of the nozzle holes 23 has an ink-compressing chamber and compression control means (both not shown) provided on a back surface thereof so as to make it possible to control discharge of droplets. Further, the line of nozzle holes 23 can discharge the same droplet material.
Next, as shown in (b) of FIG. 18, the droplet discharge unit 11, which has discharged droplets onto the defective parts 40 a, moves in the direction of an arrow E through the drive of the discharge-unit sliding mechanism 10, and then stops at such a place that the nozzle holes 23 are aligned with the center line of the defective part 40 c, in order to repair the defective part 40 c. Since the head gantry unit 7 is now moving to the left on the drawing at a constant speed, the droplet discharge unit 11 moves relatively in the direction of an arrow F of (c) of FIG. 18, and then stops. Then, the movement of the head gantry unit 7 causes the droplet discharge unit 11 to move relatively in the direction of an arrow G. Meanwhile, the droplet discharge unit 11 repairs the defective part 40 c by discharging droplets through nozzle holes 23 located directly above the defective part 40 c.
Then, after finishing moving in one direction, the head gantry unit 7 starts to move in the other direction. As shown in (d) of FIG. 18, the droplet discharge unit 11 moves in the direction of an arrow K with use of the discharge-unit sliding mechanism 10, and then stops with the nozzle holes 23 aligned with the center line of the defective part 40 b, in order to repair the defective part 40 b. Then, the movement of the head gantry unit 7 causes the droplet discharge unit 11 to move relatively in the direction of an arrow L, and the droplet discharge unit 11 discharges droplets through the nozzle holes 23 located directly above the defective part 40 b.
Thus, the three defective parts 40 a, 40 c, and 40 b are repaired with use of the back-and-forth motion of the head gantry unit 7 in the order named, and this is the optimum use of a constitutional advantage of the present defect repairing apparatus. That is, as shown in (c) of FIG. 18, in discharging droplets onto the defective part 40 a through the plurality of nozzle holes 23, the droplet discharge unit 11 cannot be moved until the actually discharging nozzle hole 23 on the extreme right on the drawing is no longer directly above the defective part 40 a. At least in a region corresponding to the distance between both ends of the line of nozzle holes 23 being used, the droplet discharge unit 11 cannot move up or down on the drawing to be ready to repair the next defective part.
As shown in (c) of FIG. 18, the defective part 40 b is located in a range of incapability H with respect to the defective part 40 a. Therefore, the defective part 40 b is not processed immediately after the defective part 40 a has been repaired. Instead, the defective part 40 c is repaired because it does not belong to the range of incapability H. Then, along with the back-and-forth motion of the head gantry unit 7, the defective part 40 b is repaired after the defective part 40 c has been repaired, because the defective part 40 b does not belong to a range of incapability H with respect to the defective part 40 c.
The foregoing has described the moving operation of a single droplet discharge unit 11. However, the defect repairing apparatus has a plurality of droplet discharge units 11 each of which operates independently. The defect repairing apparatus according to the present embodiment is not limited to an apparatus for repairing defects in a color filter substrate, and can discharge droplets onto intended spots scattered about on a substrate.
As shown in (b) of FIG. 21, each of the aforementioned unit arrays is a set of four droplet discharge units 11 mounted on a single head gantry unit 7, and these unit arrays has center lines Y2-Y2 and Y3-Y3, respectively. In the present embodiment, the distance between the respective center lines Y2-Y2 and Y3-Y3 of these two unit arrays (head gantry units 7) is substantially ½ of the length of the target substrate 35 along the direction of conveyance. Moreover, as shown in (b) of FIG. 21, the two head gantry units 7 are disposed so that the distance between the center lines Y2-Y2 and Y3-Y3 is substantially half of the width of the target substrate 35, and each of the head gantry units 7 makes movements from side to side by the amount of movement substantially half of the width of the substrate while being centered on its location.
For a defect repairing apparatus having n unit arrays (where n is an integer), it is only necessary to divide a target substrate into n regions and cause the unit arrays to perform scanning more than once by making movements from side to side by the amount of movement 1/n of the width of the substrate while being centered on intermediate lines of the n regions, respectively. This makes it possible to minimize the total distance over which each of the head gantry units 7 makes back-and-forth movements and thereby minimize the amount of time required to process the substrate. This ratio does not need to be strictly applied. Within a margin of error of approximately ±20%, there will be a great time-shortening effect.
0.8d≦D/n≦1.2d,
where D denotes the width of the target substrate 35 along the directions of movement of head gantry units 7, d denotes the width across which each unit array performs scanning, and n denotes the number of unit arrays.
A processed substrate finished with repair is taken out by a conveyor robot (not shown). In the case of a color filter substrate, the substrate is completed by placing the substrate into a calcining furnace and then solidifying droplet material. Embodiment 2 has described a defect repairing apparatus having two unit arrays and a defect repairing apparatus having three unit arrays. This shows that in the case of n unit arrays, it is only necessary to divide the substrate into n regions with respect to the width D of the substrate along the direction of introduction of the substrate and cause the unit arrays to make movements from side to side with amplitude of D/2n of the substrate while being centered on intermediate lines of the regions, respectively. Further, by making d substantially identical to D/n, it becomes possible to make an attempt to minimize the size of the apparatus. However, in the case of a difference of approximately ±10%, it is possible to reduce the occupied area of the apparatus, without causing a great increase in size of the apparatus. Further, although it is preferable that d and D/n be identical. However, in the case of a difference of up to ±20%, it is possible to shorten takt time, without causing a great increase in the amount of time required for each substrate.
US12226500 2006-04-21 2007-04-18 Defect repairing apparatus, defect repairing method, program, and computer-readable recording medium Expired - Fee Related US8196543B2 (en)
JP2006-118510 2006-04-21
JP2006118510A JP4057037B2 (en) 2006-04-21 2006-04-21 Defect repairing apparatus, a defect repairing method, a program and a computer-readable recording medium
PCT/JP2007/058412 WO2007123148A1 (en) 2006-04-21 2007-04-18 Defect repairing device, defect repairing method, program and computer readable recording medium
US20090304916A1 true US20090304916A1 (en) 2009-12-10
US8196543B2 true US8196543B2 (en) 2012-06-12
ID=38625048
US12226500 Expired - Fee Related US8196543B2 (en) 2006-04-21 2007-04-18 Defect repairing apparatus, defect repairing method, program, and computer-readable recording medium
US (1) US8196543B2 (en)
EP (1) EP2014375A4 (en)
JP (1) JP4057037B2 (en)
KR (1) KR20080113116A (en)
CN (1) CN101484248B (en)
WO (1) WO2007123148A1 (en)
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Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:NAKAJIMA, YOSHINORI;MATOBA, HIROTSUGU;TAMURA, TOSHIHIRO;REEL/FRAME:022091/0134