JP3554432B2 - Method for manufacturing plasma display panel - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a plasma display panel.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Various methods have been proposed as a method of manufacturing a plasma display panel, and the following are typical ones.
That is, first, an electrode or the like is provided on each of the opposing surfaces of the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate, and a through hole is provided on an outer portion of the front glass substrate, and the surface of the glass substrate communicates with the through hole. A tip tube, which is a glass tube for air supply and exhaust, is attached. Then, a sealing agent such as low-melting glass is applied to at least one of the opposing surfaces of the two glass substrates and outside the through hole.
Then, the electrodes of both glass substrates are overlapped so as to be opposed and orthogonal to each other, and both are fixed with a restraining jig such as a clip, and the two glass substrates are sealed and integrated by heating and melting a sealing agent in a sealing furnace. Panel.
[0003]
Next, a supply / exhaust pipe was connected to the chip pipe of the panel integrated with the sealing, and the supply / exhaust pipe was connected to a discharge gas cylinder and a vacuum pump so as to be switchable, and was charged into an exhaust furnace. The panels are heated and the inside of each panel is evacuated to a predetermined vacuum level by a vacuum pump to perform degassing. Thereafter, a discharge gas, for example, neon (Ne), argon (Ar) or xenon (Xe), or a mixed gas thereof is sealed up to about 400 to 600 Torr inside the panel.
When the enclosing operation is completed, the panel is extracted from the exhaust furnace, and the chip tube is sealed to obtain a predetermined plasma display panel.
[0004]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described conventional method, after the sealing process of the two glass substrates, the discharge gas is encapsulated after the evacuation of the inside of the panel, but the inside of the panel is formed substantially by the mating surface of the two glass substrates. Since the gap (space) is very narrow and the gap (space) has a partition wall of less than 100 to 200 μm, it takes a very long time to exhaust gas for degassing and the productivity is increased. In addition to being very bad, there is a problem that the exhaust gas is insufficient and the purity of the discharge gas inside the panel is reduced.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a plasma display that can exhaust (degas) the inside of a panel in a short time.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, in the method of manufacturing a plasma display panel according to the present invention, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate are overlapped at predetermined intervals such that their electrodes are opposed and orthogonal to each other. A step of positioning the stacked glass substrates in a furnace and evacuating the furnace at a predetermined temperature under a predetermined temperature, and a step of heating the furnace to a sealing temperature to seal both glass substrates. A step of cooling the inside of the furnace after sealing the glass substrates to cool both glass substrates, a step of supplying a discharge gas from a chip tube attached to any one of the glass substrates after the completion of cooling, and enclosing the discharge gas, And sealing the chip tube after sealing.
[0006]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
First, as in the conventional case, the front glass substrate A and the rear glass substrate B provided with electrodes and partitions on the opposing surfaces are mounted on the mounting mechanism 1 installed in the exhaust furnace T and positioned in the closed furnace T. As shown in FIG. 2, the mounting mechanism 1 includes a plurality of back glass substrate setters 3 fixed at predetermined intervals to four slide guides 2 (only two front guides are shown in the figure). A setter 4 for a front glass substrate is slidably mounted on a slide guide 2 above each setter 3 for a rear glass substrate, and each setter 4 for a front glass substrate is attached to a driving rod 5 by the back glass. It is fixed at the same interval as the substrate setter 3 and can move up and down together with the drive rod 5. On the other hand, the drive rod 5 penetrates the ceiling of the furnace body 10 via the bellows vacuum seal device 6 and moves up and down by a ball screw mechanism 8 rotated by a motor 7.
[0007]
The lower portion of the furnace body 10 is connected to a vacuum exhaust device (not shown) via a pipe 11 via a switching valve V1, and a pipe 12 is provided in the furnace so as to pass through the lower portion of the furnace body 10. Is connected to a discharge gas cylinder, for example, a cylinder 13 of neon (Ne), argon (Ar), or xenon (Xe) via a switching valve V2. A plurality of branch pipes 12a are provided inside the furnace of the pipe 12.
[0008]
Since the exhaust furnace T has the above-described configuration, the charging door (not shown) of the exhaust furnace T is opened (the state of FIG. 1), and the outer peripheral portion of the facing surface of the rear glass substrate B is made of crystalline low melting point glass or the like. Is applied, and the rear glass substrate B is mounted on the rear glass substrate setter 3 of the mounting mechanism 1 with the facing surface facing upward. On the other hand, the front glass substrate A is mounted on the front glass substrate setter 4 with its facing surface facing downward.
[0009]
A through-hole is provided on the loading door side of the rear glass substrate B on the side closer to the loading door than the portion where the sealing agent 20 is applied, and a chip communicating with the opposing surface through this through-hole. A tube 21 is attached in advance with a sealing agent having a higher melting temperature than the sealing agent 20, and the chip tube 21 penetrates the setter 3 for the rear glass substrate.
[0010]
Next, when the two glass substrates A and B are attached to the mounting mechanism 1 as described above, the tip tube 21 is connected to each branch tube 12a of the pipe 12, and the motor 7 is driven to drive the two glass substrates A and B. It is set so that a predetermined gap x (0.1 to 0.2 mm) is formed between B.
Thereafter, the charging door is closed, the inside of the furnace is heated to 300 to 400 ° C. by a heater (not shown), the switching valve V1 is opened, and the inside of the furnace is evacuated by the vacuum exhaust device. Perform gas. The switching valve V2 is closed. In this case, the heating rate of the furnace is 5 to 15 ° C./min, and the exhaust is about 10 −6 to 10 −7 Torr. Further, in order to more reliably perform the degassing, the temperature of both glass substrates A and B may be raised to around the softening point of the sealing agent of about 300 to 400 ° C., and thereafter, the glass substrate may be kept at a uniform temperature for a certain time.
[0011]
As described above, when the inside of the furnace is set to a predetermined degree of vacuum and the evacuation of the furnace and the degassing from both glass substrates A and B are completed, the inside of the furnace is further heated to the melting temperature of the sealing agent 20 of 400 to 500. ° C, the motor 7 is driven, the drive rod 5 is lowered, and the front glass substrate A is pressed onto the rear glass substrate B. In this pressing step, both glass substrates A and B are sealed to form a panel. .
As described above, when the sealing step is completed, an inert gas such as N2 gas is supplied into the furnace from a supply pipe (not shown) to cool the glass substrates A and B at a cooling rate of 1 to 10 ° C./min. Do.
[0012]
After the completion of the cooling step, the switching valve V1 is closed and the switching valve V2 is opened to discharge gas from the pipe 12 and the chip pipe 21 into each panel at a specified pressure (400 to 760 Torr). In this case, since the inside of the panel is evacuated, the discharge gas is filled in a very short time.
When the filling of the discharge gas into the panel is completed, the charging door of the exhaust furnace T is opened, and the tip tube 21 is melted by a burner or the like, the tube diameter is reduced, and the chip tube 21 is sealed to form a predetermined plasma display panel. Is taken out of the furnace.
[0013]
As shown in FIG. 1, the pipe 12 is connected to a vacuum exhaust device (not shown) via a switching valve V3, and before the discharge gas is filled, during the cooling period after the sealing step or After the cooling is completed, the inside of the panel may be further evacuated, and then the switching valves V2 and V3 may be switched to supply the discharge gas. By doing so, the discharge gas sealed in the panel can be made higher in purity.
[0014]
In the above embodiment, the case where the chip tube 21 is previously attached to the rear glass substrate B and charged into the furnace has been described, but the chip tube 21 may be provided on the front glass substrate A. Attachment of the tube 21 to the glass substrates A and B is performed by incorporating a sealing agent 20 into an attachment portion between the chip tube 21 and the glass substrates A and B, and simultaneously heating the glass substrates A and B during the sealing step. It may be sealed.
Further, the glass substrates A and B, the sealing agent 20 and the like may be heated in advance at a temperature lower than the sealing temperature, and then dried and calcined. In this case, the outgas is reduced, the contamination in the furnace is reduced, the purity of the furnace atmosphere can be improved, and the stability of sealing is improved.
[0015]
Although a batch process has been described in the above embodiment, a glass substrate may be positioned in a muffle and the muffle may be conveyed continuously or intermittently in a furnace for processing.
[0016]
【The invention's effect】
As is apparent from the above description, according to the first aspect of the present invention, the entire surface glass substrate and the rear glass substrate are heated at a predetermined temperature with a predetermined gap before the sealing, and the inside of the furnace is exhausted. As a result, degassing is performed, so that the degassing time can be shortened and the gas can be reliably discharged, and the productivity can be improved accordingly.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an exhaust furnace used in the present invention.
FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of the mounting mechanism of FIG. 1;
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mounting mechanism, 10 ... Furnace main body, 13 ... Discharge gas cylinder, 20 ... Sealing agent, 21 ... Chip tube, A ... Surface glass substrate, B ... Back glass substrate, T ... Closed furnace.

Claims (1)

A step of superposing the front glass substrate and the rear glass substrate at predetermined intervals such that their electrodes are opposed and orthogonal to each other, and positioning the superposed glass substrates in a furnace and evacuating the furnace at a predetermined temperature. A step of heating the inside of the furnace to a sealing temperature to seal both glass substrates, a step of cooling the furnace after sealing the glass substrates to cool both glass substrates, and A method of manufacturing a plasma display panel, comprising: supplying a discharge gas from a chip tube attached to the glass substrate to seal the chip tube; and sealing the chip tube after the discharge gas is sealed.

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