CN107058945B

CN107058945B - Mask plate

Info

Publication number: CN107058945B
Application number: CN201710262168.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 罗程远; 于东慧
Original assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Current assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-04-20
Filing date: 2017-04-20
Publication date: 2020-07-07
Anticipated expiration: 2037-04-20
Also published as: CN107058945A

Abstract

The invention discloses a mask plate, which comprises a mask plate body and an elastic supporting structure with a through hole, wherein the supporting structure is arranged on a first surface of the mask plate body, which faces a substrate, so as to form a support for the mask plate and prevent the mask plate from sagging. On the other hand, the supporting structure is arranged between the substrate and the mask plate, so that the substrate can not be contacted even if the mask plate sags, and the substrate can be prevented from being scratched after the mask plate sags.

Description

Mask plate

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of OLED manufacturing, in particular to a mask plate for OLED evaporation.

Background

The OLED display technology has the advantages of self-luminescence, wide viewing angle, high contrast, low power consumption, fast response speed, etc., and is widely concerned by people and known as the next generation display technology.

The field of OLEDs generally implements the production of thin films by solution production and evaporation production, and the definition of the film-forming range is implemented by masks. However, in practical use, especially when a large-size panel is manufactured, the edges and the middle connecting strips of the mask plate often sag due to the action of gravity, and after the sagging mask plate contacts the evaporated substrate, the substrate is scratched, and the deviation of a film forming area occurs.

In the prior art, a dot-shaped object support is usually manufactured on a mask plate to support the mask plate, but although the technical scheme improves the sagging of the mask plate, an independent dot-shaped object structure is easy to peel off, the support effect is influenced, and pollution is formed.

The above information disclosed in this background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not constitute prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Disclosure of Invention

It is a primary object of the present invention to overcome at least one of the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art and to provide a mask which is prevented from sagging.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a mask plate to protect a substrate, so as to prevent the mask plate from directly contacting the substrate to cause scratches.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:

according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mask, wherein the mask comprises a mask body and an elastic support structure, the mask body having a first surface facing a substrate; the elastic supporting structure is coated on the first surface, preferably in a coating mode; the elastic support structure is provided with through holes, and the through holes are preferably uniformly distributed on the elastic support structure.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the through hole is a triangular through hole.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic support structure is an integrally formed structure.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the resilient support structure is formed using photolithographic techniques.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the elastic support structure is made of a material having a viscosity of 10cp to 500000 cp.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic support structure is made of a resin material, an acrylic material or an acrylic material.

According to an embodiment of the invention, wherein the thickness of the resilient support structure is 1-10 μm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the width of the mask between adjacent triangular through holes is less than or equal to 200 μm.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mask is made of a metal material.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mask is made of stainless steel or invar alloy.

According to the technical scheme, the mask plate has the advantages and positive effects that: the mask plate provided by the invention comprises an elastic supporting structure, wherein the elastic supporting structure is arranged on the first surface of the mask plate body facing to the substrate so as to form a support for the mask plate and prevent the mask plate from sagging. On the other hand, the supporting structure is arranged between the substrate and the mask plate, so that the substrate can not be contacted even if the mask plate sags, and the substrate can be prevented from being scratched after the mask plate sags. Furthermore, the elastic supporting structure is an integrally formed structure, so that the firmness of the elastic supporting structure is increased, the mask plate can be better supported, and the mask plate is prevented from sagging. Furthermore, the elastic support structure is a support structure with triangular through holes, which has better support stability to further prevent the mask plate from sagging.

Drawings

Various objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. The drawings are merely exemplary of the invention and are not necessarily drawn to scale. In the drawings, like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the different views. Wherein:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a flexible support structure according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a flexible support structure according to an exemplary embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating a flexible support structure according to an exemplary embodiment.

Detailed Description

Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings. Example embodiments may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of example embodiments to those skilled in the art. The same reference numerals in the drawings denote the same or similar structures, and thus their detailed description will be omitted.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, in an embodiment of the present invention, a mask may include a mask body and an elastic supporting structure 2 disposed on a first surface of the mask body facing a substrate, that is, the elastic supporting structure 2 may be disposed between the mask body and the substrate, and it can be understood that the elastic supporting structure 2 is disposed below the mask body to support the mask body well and prevent the mask body from sagging. In another aspect, because the elastic support structure 2 can be arranged between the mask plate body and the substrate, even if the mask plate body sags, the elastic support structure can not directly contact the substrate, so that the substrate can be prevented from being scratched due to the direct contact between the mask plate body and the substrate, and the elastic support structure 2 plays a good role in protecting the substrate. Furthermore, the elastic support structure 2 can be an integrally formed structure, which increases the firmness of the elastic support structure 2, and can better support the mask plate to prevent the mask plate from sagging. Further, the elastic support structure 2 may be a support structure having a triangular through hole, which has better support stability to further prevent the mask from sagging.

Referring to fig. 1 to 3, in order to enable the evaporation material to smoothly pass through the elastic support structure 2 to be evaporated onto a product, through holes may be provided on the elastic support structure 2, and the through holes are preferably uniformly distributed on the elastic support structure, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the through holes may be triangular through holes, and the elastic support structure 2 having the triangular through holes may have better support stability under the condition of the same contact area with the mask body, but not limited thereto, and the shape of the through holes of the elastic support structure 2 may be set as required, and is within the protection scope of the present invention.

With reference to fig. 1 to 3, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic supporting structure 2 may be an integrally formed structure to improve the supporting effect, so as to increase the robustness of the elastic supporting structure 2, and prevent the mask plate from contacting the glass substrate after sagging, thereby reducing the friction damage to the glass substrate, but not limited thereto. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic support structure 2 may be formed by photolithography, but is not limited thereto.

With continued reference to fig. 1 to 3, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic support structure 2 may be made of a material with a viscosity of 10cp to 500000cp, for example, but not limited to, the elastic support structure 2 may be made of a resin material, an acrylic material or an acrylic material, and specifically, the formed mask plate may be first cleaned and dried; coating the material on the corresponding position of the elastic supporting structure 2 according to a triangular pattern; and then the materials are subjected to UV curing or heating for curing, so that the mask plate provided by the invention is formed. In an embodiment of the present invention, the material may be coated by strip coating (strip coating) or dispensing (dispensing), but not limited thereto.

With continued reference to fig. 1 to 3, according to an embodiment of the present invention, the thickness of the elastic support structure 2 may be 1 to 10 μm, and compared to the mask plate support frame for OLED evaporation in the prior art, the thickness of the elastic support structure 2 in the present invention is smaller, so that the evaporation precision can be higher; on the other hand, since the elastic support structure 2 is coated on the surface of the mask body, the adhesion between the elastic support structure and the mask body is better, so that the evaporation precision is further improved, but not limited to this, the thickness of the elastic support structure 2 can be selected according to actual needs, and the invention is within the protection scope. The flexible support structure 2 may be coated by spin coating or coating (coating) front coating. Specifically, firstly, the formed mask plate can be cleaned and dried; coating the elastic support structure 2 on the lath of the mask plate body; and exposing the coated whole elastic supporting structure 2 to form a required triangular through hole on the elastic supporting structure 2, so that the mask plate provided by the invention can be formed. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the width of the strip between adjacent triangular through holes may be less than or equal to 200 μm. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the elastic support structure 2 may be a resin material, an acrylic material, or other flexible or slightly elastic material, so as to have a certain support property. The elastic support structure defined by the invention not only has good rigidity to support the mask plate, but also has good elasticity to prevent the mask plate from contacting with the substrate, thereby being capable of well preventing scraping.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the mask may be made of a metal material. For example, but not limiting of, the mask may be made of stainless steel or invar.

The described features, structures, or characteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. In the above description, numerous specific details are provided to give a thorough understanding of embodiments of the invention. One skilled in the relevant art will recognize, however, that the invention may be practiced without one or more of the specific details, or with other methods, components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-known structures, materials, or operations are not shown or described in detail to avoid obscuring aspects of the invention.

Claims

1. A mask plate, characterized in that, the mask plate includes:

a mask body having a first surface facing the substrate;

an elastic support structure disposed on the first surface;

the elastic support structure is provided with through holes, the through holes are triangular through holes, the width of the mask plate between every two adjacent triangular through holes is smaller than or equal to 200 mu m, and the elastic support structure is made of a material with the viscosity of 10-500000 cp; the elastic supporting structure is an integrally formed structure and is made of resin materials, acrylic materials or acrylic materials; the elastic supporting structure is formed by coating in a strip coating or dispensing mode.

2. A mask according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the elastic support structure is 1-10 μm.

3. A mask according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the mask is made of a metal material.

4. A mask as claimed in claim 3, wherein the mask is made of stainless steel or invar alloy.