JP4725114B2 - Pattern forming apparatus and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a pattern forming apparatus and method capable of forming a high-definition pattern.

  The color liquid crystal display device includes a color filter corresponding to a color to be displayed on each pixel. As a method for producing a color filter, a pigment dispersion method or the like in which a photolithography process is repeated a plurality of times has been conventionally used, but in recent years, a method using an ink jet apparatus has attracted attention for the main purpose of cost reduction.

  The pattern pitch of the color filter tends to become finer as the color liquid crystal display device becomes higher in definition. The amount of ink ejected from the ink jet apparatus is several picoliters and is extremely small. In order to form a pattern with a fine line width, it is necessary that the discharge amount be small. Also in this respect, the ink jet apparatus is suitable for manufacturing a color filter.

  By the way, in an ink jet apparatus, it is usual to generate a color filter pattern using a head unit including a plurality of piezo drive type heads.

  However, since each piezo drive type head has mechanical and electrical variations, the amount of droplets ejected from each piezo drive type head is non-uniform even when the same drive pulse is supplied. If the ink discharge amount is non-uniform, the thickness of the colored layer constituting the color filter becomes non-uniform.

  That is, when a color filter is manufactured using a conventional ink jet apparatus, there is a problem that unevenness occurs in the display color of the color filter due to the non-uniform discharge amount of ink. According to the conventional manufacturing method, in the case of the etching method, equipment for resist plate making and equipment for etching are required, and a resist pattern must be prepared for each product, and the resist must be stripped alternately by etching. The production speed is limited.

In order to solve this, there is an invention disclosed in Patent Document 1 by the present applicant. According to the present invention, a pattern composed of a lyophilic region in which droplets spread out in accordance with the pattern to be formed is formed on the substrate surface, and the amount of droplets per unit area to be landed on the lyophilic region is made uniform. As described above, the ejection of droplets from each head is thinned out in accordance with a predetermined rule.
JP 2003-172814 A

  By the way, in the invention disclosed in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, the amount of droplets per unit area can be made uniform by thinning out the droplet ejection of each head according to a predetermined rule. It is desired to further uniform the amount of droplets per unit area.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and a pattern forming apparatus and method capable of forming a uniform pattern on a substrate even when the amount of liquid droplets discharged from each nozzle is not uniform. Is to provide.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the invention according to claim 1 moves relative positions of the nozzle unit (26) in which the plurality of nozzles (N1 to Nn) are integrated and the substrate (17) at the same pitch. However, the pattern forming apparatus forms a pattern on the substrate (17) by discharging droplets from the nozzles (N1 to Nn) to the substrate (17), and the substrate is formed from each nozzle (N1 to Nn). a data storage means for storing ejection amount data for droplet discharged against (17) (35), be one which measures the moving position relative X direction with respect to the nozzle unit of the substrate, the X A start position signal for starting droplet discharge to the substrate at a moving position in the direction, and a differential signal indicating the amount of movement of the substrate by a certain pitch from the position at which droplet discharge starts. the first of which A moving position measuring means (31), be one which measures the moving position relative Y-direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate, moving to the specified position in the Y direction with respect to the substrate of the nozzle unit is completed A second movement position measuring means (32) for outputting a designated position movement completion signal indicating that the X direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate from the start position signal, differential signal and designated position movement completion signal And a position detection circuit (37) for measuring position information in the Y direction;
Based on the discharge amount data of each nozzle (N1 to Nn) and the position information measured by the position detection circuit, it is determined whether or not the liquid droplets are discharged from any of the nozzles (N1 to Nn). Control means (34) for controlling, and when forming a pattern on the substrate (17) while moving the relative position of the nozzle unit (26) and the substrate (17), the control means (34) The pattern forming apparatus is characterized in that the droplet discharge start position is set for each movement change position .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the pattern forming apparatus according to the first aspect, a stage (16) for placing the substrate (17) is provided, and the movement position of the stage (16) is set to the first and second positions. A pattern forming apparatus is used which is measured by the moving position measuring means (31, 32).

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the pattern forming apparatus according to the first aspect , the first and second movement position measuring means (31, 32) are any one of a linear scale, a magnescale, and a laser interferometer. A pattern forming apparatus having a certain feature is employed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the pattern forming apparatus according to the first aspect, on the surface of the substrate (17), a pattern comprising a lyophilic region in which the droplet spreads corresponding to the pattern to be formed is formed. A pattern forming apparatus characterized by the above is adopted.

The invention according to claim 5 discharges droplets from the nozzles to the substrate while moving the relative position of the nozzle unit in which a plurality of nozzles are integrated with the substrate at the same pitch. A pattern forming method for forming a pattern on the substrate by: a data storage step for storing discharge amount data of droplets discharged from the nozzles to the substrate; and a relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate. The movement position in the X direction is measured , and at the movement position in the X direction, a start position signal for starting the discharge of the liquid droplets to the substrate, and the substrate from the position at which the discharge of the liquid droplets starts. which measures a first movement position measuring step of outputting a differential signal indicating a movement amount constant pitch movement, the movement position of the relative Y-direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate A second movement position measuring step for outputting a designated position movement completion signal indicating that the movement of the nozzle unit to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to the substrate is completed; the start position signal; the differential signal; A position detection step of measuring relative position information of the substrate relative to the nozzle unit from the designated position movement completion signal in the X direction and the Y direction, the discharge amount data of each nozzle, and the position information measured by the position detection step A control step for controlling whether or not to discharge the liquid droplets from any nozzle among the nozzles , and reciprocating the relative position between the nozzle unit and the substrate. when forming a pattern on the substrate, and in the control step, and sets the discharge start position of the droplet for each change position of the reciprocating movement pattern To adopt a down-forming method.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the pattern forming method according to the sixth aspect, in the first and second movement position measuring steps, the substrate (17) is placed on the stage (16), and the stage (16 The pattern forming method characterized in that the movement position of (1) is measured is adopted.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of nozzles (N1 to Nn) with respect to the substrate (17) based on the discharge amount data of each nozzle (N1 to Nn) and the movement position data of the substrate (17). Since whether or not to discharge the liquid droplets is controlled, the liquid droplets discharged from the nozzles (N1 to Nn) are uniformized in the amount of liquid droplets per unit area, and the nozzles (N1) It is possible to form a uniform pattern even if the single discharge amount of .about.Nn) is different.
When the pattern is formed on the substrate (17) while moving the relative position between the nozzle unit (26) and the substrate (17), the control means (33) changes the movement of the droplet discharge start position. Since it is set for each position, the droplet discharge start position can be adjusted for each movement change position, the relative movement direction of the nozzle unit (26) with respect to the substrate (17) is corrected, and the assembly error between them is corrected. Can be eliminated.

According to the invention of claim 2 , in the pattern forming apparatus of claim 1, the stage (16) for placing the substrate (17) is provided, and the movement position of the stage (16) is used as the movement position measuring means. By measuring in this manner, the handling of the substrate is facilitated, and the moving position of the stage is measured as the moving position of the substrate, so that the moving position of the substrate is easily measured.

According to the invention of claim 3 , in the pattern forming apparatus of claim 1, since the moving position measuring means (31) is any one of a linear scale, a magnescale, and a laser interferometer, the substrate (17 ) Can be accurately measured.

According to the invention of claim 4 , in the pattern forming apparatus of claim 1, the substrate (17) has a pattern made of a lyophilic region in which droplets spread out corresponding to the pattern to be formed. Even if there is a part where the droplet does not land due to the formation, the droplet that has landed on the part adjacent to the part spreads wet, so that the solution can be spread evenly in the pattern. Does not occur. Therefore, it is possible to form a highly accurate pattern at a low cost.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, similarly to the first aspect, the substrate (17) from each nozzle (N1 to Nn) is based on the discharge amount data of each nozzle (N1 to Nn) and the movement position data of the substrate (17). ) To control whether or not to discharge a plurality of droplets, the droplets discharged from each nozzle (N1 to Nn) have a uniform droplet volume per unit area. Thus, even if the discharge amount of each nozzle (N1 to Nn) is different, a uniform pattern can be formed.
When a pattern is formed on the substrate while reciprocating the relative positions of the nozzle unit (26) and the substrate (17), the droplet discharge start position is set for each change position of the reciprocation in the control process. Therefore, the droplet discharge start position can be adjusted for each change position of the reciprocating movement, the relative movement direction of the nozzle unit (26) with respect to the substrate (17) is corrected, and assembly errors between them are eliminated. Can do.

According to the invention of claim 6 , in the pattern forming method of claim 5 , in the movement position measuring step, the substrate (17) is placed on the stage (16), and the movement position of the stage (16) is determined. By measuring, it becomes easy to handle the substrate (17) and the moving position of the stage (16) is measured as the moving position of the substrate (17), so that the moving position of the substrate (17) is easily measured.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  In the following embodiments, an example in which the pattern forming apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a color filter manufacturing apparatus will be described, and a description will be given assuming that an ink jet apparatus is provided in part of the color filter manufacturing apparatus. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and can also be applied to a printer device that performs printing by ejecting ink onto a recording medium such as paper.

<Mechanical structure of the manufacturing unit>
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an external configuration of a color filter manufacturing unit to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the manufacturing unit 1 controls a manufacturing device 2 that manufactures a color filter, an ink jet device 3 that is configured as a part of the manufacturing device 2, and a discharge state from a nozzle of the ink jet device 3. The control unit 4 is configured roughly.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the manufacturing apparatus 2 includes a base unit 10, and the base unit 10 includes a vibration isolator 11 and a surface plate 12 fixed to the upper surface of the vibration isolator 11. Two X-axis rails 13 and 13 are installed on the upper surface of the surface plate 12 in parallel with each other at a predetermined interval. A movable table 14 is mounted on the X-axis rails 13 and 13, and the movable table 14 is configured to be capable of reciprocating along the X-axis rails 13 and 13 by driving a stage drive mechanism described later. .

  A rotary table 15 and a stage 16 are sequentially stacked on the moving table 14, and the stage 16 can be rotated with respect to the moving table 14 by rotating the rotary table 15 by driving a rotary driving mechanism (not shown). It becomes. On the stage 16, for example, a 2 m square glass substrate 17 is placed. The stage 16 includes a vacuum mechanism (not shown), and can suck the glass substrate 17 placed thereon.

  Therefore, the glass substrate 17 is configured to be reciprocally movable along the X-axis rails 13 and 13 by driving the stage driving mechanism, and the rotating table 15 is rotated by driving a rotation driving mechanism (not shown). Thus, the movable table 14 can be rotated.

  On the surface plate 12, a support arm 20 formed in a gate shape so as to straddle the X-axis rails 13 and 13, the moving table 14, the rotary table 15, the stage 16, and the glass substrate 17 is installed. The support arm 20 includes two vertical portions 21 and 21 erected on the surface plate 12, and a horizontal portion 22 fixed horizontally with respect to the upper ends of the two vertical portions 21 and 21. ing. A Y-axis rail 23 is fixed to a side surface in the longitudinal direction of the horizontal portion 22 in a direction orthogonal to the two X-axis rails 13 and 13.

  The inkjet device 3 is attached to the Y-axis rail 23 so as to be movable along the Y-axis rail 23. The inkjet device 3 is attached to the Y-axis rail 23 and moved along the Y-axis rail 23, and as a result, a Y-direction stage drive mechanism 24 that moves in the Y direction with respect to the glass substrate 17, and the Y-direction stage drive mechanism 24. And a inkjet unit 26 as a nozzle unit fixed to the rotary unit 25 so as to be rotatable. Although the Y-direction stage drive mechanism 24 is moved along the Y-axis rail 23, the Y-direction stage drive mechanism 24 is a Y-direction stage drive mechanism for convenience because it moves relative to the inkjet head 26 of the glass substrate 17.

  One end of an ink supply tube 27 for supplying R, G, and B color inks is connected to the inkjet head 26, and the other end of the ink supply tube 27 stores R, G, and B3 color inks, respectively. The ink tank 28 is connected. The ink jet head 26 includes a plurality of piezo drive heads as described later, and ink supplied from the ink tank 28 through the ink supply tube 27 is ejected from each piezo drive head.

  Since the movement table 14 is provided with an X-direction stage drive mechanism and various sensors, which will be described later, the movement table 14 is connected to the control unit 4 through a signal line 29.

  Therefore, in the manufacturing apparatus 2, while moving the glass substrate 17, ink is ejected from each piezo drive type head to form a pattern.

<Electrical configuration of manufacturing unit>
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a control system in a color filter manufacturing unit to which the present invention is applied.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the inkjet head 26 includes n (for example, 128) piezo-driven nozzles N1 to Nn, and these n piezo-driven nozzles N1 to Nn are driven by a driver circuit 30. Ink is ejected.

  An X-direction position detection sensor 31 as a movement position measuring unit is installed on the stage 16 and measures a relative X-direction movement position of the glass substrate 17 with respect to the inkjet head 26. The X-direction position detection sensor 31 includes an optical type, a magnetic type, and a laser type. For example, a linear scale, a magnescale, and a laser interferometer are used.

  Similarly, a Y-direction position detection sensor 32 as a movement position measuring unit is installed on the stage 16 and measures a relative Y-direction movement position of the inkjet head 26 with respect to the glass substrate 17. Similar to the X direction position detection sensor 31, the Y direction position detection sensor 32 includes an optical type, a magnetic type, and a laser type. For example, a linear scale, a magnescale, and a laser interferometer are used.

  The optical type detects the relative movement of the main scale, which has slits on glass with a constant fine pitch, and the index scale, which is engraved at the same pitch, using photoelectric elements and photodiodes, converts them into pulses, and converts the amount of movement. Detected. In the magnetic system, NS signals are magnetized at a constant pitch on a scale previously formed of a magnetic material, and the amount of movement is converted into pulses by detecting the magnetic flux with a magnetic flux response type multi-gap head. The laser type includes a triangulation laser displacement meter, a laser interferometer using laser beam interference, and a laser scale in which a laser hologram is recorded on glass. By using such moving position measuring means, it is possible to accurately measure the moving positions of the glass substrate 17 relative to the inkjet head 26 in the X direction and the Y direction.

  A drive signal obtained from the X direction stage drive mechanism 33 is input to the X direction position detection sensor 31, while a drive signal obtained from the Y direction stage drive mechanism 24 is input to the Y direction position detection sensor 32. .

  Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the control unit 4 functions as a control circuit 34 as a control means composed mainly of a CPU and a work area of the control circuit 34, and stores data in the middle of calculation, etc. A RAM 35 as storage means and a ROM 36 for storing a control program for controlling the entire control circuit 34 are provided. The RAM 35 stores the discharge amount data of the respective droplets discharged from the piezoelectric drive nozzles N1 to Nn onto the glass substrate 17. That is, since the piezo drive type nozzles N1 to Nn have different mechanical and electrical characteristics, the amount of liquid droplets discharged from each piezo drive type nozzle N1 to Nn is not equal. It is stored in advance as discharge amount data.

  The control circuit 34 includes a position detection circuit 37, and the position detection circuit 37 includes a liquid relative to the glass substrate 17 at a position in the X direction relative to the inkjet head 26 of the glass substrate 17 from the X direction position detection sensor 31. A start position signal, which is a position signal for starting the discharge of droplets, and a differential signal indicating the amount of movement of the glass substrate 17 on the stage 16 by a fixed pitch from the position at which the discharge of droplets starts are input. The position detection circuit 37 receives a designated position movement completion signal indicating that the movement of the inkjet head 26 to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to the glass substrate 17 is completed from the Y direction position detection sensor 32.

  The position detection circuit 37 measures the relative X-direction and Y-direction positions of the glass substrate 17 with respect to the inkjet head 26 from the start position signal, the differential signal, and the designated position movement completion signal, and sends the position information to the discharge instruction circuit 38. Output. The discharge instruction circuit 38 discharges ink from any of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn based on the discharge amount data of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn and the position information which is the movement amount of the glass substrate 17. A signal indicating whether or not to discharge, that is, a discharge permission signal is output to the driver circuit 30.

  The control circuit 34 also has a discharge waveform generation circuit 39. The discharge waveform generation circuit 39 outputs a drive waveform signal to the driver circuit 30 for driving the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn.

<Pattern configuration>
FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing the pattern of the color filter formed on the glass substrate. The color filter of this example has a cell S having a striped pattern, and the symbols “R”, “G”, and “B” shown in the figure indicate that the cell S is R, G, It shows that it is colored B color. Further, a light shielding film called a black matrix is formed between the cells S.

  FIG. 4 is an explanatory view schematically showing the position where the droplets land on the glass substrate. However, the ink jet head of this example is composed of eight piezo drive nozzles N1 to N8. In this figure, the white dot D indicates the position where the droplet lands, and the portion where the white dot D is not shown indicates that the droplet was not ejected. The distance between each dot D is referred to as dot pitch DP.

  Further, since the color density of each of the cells S1 to S8 is determined by the dot density, in the manufacturing unit 1, the color density is changed by adjusting the dot pitch DP. Here, if the droplets are ejected to all the dots D, the droplets ejected from the piezo-driven nozzles N1 to N8 in order to make the color density uniform between the cells S1 to S8. The amount must be equal. However, since the actual piezoelectric drive nozzles N1 to N8 have different mechanical and electrical characteristics, the amount of droplets ejected from each of the piezoelectric drive nozzles N1 to Nn is not equal. Therefore, in this manufacturing unit 1, the color between the cells S1 to S8 is controlled by controlling whether or not to discharge a plurality of droplets from the piezo drive nozzles N1 to N8 to the glass substrate 17. Concentration is uniform.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the size of each dot D in each of the cells S1 to S8 is the largest in the cells S4 and S6, and then the cells S1, S5, S7 and S8 are the smallest in the cells S2 and S3. The amount of liquid droplets discharged from each of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to N8 is the largest for the piezo drive nozzles N4 and N6, followed by the piezo drive nozzles N1, N5, N7 and N8. It can be seen that there are few.

  Therefore, the piezo drive nozzles N2 and N3 with the smallest discharge amount allow the discharge of droplets every time, and then the piezo drive nozzles N1, N5, N7 and N8 with the small discharge amount do not perform once every three times. The discharge operation is set to be permitted and the piezo-driven nozzles N4 and N6 having the largest discharge amount are repeatedly discharged once every two times. In other words, the ejection operation is performed so that the amount of liquid droplets ejected from each of the piezoelectric drive type nozzles N1 to N8 is equal in each of the cells S1 to S8.

  As a result, even when the ejection amount of the ink ejected from each of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to N8 is different, the droplet volume per unit area that lands on the glass substrate 17 is made uniform so that each piezo drive nozzle N1. -N8 variation can be corrected. As a result, a pattern having a uniform thickness can be formed, and a color filter having a uniform color density can be manufactured.

  By the way, a lyophilic region is formed on the glass substrate 17 as a substrate adjustment process. Since the lyophilic region has good wettability, the droplet spreads over a wide range. Therefore, even if droplets are not ejected to the cells that are not permitted, it is possible to apply ink to portions where the droplets ejected to the permitted dots D have spread and are not ejected.

  In the present embodiment, the wettability variable layer that can change the wettability by the action of the photocatalyst accompanying the pattern irradiation of energy is used for the pattern composed of the lyophilic region formed on the surface of the glass substrate 17. It is formed by irradiating energy on the property variable layer in a pattern.

  In this way, the method of forming the lyophilic region pattern utilizing the action of the photocatalyst can form the lyophilic region by irradiating the pattern of energy, thus forming a high-definition lyophilic region pattern This is because it can be applied to a high-definition pattern forming body such as a color filter.

<Operation of control unit>
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the control unit in the color filter manufacturing unit to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing the positional relationship between the inkjet head and the glass substrate.

  As shown in FIG. 5, first, in step S11, for example, an inkjet head 26 having 128 ejection holes is prepared, the volume of droplets ejected from each ejection hole is measured, and the ejection amount data is stored in advance in the control unit. 4 is stored in the RAM 35. That is, as described above, since the actual piezoelectric drive nozzles N1 to N8 have different mechanical and electrical characteristics, the amount of droplets ejected from each of the piezoelectric drive nozzles N1 to Nn should not be equal. From this, the ejection amount from each piezo drive type nozzle N1 to Nn of the inkjet head 26 when the same drive waveform signal is given from the ejection waveform generation circuit 39 of the control circuit 34 is measured, and this ejection amount data is stored in the RAM 35 in advance. Keep it.

In step S12, the angle of the inkjet head 26 is calculated from the cell pitch that is the distance between the cell S and the cell S. For example, in the case where the pixel pitch, which is an interval between R, G, and B three colors as one pixel, is 0.264 mm, and the nozzle pitch, which is the interval between the piezo drive type nozzle and the piezo drive type nozzle, is 0.508 mm, The head angle tan ⁻¹ (0.264 / 0.508) is obtained. Note that the inkjet head 26 is not perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the cell S as shown in FIG. This is because the cell pitch is smaller than the nozzle pitch.

  In step S13, the dot pitch DP is calculated for each of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn so that the droplets discharged from the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn have a desired discharge film thickness. That is, in step S13, the control circuit 34 calculates the dot pitch DP to be ejected for each of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn based on the color density, the cell pitch, and the width of the black matrix. The dot pitch DP is an amount of ink landing, and this ink amount is represented by the product of the area of the dot D and the film thickness of the dot D. The color density is finely adjusted by measuring the color density with an optical microscope.

  In step S14, the number of scans is calculated from the number of cell columns. The number of scans is the number of times the inkjet head 26 scans in the X direction. For example, if the number of cell rows is 800 and the number of ejection holes of the inkjet head 26 is 128, 800 / 126≈6.35, and therefore 7 scans.

  In step S15, the position of the stage 16 is measured. As shown in FIG. 6, the stage 16 in the vicinity of the glass substrate 17 is provided with a flushing (perform break-in discharge before applying the glass substrate 17) region 40. The position of the inkjet head 26 that anticipates the flushing distance is set as a start position, and a signal is output from the manufacturing apparatus 2 to the control unit 4 every time the position passes, while the control system 4 receives the signal and then the stage 16 A signal to be transmitted is measured every time the pitch moves, and the position of the stage 16 is grasped.

  In step S16, the Y-direction application position in the cell S is adjusted. That is, coating is performed on the glass substrate 17, the position of the droplet in the cell S is measured with a microscope, and the position of the inkjet head 26 is adjusted based on the measurement data.

  In step S17, the application start position on the glass substrate 17 is input. The adjustment of the coating start position is actually performed on the glass substrate 17, the coating position in the cell S is measured with a microscope, and the coating start stage position is changed based on the measurement data.

  In step S18, the movement amount of the stage 16 is measured. Here, the maximum moving speed of the stage 16 is calculated from the stable drive region frequency of the inkjet head 26 and the dot pitch DP, and is moved at a speed lower than that. For example, when the stable drive region frequency of the inkjet head 26 is 10 kHz and the dot pitch DP is 7 μm, the stage 16 is driven at 7 μm × 10000 / sec = 70000 μm / sec = 4.2 m / min or less.

  Then, the position information is transmitted from the manufacturing apparatus 2 to the control unit 4 according to the movement of the stage 16. In other words, the control unit 4 receives a position signal for starting the discharge of droplets from the X direction position detection sensor 31 shown in FIG. 2 to the glass substrate 17 at the X position relative to the inkjet head 26 of the glass substrate 17. A certain start position signal, a differential signal indicating the amount of movement of the glass substrate 17 on the stage 16 from the position where the droplet discharge is started, and a glass substrate of the inkjet head 26 from the Y-direction position detection sensor 32 A designated position movement completion signal indicating that the movement to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to 17 is completed is input. In other words, the designated position movement completion signal is a signal indicating that the ink jet head 26 has moved to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to the glass substrate 17 when the ink application in the X direction of a certain cell row is completed, and that movement has been completed. It is.

  The position detection circuit 37 of the control unit 4 measures the position in the X direction relative to the inkjet head 26 of the glass substrate 17 from the start position signal and the differential signal, and outputs the position information to the ejection instruction circuit 38. Specifically, a linear scale pulse signal as an example of the X-direction position detection sensor 31 and the Y-direction position detection sensor 32 is sequentially transmitted to the control unit 4, and the position detection circuit 37 measures the signal amount, Information is output to the discharge instruction circuit 38.

  In step S19, the control unit 4 determines whether or not a predetermined piezo drive type nozzle has reached the movement position of the stage 16, that is, whether or not to permit droplet discharge to the glass substrate 17. If the discharge is permitted (step S19: Yes), the process proceeds to step S20. If the discharge is not permitted, the process returns to step S18 and waits until the stage 16 is moved to be ejected.

  In step S20, droplets are ejected from a predetermined piezo drive type nozzle. Specifically, the discharge instruction circuit 38 of the control unit 4 uses the piezoelectric drive type nozzles N1 to Nn to output the piezoelectric drive type nozzles N1 to Nn and the position information that is the X and Y direction movement amounts of the glass substrate 17. By outputting to the driver circuit 30 a signal indicating which of the nozzles N1 to Nn ejects ink, that is, a discharge permission signal, droplets are discharged from a predetermined piezo drive type nozzle.

  In Step S21, Steps S18 to S20 are repeated, and it is determined whether or not ink has been applied to the entire surface of the glass substrate 17 in the X direction and the Y direction, and ink is applied to the entire surface (Step S21: Yes). Then, the entire process is terminated.

  Here, in the present embodiment, every time the scanning in the X direction is completed and the movement in the Y direction is performed, the start position in the X direction is adjusted. That is, in this embodiment, since the droplet discharge start position is set for each movement change position, the droplet discharge start position can be adjusted for each movement change position, and the nozzle unit for the glass substrate 17 can be adjusted. The relative movement direction of the 26 can be corrected, and assembly errors between them can be eliminated.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a plurality of droplets are applied to the glass substrate 17 from the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn based on the discharge amount data of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn and the movement position data of the glass substrate 17. Since whether or not to discharge is controlled, the droplets discharged from each of the piezo drive nozzles N1 to Nn have a uniform droplet amount per unit area, and each piezo drive nozzle A uniform pattern can be formed even if the discharge amounts of N1 to Nn are different.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, by measuring the movement position of the stage 16 with the position detection sensor 31, the glass substrate 17 can be easily handled, and the movement position of the stage 16 is measured as the movement position of the glass substrate 17. Therefore, the movement position of the glass substrate 17 can be easily measured.

  Furthermore, according to the present embodiment, there is a portion on the surface of the glass substrate 17 where the droplets do not land due to the formation of the lyophilic region in which the droplets spread out corresponding to the pattern to be formed. However, since the droplets that have landed on the portion adjacent to the portion spread out wetly, the solution can be spread evenly in the pattern, so that unevenness does not occur in the pattern. Therefore, it is possible to form a highly accurate pattern at a low cost.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications can be made. For example, in the above embodiment, ink is ejected using the piezo-driven nozzles N1 to Nn. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, bubbles are generated by heating a heater in the nozzle. Alternatively, a thermal ink jet head that pushes out ink by the bubbles may be used.

It is a perspective view which shows the external appearance structure of the color filter manufacturing unit to which this invention is applied. It is a block block diagram which shows the control system in the color filter manufacturing unit to which this invention is applied. It is explanatory drawing which shows the pattern of the color filter formed in a glass substrate. It is explanatory drawing which shows typically the position where a droplet lands on a glass substrate. It is a flowchart which shows operation | movement of the control unit in the color filter manufacturing unit to which this invention is applied. It is explanatory drawing which shows the positional relationship of an inkjet head and a glass substrate.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Manufacturing unit 2 ... Manufacturing apparatus 3 ... Inkjet apparatus 4 ... Control unit 13 ... X axis rail 14 ... Moving table 16 ... Stage 17 ... Glass substrate 24 ... Y direction stage drive mechanism 23 ... Y axis rail 26 ... Inkjet head (nozzle unit)
31 ... X direction position detection sensor (moving position measuring means)
32 ... Y direction position detection sensor (moving position measuring means)
33 ... X direction stage drive mechanism 34 ... Control circuit (control means)
35 ... RAM (data storage means)
37. Position detection circuit

Claims (6)

A pattern is formed on the substrate by discharging droplets from the nozzles to the substrate while moving the relative position of the nozzle unit in which a plurality of nozzles are integrated with the substrate at the same pitch. A pattern forming device,
Data storage means for storing discharge amount data of droplets discharged from the nozzles onto the substrate;
Be one that measures the moving position relative X direction with respect to the nozzle unit of the substrate, and the start position signal for starting the ejection of droplets to the substrate at the movement position of the X-direction, the droplet A first movement position measuring means for outputting a differential signal indicating a movement amount by which the substrate has moved by a constant pitch from a position at which ejection of the first gas is started ;
The movement position in the Y direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate is measured, and a designated position movement completion signal indicating that the movement of the nozzle unit to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to the substrate is completed. Second movement position measuring means for outputting;
A position detection circuit that measures positional information in the X direction and the Y direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate from the start position signal, differential signal, and designated position movement completion signal;
Control means for controlling whether or not to discharge the liquid droplets from any of the nozzles based on the discharge amount data of the nozzles and position information measured by the position detection circuit ;
With
When the pattern is formed on the substrate while moving the relative position between the nozzle unit and the substrate, the control unit sets the droplet discharge start position for each movement change position. Pattern forming apparatus. The pattern forming apparatus according to claim 1,
A pattern forming apparatus, comprising: a stage on which the substrate is placed; and the movement position of the stage is measured by the first and second movement position measuring means. The pattern forming apparatus according to claim 1,
The pattern forming apparatus, wherein the first and second moving position measuring means are any one of a linear scale, a magnescale, and a laser interferometer. The pattern forming apparatus according to claim 1,
A pattern forming apparatus, wherein a pattern comprising a lyophilic region in which the droplet spreads in correspondence with a pattern to be formed is formed on the substrate surface. A pattern is formed on the substrate by discharging droplets from the nozzles to the substrate while moving the relative position of the nozzle unit in which a plurality of nozzles are integrated with the substrate at the same pitch. A pattern forming method comprising:
A data accumulation step of accumulating discharge amount data of droplets discharged from the nozzles onto the substrate;
Be one that measures the moving position relative X direction with respect to the nozzle unit of the substrate, and the start position signal for starting the ejection of droplets to the substrate at the movement position of the X-direction, the droplet A first movement position measuring step for outputting a differential signal indicating a movement amount by which the substrate has moved by a constant pitch from a position at which ejection of the liquid is started ;
The movement position in the Y direction relative to the nozzle unit of the substrate is measured, and a designated position movement completion signal indicating that the movement of the nozzle unit to the designated position in the Y direction with respect to the substrate is completed. A second moving position measuring step to output;
A position detection step of measuring relative position information of the substrate relative to the nozzle unit from the start position signal, differential signal and designated position movement completion signal in the X and Y directions;
A control step for controlling whether or not to discharge the liquid droplets from any of the nozzles based on the discharge amount data of each nozzle and the position information measured by the position detection step ;
Equipped with a,
When forming a pattern on the substrate while reciprocating the relative position of the nozzle unit and the substrate, the control step includes setting the droplet discharge start position for each change position of the reciprocation. A characteristic pattern forming method. In the pattern formation method of Claim 5 ,
In the first and second movement position measurement steps, the substrate is placed on a stage, and the movement position of the stage is measured.

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