Patent ID: 7704115

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a plate-like spacer in a display panel which supports opposing upper and lower substrates of the display panel in a vacuum space and has in its surface a plurality of grooves, the method comprising the steps of: subjecting a plate-like glass base material having in its surface a plurality of grooves to heat drawing in a direction parallel to the grooves; and cutting the glass base material after the heat drawing, with irradiation of a laser beam condensed to have a thin and narrow elongated pattern on the surface of the glass base material from a direction perpendicular to the surface having the grooves of the glass base material, the thin and narrow elongated pattern extending across the grooves and beyond the width of the drawn glass base material in the elongated direction, wherein in the step of cutting the glass base material, with an irradiation region of the glass base material irradiated with the laser beam being molten, one side portion of the glass base material with respect to the irradiation region is fixed, and the other side portion of the glass base material is pulled to thereby tear off the other side portion from the one side portion of the glass base material which becomes the spacer.