SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL
A first aspect of the present disclosure provides a flatness measurement jig, including:
a base;
a table including at least one first hole extending in a thickness direction of the table and penetrating the table, and at least one second hole extending in a direction perpendicular to the thickness direction and corresponding one-to-one to the at least one first hole;
at least one support column disposed on the base and configured to support the table;
at least one sensor, each of the at least one sensor being disposed in one of the at least one first hole and measuring flatness of a surface of an object to be measured; and
at least one display, each of the at least one display is connected to one of the at least one sensor through a signal line to display a measurement value of the sensor.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one sensor is configured to measure a maximum height and a minimum height of the surface of the object to be measured, and the flatness of the surface of the object to be measured is equal to a difference between the maximum height and the minimum height.
In one embodiment, the flatness measuring jig further comprises at least one first fastener corresponding to the at least one support column one to one, and the at least one first fastener is used for adjusting the height of the workbench relative to the base and fixing the workbench on the at least one support column.
In one embodiment, the flatness measuring jig further comprises a first level gauge located on the base and a second level gauge located on the workbench, and the first level gauge and the second level gauge are respectively used for detecting the horizontal degree of the base and the horizontal degree of the workbench.
In one embodiment, the flatness measurement jig further includes at least one second fastener in one-to-one correspondence with the at least one second hole, each of the at least one second hole communicates with the corresponding first hole, and the at least one second fastener is respectively provided in the corresponding second hole for fixing the sensor located in the corresponding first hole.
In one embodiment, the base includes a main body portion having a substantially rectangular shape and two protruding portions spaced apart from each other on the same side of the main body portion.
In one embodiment, the gap between the two projections is U-shaped.
In one embodiment, a size of the gap is larger than a size of the object to be measured in a direction in which the two protruding portions protrude from the main body portion.
In one embodiment, the at least one support column includes two support columns, the two support columns are respectively disposed on ends of the two protruding portions away from the main body portion, and the at least one display is located on the main body portion.
In one embodiment, each of the two support posts includes a line groove, each of the two protrusions includes a line groove, and the line groove of each of the two support posts and the line groove of the corresponding protrusion communicate with each other to accommodate the signal line.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one sensor comprises a contact digital sensor or a digital dial indicator.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one first fasteners comprises a screw or a clamp.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one second fasteners includes a screw.
In one embodiment, the table is rounded rectangular.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one support posts is removably detachable from either of the base and the table.
A second aspect of the present disclosure provides an evaporation system, comprising:
a mask stage;
the mask plate frame is positioned on the mask plate table and used for installing a mask plate;
the plurality of claws are positioned on the mask plate frame and used for bearing a substrate to be coated, and each claw can move in a plane parallel to the mask plate frame so as to align the substrate with the mask plate;
a cooling plate on the plurality of claws, the cooling plate for cooling the substrate; and
the flatness measurement jig according to any one of the embodiments of the first aspect of the present disclosure.
In one embodiment, the at least one first aperture comprises three first apertures located on a same line, the at least one sensor comprises two sensors, and the at least one display comprises two displays; and
one of the two sensors is mounted in a middle first hole of the three first holes with its probe away from the base to measure flatness of a surface of the cooling plate close to the plurality of claws, and outputs the measurement value onto at least one of the two displays; alternatively, the two sensors are respectively installed in two first holes at both ends of the three first holes in such a manner that the probes thereof are close to the base to measure the flatness of the surface of each of the plurality of claws close to the cooling plate, and the measured values are respectively output to the two displays.
In one embodiment, a distance between the two first holes at the two ends is smaller than or equal to a dimension of each of the plurality of claws in a direction of a line connecting the two first holes at the two ends.
The foregoing aspects and advantages thereof will become more readily appreciated from the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
Detailed Description
In order to make those skilled in the art better understand the technical solution of the present disclosure, the flatness measuring jig (which may also be referred to as a flatness measuring instrument, a flatness measuring device, etc.) and the evaporation system of the present disclosure are described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and exemplary embodiments.
The inventors of the present disclosure have found that, in the production process of products such as OLED panels and OLED display devices, the flatness of the cooling plate and the claws in the evaporation chamber has a direct influence on the yield of the formed products and the utilization rate of production equipment. Therefore, the cooling plate and each claw need to be adjusted to have a desired flatness. The inventors of the disclosed concept have also found that the current method of measuring the flatness of the cooling plate or each of the claws is to directly measure the flatness of the cooling plate or each of the claws with a dial gauge. The disadvantages of this measurement method include the following. When in measurement, the dial indicator needs to be fixed on a bracket, and the dial plate of the dial indicator fixed on the bracket is easy to loosen to cause measurement errors. When the flatness is measured by a dial gauge, the setting operation of the origin is complicated. When the dial indicator is used for measuring the flatness of each claw, two point positions of each claw need to be measured, the dial indicator only has one probe, and only one point position can be measured at one time, so that the time consumption is long. The dial indicator is of a dial type, and the measured value is read by observation of human eyes, so that the reading error range of the measured value can be large. Therefore, when a production line of an OLED panel includes tens of evaporation chambers, each evaporation chamber has a cooling plate and tens of claws, and two points of each claw and tens of points of each cooling plate are to be measured, the conventional flatness measuring method is time-consuming, low in accuracy, complex in operation, and incapable of accurately and timely obtaining a flatness measurement result, which may cause a poor product to be formed, and reduce the utilization rate of production equipment.
At least to overcome the above-mentioned deficiencies, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a flatness measuring jig and an evaporation system including the same. The flatness measuring jig can quickly and accurately measure the flatness of an object to be measured (including but not limited to a cooling plate and a claw), thereby providing a basis for timely adjusting the position and orientation of the object to be measured.
Some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a flatness measuring jig, as shown in fig. 1 to 3. The flatness measuring jig includes: a base 10; a table 30 including at least one first hole 31 (three first holes 31 are shown in fig. 1) extending in a thickness direction (e.g., a vertical direction in fig. 1) of the table 30 and penetrating the table 30, and at least one second hole 32 (three second holes 32 are shown in fig. 1) extending in a direction perpendicular to the thickness direction (e.g., a horizontal direction in fig. 1) and corresponding one-to-one to the at least one first hole 31; at least one support column 20 (two support columns 20 are shown in fig. 1), the at least one support column 20 being disposed on the base 10 and being for supporting the work table 30; at least one sensor 50 (one sensor 50 is shown in fig. 1, two sensors 50 are shown in fig. 6), each of the at least one sensor 50 being disposed in one of the at least one first hole 31 and measuring flatness of a surface of an object to be measured (for example, a cooling plate 84 and each claw 82 which will be described below, but the present disclosure is not limited thereto); and at least one display DP (two displays DP are shown in fig. 1), each of the at least one display DP being connected to one of the at least one sensor 50 by a signal line 70 (see, e.g., fig. 2) to display a measurement value of the sensor 50. For example, the material of the base 10, the at least one supporting column 20 and the work table 30 may include carbon steel, stainless steel, etc. to have sufficient mechanical properties. For example, the table 30 may have a rectangular or substantially rounded rectangular shape in a top plan view (as shown in fig. 3), but the present disclosure is not limited thereto. For example, each support column 20 may be a cylinder or a prism. For example, the size of each of the base 10, each of the support columns 20, and the table 30 of the flatness measurement jig may be designed according to the size of the usage environment (e.g., an evaporation chamber or a vacuum evaporation chamber) of the flatness measurement jig. For example, each of the at least one sensor 50 may be a contact digital sensor, a high-precision contact digital sensor, a digital dial gauge, or the like, and may include a processing circuit portion and a probe coupled to each other (the probe contacts or is close to the surface of the object to be measured when measuring). For example, each of the at least one display DP may be a known display, such as a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT) display device, a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) device, or an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED) display device.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one sensor DP may be configured to measure a maximum height and a minimum height of a surface of an object to be measured (e.g., relative to a reference plane), and a flatness of the surface of the object to be measured is equal to a difference between the maximum height and the minimum height. For example, in measurement, the probe of the sensor DP may be moved over the surface of the object to be measured to measure height values (i.e., measurement values) of a sufficient number of potentials of the surface to obtain the maximum height and the minimum height.
In one embodiment, the flatness measuring jig may further include at least one first fastening member 31 corresponding to the at least one supporting column 20 one to one, and the at least one first fastening member 31 is used for adjusting the height of the worktable 30 relative to the base 10 and fixing the worktable 30 on the at least one supporting column 20. For example, the work table 30 may have a through hole (not shown) for each support column 20 to pass through, so that the work table 30 can move along the at least one support column 20 toward or away from the base 10. When the work table 30 is moved to a suitable distance from the base 10, the at least one first fastener 31 may be installed in a hole in the work table 30 intersecting the at least one support column 20 to fix the work table 30 at the current position of the at least one support column 20.
In one embodiment, the degree measuring jig may further include a first level G1 on the base 10 and a second level G2 on the table 30, the first level G1 and the second level G2 being used to detect the level of the base 10 and the level of the table 30, respectively, so as to adjust the position and orientation of the base 10 and/or the table 30.
In one embodiment, the flatness measurement jig may further include at least one second fastener 60 (see, e.g., fig. 2) in one-to-one correspondence with the at least one second hole 32, each of the at least one second hole 32 is in communication with a corresponding first hole 31, and the at least one second fastener 60 is respectively provided in the corresponding second hole 32 for fixing the sensor 50 located in the corresponding first hole 31.
In one embodiment, the base 10 may include a main body 11 and two protrusions 12, the main body 11 being substantially rectangular, the two protrusions 12 being spaced apart from each other on the same side of the main body 11. For example, the main body portion 11 and the two protruding portions 12 may comprise the same material and be integrally formed. This may provide mechanical properties and stability to the base 10.
In one embodiment, the gap between the two projections 12 is U-shaped. In this way, the width of the end of each protruding portion 12 close to the main body portion 11 (e.g., the dimension in the direction of the line connecting the two protruding portions 12) is larger than the width of the end of the protruding portion 12 far from the main body portion 11, thereby improving the reliability of the connection of the protruding portion 12 with the main body portion 11.
In one embodiment, the size of the gap is larger than the size of the object to be measured in the direction in which the two protruding portions 12 protrude from the main body portion 11. In this way, in the case where the distance between the table 30 and the base 10 is too small to pass the object to be measured between the table 30 and the base 10 to measure a plurality of points of the entire surface of the object to be measured, the object to be measured can move within the gap, thereby completing desired measurement. Alternatively, in a case where the usage environment (e.g., an evaporation chamber or a vacuum evaporation chamber) of the flatness measurement jig has a size that allows the object to be measured to pass between the stage 30 and the base 10 to measure a plurality of spots of the entire surface of the object to be measured, the size of the gap may be smaller than or equal to the size of the object to be measured.
In one embodiment, the at least one supporting column 20 includes two supporting columns 20, the two supporting columns 20 are respectively disposed on ends of the two protruding portions 12 far from the main body portion 11, and the at least one display DP may be located on the main body portion 11.
In one embodiment, each of the two support columns 20 includes a line groove 21, each of the two protrusions 12 includes a line groove 13, and the line groove 21 of each of the two support columns 20 and the line groove 13 of the corresponding protrusion 12 (i.e., the protrusion 12 connected to that support column 20) communicate with each other to accommodate the signal line 70. For example, the line groove 21 of each support column 20 and the line groove 13 of the corresponding protrusion 12 (i.e., the protrusion 12 connected to that support column 20) may both have a straight line shape and may be located in the same plane, as shown in fig. 1. Thus, the length of the signal line 70 can be reduced.
In one embodiment, as described above, each of the at least one sensor 50 may comprise a known touch digital sensor or digital dial indicator.
In one embodiment, each of the at least one first fasteners 40 may comprise a screw or a clamp. The material of the screw or the clamp may be metal. Each of the at least one first fastener 40 may be referred to as a height-adjustment fastener (e.g., a height-adjustment screw).
In one embodiment, each of the at least one second fastener 60 may include a screw. The material of the screw may be metal. Each of the at least one second fastener 60 may be referred to as a probe fastening screw.
In one embodiment, the table 30 may be a rounded rectangle, as described above. The table 30, which is in the shape of a rounded rectangle, can be moved more flexibly for measurements in a smaller use environment than in the case of an ideal rectangle.
In one embodiment, each support column 20 is removably detachable from either the base 10 or the table 30. In this way, the at least one support column 20, the base 10, and the like of the flatness measurement jig can be replaced with a support column and a base having appropriate sizes according to the size of the use environment. Therefore, the stability of the flatness measuring jig is ensured, and meanwhile, the difficulty of installation and maintenance of the flatness measuring jig is reduced.
The flatness measuring jig provided in any of the foregoing embodiments of the present disclosure can achieve at least the following advantageous technical effects. The gradienter of the flatness measuring jig can ensure the integral levelness of the flatness measuring jig. The flatness measuring jig can measure the flatness of an object to be measured (e.g., a cooling plate) located above it when the sensor is installed in the first hole with the probe upward (i.e., away from the base), and can measure the flatness of another object to be measured (e.g., a claw) located below it when the sensor is installed in the first hole with the probe downward (i.e., close to the base). Each part of the flatness measuring jig can be detachably separated, so that the flatness measuring jig is easy to mount and maintain. The workbench can move up and down relative to the base along the supporting column, so that the flatness measuring jig can measure the objects to be measured at different positions. In addition, the display of the flatness measurement jig can quickly and accurately display the measured value, the accuracy of the measurement result is ensured, and the error of reading the meter by human eyes is avoided.
In another aspect, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide an evaporation system, as shown in fig. 1 to 4. The evaporation system may include the following components in an evaporation chamber (or vacuum evaporation chamber, not shown in the figures): a mask stage 80 for supporting the following components thereon; a mask frame 81 on the mask stage 80, the mask frame 81 being used to mount a mask (for example, the mask frame 81 may have a hollow structure, and a mask may be located in a central portion of the mask frame 81); a plurality of claws 82 positioned on the mask frame, wherein the claws 82 are used for bearing a substrate 83 to be coated, and each claw 82 can move in a plane parallel to the mask frame 81 to align the substrate 83 with the mask; and a cooling plate 84 disposed on the plurality of claws 82 and the substrate 83, the cooling plate 84 cooling the substrate 83 to prevent the elements on the substrate 83 from being defective due to high temperature. In addition, the evaporation system further comprises a flatness measuring jig as shown in one of fig. 1 to 3. In one embodiment, the periphery of the cooling plate may include a plurality of through holes arranged at intervals, and the evaporation system may further include a plurality of CCD cameras located in the evaporation chamber, on a side of the cooling plate 84 away from the mask frame 81, and above the through holes of the cooling plate 84, respectively, and the plurality of CCD cameras may monitor the alignment degree of the substrate 83 and the mask plate in real time. The plurality of CCD cameras may include a high resolution CCD camera located above each corner of the cooling plate 84 and a low resolution CCD camera located above the middle of each side of the cooling plate 84.
In one embodiment, as an example application scenario of the flatness measuring jig provided by the present disclosure, the at least one first hole 31 includes three first holes 31 located on the same straight line or on the same non-closed curve, the at least one sensor 50 may include two sensors 50, and the at least one display DP may include two displays DP; and one of the two sensors 50 is mounted in a middle first hole 31 of the three first holes 31 with its probe away from the base 10 to measure the flatness of the surface of the cooling plate 84 close to the plurality of claws 82 and output the measured value onto at least one of the two displays DP (fig. 5 shows a case where the sensor 50 outputs the measured value onto the two displays DP); alternatively, the two sensors 50 are respectively installed in two first holes 31 at both ends of the three first holes 31 in such a manner that the probes thereof are close to the base 10 to measure the flatness of the surface of each of the plurality of claws 82 close to the cooling plate 84, and output the measured values to the two displays DP, respectively. For example, the step of causing each sensor 50 to perform a measurement may be as follows. First, the flatness measuring jig is mounted, the table 30 is adjusted to an appropriate height, and the table 30 and the base 10 are all adjusted to a horizontal orientation. Next, the sensor 50 is installed in the appropriate first hole 31, measurement is performed with any one point on the surface of the object to be measured (in this example, the cooling plate 84 or any one of the claws 82) as a base point, it is checked whether the measurement value is 0 (zero), if not 0, the position of the probe of the sensor 50 is adjusted until the measurement value is 0, and the display of the display DP is zeroed, which is the zero point position, by the corresponding button on the display DP connected to the sensor 50. Thereafter, other points on the surface of the object to be measured are measured and the measured values are read on the corresponding display DP. The measurements may be (where each measurement is in millimeters (mm)): -0.03, -0.02, -0.01, 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, etc., wherein negative measurement values represent points lower (concave) than the base point (zero point), positive measurement values represent points higher (convex) than the base point (zero point), and measurement values 0 represent points having the same height as the base point (zero point). Then, from all the measurement values of the same surface of the object to be measured, the maximum height (i.e., the maximum measurement value) and the minimum height (i.e., the minimum measurement value) are determined. And finally, calculating the difference between the maximum height and the minimum height as the flatness of the surface of the object to be measured. In this case, a smaller value of flatness indicates a flatter surface. For example, in the use scenario shown in FIG. 5, the cooling plate 84 typically has a plurality of raised fins on the surface to be measured, and therefore only one sensor 50 is used to make the measurement. The present disclosure is not limited thereto, and for example, in the case where the measured surface of the cooling plate 84 is close to a plane, the measurement may be performed with a plurality of sensors 50. For example, in the use scenario shown in FIG. 6, the measured surface of each paw 82 is close to a plane, so two sensors 50 may be used to make measurements to increase the efficiency of the measurement. The present disclosure is not so limited, however, and for example, the flatness of the surface of each claw 82 may be estimated in advance and more or fewer sensors 50 may be used for measurement.
It should be understood that the production field of the OLED display panel is only one example application scenario of the flatness measuring jig provided by the present disclosure, and the flatness measuring jig provided by the present disclosure can be applied to any field requiring to measure the flatness of the surface of the object to be measured.
In one embodiment, the distance between the two first holes 31 at the two ends is smaller than or equal to the dimension of each of the plurality of claws 82 in the direction of the line connecting the two first holes 31 at the two ends, as shown in fig. 6. Otherwise, when one of the two sensors 50 in the two first holes 31 at both ends measures the claw 82, the other sensor will be out of the range of the claw 82 and cannot measure.
The evaporation system provided by the present disclosure can achieve at least the following advantageous effects. The flatness measuring jig is capable of measuring the flatness of the cooling plate located above the sensor when the sensor is installed in the first hole in the middle with the probe upward (i.e., away from the base), and capable of measuring the flatness of the claw located below the sensor when the sensor is installed in one or both of the two first holes located at both ends with the probe downward (i.e., close to the base). In addition, the display of the flatness measurement jig can quickly and accurately display the measured value, the accuracy of the measurement result is ensured, and the error of reading the meter by human eyes is avoided. Therefore, it is possible to quickly, accurately and efficiently measure the current flatness of the cooling plate and each claw of the evaporation system and adjust the cooling plate and each claw to have a desired flatness. As a result, the yield of the formed products such as OLED display panels, OLED display devices and the like and the utilization rate of the evaporation system are improved.
The foregoing embodiments of the disclosure may be combined with each other without apparent conflict.
It is to be understood that the above embodiments are merely exemplary embodiments that are employed to illustrate the principles of the present disclosure, which is not to be limited thereby. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made herein without departing from the scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.