This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119 to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2014-0008172, filed on Jan. 23, 2014 in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein its entirety.
The present inventive concept relates to a light exposure device, and more particularly, to a maskless light exposure device.
A flat display panel such as a liquid crystal display panel, a plasma display panel, etc. may include a substrate on which, for example, a plurality of electrodes, organic materials and inorganic materials are patterned.
Light exposure devices have been developed to form a pattern on the substrate. A portion of the substrate may be selectively exposed by light illumination using, for example, a photo mask. Thus, a chemical feature of material in the portion of the substrate may change due to the exposure of the light and material in the substrate may be selectively removed thereafter by relying on the changed chemical feature.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, a light exposure device is provided. The light exposure device includes a light source, a light modulation part, and a projection optical part. The light source is configured to generate light. The light modulation part is configured to modulate the generated light based on a predetermined exposure pattern. The projection optical part is configured to project the modulated light from the light modulation part onto a substrate as a beam spot array. The projection optical part includes a first optical part, a hole arrangement part, and a second optical part. The first optical part is configured to receive the modulated light from the light modulation part. The first optical part includes a plurality of first lenses. The hole arrangement part is provided between the first optical part and the second optical part and is configured to receive the light from the first optical part and to emit the received light as the beam spot array. The second optical part is configured to receive the light from the hole arrangement part and to emit the received light onto the substrate. The second optical part includes a plurality of second lenses. At least one of the first lenses and the second lenses is a transreflective lens.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the light modulation part may include a digital micro-mirror device.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the digital micro-mirror device may include a plurality of micro-mirrors and a pattern generating part. The plurality of micro-mirrors may be arranged in a first direction and a second direction crossing the first direction. The pattern generating part may be configured to control a reflective angle of the micro-mirrors.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the hole arrangement part may include a micro-lens array and an aperture array. The micro-lens array may include a plurality of micro-lenses corresponding to the micro-mirrors of the digital micro-mirror device and the aperture array may include a plurality of pin holes partially overlapping the micro-lenses.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, each of the pin holes may be greater than about 2 μm and smaller than about 10 μm in size.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, a number of the micro-mirrors may be equal to a number of the micro-lenses.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, each of the first optical part and the second optical part may include a transreflective lens.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the first optical part may include a first incident lens and a first emitting lens. The first optical part may be configured to receive the modulated light from the light modulation part and to refract the received light. The first emitting lens may be configured to transmit the refracted light toward the hole arrangement part.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, at least one of the first incident lens and the first emitting lens may be a transreflective lens.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the second optical part may include a second incident lens and a second emitting lens. The second incident lens may be configured to receive the light from the hole arrangement part and to refract the received light. The second emitting lens may be configured to transmit the refracted light toward the substrate.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, at least one of the second incident lens and the second emitting lens may be a transreflective lens.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the beam spot array may include a plurality of spot beams spaced apart from one another.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, each of the spot beams may have substantially a circular shape having a full width at half maximum in a range between about 1 μm and about 3 μm.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, each of the plurality of spot beams may be spaced apart from one another by a distance in a range between 10 μm and about 100 μm.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the beam spot array may be tilted with respect to the substrate in a plan view.
In an exemplary embodiment, the light exposure device may further include a light compensation part between the light source and the light modulation part. The light compensation part may be configured to compensate the light from the light source such that the light has a substantially uniform luminance.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the light exposure device may further include a fixing part and a guiding part. The substrate may be disposed on the fixing part. The guiding part may be configured to move the fixing part in a horizontal or a vertical direction.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, a magnification of the first optical part may be substantially different from a magnification of the second optical part.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, a light exposure device is provided. The light exposure device includes a light exposure head and a head guiding part. The light exposure head is configured to direct light onto a substrate and the head guiding part is configured to guide a movement of the light exposure head. The light exposure head includes a light source, a light modulation part, and a projection optical part. The light source is configured to generate light. The light modulation part is configured to modulate the generated light based on a predetermined exposure pattern. The projection optical part is configured to project the modulated light from the light modulation part onto the substrate as a beam spot array. The projection optical part includes a first optical part, a hole arrangement part, and a second optical part. The first optical part is configured to receive the light from the light modulation part. The first optical part includes a plurality of first lenses. The hole arrangement part is provided between the first optical part and the second optical part. The hole arrangement part is configured to receive the light from the first optical part and to emit the light as the beam spot array. The second optical part is configured to receive the light from the hole arrangement part and to emit the light onto the substrate. The second optical part includes a plurality of second lenses. At least one of the first lenses and the second lenses is a transreflective lens.
In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, each of the first optical part and the second optical part may include a transreflective lens.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, a light exposure device is provided. The light exposure device includes a light source, a light modulation part, and a projection optical part. The light source is configured to generate light. The light modulation part is configured to modulate the generated light. The projection optical part is configured to project the modulated light from the light modulation part onto a substrate as a beam spot array. The projection optical part includes a plurality of optical lenses. The light modulation part includes a plurality micro-mirrors and a pattern generating part. The pattern generating part controls tilting angles of each of the plurality of micro-mirrors. At least one of the plurality of optical lenses is a transreflective lens.
The above and other features of the present inventive concept will become more apparent by describing in detailed exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The fixing part 210 may be configured to fix the substrate 100 when light from the light exposure head 300 is illuminated on the substrate 100.
The guiding part 230 may be configured to guide the fixing part 210 in a horizontal direction or in a vertical direction. For example, the guiding part 230 may be configured to guide the fixing part 210 in a longitudinal direction. For example, the guiding part 230 may be configured to guide the fixing part 210 in a transverse direction.
The body part 250 may support the guiding part 230.
The light exposure head 300 may be configured to illuminate a beam having a desired wavelength on the substrate 100. The light exposure head 300 may be described in detail below with reference to
The head guiding part 500 may be configured to provide a path in which the light exposure head 300 moves. For example, the light exposure head 300 may be configured to move in a horizontal direction along the head guiding part 500.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the substrate 100 may be fixed on the stage 200, and the light exposure head 300 may illuminate the beam on the substrate 100 when the light exposure head 300 moves along the head guiding part 500. In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the light exposure head 300 may be fixed with respect to the head guiding part 500, and the substrate 100 may be illuminated by the beam from the light exposure head 300 when the guiding part 230 moves the substrate 100 in a desired direction. In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, both the guiding part 230 and the light exposure head 300 may move in desired directions when the light exposure head 300 illuminates the beam on the substrate 100.
Referring to
The light source 310 may be configured to emit the light. For example, the light source 310 may be configured to emit a laser beam having an ultraviolet wavelength. For example, the light source 310 may include an excimer laser, a diode-pumped solid state laser (“DPSS” laser), etc.
The light compensation part 330 may be configured to compensate the light from the light source 310 to have substantially uniform luminance.
The light modulation part 350 may be configured to spatially modulate the light. For example, the light modulation part 350 may include a spatial light modulator (“SLM”). For example, the light modulation part 350 may include a digital micro-mirror device (“DMD”) having a micro-electro-mechanical systems (“MEMS”), a transparent lead lanthanum zirconate titanate (“transparent PLZT”), a reflective liquid crystal on silicon (“LCos”), etc. In an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, the light modulation part 350 may include the digital micro-mirror device. The light modulation part 350 may be described in detail with reference to
The projection optical part 370 may be configured to transmit the light from the light modulation part 350 on the substrate 100 through a plurality of optical systems therein. For example, the projection optical part 370 may include at least two optical systems. The projection optical part 370 is described in detail below with reference to
Referring to
For example, when the pattern generating part 355 controls tilting angles of the micro-mirrors 352, the light from the light source 310 may be reflected by the micro-mirrors 352 to illuminate the substrate 100 through the projection optical part 370. For example, when the pattern generating part 355 controls the tilting angles of the micro-mirrors 352, the light from the light source 310 may be reflected by the micro-mirrors 352 not to illuminate the substrate 100.
Referring to
The first optical part 371 may include at least two optical lenses. For example, the first optical part 371 may include a first incident lens 372 and a first emitting lens 373. The first incident lens 372 may be configured to receive the light from the light modulation part 350. The first emitting lens 373 may be configured to emit the light refracted by the first incident lens 372 to the micro-lens array 374. The first incident lens 372 and the first emitting lens 373 may be configured to refract the light from the light modulation part 350 by a desired magnification or reduction rate. For example, the first optical part 371 may be configured to magnify about 4 times the light from the light modulation part 350.
The micro-lens array 374 may include a plurality of micro-lenses corresponding to the micro-mirrors 352 of the light modulation part 350. For example, when the light modulation part 350 includes the micro-mirrors 352 arranged in a matrix shape of 800×400, the micro-lens array 374 may include the micro-lenses arranged in the matrix shape of 800×400 corresponding to the micro-mirrors 352.
The aperture array 375 may include a plurality of pin holes partially overlapping the micro-lenses. For example, the aperture array 375 may include the pin holes locating at centers of the micro-lenses. A size of each of the pin holes may be, for example, in a range between about 2 μm and about 10 μm.
Light from the aperture array 375 may be a beam spot array having spot shapes such as, e.g., circles, ellipse, etc. The beam spot array may be illuminated on the substrate 100 through the second optical part 376. The beam spot array may include a plurality of spot beams corresponding to the pin holes of the aperture array 375. The spot beams may be spaced apart from one another in a plan view.
The second optical part 376 may include at least two optical lenses. For example, the second optical part 376 may include a second incident lens 377 and a second emitting lens 378. The second incident lens 377 may be configured to receive the beam spot array from the aperture array 375. The second emitting lens 377 may be configured to emit light refracted by the second incident lens 377 on the substrate 100. The second incident lens 377 and the second emitting lens 378 may be configured to refract the beam spot array from the aperture array 375 by a desired magnification or reduction rate. For example, the second optical part 376 may be configured to transmit the beam spot array without a substantial magnification or a reduction.
Referring to
As mentioned above, the first incident lens 372 may be the transreflective lens and thus, an emitting angle of the light from the light modulation part 350 may be adjusted. For example, the emitting angle of the light through the first incident lens 372 may be focused toward a center of the first incident lens 372. Accordingly, an amount of light which is emitted laterally from the first incident lens 372 may be reduced as compared to the use of a transparent lens. In addition, light condensation of the projection optical part 370 may be increased.
Referring to
As mentioned above, the first emitting lens 373 may be the transreflective lens and thus, an emitting angle of the light from the first incident lens 372 may be adjusted. For example, the emitting angle of the light from the first emitting lens 373 may be focused toward a center of the first emitting lens 373. Accordingly, an amount of light which is emitted laterally from the first emitting lens 373 may be relatively reduced as compared to the use of a transparent lens. In addition, light condensation of the projection optical part 370 may be increased.
Referring to
As mentioned above, the micro-lenses of the micro-lens array 374 may be the transreflective lenses and emitting angles of the light from the first optical part 371 may be adjusted. For example, the emitting angles of the light from the micro-lens array 374 may be focused toward centers of the micro-lenses, respectively. Accordingly, an amount of light which emits laterally from the micro-lens array 374 may be reduced as compared to the use of transparent lenses. In addition, light condensation of the projection optical part 370 may be increased.
Referring to
As mentioned above, the second incident lens 377 may be the transreflective lens and thus, an emitting angle of the light from the aperture array 375 may be adjusted. For example, the emitting angle of the light from the second incident lens 377 may be focused toward a center of the second incident lens 377. Accordingly, an amount of light which emits laterally from the second incident lens 377 may be reduced as compared to the use of a transparent lens. In addition, light condensation of the projection optical part 370 may be increased.
According to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, one of the optical lenses among the first optical part 371, the micro-lens array 374, and the second optical part 376 may be a transreflective lens. However, the projection optical part 370 of the light exposure head of the maskless light exposure device is not limited thereto. For example, in an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept, more than one lens of the optical lenses among the first optical part 371, the micro-lens array 374, and the second optical part 376 may be transreflective lenses.
Referring to
As mentioned above, according to exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept of the maskless light exposure device, the projection optical part may include a transreflective lens, illumination beam toward a desired direction may be condensed, and thus light condensation of the light exposure device may be increased.
The foregoing is illustrative of exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept and the disclosure should not be construed as limiting. Although a few exemplary embodiments of the present inventive concept have been described, it will be understood that various modifications in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present inventive concept.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2014-0008172 | Jan 2014 | KR | national |