CN111276524B

CN111276524B - Manufacturing method of array substrate, array substrate and display panel

Info

Publication number: CN111276524B
Application number: CN202010090661.3A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 贾立; 高涛
Original assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd; Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Current assignee: BOE Technology Group Co Ltd; Chengdu BOE Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-02-13
Filing date: 2020-02-13
Publication date: 2022-07-22
Anticipated expiration: 2040-02-13
Also published as: CN111276524A

Abstract

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method of manufacturing an array substrate, and a display panel; the manufacturing method comprises the following steps: forming an isolation column on a substrate base plate; setting an anode material, and performing a composition process on the anode material to form an anode layer and a protective layer wrapping the isolation column; and removing the protective layer to expose the isolation column through a patterning process. According to the scheme provided by the specification, the anode layer and the isolation column are respectively formed in different manufacturing procedures, and when the anode layer is formed, the protective layer coated on the isolation column is formed through the anode material, and the isolation column is isolated from silver ions through the protective layer, so that the generation of a silver monomer is effectively prevented, the formation of a dark spot in an effective display area is avoided, and the display quality is ensured.

Description

Manufacturing method of array substrate, array substrate and display panel

Technical Field

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to the field of display technologies, and in particular, to a manufacturing method of an array substrate, and a display panel.

Background

With the development and update of Display technologies, Organic electroluminescent Display devices (OLEDs for short) have gradually become mainstream products in the Display field due to their characteristics of self-luminescence, high brightness, high contrast, low operating voltage, and capability of manufacturing flexible displays.

To realize the image capturing function, referring to fig. 1, the OLED display panel needs to have an opening Area in an Active Area (AA Area for short) for disposing an image capturing component. However, in the display panel manufactured by the related art, there are many dark spots (also called dead spots) in the AA area near the opening area, which seriously affects the normal display.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of this, an object of one or more embodiments of the present disclosure is to provide a method for manufacturing an array substrate, an array substrate and a display panel.

In view of the above, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for manufacturing an array substrate, including:

forming an isolation column on a substrate;

setting an anode material, and performing a composition process on the anode material to form an anode layer and a protective layer wrapping the isolation column;

and removing the protective layer to expose the isolation column through a patterning process.

As an optional embodiment, before forming the isolation pillar, the method further includes:

a polyimide layer, an isolation buffer layer, a shading layer and an interlayer dielectric layer are sequentially formed on a substrate base plate from the direction close to the substrate base plate to the direction far away from the substrate base plate.

As an optional embodiment, the forming of the isolation pillar includes:

and forming a source drain layer and the isolation column on the interlayer dielectric layer.

As an optional implementation manner, after the forming of the source drain layer and the isolation pillar, the method further includes: forming a flat layer on the source drain layer;

the disposing of the anode material includes:

and covering the anode material on the flat layer and the isolation column by a sputtering film forming process.

As an optional embodiment, the isolation column comprises: the first metal layer, the second metal layer and the third metal layer are sequentially arranged from the direction close to the substrate base plate to the direction far away from the substrate base plate; the first metal layer and the third metal layer are both made of titanium; the second metal layer is made of aluminum.

As an optional embodiment, after the forming the anode layer and the protective layer covering the isolation pillars, the method further includes:

a pixel defining layer is formed over the anode layer.

As an optional implementation manner, the removing the protective layer to expose the isolation pillars through a patterning process specifically includes:

coating photoresist to cover the pixel defining layer and the protective layer;

removing the photoresist at the corresponding position of the protective layer through exposure and development to expose the protective layer;

and removing the protective layer to expose the isolation column by a wet etching method.

As an optional embodiment, after removing the protective layer to expose the isolation pillar, the method further includes:

and etching the second metal layer to enable the isolation column to be in an I shape.

In another aspect, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide an array substrate manufactured by the method for manufacturing an array substrate as described in any one of the above.

In another aspect, one or more embodiments of the present specification provide a display panel, including the array substrate as described above.

As can be seen from the above description, in the manufacturing method of the array substrate, and the display panel provided in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure, the anode layer and the isolation pillar are respectively formed in different manufacturing processes, and when the anode layer is formed, the protective layer covering the isolation pillar is formed by the anode material, and the isolation pillar is isolated from the silver ion by the protective layer, so that the generation of the silver monomer is effectively prevented, the formation of a dark spot in the effective display area is avoided, and the display quality is ensured.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate one or more embodiments or prior art solutions of the present specification, the drawings that are needed in the description of the embodiments or prior art will be briefly described below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only one or more embodiments of the present specification, and that other drawings may be obtained by those skilled in the art without inventive effort from these drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the position of AA and opening regions of a display panel according to the related art;

fig. 2 is a flowchart of a method for manufacturing an array substrate according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a structure of an array substrate after an anode material is disposed thereon according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of an array substrate after an anode layer and a protective layer are formed in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 5 is a schematic structural diagram of an array substrate after isolation pillars are exposed in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an isolation column structure according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure;

fig. 7 is a schematic structural view of an i-shaped isolation column according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

For the purpose of promoting a better understanding of the objects, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

It is to be understood that unless otherwise defined, technical or scientific terms used in one or more embodiments of the present disclosure should have the ordinary meaning as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this disclosure belongs. The use of "first," "second," and similar terms in one or more embodiments of the specification is not intended to indicate any order, quantity, or importance, but rather is used to distinguish one element from another. The word "comprising" or "comprises", and the like, means that the element or item listed before the word covers the element or item listed after the word and its equivalents, but does not exclude other elements or items. The terms "connected" or "coupled" and the like are not restricted to physical or mechanical connections, but may include electrical connections, whether direct or indirect. "upper", "lower", "left", "right", and the like are used merely to indicate relative positional relationships, and when the absolute position of the object being described is changed, the relative positional relationships may also be changed accordingly.

As described in the background art, the display panel manufactured by the related art generally has the undesirable phenomenon of dark spots in the AA area. In implementing the present disclosure, the inventors found that the problems of the related art described above are mainly caused by the manufacturing method. Specifically, in the related art, for the purpose of preventing from the outside environmentThe moisture and oxygen of the display panel enter the AA area to cause the display failure of the display panel, and an isolation column is required between the AA area and the opening area. The isolation column and the anode layer are manufactured in the same manufacturing process. Wherein, the isolation column and the SD layer (source and drain electrode line layer, referred to as source and drain electrode layer for short) are formed in one manufacturing process; then, an anode material is arranged, and the anode material covers the isolation column; after exposure and development, the anode material needs to be etched by a wet etching method to form an anode layer, and meanwhile, the anode material on the surface of the isolation pillars needs to be removed by a side etching (underrout) method to expose the isolation pillars. The anode material includes ITO (Indium Tin oxide) and silver, and the material of the spacer includes titanium and aluminum. During etching, the anode material causes the AA region to exhibit a large amount of silver ions. Due to the chemical nature of the easy reduction of silver and the easy oxidation of aluminum, in the region near the isolation column (since the isolation column is located between the AA region and the open pore region, i.e., near the open pore region), the silver ions and the exposed aluminum in the isolation column undergo the following chemical reactions: ag⁺+Al——>Ag+Al³⁺Thereby generating silver monomer, and further silver monomer will be adsorbed at the above-mentioned position of AA region to form more silver monomer particles. During display, the silver monomer particles easily cause short circuit of a cathode and an anode, and after voltage is increased, a sub-pixel is broken down to cause a large number of dark spots to influence normal display.

In view of the above problems in the related art, one or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for manufacturing an array substrate, and a display panel, in which an anode layer and an isolation pillar are formed in different manufacturing processes, and a protective layer covering the isolation pillar is formed by an anode material when the anode layer is formed, and the isolation pillar is isolated from silver ions by the protective layer, so as to effectively prevent generation of a silver monomer, thereby solving the above technical problems.

Various non-limiting embodiments provided by the present specification are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures.

One or more embodiments of the present disclosure provide a method for manufacturing an array substrate. Referring to fig. 2, the method for manufacturing the array substrate includes the following steps:

step S201, forming an isolation pillar on a substrate base plate.

In this step, a spacer is formed between the AA region and the open region to separate the AA region from the open region to prevent moisture and oxygen from entering the AA region.

Referring to fig. 3, a substrate 1 is first provided, and the substrate 1 is used to carry other hierarchical structures and components. The material of the substrate 1 may be glass, quartz, or a hard or flexible transparent resin material, which is not limited in the present application.

Before forming the isolation pillars, other various hierarchical structures are formed on the substrate 1. Specifically, in a direction from being close to the substrate base 1 to being far from the substrate base 1, the hierarchical structures sequentially include: a Polyimide Layer (PI) 2, a Barrier Buffer Layer (Barrier + Buffer)3, a Light Shield Layer (LS) 4, and an Inter Layer Dielectric (ILD) 5. Since the manufacturing method and the functional structure of each layer structure are not improved, the detailed description of the manufacturing method and the functional structure of each layer structure is omitted.

Referring to fig. 3, due to the similarity of the process, in this embodiment, the isolation pillar 6 may be formed by selectively using the manufacturing method of the source/drain layer 7, that is, the isolation pillar and the source/drain layer 7 are formed in the same manufacturing process, and no special manufacturing step is required. Referring to fig. 3, the position of the isolation column 6 is shown, based on the orientation shown in fig. 3, the left side of the isolation column 6 is an AA region, and the right side of the isolation column 6 is an open region (the specific open structure is not shown), and the AA region and the open region are isolated by the isolation column 6.

Specifically, referring to fig. 6, the isolation pillar 6 is a three-metal-layer stacked structure, that is, includes: a first metal layer 601, a second metal layer 602, and a third metal layer 603. The first metal layer 601 and the third metal layer 603 are made of the same material and are both titanium; the second metal layer 602 is located between the first metal layer 601 and the third metal layer 603, and is made of aluminum; that is, the isolation pillars 6 have a stacked structure of "Ti + Al + Ti" as a whole.

Step S202, an anode material is arranged, and a composition process is carried out on the anode material to form an anode layer and a protection layer wrapping the isolation column.

In this step, referring to fig. 3 and 4, an anode layer 801 and a protective layer 802 are formed by a patterning process. The patterning process, also referred to as a masking process, includes, for example, exposure, development, etching, and the like. The patterning process is a manufacturing process for forming each layer structure commonly used in the display technology, and most of the above-mentioned each layer structure on the substrate 1 is formed by using the patterning process.

Specifically, first, a Planarization Layer (PLN) 9 is formed on the source/drain layer, and then an anode material 8 is formed on the Planarization layer through a sputtering film formation (Sputter) process, where the anode material 8 covers the Planarization layer 9 and the isolation pillar 6, and the structure after the anode material 8 is formed can be referred to as shown in fig. 3. The material of the anode material 8 includes ITO and silver.

Then, the anode material 8 is subjected to a patterning process. The purpose of the patterning process performed on the anode material 8 in this step is two, on one hand, the anode layer 801 functioning as an anode is formed on the anode material 8 in the region corresponding to the planarization layer 9 through the patterning process; on the other hand, for the anode material 8 in the corresponding region of the isolation pillar 6, the anode material 8 covered on the surface of the isolation pillar 6 is retained through a patterning process, and the other anode material 8 is removed, so that the anode material 8 covered on the surface of the retained isolation pillar 6 is formed, that is, the protection layer 802 is formed. By patterning the anode layer 801 and the protective layer 802 formed after the process, reference is made to fig. 4.

It can be seen that, in this step, only the anode layer 801 is formed by the patterning process, and the isolation pillars 6 are not in the final form, but the protection layer 802 is formed by leaving the anode material 8 covering the surfaces of the isolation pillars 6. Based on such a structure, during the etching step in the patterning process, under the isolation protection of the protection layer 802, the silver ions generated by the anode material 8 cannot directly contact with the aluminum in the isolation pillar 6, so that the chemical reaction for generating the silver monomer is avoided, and the formation of dark spots due to the silver monomer particles in the AA region is prevented.

Step S203, removing the protective layer through a composition process to expose the isolation column.

In this step, referring to fig. 4 and 5, the isolation pillar 6 needs to be manufactured into a final form, specifically, the protective layer 802 covering the surface of the isolation pillar 6 is removed, so that the isolation pillar 6 is exposed.

Referring to fig. 5, a Pixel Definition Layer (PDL) 10 is formed on the anode Layer 801 before the protective Layer 802 is removed. Then, the protective layer 802 is removed to expose the isolation pillars 6, also by a patterning process, which may include the following specific steps:

a photoresist 11 is coated to cover the definition layer and the protection layer. The photoresist 11 is coated on the whole surface, and the coated photoresist 11 should completely cover the pixel defining layer 10 and the protection layer 802.

By exposure and development, the photoresist 11 at the corresponding position of the protection layer 802 is removed to expose the protection layer 802. Taking the photoresist 11 as a positive photoresist as an example, a mask with a predetermined shape is used, the mask exposes a position corresponding to the protection layer 802, the mask is irradiated by ultraviolet light, and the photoresist 11 removed from the position corresponding to the protection layer 802 is dissolved in a developing solution as a photosensitive part, so that the photoresist 11 removed from the position corresponding to the protection layer 802 is removed, and the protection layer 802 is exposed.

The protective layer 802 is removed by wet etching to expose the isolation pillars 6. Since the protection layer 802 is an anode material 8, i.e., a metal material, the protection layer 802 is etched by a wet etching method, and the protection layer 802 is removed to expose the isolation pillars 6, i.e., the isolation pillars 6 are manufactured into a final form.

In the embodiment, the anode layer and the isolation column are respectively formed in different manufacturing procedures, and the anode layer is formed by an anode material to form the protection layer covering the isolation column, so that the isolation column is isolated from the silver ions by the protection layer, the generation of a silver monomer is effectively prevented, the formation of dark spots in an effective display area is avoided, and the display quality is ensured.

As an optional embodiment, after removing the protective layer to expose the isolation pillars, the following steps may be further included: and etching the second metal layer to enable the isolation column to be in an I shape.

In this embodiment, referring to fig. 7, the isolation column 6 includes: a first metal layer 601, a second metal layer 602, and a third metal layer 603. The material of the first metal layer 601 and the third metal layer 603 is titanium, and the material of the second metal layer 602 is aluminum.

In this embodiment, the second metal layer 602 is etched, so that the area of the second metal layer 602 is smaller than the areas of the first metal layer 601 and the third metal layer 603; the area refers to the area of each metal layer on a plane parallel to the substrate base plate. Through etching the second metal layer 602, the area of the second metal layer is smaller, so that the isolation column 6 is integrally in an I shape, and the structural strength of the isolation column 6 can be ensured so as to correspondingly improve the isolation effect.

Based on the same inventive concept, one or more embodiments of the present specification provide an array substrate manufactured by the method for manufacturing an array substrate according to any one of the above embodiments.

Due to the adoption of the manufacturing method of the embodiment, the array substrate of the embodiment has the advantages that the AA area is not provided with silver monomer particles at the position close to the opening area basically, namely, no dark spot exists basically, and the display panel assembled by the array substrate of the embodiment has higher display quality when displaying.

Based on the same inventive concept, one or more embodiments of the present specification provide a display panel including the array substrate according to any one of the above embodiments.

Specifically, the display panel of the present embodiment may be an electroluminescent display panel, and the electroluminescent display panel may be, for example, an organic light emitting diode display panel.

Due to the fact that the array substrate of the embodiment is included, dark spots basically do not exist in the AA area, and the display panel of the embodiment can have high display quality.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that: the discussion of any embodiment above is meant to be exemplary only, and is not intended to intimate that the scope of the disclosure, including the claims, is limited to these examples; within the spirit of the present disclosure, features from the above embodiments or from different embodiments may also be combined, steps may be implemented in any order, and there are many other variations of different aspects of one or more embodiments of the present description as described above, which are not provided in detail for the sake of brevity.

In addition, well-known power/ground connections to Integrated Circuit (IC) chips and other components may or may not be shown in the provided figures, for simplicity of illustration and discussion, and so as not to obscure one or more embodiments of the disclosure. Furthermore, devices may be shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the understanding of one or more embodiments of the present description, and this also takes into account the fact that specifics with respect to implementation of such block diagram devices are highly dependent upon the platform within which the one or more embodiments of the present description will be implemented (i.e., specifics should be well within purview of one skilled in the art). Where specific details (e.g., circuits) are set forth in order to describe example embodiments of the disclosure, it should be apparent to one skilled in the art that one or more embodiments of the disclosure can be practiced without, or with variation of, these specific details. Accordingly, the description is to be regarded as illustrative instead of restrictive.

It is intended that the one or more embodiments of the present specification embrace all such alternatives, modifications and variations as fall within the broad scope of the appended claims. Therefore, any omissions, modifications, substitutions, improvements, and the like that may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the disclosure are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.

Claims

1. A manufacturing method of an array substrate is characterized by comprising the following steps:

forming a source drain layer and an isolation column on a substrate; forming a flat layer on the source drain layer;

setting an anode material, performing a composition process on the anode material to form an anode layer and a protective layer covering the isolation column, and forming a pixel defining layer on the anode layer; the disposing of the anode material includes: covering the anode material on the flat layer and the isolation column through a sputtering film forming process;

through a patterning process, removing the protective layer to expose the isolation pillars includes: coating photoresist to cover the pixel defining layer and the protective layer; removing the photoresist at the corresponding position of the protective layer through exposure and development to expose the protective layer; removing the protective layer by a wet etching method to expose the isolation column;

wherein the isolation column comprises: the first metal layer, the second metal layer and the third metal layer are sequentially arranged from the direction close to the substrate base plate to the direction far away from the substrate base plate; the first metal layer and the third metal layer are both made of titanium; the second metal layer is made of aluminum.

2. The method for manufacturing the array substrate according to claim 1, further comprising, before forming the isolation pillars:

3. The method for manufacturing the array substrate according to claim 2, wherein the forming of the isolation pillars includes:

and forming the source drain layer and the isolation column on the interlayer dielectric layer.

4. The method for manufacturing the array substrate according to claim 1, further comprising, after the removing the protective layer to expose the isolation pillars:

5. An array substrate, characterized in that the array substrate is manufactured by the method of any one of claims 1 to 4.

6. A display panel comprising the array substrate of claim 5.