The application relates to the technical field of evaporation equipment, and in particular to a mask frame and an evaporation mask assembly.
Currently, OLED (Organic Light-Emitting Diode) display panel has become a key research product in the display field. In the manufacturing process of the OLED display panel, the devices for evaporation, especially the mask frame and the mask, are crucial components that affect the production cost and product quality of the OLED display panel.
When FMM is displaced on the mask frame, due to the misalignment between the effective evaporation area of the FMM and the to-be-evaporated area of the substrate or the increase of shadows, the evaporation accuracy is poor, causing undesirable phenomena such as color mixing in the OLED display panel and reduction of the product yield.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new type of mask frame and an evaporation mask assembly.
In one aspect, the embodiments of the present application provide a mask frame, having a first surface and a second surface opposite to each other. The mask frame includes a frame body and a support body. The frame body is formed as a frame structure with an opening. The support body is arranged in the opening and connected to the frame body. The support body includes a plurality of evaporation apertures distributed in an array and a plurality of support units distributed around the respective evaporation apertures. The support unit includes a supporting portion and a bonding portion extending from the supporting portion toward the evaporation aperture. The supporting portion includes a supporting surface located on the first surface. The bonding portion includes a bonding surface protruding to the second surface in a first direction from the first surface to the second surface, and the bonding surface and the supporting surface is distributed in a stepped shape with the supporting surface.
The use of the mask frame in the evaporation process saves the steps of aligning a plurality of supporting strips and shielding strips in a net stretching manner and welding and fixing them in the process of manufacturing the mask frame, and shortens the time for manufacturing the mask frame, thereby further shortening the time required for the evaporation process, and improving the production efficiency of the entire OLED display panel.
In an example, the mask frame may form the frame body and the support body by etching a plate, and the material of the plate may be a metal material. In another example, the mask frame forms the supporting portion and the bonding portion of the support unit by electroforming on a plate provided with a plurality of evaporation apertures arranged in an array.
The mask frame in the embodiments of the present application is formed without the need of aligning a plurality of supporting strips and shielding strips in the net stretching manner and welding and fixing them to the frame body, and the supporting portion can simultaneously realize the supporting function to the mask strip and the shielding function to the evaporation area on the substrate, which shortens the time required for the evaporation process, improves the production efficiency of the display panel, and reduces the production cost. The bonding portion in the mask frame includes a bonding surface, the bonding surface protrudes to the second surface in the first direction from the first surface to the second surface, and the bonding surface and the supporting surface is distributed in a stepped shape with the supporting surface.
In some examples, the peripheral edges of the effective evaporation area of the mask strip which includes a plurality of evaporation holes, are located at the bonding portions, so that the mask strip can be better bonded with the mask frame in the first aspect of the embodiments of the present application, and thus the alignment accuracy of the effective evaporation area on the mask strip with the corresponding evaporation aperture on the mask frame is improved, thereby improving the evaporation accuracy and being beneficial to improve the display quality of the display panel.
Since the evaporation apertures on the mask frame in the embodiments of the present application are formed without the need of a plurality of crisscrossing shielding strips and supporting strips, the deviations of the position and opening accuracy of the evaporation apertures on the mask frame caused by the misalignment of the shielding strips and supporting strips during the net stretching process can be avoided. The alignment accuracy between the effective evaporation area of the mask strip with the evaporation aperture on the mask frame is improved when the mask strip is fixed to the mask frame.
On the other hand, the embodiments of the present application further provide an evaporation mask assembly, including:
a mask frame according to any of the embodiments on one aspect of the present application; and
a plurality of the mask strips arranged on the mask frame, the mask strip includes two fixing structures respectively disposed at two ends thereof in its length direction and an evaporation mesh film located between the fixing structures, and the evaporation mesh film includes a plurality of evaporation holes arranged in an array,
wherein the mask strip is fixed to the frame body through the fixing structures, the evaporation mesh film covers the first surface, and two sides of the evaporation mesh film in its length direction are arranged in contact with the supporting surfaces of the supporting portions.
The mask frame provided by another aspect of the embodiments of the present application supports the evaporation mesh film through the supporting portion, and the supporting portion can simultaneously support the mask strip and shield the non-evaporated area on the substrate; the evaporation mesh film is bonded to the mask frame through the bonding portion, and the evaporation mesh film is formed with the effective evaporation area corresponding to each evaporation aperture. The mask strip provided with the evaporation mesh film changes the previous structure that provides multiple effective evaporation areas and other functional areas outside and surrounding the effective evaporation areas, thereby avoiding the existence of boundaries between different areas on the mask strip, avoiding the mask strip from being wrinkled at different areas, especially at the boundaries between different areas of the mask strip, during the process of fixing the mask strip to the mask frame in the net stretching manner, increasing the bonding degree between the mask strip and the mask frame, improving the evaporation accuracy of the evaporation material evaporated to the to-be-evaporated area of the substrate through the mask strip, improving the quality of substrate evaporation, and improving the display effect of the display panel.
In some embodiments of another aspect of the present application, the mask frame further includes a plurality of auxiliary structures formed on the bonding portion and extending from the bonding surface toward the first surface, the plurality of auxiliary structures are distributed at intervals around the evaporation aperture on the bonding surface, and a sum of a thickness of the bonding portion and an extending height of the auxiliary structure in the first direction is equal to a thickness of the supporting portion.
The evaporation mesh film covers the first surface, and each of the two sides of the evaporation mesh film in its length direction is arranged in contact with both the supporting surfaces of the supporting portions and auxiliary supporting surfaces of the auxiliary structures located on the first surface.
On the bonding portion, the plurality of auxiliary structures distributed at intervals around the evaporation aperture are arranged, so that the wrinkles on the mask strip, especially the mask strip including the evaporation mesh film, generated due to the tensile stress in the net stretching process, are stretched, and thus the amount of the wrinkles on the mask strip is reduced, the alignment precision and accuracy of the effective evaporation area formed corresponding to the evaporation aperture with the to-be-evaporated area on the substrate are improved, and the evaporation accuracy of the evaporation process is improved, thereby avoiding the display color mixing and other undesirable phenomena of the OLED display panel, optimizing the display effect of the display panel and improving the product yield of the display panel.
The features, advantages, and technical effects of exemplary embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are not drawn to actual scale.
The features and exemplary embodiments in various aspects of the present application will be described in detail below. In the following detailed description, many specific details are proposed to provide a comprehensive understanding of the present application. However, it is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the present application can be implemented without some of these specific details. The following description of the embodiments is only to provide a better understanding of the present application by showing examples of the present application. In the accompanying drawings and the following description, at least part of the well-known structures and technologies are not shown to avoid unnecessary obscuring of the present application; and, for clarity, the size of some structures may be exaggerated. In addition, the features, structures, or characteristics described below may be combined in one or more embodiments in any suitable manner.
For a better understanding of the present application, a mask frame and an evaporation mask assembly provided by the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
When manufacturing an OLED display panel, a mask used in a process of forming a luminescent material layer by evaporation mainly includes a long strip Fine Metal Mask (FMM), which can also be called a mask strip. Usually, during the evaporation process, the FMM is fixed on a mask frame, and the mask frame is provided with a plurality of supporting strips and a plurality of shielding strips extending vertically and horizontally on a side of the FMM facing away from a substrate, to support the FMM and shield non-evaporation areas of the substrate, so that an evaporation material is evaporated on to-be-evaporated areas of the substrate through FMM to form the luminescent material layer. During research, the inventor found that, since in a general process of manufacturing the mask frame, it is necessary to align a plurality of supporting strips and a plurality of shielding strips respectively in a net stretching manner and welding them to a frame body with an opening, the manufacturing process takes a long time, resulting in low production efficiency of the OLED display panel and great time cost in the production process. Further, inaccurate alignment of the plurality of supporting strips and shielding strips are easy to occur during the fixing process of the net stretching, thereby affecting the positional accuracy of the evaporation apertures arranged in an array and formed by crisscross supporting strips and shielding strips. Moreover, because each evaporation aperture corresponds to each effective evaporation area on the mask strip, the inaccurate position of the evaporation aperture affects the evaporation accuracy of the evaporation material in the entire evaporation process from the evaporation aperture to the effective evaporation area on the mask strip, and then to the to-be-evaporated area on the substrate, and ultimately affects the display quality of the OLED display panel.
Generally, the remaining functional areas on the mask strip except and surrounding the effective evaporation areas have different structures from the effective evaporation areas, so that there are area boundaries between different areas on the mask strip. The mask strip is wrinkled due to the tensile stress during the net stretching process, and in turn, the stress generated in the mask strip by the tensile force will produce a sudden change of stress at the above-mentioned area boundaries and the vicinity thereof, resulting in that the mask strip is more likely to be wrinkled at the area boundaries and the vicinity thereof. Wrinkles on the mask strip, especially on the boundaries of the effective evaporation areas, lower the alignment accuracy of the effective evaporation areas with the to-be-evaporated areas of the substrate, affect the shape and structure of the effective evaporation areas, and further lead to low accuracy of the evaporation process, thereby causing problems such as color mixing and shadowing, and affecting the display effect of the display panel.
Referring to
The supporting portion 1221 in the mask frame 1 according to the embodiments of the first aspect of the present application can simultaneously support the mask strip and shield the non-evaporation area on the substrate, thereby saving the alignment in the net stretching manner and the welding and fixing process of multiple support strips and shielding strips, shortening the time required for the evaporation process, improving the production efficiency of the display panel, and reducing the production cost.
Referring to
Referring to
The mask frame 1 as shown in
Referring to
Referring to
In some optional embodiments, the thickness of the frame body 11 in the first direction Y is the same as the thickness of the supporting portion 1221, and the thickness of the bonding portion 1222 is smaller than that of the supporting portion 1221.
Referring to
In some optional embodiments, the auxiliary structure 1223 is spaced apart from the supporting portion 1221 in a horizontal direction parallel to the first surface 13. The spacing distance is greater than or equal to 2 mm. When the areas with wrinkles on the mask strip (for example, the first mask strip 2 or the second mask strip 4) cover the plurality of auxiliary structures 1223, multiple support points produce a supporting effect on different areas of the wrinkles. The auxiliary structures 1223 apply supporting forces opposite to the first direction Y to the wrinkles, and the area of the wrinkles located between two adjacent auxiliary structures 1223 sinks toward the first direction Y due to the action of gravity. Further, the auxiliary structure 1223 and the supporting portion 1221 are spaced apart from each other, and the space between the auxiliary structure 1223 and the supporting portion 1221 can accommodate the sinking areas of the wrinkles, thereby providing enough stretching space for the wrinkles between the auxiliary structure 1223 and the supporting portion 1221, and thus facilitating the stretching of the wrinkles on the mask strip 2.
In some optional embodiments, referring to
In some optional embodiments, the bonding surface 1222a includes a first edge L1 adjacent to the evaporation aperture 121, and the auxiliary structure 1223 is arranged with a predetermined distance from the first edge L1 in the horizontal direction parallel to the first surface 13. The arrangement of the predetermined distance can ensure the availability of the coverage area for material evaporation. The predetermined distance is greater than or equal to 2 mm.
In some optional embodiments, the auxiliary structure 1223 is formed as a columnar body, and the columnar body has a cross section in a circular or a polygonal shape.
In some optional embodiments, the thickness of the frame body 11 in the first direction Y is equal to a minimum distance between the first surface 13 and the second surface 14.
In the third evaporation mask assembly 33, the evaporation mesh film 22 in the first mask strip 2 as shown in
Further, the evaporation mesh film 22 in the first mask strip 2 has a full through-hole structure, and does not include the area boundaries between the effective evaporation areas 42 and the non-evaporation area 43 compared with the second mask strip 4, the actual evaporation area of the mask strip 2 is constituted by the area of the evaporation mesh film 22 corresponding to the evaporation apertures 121. Therefore, since the first mask strip 2 is not subjected to the stress at the area boundaries between different functional areas on the mask strip during the process of net stretching, the probability and amount of wrinkles generated during the process of net stretching of the first mask strip 2 is less than the second mask strip 4, thereby further improving the alignment precision and accuracy of the third evaporation mask assembly 33 with the to-be-evaporated area of the evaporation substrate. Thus, the evaporation accuracy of the evaporation process is improved, undesirable phenomena such as display color mixing of the OLED display panel is avoided, the display effect of the display panel is optimized, and the product yield of the display panel is improved.
The support units 122 in the mask frame 1 as shown in
The person skilled in the art should understand that the above-mentioned embodiments are all illustrative and not restrictive. Different technical features appearing in different embodiments can be combined to achieve beneficial effects. The person skilled in the art should be able to understand and implement other variant embodiments of the disclosed embodiments on the basis of studying the accompanying drawings, the specification and the claims. In the claims, the term “comprising” does not exclude other means or steps; an item, when not modified by a quantifier, is intended to include one/one kind or more/more kinds of items, and may be used interchangeably with “one/one kind or more/more kinds of items; the terms “first”, “second” are used to designate names rather than to indicate any particular order. Any reference signs in the claims should not be construed as limiting the scope of protection. The functions of multiple parts appearing in the claims can be realized by a single hardware or software module. The appearance of certain technical features in different dependent claims does not mean that these technical features cannot be combined to achieve beneficial effects.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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202011061713.0 | Sep 2020 | CN | national |
This application is a continuation of PCT Application No. PCT/CN2021/109906, which is filed on Jul. 30, 2021 and claims the priority of Chinese Patent Application No. 202011061713.0, filed on Sep. 30, 2020 and entitled “Mask Frame and Evaporation Mask Assembly”, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2021/109906 | Jul 2021 | US |
Child | 17989089 | US |