JP2011162394A - Apparatus for dividing substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an apparatus for dividing a substrate, in which a mother substrate can quickly be divided into parts without damaging a terminal region of a unit display panel even when the terminal region is formed on the divided surface of the unit display panels of the divided mother substrate. <P>SOLUTION: The apparatus for dividing the substrate comprises: first and second cutter wheels arranged up and down; and a pair of tables 1, 2 for individually holding the mother substrate W divided right and left by a scribe-scheduled line. The divided surface of the unit display panels U1, U2 is formed into such a stepped shape that the side of the second substrate is projected from the side of the first substrate and the terminal region is formed on the stepped portion. A moving means 13 is arranged for moving at least one holding member to the direction separated from/inclined toward the other holding member. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a substrate cutting apparatus for cutting a mother substrate (also referred to as a bonded substrate or a bonded mother substrate) on which a plurality of unit display panel patterns are formed.
The “scribe groove” used in the description of the present specification refers to the inside of a substrate when a brittle material substrate to be processed is scribed and a fracture phenomenon of the brittle material substrate is generated from the substrate surface. It refers to a crack formed by progressing.
The brittle material substrate to be processed refers to a substrate used for a flat display panel such as a glass substrate, a semiconductor wafer, quartz, and ceramic.
The above-mentioned “scribe process” refers to a process of forming a crack using brittle fracture in the process of a brittle material substrate. Then, cutting the substrate (to a panel) by breaking along the scribe line formed by the scribe process is called “dividing”. In addition, when scribing is performed using a highly permeable cutter wheel, cracks that are deep enough to make it unnecessary to break may be formed. "Separate".

  Hereinafter, a liquid crystal display panel will be described as an example. A mother substrate for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel includes a first substrate (also referred to as a CF side substrate) on which a plurality of color filters are patterned, and a second substrate (also referred to as a TFT side substrate) on which a plurality of TFTs and terminal regions are patterned. Are attached to each other with a sealing material enclosing the liquid crystal in between. At this time, the second substrate is bonded so that the substrate surface on which the TFT and the terminal region are formed becomes a bonding surface with the first substrate.

  The terminal area of the second substrate needs to be exposed because it is an area where the signal line is connected between the TFT and the external device. Therefore, when the mother substrate is divided for each unit display panel, the portion of the first substrate (CF side substrate) facing the terminal region is removed as an end material. Specifically, the width required to divide the second substrate side along the outer edge of the terminal area opposite to the side to which the TFT is connected, and to attach the signal line from the outer edge of the terminal area. The first substrate is cut at a position that is inside (terminal width). Thereby, the part of the first substrate facing the terminal area is cut off as an end material.

  Generally, in the process of dividing the mother substrate for each unit display panel, a cutting method using a cutter wheel is used. In that case, a cutter wheel is pressed against each of the two substrates (CF side substrate and TFT side substrate) constituting the mother substrate at a planned dividing position (scheduled scribe line), and a scribe groove is formed on each substrate. Next, the mother substrate is completely divided for each unit display panel along the scribe groove. As this dividing method, a mechanical break method is used in which a force is applied to the left and right substrates with the scribe groove as a boundary, or one of the left and right substrates is pulled horizontally to break. Then, each divided unit display panel is transferred to a subsequent process by a carry-out robot.

  For example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose a substrate processing system (substrate cutting system) and a substrate processing method in which scribe grooves are simultaneously formed on two upper and lower surfaces of a mother substrate and the substrate is processed without being inverted. Yes. According to these documents, a mother board is scribed simultaneously from two directions using a pair of upper and lower cutter wheels. Next, the two surfaces are separated at the same time and divided into unit display panels.

Here, processing of the terminal area when the mother substrate is divided into unit display panels will be described. FIG. 10 is a view showing a state in which a scribe groove is formed in a portion of the unit display panel where the terminal region is formed, and FIG. 11 is a view showing a state in which the scribe groove is divided along the formed scribe groove.
Three scribe lines for forming a terminal area are set at the boundary between the left unit display panel U1 and the right unit display panel U2, and three scribe grooves are processed along these lines. . As shown in FIG. 10, the first scribe groove S1 and the second scribe groove S2 are formed so that the respective processing end faces are aligned with the first substrate G1 and the second substrate G2. The third scribe groove S3 is formed at a position separated from the scribe groove S1 by the terminal width L on the first substrate side.

Then, by breaking along the three scribe grooves S1 to S3, two cut surfaces Ca and Cb are formed as shown in FIG.
Among these, the cut surface composed of the first scribe groove S1 and the second scribe groove S2 is referred to as a just cut surface Ca. The just cut surface Ca is a surface that separates the unit display panel U1 and the unit display panel U2 so as to have the same end surface.

  A cut surface formed only on the first substrate G1 side at a position separated from the just cut surface Ca by the terminal width L is referred to as a terminal cut surface Cb. The terminal cut surface Cb is a cut surface that is divided to expose the terminal surface of the terminal region T. And the end material E generate | occur | produces in the 1st board | substrate G1 between the just cut surface Ca and the terminal cut surface Cb.

  In an actual manufacturing process, the end material E may be in a state of being attached to the just cut surface Ca or a state of being attached to the terminal cut surface Cb. Therefore, even if the end material E is attached to the just cut surface Ca or attached to the terminal cut surface Cb, it is necessary to perform an additional break process to make it non-defective.

  Therefore, two types of break mechanisms corresponding to each adhesion state are prepared separately, it is judged which of the two types of adhesion states is selected, a break mechanism is selected according to the adhesion state of the end material E, and added. It is necessary to perform the breaking process, and two breaking mechanisms are required, which complicates the breaking process.

  Therefore, a dividing method is disclosed in which the end material E is always adhered to the just cut surface Ca, and the end material E is surely separated using a single type of break mechanism in the next step ( (See Patent Document 3).

  According to the dividing method described in this document, when scribing with a cutter wheel, first the first substrate G1 (CF side substrate) is processed, and then turned upside down to be the second substrate G2 (TFT side substrate). We process about. In this scribing process, the pressing force of the cutter wheel for processing the second scribe groove S2 and the third scribe groove S3 is increased, and the pressing force of the cutter wheel for processing the first scribe groove S1 is decreased. . By giving strength to the scribe in this way, the depth of the scribe groove is adjusted so that the end material E is always adhered to the just cut surface Ca side as shown in FIG. Can do. As a result, the end material E can be efficiently removed only by preparing one type of break mechanism.

International Publication WO2005 / 087458 International Publication No. WO2002 / 057192 JP 2008-056507 A

  However, when the end material E adheres to the just cut surface Ca side, the end material E protrudes to the outside of the just cut surface Ca as shown in FIG. That is, the divided cross sections of the unit display panels U1 and U2 are formed in steps. Hereinafter, in the present invention, this form is referred to as “offset shape”. Therefore, if a force is applied to pull the unit display panel U1 toward the first substrate G1 before the right unit display panel U2 is taken out and the unit display panel U1 is pulled upward, the terminals of the unit display panel U1 are displayed. The area is pressed in contact with the end material E. At this time, if the end material E is firmly attached to the just cut surface Ca on the unit display panel U2 side, the terminal region may be damaged.

  Further, in the break means (see Patent Document 1) for moving the unit display panel U1 in the horizontal direction and separating it, the end material E adhering to the first substrate and the terminal area T of the unit display panel U1 move horizontally by surface contact. The terminal region may be damaged due to friction, and there is a problem that the production yield deteriorates.

  Therefore, the present invention provides a substrate cutting apparatus that can quickly cut without damaging the terminal area of the unit display panel even when the divided display of the unit display panels U1 and U2 of the divided mother substrate has an offset shape. The purpose is to provide.

In the present invention, as a premise, the mother substrate to be processed by the substrate cutting apparatus has a structure in which the first substrate and the second substrate are bonded together, and a plurality of scribe schedules are respectively provided on the first substrate and the second substrate of the mother substrate. Line is set. And the board | substrate cutting device of this invention forms the level | step difference which the 2nd board | substrate side protruded from the 1st board | substrate side by dividing | segmenting a mother board | substrate along several scribe lines, and a terminal area | region is formed in a level | step-difference part. A substrate cutting device for forming a unit display panel.
And in order to solve the said subject, the board | substrate cutting device of this invention is equipped with the following structures. That is, the substrate cutting apparatus according to the present invention includes a pair of first and second cutter wheels disposed above and below the mother substrate, and a pair of mother substrates that are individually divided into left and right by a scheduled scribe line. The holding member is provided, and at least one holding member is provided with a moving means for moving in an oblique direction in a direction separating from the other holding member.

  According to the substrate cutting apparatus of the present invention, at least one of the pair of holding members that individually hold the mother substrate divided into the left and right by the scribe line is arranged in a direction away from the other holding member and the first substrate. Move diagonally toward the side. As a result, the end material (the end material portion of the first substrate and the terminal region portion of the second substrate) can be instantaneously separated from the surface of the terminal region, and damage to the terminal region due to friction or the like can be ensured. In addition to being able to prevent, there is an effect that the time required for dividing can be shortened.

In the above invention, the holding member moving means includes a vertical moving body attached to the support column so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and the holding member is arranged so as to be movable in the horizontal direction on the upper surface of the vertical moving body. The holding member may be moved obliquely upward by synchronizing and moving the vertical moving body.
Thereby, the table can be reliably moved in an oblique direction in a stable state.

The perspective view which shows the scribe mechanism part of the board | substrate cutting device concerning this invention. The front view which shows a part of said scribe mechanism and table moving means. The figure which shows the 1st process of the process sequence when scribing the mother board | substrate of FIG. The figure which shows the 2nd process of the process sequence when scribing the mother board | substrate of FIG. The figure which shows the state which divided | segmented the mother board | substrate of FIG. The figure which shows another state which divided | segmented the mother board | substrate of FIG. The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The principal part enlarged view of FIG. The figure which shows the state which formed the scribe groove | channel in the part of the terminal area | region of a unit display panel. The figure which shows the state divided | segmented along the formed scribe groove | channel. Example of separation state when the pressing force of the cutter wheel when processing the second scribe groove S2 and the third scribe groove S3 is increased and the pressing force of the cutter wheel when processing the first scribe groove S1 is decreased FIG.

Hereinafter, details of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing embodiments thereof.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a scribe mechanism portion in a substrate cutting apparatus M according to the present invention.

  The substrate cutting apparatus M includes horizontal tables 1 and 2 as holding members for holding a mother substrate to be processed. First and second cutter wheels 3 and 3 for forming scribe grooves so as to sandwich the table above and below the tables 1 and 2 are arranged. The tables 1 and 2 include a front table 1 and a rear table 2 that are divided along the X direction (front-rear direction) in FIG. 1, and the cutter wheels 3 and 3 are positioned between the tables 1 and 2. Are arranged as follows. The tables 1 and 2 have a suction function for sucking and holding the mother substrate W (see FIG. 2). Further, a transport mechanism (not shown) for moving the mother substrate W in the Y direction on the table is provided.

  The cutter wheels 3 and 3 are attached to support bodies 4 and 4 so as to be movable up and down. The support bodies 4 and 4 are upper and lower guide bars 6 and 6 that are horizontally bridged in the X direction by support pillars 5 and 5 on both sides. The guides 7 and 7 are movably attached along the guides 7 and 7 and moved in the X direction by the rotation of the motors 8 and 8.

  Cameras 10 and 10 are provided on pedestals 9 and 9 that can move in the X and Y directions, respectively. The bases 9 and 9 move along the guides 11 extending in the X direction on the support base 9a. The cameras 10 and 10 can be moved up and down by manual operation, and the focus of imaging can be adjusted. Images captured by the cameras 10 and 10 are displayed on the monitors 12 and 12.

  An alignment mark for specifying the position is provided on the surface of the mother substrate W placed on the tables 1 and 2, and the position of the mother substrate W is obtained by imaging the alignment mark with the cameras 10 and 10. Adjust. Specifically, the alignment marks on the surface of the mother substrate W supported by the tables 1 and 2 are imaged by the cameras 10 and 10 to specify the positions of the alignment marks. Based on the position of the specified alignment mark, the position and the direction deviation at the time of mounting the surface of the mother substrate W are detected by image processing. As a result, when scribing to the mother board, the scribe start position is changed with respect to the positional deviation, and the scribe line is formed by the linear interpolation operation combining the scribe operations in the X-axis and Y-axis directions with respect to the direction deviation. .

  As shown in FIG. 2, at least one of the tables 1 and 2 (the front table 1 in this embodiment) is moved away from the other table 2 by the moving means 13 and obliquely upward or diagonally. It is formed so that it can move downward. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 2, the moving means 13 includes a vertical moving body 15 that is attached to the support column 14 so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and the table 1 is horizontal along the rail 16 on the upper surface of the vertical moving body 15. It is arranged so that it can move in the direction (Y direction). By moving the table 1 and the vertical moving body 15 in synchronism and electrically moving, the table 1 can be moved diagonally upward or diagonally away from the other table 2. It is configured to be movable downward.

  When dividing the mother substrate W, as shown in FIG. 2, the mother substrate W is placed at a predetermined position (the planned scribe line is on the extension of the cutter wheel 3) with the first substrate (TFT side substrate) of the mother substrate W facing upward. At the position where it comes, it is placed on the tables 1 and 2 and sucked and held. Next, the cutter wheels 3 and 3 are pressed against the mother substrate W along the scheduled scribe line from above and below to scribe.

  At this time, scribing is performed so that the divided sections of the divided unit display panels U1 and U2 have an offset shape as shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. 7, in a state where the cutter wheels 3 and 3 are laterally separated by the terminal width L, the first substrate G1 and the second substrate G2 are pressed with a strong pressing force and scribed, The second scribe groove S2 and the third scribe groove S3 are processed. Next, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8, the first scribe groove S1 is processed with a weak force on the first substrate G1 at a position facing the second scribe groove S3. At this time, a downward direction when processing the first scribe groove S1 by applying a roller wheel (not shown) having no cutting edge to the position of the second substrate G2 facing the third scribe groove S3. It is preferable to provide a resistance against this force. In that case, when the first scribe groove S1 is machined, a roller wheel having a lifting mechanism similar to this is disposed in parallel with the lower support 4 in FIG. Can be activated.

  Thereafter, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 9, the moving table 13 moves the front table 1 obliquely upward in the direction away from the rear table 2 to divide the mother substrate W, and unit display panels U1, U2 Is processed. The unit display panel U2 to which the end material E is attached is cut from the first scribe groove S1 in the next step.

  Thereby, it can divide instantaneously without making the surface of a terminal area | region contact, while being able to prevent damage to the terminal area | region T by friction etc. reliably, the time which division | segmentation requires can be shortened. Further, when the part is divided, there is no contact between the parts that overlap in the offset shape (the end material part E of the unit display panel U2 and the terminal area part of the unit display panel U1), and the terminal area T can be divided without being damaged. .

  In the above embodiment, when the mother substrate W is divided, the mother substrate W is sucked and held on the tables 1 and 2 with the first substrate (TFT-side substrate) of the mother substrate W facing upward. On the contrary, after the mother substrate W is sucked and held on the table with the first substrate (TFT side substrate) of the mother substrate W facing down, the table 1 is moved to an arrow as shown in FIG. You may make it divide by moving to the diagonally downward shown by.

  As mentioned above, although the typical Example of this invention was described, this invention is not necessarily specified to said embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, only the front table can be moved in the oblique direction via the moving means, but it is also possible to form the front and rear tables so that they can be moved obliquely. The moving means may have any structure as long as the mechanism can stably move the table obliquely. For example, the table can be moved in an oblique direction via a link mechanism. Others The present invention can be appropriately modified and changed within the scope of achieving the object and without departing from the scope of the claims.

  In the above embodiment, the table is moved in the Y direction. However, if the table is divided in the XY direction, the table can be moved in the X direction along with the Y direction, and can be obliquely moved two-dimensionally. .

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for a substrate cutting device that scribes a mother substrate for a liquid crystal panel and divides it into unit display panels.

W substrate G1 first substrate G2 second substrate 1 front table (holding member)
2 Rear table (holding member)
3 1st, 2nd cutter wheel 13 Moving means 14 Support pillar 15 Vertical moving body

Claims (2)

A mother substrate to be processed has a structure in which a first substrate and a second substrate are bonded together, and a plurality of scribe lines are set on the first substrate and the second substrate of the mother substrate,
By dividing the mother substrate along the plurality of scribe lines, the second substrate side is divided into unit display panels in which a step protruding from the first substrate side is formed and a terminal region is formed in the step portion. A substrate cutting apparatus for
A first cutter wheel and a second cutter wheel arranged above and below the mother board,
It consists of a pair of holding members that individually hold mother boards that are divided into left and right by the plurality of scribe lines,
A substrate cutting apparatus, wherein at least one holding member is provided with moving means for moving in an oblique direction in a direction separating from the other holding member. The holding member moving means includes a vertical moving body attached to a support column so as to be movable in the vertical direction, and the holding member is arranged so as to move in a horizontal direction on an upper surface of the vertical moving body, and 2. The substrate cutting apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the holding member is moved obliquely upward by moving the vertical moving body in synchronization.

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