JPH04134482A - Prober for display panel - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To drastically shorten the time for testing by integrally mounting probe assemblies consisting of plural probes via a mounting plate so as to simultaneously obtain electrical contact with all the electrodes of a display panel and providing a manipulator which can adjust the probe end positions of the individual probe assemblies. CONSTITUTION:The electrodes corresponding to the scanning wires disposed to run the LCD panel in a cross direction are trisected to provide the probe assembly units consisting of the three. The electrodes corresponding to the signal wires disposed to run the LCD panel in the longitudinal direction are quadrisected to provide the probe assembly units consisting of the four. The four probe assembly units disposed in the longitudinal direction of the LCD panel act to provide electrical contact at both ends of the same signal wires. A disconnection in the mid-way of the signal line electrodes is easily detected by checking the conduction at both ends if such probes are disposed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a probe for a display panel. It is about effective techniques.

[Conventional technology]

For example, as a prober for liquid crystal display panels,
There is a publication No. 70579. This prober is one of the display panels! The X-axis of the display panel is
The X-probe head moves in parallel along the axis, the Y-probe head moves in parallel along the Y-axis of the display panel using the Y-axis stage, and the XY stage moves in parallel along the X- and Y-axes of the display panel. A third probe head is provided that contacts any position on the display panel.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In the case of an active matrix liquid crystal display panel, the display panel prober described above checks each pixel one by one. For this reason, there is a problem that the test time becomes enormous as the screen of the liquid crystal display panel becomes larger, or in other words, the number of pixels increases.

An object of the present invention is to provide a display panel probe that achieves a significant reduction in test time.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means to solve the problem]

A brief overview of typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

In other words, a probe assembly having multiple probes arranged at the same pitch as the electrodes of the display panel is used as a unit, and the probe assembly consisting of multiple probes is integrally attached via a mounting plate to simultaneously apply electricity to all electrodes of the display panel. In addition, each probe assembly forms an electrical signal path using a flexible wiring board and a connector into which it is inserted, and the probe tip position can be adjusted for each probe assembly. Fix it to the manipulator. A tab substrate is used as a block constituting the probe assembly.

[For production]

According to the above-mentioned means, it is possible to cope with the increase in the number of electrodes due to the enlargement of the screen of the display panel by combining probe assemblies to which a relatively small number of probes are attached, so that the test time can be shortened and Its assembly and repair can be easily performed.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 shows a plan view of an embodiment of the display panel probe according to the present invention.

In this embodiment, all electrodes of a liquid crystal display (hereinafter simply referred to as LCD) panel are contacted simultaneously in order to shorten test time. In this way, when simultaneously contacting all the electrodes on the LCD panel, the number of probes that are provided in one-to-one correspondence with all the electrodes on the LCD panel, which is made up of many, becomes enormous. becomes difficult and troublesome.

In this embodiment, a probe assembly unit 7) is used in which a plurality of relatively small number of probes are fixedly provided to the electrodes of the LCD panel. That is,
Each of the 10-hole 7 assembly units is assigned to a large number of electrodes of the LCD panel. Although not particularly limited, in this embodiment, the LCD
The electrodes corresponding to the scanning lines arranged to run horizontally across the panel are divided into three parts to provide a three-piece probe assembly unit. Further, the electrodes corresponding to the signal lines arranged to run in the vertical direction of the LCD panel are divided into four parts, and a probe assembly unit consisting of four parts is provided. In this case, the four probe assembly units arranged in the longitudinal direction of the LCD panel are intended to make electrical contact with both ends of the same signal line. When the probes are arranged in this manner, it is possible to easily detect a break in the signal line electrode by checking continuity at both ends.

In addition to assigning probes to both ends of the same signal line as described above, the signal line electrodes of the LCD panel can be divided into odd-numbered and even-numbered ones, and for example, the upper probe assembly unit is assigned every other odd-numbered signal line. The lower probe assembly unit may be connected to every other even-numbered signal line electrode. In this case, the number of probes can be halved, and the pitch can be adjusted to match the signal line electrode. It can be made twice as large as the pitch of the line electrodes. On the other hand, a method is adopted in which a pixel signal is supplied to the signal line and a disconnection of the signal line is indirectly detected through bright spot inspection or dark spot inspection of the pixel.

This also applies to the probe assembly units, which are provided three on each side, corresponding to the scanning line electrodes arranged to extend in the lateral direction of the LCD panel.

Each probe assembly unit provided corresponding to each of the four sides of the LCD panel includes a probe board to which the fixed end side of the probe is connected, as will be described later, and a tab board is connected to the probe board. A drive IC is mounted on the tab substrate. A flexible wiring board is connected to the other end of this tab board. The other end side of this flexible wiring board is inserted into a connector provided on a connector mounting board. In the figure, each component located below the mounting plate is indicated by a dotted line. However, the connectors are shown as solid lines to facilitate understanding of this embodiment. Further, a manipulator provided on the upper surface side of the mounting plate, a polarizing plate provided on the surface of the LCD panel, etc. are omitted.

FIG. 2 shows a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of the probe assembly unit.

The tip of the probe, which is made up of a plurality of thin filaments, is aligned to correspond to the pinch of the electrode of the LCD panel to be measured, and is held between the support and the probe holder to maintain this position.

The probe holder is made of, but not limited to, a thermosetting adhesive or the like. Although not particularly limited, the tips of the probes are aligned using a positioning technique similar to that used for fixed probe boards for semiconductor wafers, and in this state, the plurality of probes are fixed using a support and a probe holder. The plurality of probes thus formed are fixed with their tips in properly aligned relationship.

The support for fixing the plurality of probes in this manner is adhered to the probe mounting body. Although not particularly limited, the probe mounting body is made of aluminum uniram whose surface is oxidized to have electrical insulation properties.

This probe mounting body is provided with a probe board made of a printed wiring board or the like, and the fixed end side of the probe is connected to the wiring.

Such a probe board has a tab (TAB).
Automated Bonding) is connected,
A drive IC is mounted there. The connection part A between the probe board and the tab (or tab board) is formed using a thermocompression bonding technique, although it is not particularly limited. The other end of the tab is connected to the connection end of the flexible wiring board. The connection part B between this tab and the flexible wiring board is
This is done by soldering. Flexible wiring board is
An electrical connection is made by extending the other end and inserting it into the connector.

This connector is attached to a connector mounting board. When four probe assembly units are provided for the signal line of the LCD panel as described above, four connectors corresponding to the four probe assembly units are attached to a common connector mounting board.

An assembly mounting plate provided corresponding to each probe assembly unit is provided on the upper surface side of the connector mounting board. This assembly mounting plate is used to temporarily connect the connector mounting board side and each probe mounting body. For example, the connector mounting board allows four probe mounting bodies to be connected via the assembly mounting plate. Constructed in one piece. At this time, the connector mounting board and the assembly mounting plate are fixed by the mounting screws, and the assembly mounting plate and the probe mounting body are temporarily fixed by the probe group mounting screws.

For example, using an appropriate positioning jig, the tips of the probes of the four probe attachment bodies are aligned with the signal line electrodes of the LCD panel, and temporarily fixed using the probe group attachment screws.

FIG. 3 shows a sectional view of an embodiment in which the probe assembly unit is attached to a mounting plate.

The probe assembly unit temporarily fixed as described above is attached to the mounting plate with screws A. The arm of the manipulator fixedly mounted on the upper surface of the mounting plate extends downward through the opening of the mounting plate, and is fixed by the screw hole and screw B of the probe mounting body. Thereafter, the temporarily fixed probe group mounting screw is removed through the through hole provided in the arm. The probe mounting body is thus released from the assembly mounting plate and finely adjusted in the x, y, z and θ directions according to the movement of the manipulator arm. The probe tips of the probe groups corresponding to each side of the connector mounting board are aligned as described above, but when they are commonly attached to one mounting body, the mutual positional deviation is calculated as shown above. This is corrected by adjusting the manipulator. This probe tip correction is performed for each probe assembly unit so that each probe assembly unit and the probe tip are aligned with each electrode of the LCD panel, as shown in FIG. At this time, the assembly mounting plate and the connector mounting board are fixedly attached to the mounting plate with screws A, but the connector and the probe mounting body are read directly by the flexible wiring board. Thereby, the probe mounting body can be freely adjusted in position in accordance with the movement of the arm of the manipulator, regardless of the connector mounting board to which it is fixedly mounted.

In addition, as mentioned above, one connector mounting board consists of four pieces.
When mounting on one mounting plate, by adjusting the tips of the probes of all pins in advance using a special adjustment jig so that they match the reference surface, the adjustment using a manipulator after mounting on the mounting plate can be greatly omitted. I can do it.

FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the probe mounting body.

Although not shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the probe is fixedly supported by being sandwiched between the support and the probe holder. And the fixed end is where the probe board is placed! ! A is connected to the wire by soldering or the like, and a wire corresponding to the tab is connected to this wire by thermocompression bonding (A). Corresponding wiring of the flexible wiring board is connected to the other end by solder (B).

The two screw holes provided at the tip of the probe mount, which has been made higher by providing a step on the upper surface side, are
It is used when connecting to the arm of the manipulator, and one screw hole is lowered by the step and is provided in a part corresponding to the assembly mounting plate.
Used for probe group mounting screws used for temporary fixing to the assembly mounting plate.

When a flexible wiring board and a connector are used as in the above embodiment, individual probe assemblies can be easily removed by attaching and detaching them. This may cause the probes on certain probe assemblies to break or
If it needs to be replaced, such as when it is bent, all you have to do is loosen the screw B mentioned above and remove the probe mounting body from the mounting plate, as well as remove the flexible printed circuit board a from the connector, and then install a new probe assembly. It can be easily installed in the reverse order as above.

FIG. 5 shows a sectional view of another embodiment of the probe assembly unit.

In the probe of this embodiment, a tab substrate is used as the probe instead of the thin wire probe as described above. In other words, the duff board uses photographic technology to form wiring at a pitch that corresponds to the display panel's electrodes on the surface of a film base (lower side in the figure) that has moderate hardness and flexibility, such as polyimide film. , and use it as a probe. Since such a tab substrate is originally used for connection with each electrode of an LCD panel, it is possible to reuse the one used for the display device.Since the display panel has a large number of electrodes, the above-mentioned plurality of electrodes can be used. A tab substrate on which probes are photo-printed is used to correspond to the one ARA therapy unit. However, since good and stable contact pressure cannot be obtained with just the tab board, a leaf spring with a figure-7 cross section is inserted between the bottom of the tip of the probe mount and the top surface of the tab board on the tip side. . In this embodiment, since the wiring on the tab board is used as it is as a probe, a drive IC is mounted thereon. A flexible wiring board is connected to the connecting end, and the other end is inserted into a connector in the same manner as described above to obtain an electrical connection.

The other configurations are the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, so detailed explanation thereof will be omitted. As shown in FIG. 6, the probe assembly unit described above is attached to a mounting plate in the same manner as in the previous embodiment.

In addition, in order to bring the wiring serving as the probe into contact with the electrode surface of a display panel such as a liquid crystal panel with the desired contact pressure, an elastic material such as silicone rubber is inserted between the figure-7 leaf springs. A drive signal formed by a drive IC is transmitted to the wiring as the probe.

Since the wiring as a probe is extended as it is and connected to the drive IC in this way, a test circuit can be easily constructed and the liquid crystal display panel can be driven in the same manner as in the actual driving state.

The thin wire probe as in the above embodiment has a sharp tip, and the tip of the retap has appropriate hardness and flexibility due to the polyimide film of the tab and the leaf spring and elastic body provided thereon. In this contact state, the tips and wiring contact the liquid crystal panel while rubbing the electrode surface. As a result, I To (Indium Tin) of the part to be measured
(Oxide) The tE electrode is scratched, the surface oxide film is destroyed, and contact is made, allowing good electrical contact.

The outline of the test of the liquid crystal panel using the above-mentioned display probe is as follows.

When a liquid crystal panel has a simple matrix configuration, scanning lines and signal lines are arranged in the horizontal and vertical directions of the display panel.

In this case, the probe is pressed against both ends of the signal line and the scanning line to check for disconnection. After this, drive signals are supplied as necessary to perform all lighting tests, all non-lighting tests, etc. Perform a liquid crystal display test.

If the liquid crystal display panel has an active matrix configuration, in addition to checking for disconnections in the signal lines and scanning lines as described above, turning on the TPT transistor provided for each pixel,
It is necessary to conduct an off test. Therefore, at least check that all lights are on and all lights are off (TPT above).
It is necessary to check the on/off state of the transistor. In this case, as in this embodiment, all the electrodes of the display panel are brought into contact at the same time, so that the test can be performed under the same conditions as the actual movable state.

The effects obtained from the above examples are as follows. That is, (1) A probe assembly consisting of a plurality of probes using a thin wire or tab substrate arranged in the same pinch as the electrodes of a display panel is used as a unit, and a plurality of probe assemblies are integrated via a mounting plate. By installing a manipulator that allows simultaneous electrical contact with all the electrodes of the display panel and adjusting the position of the probe tip of each of the above probe assemblies, it is possible to increase the screen size of the display panel. The accompanying increase in the number of electrodes can be dealt with by assembling probe assemblies to which a relatively small number of probes are attached, resulting in the advantage that assembly can be performed easily.

(2) Since electrical contact is achieved with a certain pressure using wiring using thin wires or tab substrates, the springiness of the probe causes the electrode to come into contact with the electrodes of the LCD panel. Since the electrode slides horizontally on the surface to remove oxide films and dust on the electrode surface, it is possible to obtain good electrical contact.

(3) According to the above (1), all the electrodes of the LCD panel can be contacted at the same time, which has the effect of shortening the test time.

(4) Since the individual probe assembly units are connected using flexible wiring boards and connectors, they can be easily attached and detached, and some probe assembly units can be easily replaced. This eliminates the waste of discarding all the probes due to defects such as bending of one probe, and also has the effect of making the work easier.

C51 According to (1) above, a common probe assembly unit can be used for LCD panels with the same electrode pinch but different sizes. As a result, L
The effect is that the CD panel probe can be made versatile.

(6) Since the drive IC is mounted on the tab board, the number of cables between the tester and the tester can be reduced, making it easy to test many LCD panels in parallel with one tester. Effects can be obtained.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned Examples, and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. For example, the number of probe assembly units varies depending on the size of the LCD panel to be tested. For example, in an LCD panel for a laptop microcomputer, the aspect ratio is not set to 3:4 as in a color television, but is arbitrarily set to 10:4.

Therefore, various embodiments can be adopted, such as providing ten probe assembly units corresponding to the signal lines and four probe assembly units corresponding to the scanning lines. The structure of each member for integrally attaching a plurality of the probe assembly units corresponding to all electrodes of the LCD panel is as follows:
Various embodiments may be adopted; for example, the connector mounting board and the assembly mounting plate may be integrally constructed.

In addition, when a tab substrate is used as a probe, as a means to maintain a certain degree of contact pressure with the electrodes of the display panel, use an elastic body such as a plate spring or a T-con rubber as in the above embodiment. Various other things to use! ! It can take the form of an example. In this case, the manipulator may be newly provided with a stylus pressure adjustment mechanism to adjust the contact pressure.

The film constituting the tab substrate may be any film other than the polyimide film used in the above embodiments as long as it has a similar function. If this film base has appropriate springiness, it is also possible to omit the above-mentioned leaf spring or elastic body.

The liquid crystal panel to be measured may be a completed display panel or a semi-finished glass substrate on which signal line electrodes, scanning line electrodes, TPT, and pixel electrodes are formed.

The display panel probe according to the present invention can be widely used in various display panels in addition to glass substrates such as the liquid crystal panel described above.

〔Effect of the invention〕

A brief explanation of the effects obtained by typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows. In other words, a probe assembly consisting of a plurality of probes is integrally attached via a mounting plate, with a probe assembly having a plurality of probes using thin wires or tab substrates arranged in the same pico-chi as the electrodes of the display panel as a unit. By providing a manipulator that can simultaneously obtain electrical contact with all electrodes of the display panel and adjusting the position of the probe tips of the side probe apertures, the screen of the display panel can be enlarged. The accompanying increase in the number of electric bridges can be dealt with by combining probe assemblies to which a relatively small number of probes can be attached, so that assembly can be easily performed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of the display panel probe according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an embodiment of the probe assembly uni-nod, and FIG. A sectional view showing an embodiment of the unit attached to the mounting plate; FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the probe mounting body; FIG. 5 is a probe assembly unit 7 according to the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of F', in which the probe assembly unit of one embodiment of the pond is attached to a mounting plate.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A probe assembly having a plurality of probes arranged at the same pitch as the electrodes of a display panel, a probe board having wiring to which fixed ends of the plurality of probes are connected, and a probe board of this probe board. A tab board with one end connected to the wiring and on which a driving semiconductor integrated circuit device is mounted, a flexible wiring board with one end connected to the tab board, and a connector into which the other end of the flexible wiring board is inserted.
A mounting plate on which a connector board to which a plurality of said connectors are mounted, and a probe assembly and a connector board made of said plurality are integrally mounted so as to simultaneously obtain electrical contact with electrodes of a display panel, and said mounting plate. A display panel probe comprising: a manipulator provided on a plate and capable of adjusting the position of a probe tip of each of the probe assemblies. 2. In the probe assembly unit consisting of one or more probe assembly units corresponding to one side of the display panel, the connector mounting board and the probe mounting body are temporarily attached by the assembly mounting plate with the tips of each probe aligned. In this state, a plurality of probe assemblies corresponding to all electrodes of the display panel are integrally attached to the mounting plate, and each probe mounting body is attached to the corresponding arm of the manipulator. 2. The display panel probe according to claim 1, wherein the probe mounting body and the assembly mounting plate are temporarily disconnected from each other after being attached. 3. The probe board and the tab board are connected by thermocompression bonding, and the tab board and the flexible wiring board are connected by soldering, as set forth in claim 1 or 2. Probe for display panel. 4. The probe constituting the probe assembly utilizes a tab substrate having wiring formed to match the pitch of the electrodes to be measured. Probe for display panel. 5. A drive IC for driving the display panel is mounted on the tab board used as the probe, and is connected to the connector via the flexible wiring board. A display panel probe according to claim 4.