Spacer forming method and spacer fabricating device

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for forming a spacer used to keep constant a liquid crystal filled gap between a pair of substrates used in a liquid crystal panel. In the method droplets of an ink (7) in which granular spacer is dispersed are dripped onto each of the spacer forming positions (crossings of the grid-like black-matrix (5) forming the pixels (RGB)) on one substrate of the substrates by an ink-jet method. By the method, a required number of spacers can be reliably formed within the areas not spreading to the pixels. Consequently, the thickness of the liquid crystal layer can be kept constant, and further the influence of the spacers on the display quality can be suppressed, thus improving the quality of the liquid crystal panel.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates to a method for forming a spacer for maintaining a fixed liquid crystal sealing gap between a pair of substrates used in a liquid crystal display. Specifically, it relates to forming a spacer by dripping ink dispersed in a solvent onto a substrate by an inkjet method. A spacer forming method and a spacer forming apparatus at a location. Background technique [0002] The response characteristics, contrast and viewing angle required by the liquid crystal screen depend largely on the thickness of the liquid crystal layer. Therefore, the gap between a pair of substrates encapsulating liquid crystal is controlled by providing a spacer between the substrates so that the thickness of the liquid crystal layer is kept constant. As a method of forming spacers, a method of forming columnar spacers on one substrate, a method of distributing spherical spacers, and the like are known. [0003] The method of forming the spacer into a c...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0009] In the inkjet method, when the amount of one drop is large, the spread of the droplet after dropping will become larger, even if there is only a slight deviation in the drop position (generally, the error of the ejection position in the inkjet method may sometimes reach several μm to ten several μm), the possibility of affecting the pixels overflowing from the black matrix becomes high, and there is a possibility that spacers are also formed in the pixels or the solvent is affected, resulting in a decrease in the quality of the displayed image

In this way, considering the spread of the dropped liquid droplets, it is preferable to store the spacer within a predetermined range as a method of reducing the dropped amount, but when the dropped amount is too small, the dropped liquid droplets may not contain any spacer

[0010] In addition, in order to form a small dripping amount and reliably form spacers, it may be considered to increase the dispersion density of the spacers in the solvent, but this will change the fluidity of the ink or cause aggregation between the spacer particles in the ink, which may Affects the ejection performance of the nozzle, which is not an appropriate method because it will change the characteristics of the ink itself

[0011] On the other hand, cleaning in order to eliminate nozzle abnormalities will reduce production efficiency

For example, stopping production for cleaning because of one or two abnormal nozzles can seriously affect efficiency

In addition, when there are nozzles that are severely clogged or nozzles that are abnormal in the direction of ink ejection due to damage in the nozzle plate, it is difficult to return to the normal state by normal cleaning.

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