CN108181749B

CN108181749B - Method for manufacturing liquid crystal display panel

Info

Publication number: CN108181749B
Application number: CN201711480153.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王海军
Original assignee: Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: TCL Huaxing Photoelectric Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-12-29
Filing date: 2017-12-29
Publication date: 2020-08-28
Anticipated expiration: 2037-12-29
Also published as: WO2019127752A1; CN108181749A

Abstract

The present invention provides a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, the method including the steps of: providing a color filter substrate; providing a planarization layer including a photoresist material and a conductive material on the color filter substrate and depositing the conductive material in the photoresist material; etching the planarization layer on which the conductive material has been deposited to form a planarization layer having a support pattern; disposing an alignment layer on the planarization layer; disposing a liquid crystal layer on the alignment layer; and arranging an array substrate on the liquid crystal layer so as to form a liquid crystal display panel, wherein the conductive material comprises at least one of carbon nano tubes, graphene, conductive polymers, nanoscale conductive metal wires and conductive metal particles.

Description

Method for manufacturing liquid crystal display panel

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of display, in particular to a method for manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel.

Background

At present, as the technology of a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) device becomes more mature, the display effect is obviously and greatly improved, and therefore, a higher visual effect can be presented.

Liquid crystal display technologies in which electrodes are differently disposed according to the alignment of liquid crystals include a High Vertical Alignment (HVA) technology, an in-plane switching (IPS) technology, and a Polymer Stabilized Vertical Alignment (PSVA) and the like. With the above-mentioned technology, the planarization degree of the layer where the liquid crystal is located has a large influence on the liquid crystal, and thus the alignment process is affected, and the final display effect of the liquid crystal display device is affected. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop new materials and new technologies to solve this problem.

Fig. 1 schematically shows an exploded view of a related art liquid crystal display panel. As shown in fig. 1, a liquid crystal display panel 100 according to the related art may include a color filter substrate 10, an array substrate 20, and a liquid crystal layer 30 between the color filter substrate 10 and the array substrate 20. In the color filter substrate 10, since the gate line exists at the 1-position and the data line exists at the 2-position, the convex structure exists at the 1-position and the 2-position. In addition, after the color filter film is formed, a convex structure is also present at the corresponding position of the color filter film, which may cause a difference between the 1-position and the 2-position having the convex structure and the position having no convex at the edge, so that the liquid crystal 30 will have a difference in orientation at the two positions, thereby causing problems of light leakage, color shift, and the like at the edge position of the convex. Meanwhile, due to the different transmittances of the color filter films, it is necessary to provide color filter films having different thicknesses in order to improve the color gamut (for example, the thickness of the blue color filter film is higher than the thicknesses of the red color filter film and the green color filter film, which also causes a layer difference between the different color filter films).

In the prior art, in order to solve the above technical problems, a means of providing a planarization layer on the color filter substrate 10 is generally adopted. Fig. 2 shows a color filter substrate having a planarization layer thereon according to the prior art. Although the color filter substrate 10 shown in fig. 2 having the planarization layer 40 disposed thereon can improve the alignment effect of the liquid crystal 30 and finally reduce light leakage caused by abnormal deflection of the liquid crystal 30, a process for preparing the planarization layer 40 is added in the manufacturing process of the liquid crystal display panel, thereby increasing the cost burden and being not suitable for mass production.

Disclosure of Invention

Exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept provide a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel to overcome the disadvantages of the related art described in the background art.

In an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel includes: providing a color filter substrate; providing a planarization layer including a photoresist material and a conductive material on the color filter substrate and depositing the conductive material in the photoresist material; patterning the planarization layer on which the conductive material has been deposited to form a planarization layer having a support pattern; disposing an alignment layer on the planarization layer; disposing a liquid crystal layer on the alignment layer; and arranging an array substrate on the liquid crystal layer so as to form a liquid crystal display panel, wherein the conductive material comprises at least one of carbon nano tubes, graphene, conductive polymers, nanoscale conductive metal wires and conductive metal particles.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the conductive material may have a size of 1nm to 100 nm.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the step of disposing the planarization layer may include: mixing a conductive material into the photoresist material, wherein the conductive material accounts for 0.05-20% of the photoresist material by mass percent; the conductive material is dispersed in the photoresist material.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the step of disposing the planarization layer may further include: agitation and/or sonication is used to promote dispersion of the conductive material in the photoresist.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the step of disposing the planarization layer may further include: the conductive material may be modified prior to mixing into the photoresist material, which may facilitate dispersion of the conductive material in the photoresist material.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the conductive material may include carbon nanotubes, wherein modifying the conductive material may include modifying a surface of the carbon nanotubes such that the carbon nanotubes may have groups that promote dispersion in the photoresist material.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, in the step of disposing the planarization layer, the planarization layer may have a thickness of 0.5 μm to 5 μm.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the method of disposing the planarization layer may include one of spin coating, inkjet printing, and curtain coating.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the patterning of the planarization layer may include: a photomask is placed on the deposited planarization layer, and the planarization layer covered with the photomask is exposed and developed.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the photomask may include a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask.

As described above in the section of the inventive concept, the inventive concept can simultaneously implement planarization of a substrate and preparation of a common electrode by adding a conductive material to a photoresist material used as a planarization layer so that the planarization layer and the conductive electrode can be prepared at one time.

Drawings

Fig. 1 schematically shows an exploded view of a related art liquid crystal display panel;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates a prior art schematic view of a color filter substrate having a planarization layer disposed thereon;

fig. 3 to 9 schematically illustrate a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, wherein fig. 8 is a sectional view taken along line a-a' of fig. 7.

Detailed Description

The following detailed description is provided to assist the reader in obtaining a thorough understanding of the methods, devices, and/or systems described herein. However, various changes, modifications, and equivalents of the methods, apparatus, and/or systems described herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the disclosure of the present application. For example, the order of operations described herein is merely an example and is not limited to the examples set forth herein, but rather, obvious modifications can be made in addition to the operations that must occur in a particular order, upon an understanding of the present disclosure. Moreover, descriptions of features known in the art may be omitted for the sake of clarity and conciseness.

The features described herein may be embodied in different forms and should not be construed as limited to the examples described herein. Rather, the examples described herein have been provided merely to illustrate some of the many possible ways to implement the methods, devices, and/or systems described herein that will be apparent upon understanding the present disclosure.

Throughout the specification, when an element (such as a layer, region or substrate) is described as being "on," "connected to" or "coupled to" another element, it may be directly on, "connected to" or "coupled to" the other element or one or more other elements may be present therebetween. In contrast, when an element is referred to as being "directly on," "directly connected to" or "directly coupled to" another element, there may be no intervening elements present.

As used herein, the term "and/or" includes any one of the associated listed items and any combination of any two or more.

Although terms such as "first," "second," and "third" may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers or sections should not be limited by these terms. Rather, these terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another element, component, region, layer or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed in connection with the examples described herein could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the examples.

Spatially relative terms, such as "above … …", "above", "below … …" and "below", may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element's relationship to another element as illustrated in the figures. Such spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as "above" or "over" relative to other elements would then be "below" or "beneath" relative to the other elements. Thus, the term "above … …" includes both an orientation of "above … …" and "below … …" depending on the spatial orientation of the device. The device may also be otherwise oriented (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative terms used herein should be interpreted accordingly.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing various examples only and is not intended to be limiting of the disclosure. The singular is also intended to include the plural unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. The terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having" specify the presence of stated features, quantities, operations, elements, components, and/or combinations thereof, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, quantities, operations, components, elements, and/or combinations thereof.

Variations from the shapes of the illustrations as a result, for example, of manufacturing techniques and/or tolerances, may be expected. Thus, the examples described herein are not limited to the particular shapes shown in the drawings, but include variations in shapes that occur during manufacture.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 3 to 9 schematically illustrate a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept.

As shown in fig. 3, a color filter substrate 10 is provided. According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the color filter substrate 10 may include a plurality of sub-pixel regions including sub-pixels displaying different colors in each sub-pixel region. For example, the sub-pixel regions may include an R sub-pixel region, a G sub-pixel region, and a B sub-pixel region that display red, green, and blue colors, respectively. A driving transistor and a switching transistor may be disposed in each sub-pixel region. Here, the driving transistor and the switching transistor may include a gate electrode disposed on the base substrate, and a source electrode and a drain electrode disposed on the gate insulating layer.

The configuration of the color filter substrate 10 of the exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept is described above only briefly, however, the inventive concept is not limited to the color filter substrate 10 having the above-described configuration. That is, the color filter substrate 10 according to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept may further include a black matrix, that is, the color filter substrate 10 according to the inventive concept may include a configuration of the color filter substrate 10 known in the art, and thus, a structure and a manufacturing method of the color filter substrate 10 will not be redundantly described here. The color filter substrate 10 of the liquid crystal display panel may be provided based on the prior art by those skilled in the art.

As shown in fig. 4, a planarization layer 40' is disposed on the color filter substrate 10. According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the planarization layer 40' is disposed on the color filter substrate 10 formed thereon, and includes a photoresist material 41 and a conductive material 42. The photoresist 41 may include materials of layers known in the art for planarizing the color filter substrate 10, including PS photoresist, PFA photoresist, W photoresist, etc., without being limited thereto.

For example, in one specific example according to the inventive concept, the photoresist 41 may include a photoresist, and thus, in disposing the conductive material 42 in the photoresist 41 such as a photoresist, a photoresist having a conductive effect may be formed. Here, when the photoresist 41 includes a photoresist, the type of the photoresist is not limited, and may be a positive photoresist or a negative photoresist. In one specific example of the inventive concept, a negative photoresist may be used as the photoresist 41.

The conductive material 42 may include one or more of materials such as carbon nanotubes, graphene, conductive polymers, nanoscale conductive metal lines, conductive metal particles, and the like.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the conductive material 42 may have a size of 1nm-100nm, and may be added to the planarization layer 41 in a ratio of 0.05% -20% (by mass%) of the planarization layer. After the conductive material 42 is added to the photoresist material 41, in order to promote the dispersion of the conductive material 42 in the photoresist material 41, a homogenizing means such as stirring, ultrasound, etc. may be used to uniformly distribute the conductive material 42 in the photoresist material 41.

In addition, to further increase the dispersibility of the conductive material 42 in the photoresist material 41, the conductive material 42 may be chemically modified to increase its dispersibility in the photoresist material 41. According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, when the conductive material 42 includes the carbon nanotube, the surface of the carbon nanotube may be treated and modified so that the carbon nanotube may have a group that facilitates its dispersion in the photoresist 41. Similarly, when the conductive material 42 includes graphene and other conductive materials, these conductive materials 42 may also be modified, and the specific processing manner of modification of the conductive material 42 contemplated by the present invention is not limited to the above specific examples.

After the conductive material 42 is added to the photoresist 41, the photoresist 41 including the conductive material 42 may be disposed on the color filter substrate 10 to form the planarization layer 40'. According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the planarization layer 40 may be manufactured using spin (spin), Inkjet (IJP), blade (slit), or the like, so that the planarization layer 40' having a thickness of 0.5um to 5um may be formed on the color filter substrate 10.

As shown in fig. 5, after the planarization layer 40' is provided, a conductive material 42 is deposited in a photoresist material 41 to form a planarization layer 40 "having a layered structure. According to example embodiments of the inventive concepts, a deposition process is used to deposit the conductive material 42 on a lower portion of the photoresist material 41, such that the photoresist material 41 may include a lower portion having a greater concentration of the conductive material 42 and an upper portion having less of the conductive material 42 or no conductive material 42.

Through the deposition process, the lower portion of the planarization layer 40 ″ may include a conductive material 42 at a greater concentration, so that a conductive layer having a planarized surface may be formed as a common electrode, and thus a step of forming the common electrode may be omitted. Further, as will be described below, by patterning the upper portion of the planarization layer 40' (including less conductive material 42 or not including conductive material 42), a support pattern PS (shown in fig. 7) for a cavity accommodating the liquid crystal 30 (shown in fig. 1) may be formed. Accordingly, the function of the common electrode layer, the planarization layer, and the support layer can be simultaneously achieved by the planarization layer 40 including the conductive material 42, so that the production efficiency can be improved and the process cost can be reduced.

According to example embodiments of the inventive concept, the conductive material 42 may be deposited in the photoresist material 40' in any suitable manner. For example, it may be stationary for a sufficient period of time to effect deposition of the conductive material 42. In addition, in order to improve the deposition efficiency, an accelerator for accelerating the deposition of the conductive material 42 may be added to the mixed material of the photoresist material 41 and the conductive material 42 without affecting the display quality, so as to accelerate the deposition time and increase the deposition effect. However, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto.

Furthermore, although an example in which the conductive material 42 is completely deposited on the bottom of the planarization layer 40 "(i.e., the conductive material 42 is completely deposited on the lower portion of the planarization layer 40" and the upper portion of the planarization layer 40 "is completely occupied by the photoresist material 41) is shown in fig. 5, the inventive concept is not limited to the specific example shown in fig. 5, that is, the upper portion of the planarization layer 40" may also have a small amount of the conductive material 42 due to factors such as deposition time.

As shown in fig. 6, a mask M is provided on the planarization layer 40 "on which the conductive material 42 has been deposited, and then the planarization layer 40" is patterned using the mask M as will be described below. According to an exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept, the patterning process may include a photolithography process, and thus, the planarization layer 40 ″ may be patterned using a photomask. However, exemplary embodiments of the inventive concept are not limited thereto, that is, as will be described below, the step of disposing the mask M is to pattern the planarization layer 40 ″ to form the support pattern PS (as shown in fig. 7), and thus, in order to form the support pattern PS, various patterning processes known in the art may be employed to pattern the planarization layer 40 ″, and the patterning process of the inventive concept is not limited to photolithography.

For convenience of description, in the process of forming the support pattern PS and the final planarization layer 40' ″ described below with reference to fig. 7 and 8, a photolithography process will be exemplarily described, but the inventive concept is not limited thereto. That is, other patterning processes may be used to form the support pattern PS, for example, a mask having a different etching rate may be used to etch the planarization layer 40 ″, and when such a patterning process is used, the following description of the process for forming the support layer PS should be changed accordingly, and is not limited to the following detailed description.

According to a specific example of the inventive concept, when the photomask M is used, the photomask M may include a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask. Thus, the planarization layer 40 ″ with the conductive material 42' deposited thereunder may be exposed using a photomask M, such as a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask. In this case, the photomask M may include two portions having different light transmittances, wherein a first portion a having a light transmittance of 100% (corresponding to the support pattern PS) and a second portion B having a light transmittance of less than 100% (corresponding to the final planarization layer 40' ″).

As shown in fig. 7, the planarization layer 40 ″ on which the conductive material 41 'has been deposited on the lower portion is patterned (exposed and developed) to form a planarization layer 40' ″ having a support pattern PS on the upper portion, as shown in fig. 8. One skilled in the art can control the amount of etching of the planarization layer 40 "according to process and product parameters to adjust the thickness of the final conductive planarization layer 40'" serving as a common electrode.

Here, when the final planarization layer having the support pattern PS is formed using a photolithography process, after development, the developed portion may be baked. Here, the baking temperature may be set to 200 ℃ to 250 ℃, and the baking time may be more than 20 min.

As shown in fig. 9, after the planarization layer 40 '″ having the support pattern PS is formed on the upper portion, an alignment layer may be disposed on the planarization layer 40' ″, the liquid crystal layer 30 may be disposed on the alignment layer, and the array substrate 20 may be disposed on the liquid crystal layer, and then a module process may be performed, thereby forming the liquid crystal display panel 200.

Here, the process of bonding the color filter substrate 10 and the array substrate 20 is not described in detail.

The method of manufacturing the liquid crystal display panel 200 of the exemplary embodiment of the inventive concept is described above in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. By the method, the planarization effect of the color filter substrate can be realized, and the manufacture process of the common electrode is omitted, so that the effect of reducing the process cost can be achieved. In addition, the method of the inventive concept also reduces a separate fabrication process of the support pattern, thereby reducing cost consumption and fabrication process time.

While the present disclosure includes particular examples, it will be apparent, after understanding the disclosure of the present application, that various changes in form and detail may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the claims and their equivalents. The examples described herein are to be considered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation. The description of features or aspects in each example will be considered applicable to similar features or aspects in other examples. Suitable results may be obtained if the described techniques were performed in a different order and/or if components in the described systems, architectures, devices, or circuits were combined in a different manner and/or replaced or supplemented by other components or their equivalents. Therefore, the scope of the present disclosure is defined not by the detailed description but by the claims and their equivalents, and all changes within the scope of the claims and their equivalents are to be construed as being included in the present disclosure.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display panel, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a color filter substrate;

providing a planarization layer including a photoresist material and a conductive material on the color filter substrate and depositing the conductive material in the photoresist material;

patterning the planarization layer on which the conductive material has been deposited to form a planarization layer having a support pattern;

disposing an alignment layer on the planarization layer;

disposing a liquid crystal layer on the alignment layer;

disposing an array substrate on the liquid crystal layer, thereby forming a liquid crystal display panel,

the conductive material comprises at least one of carbon nano tubes, graphene, conductive polymers, nanoscale conductive metal wires and conductive metal particles.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the conductive material has a dimension of 1nm-100 nm.

3. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein the step of providing a planarization layer comprises:

mixing a conductive material into the photoresist material, wherein the conductive material accounts for 0.05-20% of the photoresist material by mass percent;

the conductive material is dispersed in the photoresist material.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing a planarization layer further comprises: agitation and/or sonication is used to promote dispersion of the conductive material in the photoresist.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the step of providing a planarization layer further comprises: the conductive material is modified prior to mixing into the photoresist material to facilitate dispersion of the conductive material in the photoresist material.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the conductive material comprises carbon nanotubes,

wherein modifying the conductive material comprises modifying the surface of the carbon nanotubes such that the carbon nanotubes include groups that promote their dispersion in the photoresist.

7. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein in the step of disposing a planarization layer, the planarization layer has a thickness of 0.5 μm-5 μm.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the planarizing layer is provided by a method comprising at least one of spin coating, ink jet printing, and doctor blading.

9. The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein patterning the planarization layer comprises:

a photomask is placed on the planarization layer where the conductive material has been deposited,

the planarization layer covered with the photomask is exposed and developed.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the photomask comprises a half-tone mask or a gray-tone mask.