KR20040060045A - Lcd inspector system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A checking system of an LCD(Liquid Crystal Display) is provided to check defects generated on a substrate rapidly and exactly by integrating an MAC/MIC check system and a MACRO check system. CONSTITUTION: A port member(27) reserves plural substrates inserted into a cassette. A robot(26) loads and unloads the substrates from the port member(27). The substrate transferred from the port member(27) is placed to a checking stage(21). An MAC/MIC scope(29) moves over the substrate placed to the checking stage(21) and checks faults of the substrate. A display member(23) displays the faults checked from the MAC/MIC scope(29). A control member(25) controls the display member(23) and the robot(26). At the center of the checking stage(21), an MACRO plate(28) and a support member(24) for supporting the MACRO plate(28). The display member(23) comprises the first and second monitor(23a,23b) for displaying faults checked from an MAC scope and the MIC scope(29).

Description

Liquid crystal display inspection system {LCD INSPECTOR SYSTEM}

The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display inspection system, and more specifically, a MAC / MIC scope inspection for inspecting defects after each manufacturing process of a liquid crystal display and a MACRO scope inspection for inspecting appearance defects of a substrate in one system. The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display inspection system capable of shortening the time required for inspection.

In general, a liquid crystal display (LCD) has a process of manufacturing a panel top and a bottom plate accompanying a process of forming a liquid crystal cell forming a pixel unit, a process of forming and rubbing an alignment layer for liquid crystal alignment, and a top plate. And it is completed through a number of processes, such as the process of bonding the bottom plate and the process of injecting and encapsulating the liquid crystal between the bonded top and bottom plate.

In this case, the lower plate manufacturing process includes forming a thin film transistor (hereinafter referred to as TFT) and forming a substrate electrode by applying an electrode material, a semiconductor layer, and an insulating film on a substrate. After the liquid crystal injection and encapsulation process, the polarizing plates are attached to both sides of the upper and lower plates, and the final inspection operation is performed when the liquid crystal panel is completed.

In the final inspection process, a test pattern is displayed on the screen of the completed liquid crystal panel, and the presence or absence of a bad pixel is detected to repair the defective pixel when it is found. The defects of the liquid crystal panel include color defects for each pixel cell, point coupling such as bright spots (cells that are always on), dark spots (cells that are always off), and line defects caused by short circuits between adjacent data lines.

After the TFT array process is finished, a process for inspecting short circuits, short circuits, and pixel defects of the array wirings formed on the substrate is performed. If a defect is found on the array substrate by inspection, data such as the location of the found defect is stored in a file, and the inspector directly inspects the result through a microscope to determine whether to repair the defect.

1 is a block diagram schematically showing an array substrate failure inspection apparatus according to the prior art.

After the TFT array substrate is finished with each photo, etching and strip process, the process of inspecting the film layered on the substrate and the disconnection occurring during etching is performed. The illustrated MAC / MIC scope inspection system is a The test proceeds by alternating between the scope where the defect can be seen by the eye and the microscope which can observe the defect layered on the substrate in detail.

As shown in Figure 1, the schematic configuration of the inspection equipment of the array substrate is as follows.

A port portion 7 having a plurality of cassettes for storing array substrates or color filter substrates, each of which has been processed, an inspection portion 1 for fixing the substrates and inspecting defects, and the port portion A robot 6 for moving the substrates stored in (7) to the inspection unit 1, a MAC / MIC scope 9 for inspecting defective areas of the substrates placed in the inspection unit 1, and the MAC And a display unit 3 for enlarging the inspected portion of the / MIC scope 9, and a control unit 5 for controlling the robot 6, the MAC / MIC scope 9, and the display unit 3. It is.

The display unit 3 is composed of a first monitor 3a and a second monitor 3b to display the screen shot by the MAC / MIC scope 9, respectively.

The process of inspecting a defect layered on a substrate by a conventional liquid crystal display inspection system having the above structure is as follows.

It is determined whether a defect has occurred on the substrates that have undergone the respective manufacturing process steps of the liquid crystal display, and if the repair is possible, the repair is performed. If the repair is impossible, it is discarded and the defect does not occur. If not, the substrate will continue to the next step.

At this time, in order to inspect the defects appearing on the substrate for each manufacturing process, the substrates are stored in a cassette and then loaded into the port 7 of the MAC / MIC inspection system.

Then, the substrates stored in the port 7 are moved to the inspection unit 1 by the robot 6 and the substrate loaded in the inspection unit 1 is moved to the MAC / MIC scope 9. To check for defects on the substrate.

The MAC / MIC scope 9 is divided into a scope for inspecting the defect from the macroscopic view and a microscope for inspecting the defect area in detail, and the inspection is performed by moving on the substrate placed on the inspection unit 1. Proceed.

The defective areas on the substrate photographed by the MAC / MIC scope 9 are displayed on the first monitor 3a and the second monitor 3b in the display unit 3, respectively.

The defective area of the inspected substrate is displayed in the form of coordinates. After sharing data information such as coordinates with the inspection apparatus, the array substrates in which the defect is found are sequentially loaded into the inspection unit 20, and then the inspector By inspecting the defective area in detail, it is checked whether the repair is necessary, whether the repair can be used without the need, and whether the repair is impossible.

That is, the inspector uses the MAC scope 9 located above the inspection unit 1 along the coordinates displayed on the monitors 3a and 3b to identify the defective area, and in some cases, the MIC scope 9 using the MIC scope 9. After a detailed inspection, the inspector will determine whether the defect is over or below a certain standard and repair it.

Therefore, if defects above a certain standard are found by checking the defects of the array substrate as described above, the repairing process is loaded into the repair process for repair, and the array substrate on which the defects above a certain standard are not detected is transferred to the good module by the robot 6. Is returned.

In addition, the repairable array substrate is transferred to the defective module by the robot 6, the array substrate transferred to the repair module is transferred to the repair apparatus, and the repair operation on the defective pixels is performed.

In general, when the substrate goes to the repair process, the substrate placed on the inspection unit after the coordinate data of the bad pixels is detected is conveyed by the robot 6 to the repair module.

2 is a view for explaining a defect inspection process in the array substrate failure inspection apparatus according to the prior art.

As shown in FIG. 2, since the array substrate or the color filter substrate manufacturing process is performed, the coordinates of the defective substrate and the defective region found in the electrical inspection process are used as shared data of the inspection unit. When the robot 6 moves the substrate 2 onto the inspection unit 1 from the cassettes, the adjacent monitor displays a pattern displaying the overall size of the substrate and the bad coordinates by the shared data.

At this time, the lower glass substrate of the substrate 6 placed on the inspection unit 1 is brought into contact with the test table, which is a case where a layer layer having a TFT, an insulating film, a protective film, etc. is in contact with the inspection unit 1. Because it is damaged.

Thus, the inspector generally uses the MAC / MIC scope 9 to perform inspection on the surface on which the layer layer of the substrate 2 is formed. This is to prevent damage to the elements formed on the substrate (2).

As described above, when the substrate 6 on which the defect is detected is placed on the inspection unit 1, a screen indicating the defective position coordinates of the array substrate is displayed on the first monitor (not shown) of the display unit, and the inspector When placed in a defective position through the MAC / MIC scope 9 and confirmed, it is enlarged and displayed on a second monitor (not shown) of the monitor unit.

The inspector separates the array substrate by determining whether or not a repair is required according to a defect standard.

3 is a diagram illustrating a liquid crystal display MACRO inspection system according to the prior art.

As shown in FIG. 3, a cassette 17 having a plurality of substrates sequentially subjected to the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display, a MACRO plate 13 for loading the cassette 17 and inspecting the substrate 15, The control unit 12 allows the MACRO plate 13 to be rotated at left, right, up and down and inspected, and a lamp 11 for dimming to inspect the defect of the substrate 15.

The MACRO inspection system having the above structure cannot check the fine defect film or line disconnection layered on the substrate because the scope is not arranged, but it is a system that checks the defect of the substrate with the eyes of an external inspector as a whole.

The MACRO plate 13, which is connected to the control unit 12, directly takes the substrate from the cassette 17 and moves it at various angles to inspect the appearance of the substrate. Vacuum adsorption is performed on the surface of the MACRO plate 13. Adsorption unit (not shown) is disposed to prevent the substrate from being separated from the MACRO plate 13 during the inspection.

However, the MAC / MIC inspection system and the MACRO inspection system described above are systems for inspecting unevenness, surface condition, layer defect, line breakage, etc. appearing on the substrate of the liquid crystal display as a whole. After the MACRO test is performed, the board must be unloaded and moved to the MAC / MIC test system to perform the test.

The present invention integrates the MAC / MIC inspection system and MACRO inspection system for inspecting defects of liquid crystal display substrates, so that the defects occurring on the substrates can be inspected quickly and accurately, and the substrates need to be moved to each inspection system. The purpose is to provide a liquid crystal display inspection system that can shorten the time required for inspection.

1 is a view showing a liquid crystal display MACRO / MICRO inspection system according to the prior art.

2 is a view for explaining a process of inspecting an array substrate of a liquid crystal display according to the prior art.

3 is a view showing a liquid crystal display MACRO inspection system according to the prior art.

4 is a view showing a liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of an inspection table of the liquid crystal display inspection system used in FIG. 4.

6 is a view showing the structure of the MACRO plate used in the liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention.

7 is a view for explaining a process of performing a MACRO test in the liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention.

* Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings *

21: inspection table 23: display unit

23a: first monitor 23b: second monitor

24: support 25: control unit

26: robot 27: port part

28: MACRO Plate 29: MAC / MIC Scope

In order to achieve the above object, the liquid crystal display device inspection system according to the present invention,

A port part for storing a substrate on which the manufacturing step of the liquid crystal display device is performed;

An inspection table for inspecting whether the substrates stored in the port are defective;

A robot that loads or unloads the substrates stored in the port unit according to the inspection unit;

Scopes and lamps positioned on the inspection table to inspect the surfaces of the substrates in an enlarged or precise manner;

A display unit configured to display an image in which the defective area of the substrate is enlarged by the scopes and coordinates of the defective location;

A MACRO plate coupled to form the same plane as the test table;

A support for holding and fixing the MACRO plate; And

And a control unit for controlling the robot, scope, lamp, display, and supports.

Here, the display unit is composed of a first monitor and a second monitor to display the defective area and coordinates inspected by the scopes, the lift pin is moved up and down at the edge of the MACRO plate to receive the substrate from the robot It characterized in that the hole is formed.

In particular, the adsorption portion for fixing the substrate by the vacuum adsorption is formed on the surface of the MACRO plate, the support for supporting the MACRO plate can be moved up and down the inspection table, the support is inclined along the vertical axis of the MACRO plate It can be rotated while having.

According to the present invention, by integrating the MAC / MIC inspection system for inspecting the defect of the substrate in the manufacturing step of the liquid crystal display device and the MACRO inspection system, both micro and micro inspection and visual inspection can be parallel on one inspection table. Not only can it check the defect accurately, but also has the advantage of fast and accurate inspection time.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

4 is a diagram illustrating a liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 4, a port part 27 storing a plurality of substrates in a cassette and storing the plurality of substrates in a cassette in order to inspect the defects of the substrates having undergone the liquid crystal display manufacturing process, and loading the substrates from the port part 27 Or an unloading robot 26, an inspection table 21 for seating a substrate conveyed from the port part 27, and a MAC / MIC for inspecting a defect while moving over the substrate seated on the inspection table 21. A scope 29, a display unit 23 for displaying the defects inspected by the MAC / MIC scope 29, and a control unit 25 for controlling the display unit 23 and the robot 26. It is.

The MACRO plate 28 and the support 24 for supporting the MACRO plate 28 are disposed at the center of the inspection table 21, and the display unit 23 is inspected with a MAC scope and a MIC scope 29, respectively. It consists of the 1st monitor 23a and the 2nd monitor 23b which display the fault which it becomes.

The liquid crystal display inspection system having the structure as described above inspects the defect of the substrate as follows.

First, the substrate is loaded from the port part 27 to the inspection table 21 by the robot 26. The loaded substrate is seated on the MACRO plate 28 disposed in the center of the inspection table 21. Although not shown in the figure, a lift pin disposed at the edge of the MACRO plate 28 is provided. The substrate loaded by the robot 26 is first received and seated on the inspection table 21.

When the substrate is seated on the inspection table 21, a lift pin that rises along the edge of the MACRO plate 28 descends into the MACRO plate 28, and an adsorption part disposed on the surface of the MACRO plate 28. After fixing the substrate by, the MACRO plate support 24 is raised to visually inspect the defect of the substrate.

When the MACRO test as described above is finished, the MACRO plate 28 is lowered on the test table 21 for more precise MAC / MIC test, and then the test is performed by the MAC / MIC scope 29.

In addition, although not shown in the drawing, a plurality of fixing pins disposed outside the MACRO plate 28 is disposed so that the substrate does not move from side to side during inspection.

In this way, the MACRO test can be performed immediately and then the MAC / MIC test can be performed. On the contrary, the MACRO test can be performed again after the MAC / MIC test.

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of an inspection table of the LCD display inspection system used in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 5, a groove is formed in the center of the inspection table 21 so as to have a predetermined step so that the MACRO plate 28 can be inserted into the center of the inspection table 21. At this time, the MACRO plate 28 and the inspection table 21 to maintain the same plane.

At the edge of the MACRO plate 28 disposed on the inspection table 21, a lift pin for transferring a substrate for discrimination from the robot 26 is disposed, and a hole penetrating the MACRO plate 28. You can move up and down through).

In addition, by the vertical movement of the support 24 supporting the MACRO plate 28, it is possible to proceed directly from the MAC / MIC inspection to the MACRO inspection.

That is, the liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention is used as a MAC / MIC inspection system when the MACRO plate 28 is disposed on the inspection table 21, and the support for supporting the MACRO plate 28 ( 24) rises to function as a MACRO inspection system.

6 is a diagram showing the structure of the MACRO plate used in the liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the structure of the MACRO plate coupled to the inspection table is provided with an adsorption part 32 for adsorbing and fixing the substrate, and the lift pins 31 move up and down along the edge of the MACRO plate 28. The hole is formed to move.

The adsorption part 32 formed on the MACRO plate 28 is intended to prevent the substrate from being separated and damaged when the substrate to be inspected for defects is seated and then rotated vertically and horizontally to proceed with the appearance inspection. .

The lift pin 31 that moves up and down along the edge hole of the MACRO plate 28 is moved to the lower side of the inspection table when the support is raised for the MACRO inspection.

Therefore, the substrate fixed on the MACRO plate 28 is inspected by the movement of the support in the state fixed by the adsorption unit 32 to examine the appearance of the substrate.

7 is a view for explaining a process of performing a MACRO test in the liquid crystal display inspection system according to the present invention, when performing the MACRO test by the naked eye of the tester as shown in the inspection table ( 21) At the center, the support 24 for fixing the MACRO plate 28 is raised upward.

When the MACRO plate 28 is raised, the lift pins are moved to the lower side of the inspection table 21. After the support 24 is raised, the MACRO plate 28 is rotated along the up, down, left, and right axes.

At this time, due to the combination of the MAC / MIC inspection system and the MACRO inspection system, the MAC / MIC scope and the lamp disposed above the inspection stand can be moved when performing the MACRO inspection, or the inspection table can be moved by securing a wider space. Make sure

As described above, in the present invention, after inspecting the defect on the substrate by the MAC / MIC inspection system, it is possible to immediately proceed with the MACRO inspection to shorten the movement and loading and unloading time of the substrate for inspection, as well as one Various tests can be performed on the system so that more accurate tests can be carried out.

As described in detail above, the present invention is a combination of MAC / MIC inspection equipment and MACRO inspection equipment of the inspection equipment of the liquid crystal display device can be quickly and variously inspect the defects appearing on the substrate such as naked eye, microscope, etc. It has the advantage of making accurate judgments and coping.

In addition, it is possible to simplify the inspection processor by saving the time of moving the substrate for defect inspection to the inspection equipment and loading and unloading the inspection platform.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various changes can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the gist of the present invention as claimed in the following claims.

Claims (6)

A port part for storing a substrate on which the manufacturing step of the liquid crystal display device is performed; An inspection table for inspecting whether the substrates stored in the port are defective; A robot that loads or unloads the substrates stored in the port unit according to the inspection unit; Scopes and lamps positioned on the inspection table to inspect the surfaces of the substrates in an enlarged or precise manner; A display unit configured to display an image in which the defective area of the substrate is enlarged by the scopes and coordinates of the defective location; A MACRO plate coupled to form the same plane as the test table; A support for holding and fixing the MACRO plate; And And a control unit for controlling the robot, scope, lamp, display, and supports. The method of claim 1, And the display unit comprises a first monitor and a second monitor so as to display defective areas and coordinates inspected by the scopes. The method of claim 1, And a hole through which the lift pin can move up and down in order to receive a substrate from the robot at the edge of the MACRO plate. The method of claim 1, And a suction part for fixing the substrate by vacuum suction on the surface of the MACRO plate. The method of claim 1, And a support for supporting the MACRO plate can move up and down the inspection table. The method of claim 1, And the support can rotate the MACRO plate while having an inclination along the up, down, left, and right axes.