JPH02309321A - Orientation treating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the orientation treating device which can make uniform orientation treatment having reproducibility by irradiating the liquid crystal oriented film on a substrate with a UV laser via a mask and providing ruggedness on the surface of the oriented film without contact by utilizing the chemical reaction by the UV laser. CONSTITUTION:A glass substrate 6 which is formed with transparent electrodes thereon and is further formed with the liquid crystal oriented film 5 thereon is imposed on an X-Y stage 7. This substrate 6 is so moved that the required region on the substrate 6 is irradiated with the UV laser. The UV laser 8 is generated by a UV laser generator 1, is shaped to a linear shape by a shaping lens 2 and is cast onto the liquid crystal oriented film 5 on the substrate 6 via a mask 4 by a mirror 3. The mask 4 having the patterns of basically a line and space shape is used and the surface of the liquid crystal oriented film 5 is irradiated with the UV laser 8 in the form of stripes. As a result, the ruggedness is formed on the surface of the liquid crystal oriented film 5. The uniform orientation treatment having the reproducibility is executed in this way.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention is used in the manufacture of liquid crystal display elements, and particularly relates to an alignment processing apparatus for aligning liquid crystal molecules in a predetermined direction with respect to a liquid crystal display substrate. .

〔overview〕

The present invention provides an alignment processing apparatus for aligning liquid crystal molecules in a predetermined direction with respect to a substrate, in which a liquid crystal alignment film on the substrate is irradiated with an ultraviolet laser beam emitted from an ultraviolet laser generator, and the ultraviolet rays are By performing the alignment process using a chemical reaction using a laser, it is possible to perform the alignment process uniformly and with good reproducibility.

[Conventional technology]

In a liquid crystal display element, it is necessary to align liquid crystal molecules in a specific direction in order to control the electro-optical characteristics of the liquid crystal. Generally, a polymer resin such as polyimide is used as the alignment film, and it is rubbed in a specific direction with a specific material (
(rubbing) method is used.

FIG. 4 shows a typical example of this, in which a roller 20 having a woven fabric 19 on the surface is used to form a "C" polyimide pattern 21.
This method involves rubbing the surface in the direction of the arrow.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the conventional orientation processing method described above, fiber waste is generated from the woven fabric on the surface of the roller. Usually, a cleaning treatment is performed after rubbing, but this fiber waste is often not removed and the process proceeds to the next step while remaining attached to the polyimide alignment film.
This causes a gap defect between the two boards. In addition, in this clean alignment treatment method that uses only rollers that do not generate fiber waste, since the rollers rub, it is susceptible to the effects of unevenness on the substrate surface, making it difficult to perform fine alignment treatment to every corner.

That is, the conventional alignment processing apparatus has the drawback that it is difficult to perform alignment processing with uniformity and reproducibility.

An object of the present invention is to provide an alignment processing apparatus capable of uniform and reproducible alignment processing by eliminating the above-mentioned drawbacks.

[Means for solving problems]

The present invention provides an alignment processing apparatus for aligning liquid crystal molecules in a predetermined direction with respect to a substrate, including a stage for mounting and moving the substrate, an ultraviolet laser generator, and an ultraviolet laser emitted from the ultraviolet laser generator. The present invention is characterized by comprising a shaping lens for shaping the ultraviolet laser into a linear shape, and a mask for irradiating the ultraviolet laser in a striped manner onto the liquid crystal alignment film on the substrate.

[Effect]

In the alignment film surface region irradiated with the ultraviolet laser, the polymer resin surface is oxidized and vaporized by ozone in the atmosphere generated by the ultraviolet laser irradiation. Therefore, the surface is depressed only in the area irradiated with the ultraviolet laser. In this way, in the present invention, unevenness is created on the surface of the alignment film without contact using a chemical reaction, so it is possible to solve the problems of process defects caused by fiber waste and non-uniformity of the alignment process that occur in conventional methods, and to achieve uniformity. It becomes possible to perform alignment processing with reproducibility.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

This embodiment is an alignment processing apparatus for aligning liquid crystal molecules in a predetermined direction with respect to a substrate 6.
-, a Y stage 7, an ultraviolet laser generator 1, and an ultraviolet laser 8 emitted from the ultraviolet laser generator 1;
a shaping lens 2 that shapes the ultraviolet laser 8 into a linear shape; a mirror 3 that reflects the ultraviolet laser 8 shaped by the shaping lens 2; and a mirror 3 that reflects the ultraviolet laser 8 reflected by the mirror 3 against the liquid crystal alignment film 5 on the substrate 6. and a mask 4 for irradiating in a striped manner.

Next, the details of the configuration and the outline of the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

An ultraviolet laser 8 emitted from an ultraviolet laser generator 1 is passed through a shaping lens 2 and shaped into a linear beam.

In this example, a KrF excimer laser (wavelength: 248 nm) was used as the ultraviolet laser. Further, it was shaped into a linear shape with width 2 and length 30+nm using shaping lens 2 . After the linearly shaped ultraviolet laser 8 is reflected by the mirror 3, the surface of the liquid crystal alignment film 5 on the substrate 6 is irradiated with the ultraviolet laser 8 in a striped manner through the mask 4. The pattern shape of the mask 4 is basically a line and space shape. In this example, a pitch of 1 μm is used as the dimension,
The size of the pattern area of mask 4 is 40 mm
20 m+n was used.

The substrate 6 is placed on an XY stage 7, and the substrate 6 is moved so that a required area on the substrate 6 is irradiated with the ultraviolet laser.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a substrate showing an example of alignment processing performed using the apparatus of this embodiment. A transparent electrode 10 made of an ITO film with a thickness of 1000 A was formed on a glass substrate 11 with a thickness of 1.1 nm+m by sputtering method, and the transparent electrode, IO
A polyimide alignment film 9 having a thickness of 1000 mm was formed thereon as a liquid crystal alignment film by a printing method.

Next, the glass substrate 11 is placed on the X-Y stage 7,
While moving the glass substrate 11 in the line direction of the mask 4 at a speed of 20 mm per second in clean air, the surface of the polyimide alignment film 9 was irradiated with a KrF excimer laser. surface irregularities were formed.

A liquid crystal display panel was created using such an alignment treatment method. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a liquid crystal display cell, which includes a glass substrate 18 having a structure in which an active element layer 17 and a polyimide alignment film A16 are sequentially laminated, and an IT
A liquid crystal 15 having a layer thickness of 4 μl is sealed between a transparent electrode 13 made of O and a glass substrate 12 having a structure in which polyimide alignment films B14 are sequentially laminated.

As a result of producing such a liquid crystal display panel and evaluating its optical properties, it was found that a favorable liquid crystal alignment state with more uniformity than in the case of alignment treatment using a conventional rubbing treatment method was obtained. Also, when I created 20 panels like this,
In both cases, good display characteristics were obtained, and the reproducibility was also superior to conventional methods.

We also investigated the case where an rF excimer laser (wavelength: 1931 m) was used as the ultraviolet laser. When the moving speed of the substrate 6 during ultraviolet laser irradiation was 20 mm/sec, a depth of 150 A and a pitch of 1 μ0 was formed on the surface of the polyimide alignment film. It was possible to form surface irregularities. Furthermore, a liquid crystal display panel was created using this and the display characteristics were evaluated, and as a result, a good liquid crystal alignment state was confirmed v1.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, since the present invention utilizes a chemical reaction using an ultraviolet laser as an orientation treatment method, there is no generation of fiber waste as seen in conventional methods, and therefore, there is no generation of fiber waste as seen in conventional methods. This has the effect of reducing the rate of occurrence of display defects caused by this as compared to the conventional method.

Furthermore, the present invention eliminates the need for cleaning after the alignment treatment, which has the effect of simplifying the process.

Furthermore, with conventional methods, it is easily affected by steps on the substrate surface, making it difficult to perform fine alignment treatment to every corner, and localized alignment defects are likely to occur even in the absence of foreign matter such as fiber waste. However, by using the device of the present invention,
This method is free from such problems and has the effect of allowing alignment processing to be performed more uniformly and with better reproducibility than in the past.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a substrate showing the state after alignment treatment according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a sectional view of a liquid crystal display cell according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing the configuration of a conventional example. ■...Ultraviolet laser generator, 2...Orthopedic lens,
3... Mirror, 4... Mask, 5... Liquid crystal alignment film, 6... Substrate, 7... X-Y stage, 8... Ultraviolet laser, 9.21... Polyimide alignment membrane, 10.
13.22...Transparent electrode, 11.12.18.23.
...Glass substrate, 14...Polyimide alignment film B115
...Liquid crystal, 16...Polyimide alignment film A117...
・Active element layer, 19... woven fabric, 20... roller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An alignment processing device for aligning liquid crystal molecules in a predetermined direction with respect to a substrate, comprising: a stage for mounting and moving the substrate; an ultraviolet laser generator; and the ultraviolet laser generator. An alignment treatment apparatus comprising: a shaping lens for shaping an ultraviolet laser emitted from the substrate into a linear shape; and a mask for irradiating the ultraviolet laser in a striped manner onto a liquid crystal alignment film on the substrate. .