JPH08313922A - Liquid crystal display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a liquid crystal display device with which inter-terminal shorting is inspectable by a simple method of using a pattern short checker in a state that segment terminals, etc., are patterned on a segment substrate. CONSTITUTION: This liquid crystal display device has (a) a common substrate which is provided with common electrodes, (b) the segment substrate 5 which is provided with plural segment electrodes 1, segment terminals 2 and common terminals broader than the segment terminals and (c) a sealing agent layer which is electrically connected with the common electrodes and the common terminals and affixes the common substrate and the segment substrate 5 at the circumferences of the substrates by providing the substrates with a specified spacing therebetween. The common terminals 3a, 3b of the segment substrate 5 are so disposed by dividing as to have the width smaller than the pitch of the plural segment terminals and the divided common terminals are electrically connected in the junctures electrically connected to the common electrodes of the common substrate.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device having a segment terminal and a common terminal arranged side by side on one substrate. More specifically, the present invention relates to a liquid crystal display device capable of surely making a short circuit determination by a short circuit checker using two probes even when a common terminal is provided wider than a segment terminal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A liquid crystal display device of a segment type display has a plurality of segment electrodes on one transparent substrate (segment substrate) and a transparent substrate facing the segment terminals connected to the segment electrodes and arranged at the ends of the substrate. A common terminal that is connected to the provided common electrode is provided, and it is attached to the other transparent substrate (common substrate) provided with the common electrode so as to have a certain gap, and the liquid crystal material is injected into the gap. It is formed. Silver dot printing is performed on one of the substrates so that the common terminal and the common electrode are electrically connected when the segment substrate and the common substrate are attached.

In this type of statically driven liquid crystal display device, since the common electrode is normally used with the same potential on the entire surface of the common substrate, theoretically only one common terminal is required for connection to the external circuit. The film has a resistance component, and when the display screen becomes large, the signal transmission may be delayed or weakened at a place far from the common terminal. If the display screen becomes large and the number of segments becomes several hundreds or more, the segment terminal should be 40 ~ 100 segments are divided into several groups, and each group is connected to a circuit board by a TAB or the like, and each TAB is formed in common. A terminal and one or two common terminals are formed.
In this case, one or two common terminals must correspond to the segment electrodes of the number of segment terminals of the group, and must be connected to the common electrode of the counter substrate when being attached to the counter substrate. Since it does not occur, it is formed wider than the segment terminal.

One part of a segment substrate provided with such segment electrodes, segment terminals, and common terminals.
A plan view of the group portion is shown in FIG. In FIG.
1 is a segment electrode formed in a matrix,
Reference numeral 2 is a segment terminal connected to each segment electrode 1 by a connection wire 4, 3 is a common terminal, and 3c is a connection portion electrically connected to a common electrode of a counter substrate (not shown) by silver dot printing or the like. 22 is a dummy terminal. As shown in FIG. 3, the segment terminals 2 are aligned with the end portions of the segment substrate 5 and are formed so as to be easily connected to an external circuit board by TAB or the like after the liquid crystal panel is formed. The common terminals 3 are also provided side by side. ing.

This segment terminal 2 has, for example, a line width W ₁
Is about 0.14 mm and the terminal spacing W ₂ is 0.08 mm
The common terminal 3 has a line width W ₃ of about 0.5 mm. These segment electrodes 1, segment terminals 2, common terminals 3, etc. are provided on the entire surface of the transparent substrate 5 in an amount of 20 to 120.
Since it is formed by etching and patterning a transparent conductive film such as an ITO film or a tin oxide film coated to a thickness of about nm, the gaps between the segment terminals 2 and the connection lines 4 are formed by etching. If it is not formed by the complete removal of, the short circuit will occur between the adjacent segment terminals, and a display defect will occur. In particular, the distance between the connecting lines 4 is as narrow as 30 μm or less, which may not be completely etched.

Therefore, it is desired to perform a short circuit inspection between adjacent segment terminals in the state of the segment substrate patterned by etching. As a simple method of this short circuit inspection, as shown in FIG. 4, the tips have a constant interval (for example, the pitch interval of the segment terminals).
By using the pattern short checker by the detector 13 to which the two probes 11 and 12 held in the above are used, the probes 11 and 12 are sequentially held from the end of the aligned segment terminals 2 while holding the tips thereof at a constant interval. A method of inspecting a short circuit between adjacent segment terminals one after another by moving laterally and detecting a change in resistance between the two probes 11 and 12 is known.

[0007]

When a short circuit between terminals is inspected by the conventional pattern short checker, the segment terminals are inspected without any problem. However, when the segment terminals are on the common terminal, the width of the common terminal is increased. Is wider than the pitch of the segment terminals, the two probes are in a short-circuited state, and there is a problem that a defect is judged even if there is no pattern short-circuit between the segment terminals.

If the common terminal has the same line width as that of the segment terminal, resistance loss may be a problem as described above, or the connection with the common electrode of the counter substrate may not be surely performed due to misalignment. Yes, a wide common terminal is required.

In order to avoid the above-mentioned inconvenience and perform a simple inspection while providing a wide common terminal, both substrates are adhered to form a liquid crystal panel, and then an actual signal is applied to each segment terminal. However, if a defect occurs, the number of steps and waste of parts increase.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and a short circuit between terminals can be inspected by a simple method using a pattern short checker in a state where a segment terminal or the like is patterned on a segment substrate. An object is to provide a liquid crystal display device.

[0011]

A liquid crystal display device according to the present invention comprises: (a) a common substrate provided with a common electrode;
(B) A segment provided with a plurality of segment electrodes, a plurality of segment terminals electrically connected to each of the segment electrodes, and a common terminal which can be electrically connected to the common electrode and is wider than the segment terminal A substrate, and (c) a sealant layer for electrically connecting the common electrode and the common terminal and for adhering the common substrate and the segment substrate around the substrate with a certain gap. d) It is made of a liquid crystal material injected into the constant gap between the common substrate and the segment substrate, and the common terminal of the segment substrate has a width smaller than a pitch in which the plurality of segment terminals are arranged in parallel. The divided communicator is connected to the common electrode of the common substrate and is electrically connected to the common electrode. Terminal is one that is wider common terminal are electrically connected by a conductive material.

The division of the common terminal at the connection portion with the common electrode is comb-shaped so that the divided common terminal can be surely connected and widened when connected to the common electrode of the counter substrate. It is preferable because the common terminal can be obtained.

[0013]

According to the present invention, even when one of the substrates used for a liquid crystal display device is provided with a common terminal which is in parallel with the segment terminal and wider than the segment terminal, the common terminal is a plurality of segment terminals. Since it is divided so that it has a width smaller than the pitch, it is possible to short-circuit two probes both on the common terminal and when inspecting using a pattern short checker that uses two probes with a constant gap. There is no. Therefore, by sequentially moving the two probes from the ends, it is possible to reliably perform a short-circuit test between adjacent terminals.

Further, according to the present invention, the divided common terminals are separated by the conductive material at the connection portion which is electrically connected to the common electrode of the counter substrate when it is attached to the counter substrate. Since they are connected, one or more common terminals are formed by dividing two or more, and a common terminal wider than the segment terminals is obtained. As a result, there is no influence on the signal transmission to the common electrode corresponding to several tens of segment electrodes.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the liquid crystal display device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of a segment substrate of one embodiment of the liquid crystal display device of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of each of a segment terminal and a common terminal that are electrically connected to a segment electrode, and FIG. 2 is an enlarged explanatory diagram of a connection portion of the common terminal with the common electrode.

A segment electrode 1, as shown in FIG.
The segment substrate 5 provided with the segment terminal 2 and the common terminal 3 and the common substrate provided with a common electrode (not shown) are provided with a certain gap so that the common terminal and the common electrode are electrically connected. It is attached by a sealant layer around the substrate, and the liquid crystal material is injected into the gap,
A liquid crystal display device is configured by providing polarizing plates on both sides or providing a backlight. The method of forming electrodes and terminals and other structures are the same as those of the conventional liquid crystal display device. In FIG. 1, 22 is a dummy terminal.

In the liquid crystal display device of the present invention, the segment substrate 1, the segment terminal 2, the common terminals 3a and 3b, the connection line 4 connecting the segment electrode 1 and the segment terminal 2 and the like are provided, and The terminals 3a and 3b are divided, and the divided common terminals 3a and 3b are made of a conductive material at a connecting portion 3c with the common electrodes of the plurality of common terminals 3a and 3b that are divided when being attached to the counter substrate. It is characterized by being electrically connected and having the effect of a wide common terminal.

For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a segment terminal group is provided with a line width W ₁ of the segment terminals 2 of about 0.14 mm and an interval W ₂ of about 0.08 mm (pitch P of about 0.22 mm). Common terminal 3 when
2A and 2B, the line widths T ₁ thereof are about 0.14 mm and the intervals T ₂ thereof are 0.
It is divided into two common terminals 3a and 3b of about 22 mm. Width T from end to end of the two common terminals 3a, 3b
₃ is formed in about 0.5 mm. Two common terminals 3a and 3b mesh with each other in a comb-teeth shape at a connection portion 3c of the counter substrate, but they are electrically separated from each other without coming into contact with each other. The common terminals 3a and 3b are formed by etching and patterning a transparent conductive film such as an ITO film or a tin oxide film formed over the entire surface together with the segment electrodes 1 and 2 and so on. Even complicated shapes such as teeth can be easily formed by only forming a mask. By forming the toothless shape like this, even if the common electrode and the conductive material for connection are applied and the position shift occurs, it is possible to electrically connect the divided common terminals. Both of the common terminals are connected to the common electrode of the counter substrate, which is preferable. However, as long as the divided common terminals can be reliably connected, they do not necessarily have to be comb-shaped, and they may be linear or have another shape.

The segment substrate 5 of the liquid crystal display device of the present invention
As described above, since the common terminals 3a and 3b are formed separately and the line width of each of them is smaller than the pitch of the plurality of segment terminals 2, the common terminals 3a and 3b are formed at regular intervals (pitch of the normal segment terminals). The condition of the board does not generate a short signal at the common terminal even if two probes are arranged at an interval) and sequentially moved as they are to inspect a short circuit between adjacent terminals, and a short signal is not output at the common terminal. Can automatically and surely check for shorts between terminals.

In the above-described embodiment, the common terminal is divided so that the entire width is adjusted to about 0.5 mm so that the line width of the segment terminal is about 0.14 mm from both sides, and the interval between the centers is about 0.22 mm. Although it is set to be larger than the space between the segment terminals, there is no problem even if the space between the terminals is widened because a short does not occur. However, for example, three common terminals with a width of about 0.14 mm are 0.08 mm.
They may be provided at regular intervals (the entire width is about 0.58 mm). That is, when the line width T _{1 of} the divided common terminal becomes larger than the pitch of the plurality of segment terminals, the tips of the two probes provided at a constant interval may be stuck on the same terminal and a short circuit phenomenon may appear, which is not preferable. However, even if the space between the divided common terminals is too wide, there is no need to inspect for a short circuit between the divided common terminals, so no problem occurs. Therefore, the common terminal can be freely divided within a range in which the line width T ₁ of the divided common terminal is smaller than the pitch of the plurality of segment terminals, and can also be divided into three or more.

In the above embodiment, the segment electrodes are arranged in a matrix, but the same applies to other shapes, and the common electrode has a 1/2 duty or a 1/3 duty. The present invention can be similarly applied to a low duty drive type.

[0023]

According to the present invention, even in a substrate in which a segment terminal and a common terminal which can be wider than the segment terminal are arranged in parallel, a simple short checker by two probes is used in the state of the substrate on which the pattern is formed. It is possible to inspect for short circuits between terminals. As a result, it is possible to easily and surely inspect the state of the components even with the miniaturization of the pattern interval that accompanies the higher definition of the liquid crystal display device, and the component yield is significantly improved compared to the inspection after assembly. Therefore, a high-definition liquid crystal display device can be obtained at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partial plan view of a segment substrate of an embodiment of a liquid crystal display device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged explanatory view of a common terminal of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of a segment substrate of an example of a conventional liquid crystal display device.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for performing a short-circuit check between terminals using two probes.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 segment electrode 2 segment terminal 3a divided common terminal 3b divided common terminal 3c connection part 5 segment substrate

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A common substrate provided with (a) a common electrode; (b) a plurality of segment electrodes; a plurality of segment terminals electrically connected to each of the segment electrodes; Segment substrate that can be electrically connected to each other and is provided with a common terminal wider than the segment terminal, and (c) the common electrode and the common terminal are electrically connected and the common substrate and the segment substrate are fixed. A sealant layer, which is adhered around the substrate with a gap, and (d) a liquid crystal material which is injected into the fixed gap between the common substrate and the segment substrate, and the common terminal of the segment substrate is , The common electrode of the common board is divided so that its width is smaller than the parallel pitch of the plurality of segment terminals. A liquid crystal display device in which the divided common terminal is electrically connected by a conductive material to form a wide common terminal at a connection portion electrically connected to a pole. 2. The division of the connection portion of the common terminal with the common electrode is divided into comb teeth.
The described liquid crystal display device.