Abstract:
A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel which achieves a reduction in sealing time and eliminates failure due to an excessive intake of a sealing material by utilizing a dip-type sealing apparatus capable of simultaneously sealing a plurality of liquid crystal injection inlets in a plurality of liquid crystal display panels. The liquid crystal display panel is fabricated by preparing first and second substrates, forming a sealant along the periphery of one of the first and second substrates, the sealant having an injection hole, introducing liquid crystals between the first and second substrates through the injection hole, and forming a sealing material in the injection hole by making dip-type contact between the sealing material and the injection hole.

Description:
[0001]    This application claims the benefit of the Korean Application No. P2001-050409 filed on Aug. 21, 2001, which is hereby incorporated by reference.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    1. Field of the Invention  
           [0003]    The present invention relates to a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel, and more particularly, to a method of manually sealing a liquid crystal injection inlet of a liquid crystal display panel.  
           [0004]    2. Discussion of the Related Art  
           [0005]    Lately, a liquid crystal display device highlighted as a flat panel display exhibits a high contrast ratio, is suitable for displaying gray scales or moving pictures, and requires less power consumption. However, efforts are continually being made to research and develop the liquid crystal display device.  
           [0006]    The liquid crystal display device includes a liquid crystal display panel constituted with TFT (thin film transistor) and color filter substrates confronting each other and a liquid crystal layer formed between the two substrates. A method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel according to related art is explained by referring to the attached drawings as follows.  
           [0007]    [0007]FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel according to a related art, and FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a method of manually sealing a liquid crystal injection inlet according to related art.  
           [0008]    Referring to FIG. 1, first and second substrates are prepared (S 10 ) as follows:  
           [0009]    The first substrate is prepared by successively forming a black matrix on a transparent substrate so as to prevent light leakage, a color filter layer of red, green, and blue between the black matrix, and a common electrode on the entire surface, including the color filter layer, by the deposition of ITO (idium tin oxide).  
           [0010]    The second substrate is prepared by successively forming a plurality of gate and data lines on the other transparent substrate so as to cross with each other, a thin film transistor on each intersection between the gate and data lines so as to consist of a gate electrode, a gate insulating layer, a semiconductor layer, and source/drain electrodes, and a pixel electrode made of ITO to be connected electrically to the drain electrode of the thin film transistor.  
           [0011]    Subsequently, a spacer is scattered evenly on the first substrate so as to maintain a uniform cell gap. A sealant is printed thick on the second substrate so as to leave a portion (hereinafter called ‘liquid crystal injection inlet) of the second substrate for injecting liquid crystals (S 11 ).  
           [0012]    After the two substrates have been attached to each other so as to confront each other, hot pressure is applied to the attached substrates to harden the sealant and completely bond the two substrates to each other (S 12 ).  
           [0013]    After a vacuum state has been achieved inside the bonded substrates, liquid crystals are injected inside the bonded substrates through the liquid crystal injection inlet using capillary action and atmospheric pressure differences. The liquid crystal injection inlet is then sealed under a pressurization state so as to prevent the liquid crystals from completely leaking to the outside (S 13 ).  
           [0014]    In this case, the liquid crystal injection inlet is sealed automatically by 1CST (cassette) unit. Namely, after a number of liquid crystal display panels (usually, 60 panels) have been loaded simultaneously on a cassette, a sealing material is coated on the liquid crystal injection inlets using an automated machine.  
           [0015]    If the automated machine experiences some difficulty so as to be unable to perform the automatic sealing step, as shown in FIG. 2, a worker manually coats the liquid crystal injection inlet of the liquid crystal panel  3  with a sealing material, one-by-one, using a sealing apparatus  1 .  
           [0016]    The sealing apparatus  1  functions like a syringe. A predetermined amount of the sealing material  4  sticks to an end of the syringe to be coated on the liquid crystal injection inlet  2  of the liquid crystal display panel  3 .  
           [0017]    The automatically or manually coated sealing material is then heated or irradiated with UV-rays to a hardened state. Thus, the liquid crystal injection inlet becomes completely sealed or airtight.  
           [0018]    After a cleaning process has been carried out using ultrasonic waves so as to remove particles and the like adhering to an outer surface of the LC-injected liquid crystal display panel, the exterior of the liquid crystal display panel is inspected and the failure/pass criteria of the liquid crystal display panel is judged by applying an electrical signal thereto so as to compete the fabrication of the liquid crystal display panel.  
           [0019]    Unfortunately, the method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel according to the related art has the following disadvantages or problems:  
           [0020]    First of all, when the automatic sealing operation of the liquid crystal injection inlet experiences some difficulty requiring the worker to seal the liquid crystal injection inlet manually, each of the liquid crystal injection inlets of the liquid crystal display panels must be coated with the sealing material, one-by-one, in creating a plurality of the liquid crystal display panels. The sealing material formed on the liquid crystal injection inlets hardens simultaneously. Eventually, the time required to form the sealing material is extended, whereby the sealing material flows inside the liquid crystal display panel where it is seldom hardened by UV-ray irradiation.  
           [0021]    Secondly, since the sealing operation is carried out manually using the syringe type sealing device, the sealing time becomes longer which reduces productivity as well as the result of irregular sealing of the liquid crystal injection inlets of the liquid crystal display panels.  
           [0022]    Finally, if the sealing material is excessively formed so as to flow outside the liquid crystal injection inlet, waste of the sealing material is inevitable.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0023]    Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel that substantially obviates one or more of the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.  
           [0024]    The present invention provides a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel which reduces the sealing time and prevents failure due to an excessive intake of sealing material by using a dip type sealing apparatus capable of simultaneously sealing a plurality of liquid crystal injection inlets of liquid crystal display panels.  
           [0025]    Additional advantages, objects, and features of the present invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.  
           [0026]    To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel according to the present invention includes preparing first and second substrates, forming a sealant along the periphery of one of the first and second substrates, the sealant having an injection hole, forming liquid crystals between the first and second substrates through the injection hole, and forming a sealing material on the injection hole by placing the injection hole in contact with the sealing material disposed in a tray.  
           [0027]    Thus, according to the present invention, the sealing material is adapted to contact a plurality of liquid crystal display panels to be sealed collectively so as to reduce the sealing time as well as to avoid failure.  
           [0028]    It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0029]    The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the present invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:  
         [0030]    [0030]FIG. 1 illustrates a flowchart of a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display panel according to related art;  
         [0031]    [0031]FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic diagram for explaining a method of sealing a liquid crystal injection inlet manually according to related art;  
         [0032]    [0032]FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a liquid crystal display panel according to the present invention;  
         [0033]    [0033]FIG. 4 illustrates a process of sealing liquid crystal injection inlets of liquid crystal display panels according to the present invention; and  
         [0034]    [0034]FIG. 5 illustrates a tray filled with a sealing material according to the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION  
       [0035]    Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.  
         [0036]    [0036]FIG. 3 illustrates a cross-sectional view of a liquid crystal display panel according to the present invention, FIG. 4 illustrates a system for sealing liquid crystal injection inlets of liquid crystal display panels according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 illustrates a tray filled with a sealing material according to the present invention.  
         [0037]    First of all, a method of fabricating a liquid crystal panel according to the present invention before the sealing process is explained by referring to FIG. 3 as follows.  
         [0038]    First of all, scan lines (not shown in the drawing) for transferring a scan signal and signal lines  17  for transferring a video signal are formed on a first transparent substrate  11  to cross with each other so as to define a plurality of pixel areas, and a thin film transistor is formed on each intersection between the scan and signal lines.  
         [0039]    The thin film transistor includes a gate electrode  14  extending from the scan line, a gate insulating layer  15  formed on the entire surface of the substrate including the gate electrode  14 , a semiconductor layer  16  formed on the gate insulating layer  15 , a source electrode  17   a  extending from the signal line  17 , and a drain electrode  17   b  confronting the source electrode  17   a . The thin film transistor plays a role in transferring the video signal to each of the pixel areas selectively in accordance with the scan signal.  
         [0040]    Subsequently, a passivation layer  18 , i.e., an organic or inorganic insulator, is formed on the entire surface of the substrate including the thin film transistor. A pixel electrode  19  is then formed of an ITO based material on the passivation layer so as to be electrically connected to the corresponding thin film transistor.  
         [0041]    The gate insulating layer  15  and passivation layer  18  can be formed of an inorganic material such SiN x , SiO x , or the like or an organic material such as BCB (benzocyclobutene), acryl based material, or the like.  
         [0042]    Moreover, a black matrix  31  is formed on areas where the scan/signal lines and thin film transistor are formed so as to prevent light leakage. A color filter layer  32  colored by R (red), G (green), and B (blue), respectively, is formed between the black matrix using one of such methods as dye application, electrodeposition, pigment dispersion, print, etc. A common electrode  33  made of an ITO based material is then formed on the entire surface of the substrate including the color filter layer  32 .  
         [0043]    An overcoating layer (not shown in the drawing) may further be formed between the color filter layer  32  and common electrode  33  so as to protect the color filter layer  32  as well as planarize the substrate.  
         [0044]    Also, an alignment layer can be formed on at least one of the two substrates for initial alignment of liquid crystals.  
         [0045]    The alignment layer may be formed by carrying out a rubbing process on a polyamide or polyimide based compound, PVA (polyvinyl alcohol), polyamic acid, or the like. Instead, the alignment layer can be formed by carrying out a photo alignment process on a photo-reactive material such as PVCN (polyvinylcinnamate), PSCN (polysiloxanecinnamate), and CelCN (cellulosecinnamate) based compounds.  
         [0046]    Thereafter, a sealant  41  is formed outside an active area of one of the two substrates  11  and  12 . In this case, the sealant is mainly a thermo-hardening sealant, and a liquid crystal injection inlet is formed by not forming the sealant  41  in a predetermined area.  
         [0047]    There are a number of methods, e.g., a screen printing method, a dispensing method, and the like, for forming the sealant. The screen printing method may cause damage on the alignment layer and the like formed on the substrate since the screen physically contacts the substrate. Also, the screen printing method is uneconomical since sealant loss of a large-size substrate increases. Therefore, the dispensing method is preferable.  
         [0048]    Subsequently, a spacer  40  is scattered uniformly on one of the substrates  11  and  12 .  
         [0049]    The first and second substrates  11  and  12  are attached to confront each other and the sealant  41  is then hardened by heating the attached substrates in a pressurized state to make the attached substrates completely adhere to each other.  
         [0050]    Finally, liquid crystals  50  are injected between the first and second substrates  11  and  12  through the liquid crystal injection inlet, thereby completing the liquid crystal display panel.  
         [0051]    The liquid crystal injection process is explained in detail as follows. First of all, the bonded substrates are placed in a vacuum chamber so as to maintain a vacuum state inside the space between the substrates. The composite is then dipped into a liquid crystal tray. Once the vacuum state is established and maintained inside the space between the substrates, liquid crystals are drawn into the space between the substrates by capillary action. When the space between the substrates becomes filled with the liquid crystals to some degree, nitrogen gas (N 2 ) is injected slowly into the vacuum chamber. A pressure difference between the space of the substrates and surroundings is then generated so that the liquid crystals fill the vacant space between the substrates. Thus, the liquid crystal layer is formed between the two substrates.  
         [0052]    Finally, the liquid crystal injection inlet of the liquid crystal display panel, in which the liquid crystal layer is formed, is sealed.  
         [0053]    The process of sealing the liquid crystal injection inlets according to the present invention is carried out simultaneously by the dip system, which is explained by referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 as follows.  
         [0054]    Referring to FIG. 4, a tray  100  is filled with sealing material  101  from top to bottom. A plurality of liquid crystal display panels  99  are positioned vertically so that liquid crystal injection inlets  102  contact the sealing material  101 . The sealing material  101  thus sticks to each of the liquid crystal injection inlets  102 .  
         [0055]    The tray  100 , as shown in FIG. 5, has the same shape as the liquid crystal container used for the liquid crystal injection.  
         [0056]    In this case, an interval between the first and second substrates is narrow, e.g., 4˜5 μm and the inner pressure inside the liquid crystal display panel is great. Therefore, the liquid crystals are prevented from flowing out through the liquid crystal injection inlet, even when the liquid crystal display panel is positioned vertically.  
         [0057]    Contrary to the method of sealing each liquid crystal display panel, one-by-one, using the syringe type sealing apparatus according to the related art, the process according to the present invention simultaneously seals a plurality of the liquid crystal injection inlets of the liquid crystal display panels as a group, thereby substantially reducing the sealing time.  
         [0058]    Finally, a plurality of the above-sealed liquid crystal display panels are loaded inito a cassette, and then the sealing material is hardened. Thus, the liquid crystal display panel is sealed completely thereby preventing the liquid crystals from flowing to the outside.  
         [0059]    Thermo-hardening resins, UV-ray-hardening resins, or the like can be used as the sealing material in the present invention. An epoxy based UV-ray hardening resin is particularly advantageous.  
         [0060]    After a cleaning process is carried out using ultrasonic waves so as to remove particles and the like adhering to an outer surface of the LC-injected liquid crystal display panel, the exterior of the liquid crystal display panel is inspected and failure/pass of the liquid crystal display panel is determined by applying an electrical signal thereto to complete the fabrication of the liquid crystal display panel.  
         [0061]    The method of fabricating the liquid crystal display panel according to the present invention has the following advantages or benefits.  
         [0062]    First of all, it is possible to simultaneously seal a plurality of liquid crystal injection inlets of liquid crystal display panels as a group when the present invention is used for a manual sealing by a worker. Therefore, the present invention achieves a substantial reduction of the sealing time.  
         [0063]    The present invention eliminates failure caused by the intake of excessive sealing material due to the delayed sealing time, thereby providing an excellent sealing state of the liquid crystal display panel.  
         [0064]    Moreover, since the present invention simultaneously seals a plurality of the liquid crystal injection inlets of the liquid crystal display panels, the sealing states of the respective liquid crystal display panels is uniform. Also, the sealing process time is reduced which improves productivity.  
         [0065]    It will be apparent to those skilled in the art than various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.