Multi-segment edge correction

Abstract

A method of creating an image file for a thin film deposited by an industrial inkjet printer is described, comprising: acquiring a base image; defining a rasterization of the base image; populating a mapping table with indices of an edge profile table; defining an edge processing area using the rasterization; defining an edge processing profile representing a thickness profile to be applied to the layer at an edge of the layer; populating the edge profile table with values representing an image scale of the edge processing profile; acquiring the indices from cells of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing area; extracting from the edge profile table an image value for each index acquired from the mapping table; and storing the image values in an image file.

Description

[0001] Cross-references

[0002] This patent application seeks protection of the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 374,463, filed September 2, 2022, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Background Technology

[0003] Industrial inkjet printers are used to apply materials onto large substrates to form various types of devices. These substrates can be rigid or flexible, thick or thin, and can be made from a range of materials. The most common type of substrate used in this way is made of various types of glass, which are processed into electronic displays such as television and smartphone screens. These substrates are typically constructed as large panels, which are then divided into individual products. Features and devices can be constructed on the panel by depositing microscopic droplets of printing material at precise locations on the panel and solidifying the deposited material. The material typically forms a layer covering the area of ​​the panel. This layer can be a light-generating layer, a frequency-shifting layer, or a protective layer.

[0004] Typically, the deposition of the material is controlled by determining the coordinates of the droplets to be deposited. The coordinates of a large number of droplets are determined based on a printing plan specifying the thickness of the layer to be formed. The printing plan specifies the thickness of the layer at each location. The specified thickness can vary to compensate for the diffusion and accumulation characteristics of the liquid droplets and dimensional changes during the solidification process of the material. In particular, edges are often specifically designed with corrective thickness profiles to achieve a certain effect in the layer located at the edges. Considering the need to print a very large number of droplets on the panel to form layers, a method for designing edge correction profiles is required that allows them to be quickly converted into printing plan data. Summary of the Invention

[0005] The embodiments described herein provide a method for forming an image file of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: acquiring a base image; defining a raster pixelation of the base image; filling a mapping table with an index of an edge contour table; defining an edge processing region using the raster pixelation; defining an edge processing contour, the edge processing contour representing a thickness contour to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; filling the edge contour table with a value representing an image scale of the edge processing contour; obtaining the index from a cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing region; extracting an image value from the edge contour table for each index obtained from the mapping table; and storing the image value in an image file.

[0006] Other embodiments described herein provide a method for forming an image file of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: acquiring a base image; defining a raster pixelation of the base image; filling a mapping table with an index of an edge contour table; defining an edge processing region using the raster pixelation; defining an edge processing contour, the edge processing contour representing a thickness contour to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; filling the edge contour table with image values ​​representing the edge processing contour; obtaining the index from a cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing region; extracting an image value from the edge contour table for each index obtained from the mapping table; and storing the image values ​​in an image file.

[0007] Other embodiments described herein provide a method for defining edge processing of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: displaying a base image of the layer on a display of a digital processing system; receiving user input from an input of the digital processing system of an edge processing region defined by the raster pixelation; receiving user input from the input of the digital processing system of an edge processing contour representing a thickness contour to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; and using the digital processing system to perform the following operations: defining the raster pixelation of the base image, filling a mapping table with an index of an edge contour table, filling the edge contour table with image values ​​representing the edge processing contour, obtaining the index from a cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing region, extracting an image value from the edge contour table for each index obtained from the mapping table, and storing the image values ​​in an image file.

[0008] Other embodiments described herein provide a method for defining edge treatment of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: acquiring a base image; defining a raster pixelation of the base image; filling a mapping table with an index of an edge contour table; accepting digital user input defining an edge treatment region based on the raster pixelation; accepting digital user input defining an edge treatment contour, the edge treatment contour representing a thickness contour to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; filling the edge contour table with image values ​​representing the edge treatment contour; obtaining the index from a cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge treatment region; extracting an image value from the edge contour table for each index obtained from the mapping table; storing the image values ​​in an image table; and outputting the image table to an image file. Attached Figure Description

[0009] Figure 1 A flowchart outlining a method according to one implementation.

[0010] Figure 2 This is a screen view of a graphical user interface according to another embodiment.

[0011] Implementation

[0012] This document describes a method for displaying and specifying the edge treatment of a material layer to be formed on a substrate. The layer is formed by printing material using micro-droplets and then curing the material. The printing material is typically a curable material that is cured by exposure to one or more forms of radiation. Ultraviolet radiation is commonly used, but infrared radiation and thermal energy can also be used. The printing material has a specific density and viscosity to provide target deposition characteristics in the printer and diffusion characteristics when deposited on the substrate. Based on the diffusion characteristics of the material, the droplets are positioned to diffuse and accumulate to form a thin film. The thickness of the thin film is related to the density of the deposited droplets, and therefore a film with the desired thickness can be related to a specific droplet spacing on the substrate.

[0013] Often, it's necessary to apply a certain printing pattern to the edges of layers to make them sharp and smooth. Sometimes, for very thin layers, due to the surface effect at the layer edges, printing uniformly dense droplets directly onto the predetermined edges of the layer can result in uneven edges, especially after the layer has solidified. Therefore, it is often necessary to pre-design tapered, raised, or other edge treatments.

[0014] In some cases, the substrates printed on them can be as large as 8m. 2 The droplets used to form the film can cover areas as small as 50 μm. 2 This means that a substrate can theoretically have a region of 1.6 × 10⁻⁶. 11 There are multiple possible locations for applying a droplet of printing material. If this substrate is used to form several products, each requiring edge adjustments during printing, millions of calculations could be needed to determine the thickness at each possible droplet location to form the film edge. If multiple such films are formed on the substrate for each product, the computational resources required to directly calculate all edge thickness values ​​would increase rapidly. However, edge processing involves significant redundancy, so calculating the edge profile (e.g., a lateral slice of the edge processing) and replicating that profile only across the entire edge processing area is more efficient than calculating each location individually.

[0015] In the method described herein, edge contours are calculated and stored in a one-dimensional edge contour table. A lookup process is used to extract thickness values ​​from this edge contour table for the edge processing region of the film. Computationally, this lookup process is far more efficient than computation and can quickly convert user-designed input regarding the edge processing of the film into an image file of the film, which can then be processed into a print schedule for a printer to execute.

[0016] Figure 1 A flowchart outlining a method 100 according to one embodiment is provided. Method 100 is a method of rapidly applying edge processing to a base image to form an image file of the base image using the edge processing. At 102, a base image of a layer to be formed on a substrate is acquired. The layer to be formed may have any convenient shape or configuration and may be multiple layers spaced apart on the substrate. The base image is acquired as an electronic file, which may be in any format or using any protocol to define its shape. The file contains data defining the shape of the base image and may contain data defining the thickness or multiple thicknesses of the layer that match the shape of the base image to be formed on the substrate. Thickness data is optional. The base image may be a template image of the layer to be formed, which does not have any edge processing details or details to be formed as part of the layer. In some cases, the base image is a vector graphics image, while in other cases, the base image is a raster graphics image.

[0017] At position 104, the raster pixelation of the base image is resolved. This raster pixelation occurs in a coordinate system defined on the base image. When the base image is a vector graphics image, the vector graphics data is converted to raster pixelation at an appropriate resolution. When the base image is a raster graphics image, it can be used to plan the resolution for forming the thin film to represent the raster graphics data.

[0018] The raster pixelation includes pixel coordinates defined from the base image. Pixels are small, adjacent regions of regular shape and size that collectively represent the base image. Generally, the pixels are defined based on the characteristics of the apparatus to be used to form the layer on the substrate. Each pixel has coordinates and dimensions. Each pixel may also have a thickness. Thickness can be expressed as a value representing an image scale, such as grayscale. The thickness of each pixel can be resolved from a single thickness specification of the layer to be formed in the shape of the base image, or can be specified in any convenient manner. For example, if the uniform thickness of the layer to be formed is 8 μm (excluding any edge treatment), then the thickness of each pixel can be 8 μm. The thickness of each pixel can be represented using any convenient numerical method. Pixel-related thickness data is optional.

[0019] The raster pixelation may reference and / or define, or provide a basis for, a mapping table containing rows and columns (e.g., as a digital array in a digital memory) that represents the layer thickness at each pixel location. The raster pixelation may also reference and / or define, or provide a basis for, an image table different from the mapping table that contains rows and columns representing the layer thickness at each pixel location. If separate mapping and image tables are used, the mapping table will contain data used by the algorithm to parse image values ​​to be stored in the image table, thereby representing the thickness of the thin film to be formed on the substrate. Therefore, the coordinates of each pixel can be row / column coordinates of the mapping table and / or the image table, and the thickness of the pixel can be represented as the image value located at the row / column coordinates of the pixel in the mapping table and / or the image table. The image value can be a physical thickness, such as 8 (μm in the example above), or the image value can be a proportional value representing a range of thicknesses, where the extreme values ​​of the proportionality represent the endpoints of the thickness range. As a digital array, the image values ​​may be stored in memory addresses corresponding to the row / column coordinates of the image values ​​in the mapping table and / or the image table.

[0020] The raster pixelation may include pixels defined by the raster pixelation. The size of each pixel may be related to the print pitch of the printer used to form the layer on the substrate. The print pitch is actually how many different spots of printing material the printer can deposit within a given distance interval. In some cases, the print pitch is essentially the size of the spots of printing material deposited by the printer, and the print pitch may be the same in multiple directions or different in all directions. Each pixel may represent a print pitch, or an integer number of print pitches, or a rational multiple of a print pitch, and may be considered to have a size equal to a print pitch, which in some cases may be the size of a print droplet of printing material. Alternatively, each pixel may represent multiple print pitches. In such cases, each pixel represents an area of ​​the substrate surface on which a droplet is deposited. The raster pixelation forms a reference based on the position and thickness of the film at each location to represent the film layer to be formed on the substrate. In a mapping table and / or image table, the pixel may be represented by a cell labeled with coordinates based on the raster pixelation. As described above, each location of the substrate defined or referenced by the raster pixelation can be the location of a droplet of printable material to be deposited, or each location can be the area on which a droplet is to be deposited.

[0021] At position 106, an edge contour reference can be defined. This edge contour reference is optional, but it can help reduce computational burden by limiting the area where edge processing can be designed and applied. Without using an edge contour reference, it effectively covers or includes the entire base image region. The edge contour reference is a mapping defined on a portion of the raster pixelation (e.g., a subset of pixels, or a subset of the mapping table representing the film, or a subset of the coordinates) that represents the region of the base image on which edge processing of the base image can be applied. The edge contour reference can be populated with a set of indexes from an edge contour table, which will be filled with edge contour thickness values. The edge contour table is a one-dimensional table with edge thickness image values ​​for a specific edge processing. The edge contour table, its applications, and uses are further described below.

[0022] The edge contour reference may be a set of numbers, defined including a region of the base image within the edge contour reference. For example, the edge contour reference may include an edge identifier (a numeric or alphanumeric value referencing an edge of the reference image), a start position (a numerical value identifying the coordinates on the edge where the edge contour reference begins), an end position (a numerical value identifying the coordinates on the edge where the edge contour reference ends), and a width (a numerical value defining the distance between the edges of the base image covered by the area of ​​the edge contour reference). For example, if the raster pixelation of a rectangular base image includes 1000 row coordinates and 1000 column coordinates defining 1000000 pixels, and the base image has edges numbered "1" to "4", then the raster pixelated edge contour reference may include the values ​​"1, 200, 400, 200". In this example, the width is defined as the number of pixels, but the width can be defined using distance units, such as μm or mm. In other cases, the edge contour reference may be defined as a single point, such as the centroid of the base image, which can be used to symmetrically define the region where the edge processing can be performed. In other cases, the edge profile reference may be a single-point definition combined with depth or width. In other cases, the edge profile reference may be a shape definition that can be applied as a mask. In other cases, the edge profile reference may be a shape definition that can be applied as an anchor point, such as a straight line or curve, to define the area where the edge processing can be applied.

[0023] The edge contour reference identifies multiple pixels and may include the identified pixels. During the creation of the raster pixelation, each cell of the mapping table is filled with an index value pointing to a position in the edge contour table at the coordinates of the pixel identified by the edge contour reference, wherein the position is used to apply the edge processing within an edge processing region defined within the edge contour reference. The edge processing region will be further described below. The index value is selected as a value that is not positively used to specify the image scale for thickness. In the grayscale example, the index value will start from a number (such as 257) and extend beyond the range of index values ​​defining the grayscale. In this way, the entries in the edge contour table can distinguish the image scale value of the base layer from the image scale value at which the edge processing is to be performed.

[0024] The optional edge contour reference defines the location for edge processing; therefore, the edge contour reference is constructed to have a size that can accommodate any degree of edge processing that may be selected. Thus, the edge contour reference acts as an envelope within which edge processing can be specified, but not outside. As described above, during the creation of the raster pixelation, the cells of the mapping table corresponding to the pixels covered by the edge contour reference (or actually the entire area where edge processing can be applied, e.g., the entire base image area if no edge contour reference is used) are filled with image value indexes used to look up each pixel in the one-dimensional edge contour table. The number of indexes required to fill the cells is determined by the number of pixels covered by the edge contour reference in the orthogonal direction of the edge associated with the edge contour reference. Therefore, if an edge contour reference with a width of 10 mm and a pixel size of 10 μm is used, 1000 indexes are needed to provide the possibility of edge processing of the film within the entire area covered by the edge contour reference.

[0025] In one implementation, the edge contour reference can be used to fill indices into a mapping table according to an erosion method. In this erosion method, cells in the mapping table, corresponding to pixels defined during raster pixelation of the base image and associated with the edge reference contour, are filled starting from the edge of the image and working inwards until all cells corresponding to the edge reference contour are filled. The cells can be filled one "row" or one "column" at a time, parallel or perpendicular to the edge. After filling one "row" or "column," the next "row" or "column" is processed. This method simplifies processing because, in many cases, the indices to be filled into the mapping table cells can be simply increased as processing progresses to the next "row" or "column."

[0026] At position 108, the rasterized pixels define an edge processing region on the base image. The edge processing region can be defined by specifying its position on the edge of the base image and its width. Multiple edge processing regions can be defined on the base image. The edge processing region may have the same content as the edge contour reference, including an edge identifier, start position, end position, and depth.

[0027] The edge processing region is an object different from the edge contour reference. As mentioned above, the edge processing region may have the same content as the edge contour reference, or it may have different content. The edge contour reference defines the location where the edge processing can be specified, while the edge processing region defines the location where the edge processing is defined. Therefore, the edge processing region may be located within the region defined by the edge contour reference, or it may coexist with the region defined by the edge contour reference. The edge processing region cannot define a region larger than the edge contour reference. It should be noted that multiple edge processing regions can be defined based on one edge contour reference. It should also be noted that, without using an edge contour reference, the edge processing region can be defined at any location in the base image as long as a portion of the edge processing region coincides with the edge of the base image.

[0028] The edge processing area can be defined using a graphical interface. Figure 2 Here is an example screen view. Figure 2 The view shows a base image 202 with multiple edge processing regions 204 marked. The edge processing regions 204 are designated by identifying the boundary positions 206, start positions 206A, and end positions 206B on the edges of the base image 202 as the boundaries of the edge processing regions (using the coordinates defined by the pixel rasterization), and specifying the width 208 of the edge processing regions. Each edge processing region may have the same width or different widths. Figure 2 Multiple edge processing regions 204 with different widths are shown. Figure 2The base image 202 has a rectangular shape with rounded corners, but any shape can be used. To help the user define the edge processing area, the edge contour reference can be displayed as 210 so that the user can be aware of the limits that the edge processing cannot exceed. Here, one edge processing area 204 is defined for each side of the base image 202, but multiple edge processing areas 204 can be defined on one side of the base image 202, each edge processing area 204 having a different width if needed. Mathematically, the edge processing area 204 can be represented as a set of values ​​representing the coordinates of the boundary of the edge processing area 204 and a set of values ​​representing the width of the edge processing area 204. Each edge processing area 204 can be electronically represented as an array instantiated with the values ​​of the set.

[0029] A width is specified for each edge processing region. This width specifies the distance from the edge of the base layer on which the edge processing is to be applied. The width is typically a numerical value for each edge processing region and must be smaller than the width of the edge profile reference. For example, a width of 150 μm for each edge processing region specifies that the edge processing to be applied will extend into the base layer at a distance of 150 μm from the edge, in a direction orthogonal to the edge. This width, together with the aforementioned boundary, determines which pixels defined by the raster pixelation are included in the edge processing region. As mentioned above, the 150 μm width (specified in any convenient numerical format) can be the same as or smaller than the width of the edge profile reference defining the edge processing region. For example, an edge processing region with a width of 150 μm can be defined on an edge profile reference with a width of 200 μm.

[0030] Graphical masking can be used to define edge processing regions and edge contour references. The graphical user interface 200 shows a shape definition 212, which can be created by the user using any suitable function of the graphical user interface 200 (e.g., standard drawing functions for creating any type of shape). The user can create the shape definition 212 in any way that overlaps with the edge contour reference. The overlapping area can be established as the edge processing region. The user-drawn masking function can be activated by a button or menu selection. For example, a button 214 can be provided to activate the user-drawn masking function. The mask can also be constructed by the user using another computer program and provided as a digital file that can be applied to the base image to define the edge processing region.

[0031] Edge contour references can also be defined using user-drawn or user-provided masks. The graphical user interface 200 displays a second shape definition 216 (where the second shape definition is used, and shape definition 212 is the first shape definition), which can be created by the user as described above. Edge contour references can be established when the second shape definition 216 overlaps with any portion of the base image 202. Similar to the edge processing area, the user-drawn mask function can be activated via a button or menu selection, for example, a button similar to button 214. In this case, when using mask processing to define edge contour references, if the user accepts the edge contour reference defined by the mask, the acceptance operation can trigger the filling of the corresponding pixels in the indexed mapping table.

[0032] The mask can have any suitable shape. In the graphical user interface 200, the shape is defined as a rectangle, but the user can use any shape drawing function to define a suitable shape, such as a regular or irregular polygon, a regular or irregular closed curved area, or a stylized definition, such as a cloud shape.

[0033] It should be noted that both the edge contour reference and the edge processing region have the property that, in a direction parallel to the edge of the base image, no part of either of them is larger than the portion of the base image edge enclosed by the edge processing region of the edge contour reference. Therefore, the edge processing region or edge contour reference has its widest dimension at the edge of the base image enclosed by the edge processing region or edge contour reference, and the dimensions of its other portions in a direction parallel to the enclosed edge are no greater than the dimension at the enclosed edge. Correspondingly, it should also be noted that the dimension of the edge processing region or edge contour reference in a direction parallel to the enclosed edge may be smaller than the dimension at the enclosed edge. When a user-defined or user-drawn shape definition has a dimensional feature that will create a dimension narrower than the internal dimension of the shape definition at the enclosed edge in a direction parallel to the enclosed edge, the graphical user interface 200 may display the implicit definition of the edge processing region or edge contour reference, or the graphical user interface 200 may display a message to the user.

[0034] At position 110, an edge processing contour is defined. The edge processing contour is a specification for shaping the film edge in a dimension orthogonal to the edge. The edge processing contour can be applied to one or more edge processing regions, and different edge processing contours can be applied to different edge processing regions of the base image. The edge processing contour of the edge processing region is applied at each edge position of the edge processing region between the start and end positions of the edge processing region. Therefore, only one edge contour can be applied to an edge processing region. If multiple edge contours are needed, separate edge processing regions are defined, and one is applied to each edge contour. As described above, all such edge processing regions can be defined on a single edge contour reference. Alternatively, multiple edge contour references can be defined on a base image, and each edge processing region and its corresponding edge contour can be defined on each reference. When applying an edge processing contour, the pixel corresponding to the edge processing region is identified, and the edge processing contour is used to fill the cell corresponding to the pixel.

[0035] The edge processing profile can be specified in any convenient manner. Essentially, the edge processing profile specifies the variation of the film thickness near the edge of the film to be formed corresponding to the base image. For example, the edge processing profile can reflect a linear taper of thickness at the edge of the film. This edge processing can be specified by a start position, width or end position, and taper specification. The taper specification can be a start thickness and end thickness, a start thickness and slope, or an end thickness and slope. The thickness can be specified in distance units (i.e., μm) or as a percentage of the base film thickness. So, for example, if the nominal thickness of the base film represented by the base image is 20 μm, the edge processing profile can specify a linear taper of the film thickness covering a region of the edge of the film, wherein the thickness at 50 μm from the edge of the film is 100% of the nominal thickness, and the thickness at 10 μm from the edge of the film is 50% of the nominal thickness. This taper specification has a shape identifier symbolizing a linear taper, with a start position of 10 μm, a start thickness of 50% (or 10 μm), an end position of 40 μm, and an end thickness of 100% (or 20 μm). Other methods for specifying edge treatment profiles can also be used. For example, curvature can be specified using a start position, an end position, and a radius of curvature (where positive or negative values ​​indicate convex or concave curvature). Piecewise linear edge treatment profiles can also be specified as multiple tapers with different slopes and / or different thickness variations.

[0036] The graphical user interface 200 can display representations of edge processing contours. One or more such representations can be displayed, such that a graphical representation of a first edge processing contour 220 can be displayed, and a graphical representation of a second edge processing contour 222 can be displayed simultaneously. Each graphical representation can have a scaling feature 224, which can be the same or different depending on the scale of the edge processing to be applied using the edge processing contour. The units of the scaling feature can also be displayed. Selection means (such as buttons and menu options) can be used to activate the display of the graphical representation of the edge processing contour. The graphical user interface 200 can also have a graphical system (not shown) for editing edge processing contours. The system can provide a template screen on which the user can draw a shape definition to be used as an edge processing contour using any suitable drawing function. The graphical system can convert the user-defined shape definition into an edge processing contour using scaling information provided by the user.

[0037] The graphical user interface 200 may also have data display and editing functions. For example, the graphical user interface 200 may use selection means (such as buttons or menu options) to display one or more data tables 226. The data may be any data related to the layer design displayed in the graphical user interface 200, such as dimensions, table contents, coordinates, thickness, etc.

[0038] To identify the value to be filled corresponding to the pixel, an edge contour table corresponding to the edge processing contour is defined at 112. As described above, the edge contour table is a one-dimensional table containing image values ​​(representing thickness) indicating the shape of the edge contour to be applied to the base layer. The edge contour table is a mapping-through table that converts index values ​​to image values. The cells of the edge contour table are filled with image values ​​representing the layer thickness corresponding to the edge processing contour defined at 110. For example, when the edge processing contour specifies a taper of thickness, the cells of the edge contour table will be filled with image values ​​corresponding to that taper thickness.

[0039] The above uses an index of a one-dimensional edge contour table to define the edge processing region. The first N values ​​of the edge contour table are pass-through values ​​that convert the index to themselves, so that unchanged image values ​​are passed through the edge contour table conversion. In one case, when grayscale image values ​​are used, the first 256 values ​​of the edge contour table will contain grayscale image values ​​(0-255). In another case, the 257th value of the edge contour table can be used to return the thickness of the base layer. In yet another case, if the image scale has 1000 values ​​corresponding to a portion of the thickness between the minimum and maximum values, the first 1000 values ​​of the edge contour table (index 0-999) become pass-through values ​​(0-999), and edge processing values ​​(e.g., values ​​between 0 and 999) can be placed in the edge contour table with index values ​​exceeding 1000. If no cells in the edge configuration table other than those used to specify the edge processing are used, these cells can be filled with "maximum" thickness values ​​(e.g., "999" in the image scale above) to show that the original film thickness at these pixels has not changed. When using an image scale, any suitable image scale that provides the required resolution for the various thicknesses to be formed can be used.

[0040] Refer again Figure 1 The image value entries in the edge profile table are determined from the edge processing profile defined at position 110. If the thickness is represented using an image scale of 0 to 999, and a taper is specified using a pixel size of 10 μm, from 100% thickness at 50 μm from the edge of the film to 50% thickness at 10 μm from the edge of the film, then five image values ​​will be needed to specify the taper, the image value corresponding to the film thickness at 0 μm to 10 μm from the edge of the film, and the image values ​​at 10-20 μm, 20-30 μm, 30-40 μm, and 40-50 μm. If the image value for 100% thickness is 999 and the image value for 50% thickness is 499 (basically percentage thickness × 10⁻¹), then the image values ​​at each location are as follows:

[0041] 0-10μm 499

[0042] 10-20μm 599

[0043] 20-30μm 699

[0044] 30-40μm 799

[0045] 40-50μm 899.

[0046] For values ​​exceeding 50 μm, the image value is 100% (i.e., 999). These image values ​​are placed in the edge contour table, with the index defined below.

[0047] The user-defined dimension of the edge processing region determines how many indexes of the edge contour table are used to represent the edge processing contour. In one case, the width of the edge processing region is compared to the width of the edge contour reference. Roughly speaking, if the width of the edge processing region is 40% of the width of the edge contour reference, then, according to the specification of the edge processing contour, 40% of the entries in the edge contour table that define the edge processing can be filled with modified image values. Therefore, in the example above where the edge contour table has 1000 entries that can be used to specify edge processing, if the width of the user-defined edge processing region is 100 μm (and the width of the edge contour reference is 10 μm-10000 μm), then 1% of the cells or 10 cells in the edge contour table can be used to define the edge processing. If the edge processing contour does not utilize all the defined widths of the edge processing region, this number may be even smaller; as mentioned above, only five image values ​​are needed to specify the edge processing. Therefore, in this case, the edge contour table will have N cells with transparent image values, optionally one cell with the image value of the base layer thickness (index N+1), and five cells with image values ​​representing the edge processing of the base layer. The remaining cells in the edge contour table are set to "maximum value". Thus, in the example above, the first 1000 entries of the edge contour table will be filled with values ​​from 0 to 999, the next entry will be filled with the value 1000 (to represent "base layer thickness"), and the following five entries will be filled with values ​​499, 599, 699, 799, and 899. In addition, the remaining cells in the edge contour table will be filled with the value 999. This table, constructed in this way, can be used as a lookup table to look up image values ​​for edge processing of the base layer in the corresponding edge processing area.

[0048] As described above, in the area covered by the edge contour reference, the mapping table is initialized using an index to look up image values ​​in the edge contour table. The edge contour table is populated with image values ​​representing the selected edge contours as described above. At 114, a cell is read from the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing area to obtain the index for the lookup in the edge contour table. The obtained index is used to retrieve the image value from the edge contour table. At 116, the image table is populated with the image value obtained using the lookup operation of the edge contour table. The image table has the same size as the edge processing area or the edge contour reference and corresponds to the area selected or defined by the user for applying edge processing. After performing process 116 at all locations within the edge processing area, the image table contains image values ​​for the film thickness within the edge processing area.

[0049] Using separate image tables enables other potentially valuable processes. For example, when considering multiple edge processing on a layer, each edge processing can be processed separately into its own image table, and then these individual image tables can be merged into a unified image table for the final layer specification. In such cases, each edge processing region acts as a mask to capture pixels of the base layer that fall within its respective edge processing region. The edge processing regions can be combined and used as an inverse mask to capture pixels of the base layer that do not fall within any edge processing region. A similar lookup table process can be used to adjust values ​​and correct errors in the image values ​​representing regions of the base layer that do not fall within edge processing regions. When multiple image tables are created in this way, the values ​​of the image tables can be converted from 8-bit values ​​to floating-point values, added together using simple addition, and then converted back to 8-bit values ​​to generate a composite image table representing the final edge compensation layer. Using known methods, the final 8-bit image can be processed into print data for printer operation, thereby depositing print material to form the layer.

[0050] The methods and means described herein are implemented using a digital processing system having a processor, memory, display, and input terminals. The digital processing system may have multiple instances or units of each functional component. Various documents and forms described herein may be stored in memory for retrieval and manipulation by a user using the input terminals, which may be a keyboard, touchscreen, drawing device, or other input terminals or combinations thereof. The data, shapes, and interactive objects described herein may be displayed on a screen for user operation. The digital processing system may also communicate with other systems, such as enterprise or manufacturing systems that control and operate film forming equipment such as inkjet printers. The digital processing system may be used to display all the aforementioned graphical interface elements, accept user input as shape definitions and / or documents using any input terminal of the digital processing system, and store data related to the layer design and edge processing defined by the user in the memory of the digital processing system. In particular, the aforementioned image tables may be stored in the digital memory and used to create printer control data to form the layers designed using the methods and graphical user interface described herein.

[0051] The foregoing description describes embodiments of one or more inventions. However, other embodiments not specifically described herein can be designed without departing from the basic scope of other embodiments of such inventions, the basic scope of which is defined by the following claims. The embodiments described herein are examples illustrating the invention. Other embodiments embodying the same invention are contemplated from the description herein.

Claims

1. A method for defining edge treatment of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: Obtain the base image; Define the rasterization of the base image; Populate the mapping table with the index of the edge contour table; The edge processing region is defined using the raster pixelation; Define an edge processing profile, which represents the thickness profile to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; The edge contour table is filled with image values ​​representing the edge processing contours; Obtain the index from the cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing area; Extract image values ​​for each index obtained from the mapping table from the edge contour table; as well as The image values ​​are stored in an image file.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The edge contour table is a one-dimensional table.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The edge contour table is also filled with transparency values.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The edge processing region is a first edge processing region, the index is a first index set, and the image file is a first image file. The method further includes: The second edge processing region is defined using the raster pixelation; Obtain the second index set from the cells of the mapping table corresponding to the second edge processing region; Extract image values ​​for each index of the second index set from the edge contour table; and The image values ​​extracted for each index in the second index set are stored in the second image file.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: Using the first edge processing region and the second edge processing region as masks, a third image file is defined from the mapping table; as well as The first image file, the second image file, and the third image file are added together to form a composite image file of the layer; as well as Store the composite image file.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: Define an edge reference profile, and use the edge reference profile to perform the filling of a mapping table with an index of the edge profile table.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein, The image value is derived from the scale.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein, Defining the edge processing area includes accepting user input for edge processing using the drawing functions of the graphical user interface.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein, Further includes: The image file is converted into print data for the inkjet printer.

10. A method for defining edge treatment of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: The base image of the layer is displayed on the monitor of the digital processing system; The system accepts user input from an edge processing region at the input end of the digital processing system, the edge processing region being defined by raster pixelation. Accepting user input of an edge processing profile from the input terminal of the digital processing system, the edge processing profile representing the thickness profile to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; and Using the digital processing system, in order to: Define the rasterization of the base image; Populate the mapping table with the index of the edge contour table; The edge contour table is filled with image values ​​representing the edge processing contours; Obtain the index from the cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing area; Extract image values ​​for each index obtained from the mapping table from the edge contour table; and The image values ​​are stored in an image file.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: A graphical representation of the edge processing contour is displayed on the display of the digital processing system.

12. The method of claim 10, further comprising: A graphical representation of the edge processing area is displayed on the display of the digital processing system.

13. The method according to claim 10, wherein, The user input for the edge processing area is a shape definition created by the user.

14. The method of claim 10, wherein, The user input in the edge processing area is a digital file created by the user.

15. The method of claim 10, further comprising: In response to user selection, the data of the base image, the mapping table, and the edge contour table are displayed.

16. A method for defining edge treatment of a material layer to be formed on a substrate by inkjet printing, comprising: Obtain the base image; Define the rasterization of the base image; Populate the mapping table with the index of the edge contour table; Accepts digital user input based on the edge processing region defined by the raster pixelation; Accepts digital user input defining an edge processing profile, which represents the thickness profile to be applied to the layer at the edge of the layer; The edge contour table is filled with image values ​​representing the edge processing contours; Obtain the index from the cell of the mapping table corresponding to the edge processing area; Extract image values ​​for each index obtained from the mapping table from the edge contour table; Store the image values ​​in an image table; as well as The image table is output to an image file.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein, The edge processing region is a first edge processing region, the index is a first index set, the image value is a first image value, the image table is a first image table, and the image file is a first image file. The method further includes: Accept digital user input based on the raster pixelation that defines a second edge processing region; Obtain the second index set from the cells of the mapping table corresponding to the second edge processing region; Extract a second image value for each index of the second index set from the edge contour table; and Store the second image value in the second image table; and The combination of the first image table and the second image table is output to the image file.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising: Using the first edge processing region and the second edge processing region as masks, a third image table is defined from the mapping table; as well as The first image table, the second image table, and the third image table are added together to form the composite image table of the layer; as well as The composite image table is output to the image file.

19. The method of claim 17, wherein, The edge contour table is a one-dimensional table that further includes transparency values.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein, The image value is derived from the scale.

21. The method of claim 17, further comprising: The image file is converted into print data for the inkjet printer.

Images