JPH10319866A - Liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Problem] To provide a technique capable of reducing the number of defective products produced due to a defect occurring in a processing device. SOLUTION: In a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus having a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, the inspection result by the inspection device and the inspection of the liquid crystal display substrate are performed. Collection means for collecting board identification information; storage means for storing the inspection result as needed; and search means for searching the storage means to determine whether a defect at a position matching the inspection result is stored. And a warning unit for issuing a warning when the search unit searches for an inspection result at the same position.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, and more particularly to a technique which is effective when applied to an apparatus for monitoring a product defect occurring in a manufacturing line of a liquid crystal display substrate which requires a large number of manufacturing steps. Things.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing line,
In order to form a semiconductor such as a TFT or a color filter on a glass substrate, fine pattern processing has been performed by a photolithographic technique.

For this reason, for example, when foreign matter such as dust adheres or is scratched on a photomask, the foreign matter and scratches are transferred together with the mask pattern when the mask pattern is transferred to a glass substrate. Had been lost. At this time, when a mask pattern to which foreign matter is attached or scratched is used, for example, an adjacent pattern which should not be connected normally becomes a connected pattern, or if the main body is connected, There is a problem that a large amount of liquid crystal glass substrates having a pattern defect at the same place are produced, for example, a portion to be transferred is transferred as a broken pattern in the middle.

For this reason, in a conventional production line, a photomask is regularly inspected, or about one glass substrate is extracted for every predetermined number of glass substrates from which a pattern has been formed. A so-called sampling inspection for inspecting a pattern has been performed. The test in this case is
It was a visual inspection by an inspector.

[0005]

However, the performance required for the liquid crystal display device is VGA (640 × 480 ×
3 pixels), SVGA (800 × 600 × 3 pixels), XG
A (1024 × 768 × 3 pixels), the number of pixels to be formed on one liquid crystal glass substrate is increasing.

Further, a resist material applied to a glass substrate,
In addition, the number of liquid crystal glass substrates manufactured within a predetermined time has increased dramatically due to improvements in etching materials and the like for etching exposed portions.

For this reason, as described above, the operator visually checks the presence or absence of a defect and the position of the defect to determine whether the defect is a pattern defect caused by an abnormality in the photomask, or However, it takes a lot of time to determine whether the photomask is temporary due to the attachment of dust or the like to the photomask, and there is a problem that a glass substrate having a defect is manufactured even during this period. . In particular, when the cause is a pattern defect due to a scratch on a photomask or the like, it takes a long time to identify the cause of the defect. In particular, a large number of defective products, that is, a liquid crystal glass substrate having a defect is manufactured. There was a problem that it would.

On the other hand, when a defective product is confirmed by the sampling inspection, the production line may be stopped until it is possible to confirm whether there is any abnormality in the exposure apparatus including the photomask. In addition, since the liquid crystal glass substrate cannot be manufactured during the time until the confirmation of the presence or absence of the abnormality is completed, for example, there is a problem that a liquid crystal glass substrate having a predetermined production amount cannot be manufactured.

Further, as in the present application, as a technology for monitoring a product defect due to a device defect of a liquid crystal glass substrate processing device,
There is a “product defect monitoring method and product defect monitoring device” described in Japanese Patent Application No. 8-149247 filed by the same applicant.
However, the product defect monitoring device is intended to identify a lot of defects whose occurrence rate increases as a result of overlapping in each manufacturing process of the liquid crystal glass substrate, and therefore, as described above, In the case where the same defect does not occur continuously due to the defect of the processing apparatus, the problem of producing a large number of defective products cannot be solved.

An object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of reducing the number of defective products produced due to a defect occurring in a processing apparatus.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of promptly reporting that a continuous defective product has occurred.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a technique capable of promptly notifying a defect of a mask pattern in an exposure step and the defect location.

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

[0014]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Among the inventions disclosed in the present application, the outline of a representative one will be briefly described.
It is as follows.

(1) In a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus having a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, the inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display Collecting means for collecting the board identification information of the board, storing means for storing the inspection result as needed, and searching the storing means to determine whether or not a defect at a position matching the inspection result is stored; The apparatus includes a search unit and a warning unit that issues a warning when the search unit searches for an inspection result at the same position.

(2) In a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus having a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, the inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display Collecting means for collecting the board identification information of the board; a criterion value storing means for storing a reference value of a defect preset by an operator; And a warning unit that issues a warning when the determination unit determines that the value is equal to or more than the reference value.

(3) In a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus having a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, the inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display Collecting means for collecting the board identification information of the board, determination reference value storing means for storing a reference value of a defect preset by an operator, storing means for storing the inspection result as needed, and searching for the storing means. Searching means for searching whether a defect at a position coinciding with the inspection result is stored, and determining means for searching the determination reference value storing means to determine whether the inspection result is within the reference value. And warning means for issuing a warning when the search means has searched for an inspection result at the same position or when the determination means has determined that the result is equal to or greater than a reference value.

According to the above-mentioned means (1) to (3), for example, when a defect is generated in a pattern generated on a glass substrate in a pattern generating step, the inspection apparatus uses the position coordinates and the size of the defect. Is detected and output to the collecting means as inspection information, and the collecting means collects the substrate identification information of the glass substrate. At this time, the search means searches the storage means and searches whether the position of the defect found by the previous inspection is the same as the position of the defect. As a result of the search, a defect at the same position is found. In this case, the search means determines that a defect has occurred in the photomask and notifies the warning means of the occurrence of the pattern defect. Based on the notification, the warning unit outputs a warning, so that a worker can immediately be notified of a defect that has occurred in a processing apparatus, a photomask, and the like common to each glass substrate.
The number of defective products manufactured can be reduced.

In addition, for a defect generated due to a change in the position of dust adhering to the photomask and the glass substrate, that is, a defect that is not detected by the searching means, the determining means determines the defect for each defect. In order to determine whether or not the defect is equal to or less than a reference value preset by the operator, that is, to determine whether or not the defect can be used as a product, the determination reference value storage means is searched and each defect is within the reference value. Is determined. At this time, when the determining means determines that the defect is equal to or greater than the reference value, the determining means notifies the warning means to the warning means of the occurrence of the pattern defect. Here, based on the notification, the warning means outputs a warning, so that the worker can immediately be notified of a defect caused by a cause that is not common to each glass substrate such as adhesion of dust.
The number of defective products can be further reduced.

[0020]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings together with embodiments (examples) of the invention.

In all the drawings for describing the embodiments of the present invention, components having the same functions are denoted by the same reference numerals, and their repeated description will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a product defect monitoring device in a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, wherein 101 is a first communication line, 102 is a second communication line, Reference numeral 103 denotes inspection apparatuses 1 to n; 104, a higher-level information processing apparatus; 105, a server (collecting unit);
6 indicates analysis means, 107 indicates alarm means, and 108 indicates alarm data.

In FIG. 1, a first communication line 101 is
For example, the communication network is a well-known communication network using an Ethernet connection.
And connect.

The second communication line 102 is, for example, a communication network using a well-known Ethernet connection, and connects the upper information processing device 104, the server 105, and the analysis means 106, respectively. Therefore, the upper information processing device 104, the server 105, and the analysis unit 106
Information can be exchanged in both directions.

The first to n-th n inspection apparatuses 103 are well-known automatic appearance inspection apparatuses. In the present embodiment, the presence or absence of a defect in the pattern transferred to the glass substrate and the presence of a defect are present. In this case, the coordinate position and size are measured, and the measurement information (inspection information) is output to the server 105 via the communication line 101.

The higher-level information processing device 104 is, for example,
This is a well-known information processing device that manages the entire factory that manufactures the liquid crystal display device. In the present embodiment, a substrate number of a glass substrate transported by a transport device (not shown) to each inspection device 103 and a lot number based on the substrate number And the like are also managed.

The server 105 is a server using a well-known information processing device.
The inspection information output from the n inspection apparatuses 103 is managed together with the board identification information acquired from the upper information processing apparatus 104. The server 105 associates the inspection information with the board identification information and outputs the information to the analysis unit 106.

The analysis means 106 can be realized by, for example, a program operating on a known information processing apparatus. In the present embodiment, the analysis means 106 extracts the glass substrate from the inspection information and the board identification information input from the server 105. Based on the presence / absence of the pattern defect, and the position and size of the pattern defect when the pattern defect exists, the alarm unit 107 outputs information for starting sound output as an alarm output. The details will be described later.

The alarm means 107 is a means for outputting the occurrence of a pattern defect based on information from the analyzing means 106, for example, by a synthesized voice or the like, and uses a known means.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the analyzing means 106 according to the present embodiment.
02 is substrate identification information, 203 is a defect coordinate position storage means (storage means), 204 is a criterion storage means, 205 is a search means, 206 is a determination means, and 207 is a warning means.

In FIG. 2, test information 201 is information collected by the server 105 as described above.

The board identification information 202 is information stored by the higher-level information processing apparatus 104. In the present embodiment, for example, the board number read by a board number reading means provided in a transport device (not shown) Based on the substrate number, it is made up of the lot number at the time of manufacturing the glass substrate managed by the upper information processing device 104.

The defect coordinate position storage means 203 is, for example, a well-known magnetic disk device connected to an information processing device which realizes the analysis means 106. In the present embodiment, the defect coordinate position storage means 203 stores a pattern defect input from the server 105. The coordinate position, the size of the defect, the total number of defects, and the like are stored.

The criterion value storage means 204 includes, for example,
Similar to the defect coordinate position storage unit 203 described above, this is a well-known magnetic disk device connected to an information processing device that implements the analysis unit 106. In the present embodiment, the size of a defect for each pattern defect position Tolerance, and
The allowable value of the number of defects is stored as table data.

The search means 205 can be realized by a program operating on the information processing apparatus having the analysis means 106. In this embodiment, the search means 205 is based on past inspection information stored in the defect coordinate position storage means 203. This is a means for determining whether the defect indicated in the inspection information 201 is due to a defect in the photomask or due to temporary dust or the like. That is, the search unit 205 searches the defect coordinate position storage unit 203 to check whether a defect at the same coordinate position as the defect coordinate position of the inspection information 201 is stored, and the same coordinate position is stored. In this case, it is determined that a defect has occurred in the photomask. However, the determination range of whether or not the coordinate positions are the same is stored in, for example, a table (not shown), and can be arbitrarily set by an operator.

The judging means 206 comprises a judging reference value storing means 2
This is a means for determining whether or not the pattern defect indicated by the inspection information 201 is within the reference value based on the reference value stored in the information processing unit 04, and is realized by a program operating on the information processing apparatus.

Based on the output of the determination means 205, that is, the determination result, the warning means 206, for example,
This is a well-known means for notifying that the above-described pattern defect has occurred, or for notifying by voice that a pattern defect having a size equal to or greater than the determination reference value has occurred.

Next, FIG. 3 shows a flow for explaining the operation of the product defect monitoring device in the liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus of the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the liquid crystal display of the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The operation of the product defect monitoring device in the substrate manufacturing apparatus will be described.

The start of this flow is an instruction to start execution of a monitoring program by an operator.
05 searches the server 105 and reads the inspection information 201 and the board identification information 202 (Step 301).

Next, the search means 205 searches the defect coordinate position storage means 203 to determine whether or not a defect coordinate at the same position as the defect coordinate position fetched from the server 105 is stored. The table position is added to the defect coordinate position storage means 203 (Step 302). Here, when the search unit 205 searches for the same coordinate position as the fetched defect coordinate position, the search unit 205 notifies the warning unit that a defect has occurred at the same coordinate position and the defect coordinate position ( Step 303).

The warning means 207 which has received the notification from the search means 205, for example,
And a warning indicating that a defect at the same position has occurred in the server 105, and a corresponding processing apparatus (exposure apparatus)
After notifying the occurrence of a defect at the same position and the defect coordinate position to the alarm means 107 via a communication line,
It returns to step 301. Here, the alarm means 107
Reads out data necessary for voice output from the alarm data 108 based on the notification from the warning means 207, synthesizes voice by a well-known voice synthesis technique, and notifies the occurrence of a defect.

On the other hand, if no defect at the same position is found in step 303,
Searches the criterion value storage means 204 (step 30).
5) It is determined whether or not the size, defect position, and defect number of the captured pattern defect are within an allowable range (step 306). Here, when the determining unit 206 determines that the captured defect is larger than the determination reference value, the determining unit 206 notifies the warning unit that the captured defect is out of the allowable range (step 306).

The warning means 207 receiving the notification from the determination means 206, for example,
In addition, a warning indicating that a pattern defect has occurred is issued to the server 105, and the alarm means 107 of the corresponding processing apparatus (exposure apparatus) is notified of the occurrence of the pattern defect and the defect coordinate position via a communication line. After the notification, the process returns to step 301. Here, the alarm unit 107 reads out data necessary for voice output from the alarm data 108 based on the notification from the warning unit 207, synthesizes voice by a well-known voice synthesis technology, and performs Announce the occurrence of

On the other hand, if the defect is less than the reference value in step 306, the process returns to step 301 without issuing a warning.

As described above, in the defective product monitoring apparatus according to the present embodiment, as the means for monitoring the process of generating a pattern on a glass substrate, the inspection apparatus 103 for detecting the position coordinates and the size of a pattern defect is used. Using at least one device, and inspection information 201 output from the inspection device 103.
The server 105 manages the board identification information 202 read by a board identification number reading means such as a transfer device (not shown) and the lot number of the glass substrate managed by the higher-level information processing apparatus 104. Reference numeral 206 denotes a pattern defect occurring at the same position based on the defect information (inspection information 201 and substrate identification information 202) managed by the server 105 and the defect coordinate position storage means 203 and the determination reference value storage means 204. Or if the pattern defect is found to be within the same position or outside the range (determination reference value) by the operator. By causing the means 107 to output a warning, a defect (pattern defect) occurring in the processing apparatus
Can be immediately notified to the operator, and the number of defective products manufactured can be reduced. In particular, search means 205
Constantly monitors whether or not the coordinate positions of the pattern defects are the same, it is possible to promptly report the continuous occurrence of defective products due to photomask defects or the like in the exposure process. In this case, for example, if the occurrence position is the same even if the surface of the glass is scratched or the like, it is possible to detect the occurrence of the defect regardless of the cause of the occurrence and the generation device and promptly report the occurrence. It goes without saying that you can do it.

In the defective product monitoring device according to the present embodiment, the server 10 is controlled based on the substrate number and the lot number of the glass substrate managed by the upper information processing device 104.
5 manages the inspection information, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, each of the inspection apparatuses 103 itself receives the board identification information such as the substrate number and the lot number of the glass substrate received from a transport device (not shown). The inspection apparatus 103 may output the board identification information together with the inspection information to the server 105, and the server 105 may collectively manage the inspection information and the board identification information acquired from each inspection apparatus 103. Needless to say.

As described above, the invention made by the present inventor is:
Although specifically described based on the embodiments of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments of the present invention, and it is needless to say that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. .

[0048]

The effects obtained by typical ones of the inventions disclosed in the present application will be briefly described as follows.

(1) It is possible to reduce the number of defective products produced due to defects occurring in the processing apparatus.

(2) It is possible to promptly notify the worker that a continuous defective product has occurred.

(3) It is possible to promptly notify a worker of a defect in the mask pattern in the exposure step and the defect location.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a product defect monitoring device in a liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an analysis unit according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the product defect monitoring device in the liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: first communication line, 102: second communication line, 1
03: inspection devices 1 to n, 104: upper information processing device,
Reference numeral 105: server, 106: analysis means, 107: alarm means, 108: alarm data, 201: inspection information, 2
02: board identification information, 205: search means, 206: determination means, 207: warning means, 203: defect coordinate position storage means, 204: determination reference storage means.

Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Norimasa Ito 3300 Hayano, Mobara-shi, Chiba Pref. Electronic Device Division, Hitachi, Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus comprising: a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate; and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, wherein the inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display substrate are provided. Collecting means for collecting the board identification information, a storage means for storing the inspection result as needed, and a search for searching the storage means to determine whether a defect at a position coinciding with the inspection result is stored. And a warning means for issuing a warning when the search means has searched for an inspection result at the same position. 2. A liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus comprising: a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate; and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, wherein the inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display substrate are provided. Collecting means for collecting the board identification information, a judgment reference value storing means for storing a reference value of a defect set in advance by an operator, and searching the judgment reference value storage means to find that the inspection result is within the reference value. An apparatus for manufacturing a liquid crystal display substrate, comprising: a judging unit for judging whether or not the above is true, and a warning unit for issuing a warning when the judging unit judges that the value is equal to or more than a reference value. 3. A liquid crystal display substrate manufacturing apparatus comprising: a processing device for processing a liquid crystal display substrate; and an inspection device for inspecting processing defects by the processing device, wherein an inspection result by the inspection device and the liquid crystal display substrate are provided. Collecting means for collecting the board identification information, a judgment reference value storage means for storing a reference value of a defect preset by an operator, a storage means for storing the inspection result as needed, and a search for the storage means. A search unit that searches whether a defect at a position that matches the inspection result is stored; and a determination unit that searches the determination reference value storage unit to determine whether the inspection result is within the reference value. A warning means for issuing a warning when the search means searches for an inspection result at the same position or when the determination means determines that the inspection result is equal to or more than a reference value. Apparatus.