1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method that quickly measures an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer without rotating the polarizer, so as to achieve real-time audit of a manufacturing process of the polarizer.
2. Description of the Prior Art
LCD has been widely used in various electronic information devices, such as televisions, computers, cell phones and PDA. For LCD panels on the market, liquid crystal molecules are between solid phase and liquid phase, and such molecules not only flows easily as liquid does in response to external forces, but also have the property of optical anisotropy as a crystal does. Therefore, an external electric field can drive the arrangement of liquid crystal to other directions, resulting in the change of the optical characteristics of lights passing through the liquid crystal layer. Such modulation of light by an external electric field is called the photoelectric effect of liquid crystal. By taking advantage of this effect, various liquid crystal display panel can be produced, such as the TN-Twisted nematic liquid crystal display panel, the STN-Super TN liquid crystal display panel, TFT-Thin Film Transistor liquid crystal display panel and so on.
As shown in
Please refer to
From what is mentioned above, it is known that the angle included between the two polarizers 130 and 140 is 90 degree. The included angle between the two polarizers 130 and 140 affects the quality of a liquid crystal display panel greatly, thus the accuracy of an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer is especially important.
Please refer to
The above-mentioned conventional apparatus 2 for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer needs to rotate some of its components and it takes a long time to perform the measurement (usually one or several seconds), thus is not suitable for the real-time audit. Therefore, solution to the abovementioned problem is the most urgent issue for the industry right now.
One objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer without rotating the optical components, and the signals are quickly collected to achieve the effect of reducing the time required for measuring.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer, which is adaptable for measuring a large number of polarizers of various specifications for lowering the measurement cost and reducing the occurrence of erroneousness.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer to lower the time required for measuring to less than 0.1 second, and to be used in the real-time audit production process.
In order to achieve aforementioned objectives, an embodiment of the apparatus for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer in accordance with the present invention is disclosed. The apparatus can have a to-be-measured polarizer disposed therein, and comprises a light generating device, a light polarizing device and a measurement comparison device. The light generating device provides a light source. The light polarizing device is disposed corresponding to the light generating device to load the to-be-measured polarizer, and measures a light signal after the light source passes through the to-be-measured polarizer without rotating the to-be-measured polarizer, and transforms it into readable data. The measurement comparison device is electrically connected with the light polarizing device and has at least one preset comparison data to receive the data provided by the light polarizing device and compare it with the comparison data. Thus, after comparing the data provided by the light polarizing device with the comparison data, an axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer is quickly and accurately measured and calculated.
Preferably, the light polarizing device further comprises:
a light collecting module for receiving the light source;
at least one retardation plate and a preset polarizer disposed between the light generating device and the light collecting module for the light source to pass through; and
a light signal transforming member connected to the light collecting module for transforming the light signal of the light source into readable data.
In order to achieve aforementioned objectives, the present invention further discloses a method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer, which comprises the steps of:
(a) providing an apparatus for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer, including a light generating device, a light polarizing device and a measurement comparison device, the light generating device being adapted to provide a light source, the light polarizing device being disposed corresponding to the light generating device, the measurement comparison device being electrically connected to the light polarizing device;
(b) disposing a sample polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device, so as to allow the light source to pass through the sample polarizer and arriving at the light polarizing device, and a first curve is measured and recorded in the measurement comparison device;
(c) taking out the sample polarizer;
(d) disposing a to-be-measured polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device, so as to allow the light source to pass through the to-be-measured polarizer and arriving at the light polarizing device, and a second curve is measured and recorded in the measurement comparison device; and
(e) comparing the first curve and the second curve by the measurement comparison device, calculating an axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer.
In a second embodiment of the present invention, the method for measuring an axial polarizing angle of a polarizer comprises the steps of:
(a) providing an apparatus for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer, including a light generating device, a light polarizing device and a measurement comparison device, the light generating device provides a light source, the light polarizing device being disposed corresponding to the light generating device, the measurement comparison device being electrically connected to the light polarizing device and a plurality of comparison data being preset inside;
(b) disposing a to-be-measured polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device;
(c) the light source passing the to-be-measured polarizer and arriving at the light polarizing device, and a measured data being received and recorded in the measurement comparison device; and
(d) comparing the measured data and the comparison data by the measurement comparison device, making one of the comparison data most similar to the measured data.
The details of the present invention will be more readily understood from a detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the following figures.
Please refer to
The measurement comparison device 33 is electrically connected with the light polarizing device 32 and has at least one preset comparison data inside. The measurement comparison device 33 can receive the data provided by the light polarizing device 32 and compare it with the preset comparison data. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the measurement comparison device 33 can be a computer.
In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the light polarizing device 32 further includes a loading seat 325 disposed between the light generating device 31 and the retardation plate 322. The loading seat 325 is not for rotating but for an operator or an automatic mechanism equipment to quickly locate it when disposing or removing a to-be-measured polarizer 34 on the light polarizing device 32. Please refer to
Thus, when measuring the to-be-measured polarizer 34, firstly disposing the to-be-measured polarizer 34 onto the loading seat 325; after the light source 311 passes through the to-be-measured polarizer 34 and the retardation plate 322, lights of various wavelengths form an elliptic polarized light 312a. Please refer to
Certainly, in another preferred embodiment of the present invention, each sample polarizer of different axial polarizing angles can be disposed in sequence, and then the measurement comparison device 33 records these comparison data. Thus, after a to-be-measured polarizer 34 is disposed to get the transmission curve function drawing 314, these data can be searched to find the most similar drawing as the axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer 34.
The apparatus 3 for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer according to the present invention does not need to rotate any component and can get the axial polarizing angle directly by data comparison and calculation, thus the time required for measurement is lowered to less than 0.1 second, which benefits the real-time audit of the production process of the polarizer or the measurement of a large number of polarizers.
Please refer to
step (a): providing an apparatus for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer (Step 400), including: a light generating device, a light polarizing device and a measurement comparison device. The light generating device provides a light source, and the light polarizing device is disposed corresponding to the light generating device. The measurement comparison device is electrically connected with the light polarizing device.
step (b): disposing a sample polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device (Step 401). The light source passes the sample polarizer and arrives at the light polarizing device, and a first curve is measured and recorded in the measurement comparison device. The light polarizing device measures the first curve by a spectrometer, and thus the first curve is a transmission rate function curve. The x-coordinate is the wavelength and the y-coordinate is the function curve corresponding to the transmission rate.
step (c): taking out the sample polarizer (Step 402).
step (d): disposing a to-be-measured polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device (Step 403). The light source passes the to-be-measured polarizer and arrives at the light polarizing device, and a second curve is measured and recorded in the measurement comparison device. The second curve is also a transmission rate function curve.
step (e): comparing the first curve and the second curve by the measurement comparison device (Step 404), and calculating an axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer. The measurement comparison device is a computer and calculates the wavelength peak difference of the first curve and the second curve, and/or the amplitude variation of the spectrum, so as to get the axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer.
Because the present invention can be used in a real-time audit of the production process of polarizers, another to-be-measured polarizer will be disposed anytime. After the preferred step (e), further steps are comprised as follows:
step (f): taking out the to-be-measured polarizer (Step 405).
step (g): disposing another to-be-measured polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device (Step 406). The light source passes the to-be-measured polarizer and arrives at the light polarizing device, and a third curve is measured and recorded in the measurement comparison device.
step (h): comparing the first curve and the third curve by the measurement comparison device (Step 407), and calculating an axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer.
step (i): repeating from step (f) to step (h). Therefore, quick measuring of an axial polarizing angle of a plurality of to-be-measured polarizer can be achieved.
Please refer to
step (a): providing an apparatus for measuring an axial polarizing angle of the polarizer (Step 500), including: a light generating device, a light polarizing device and a measurement comparison device. The light generating device provides a light source, and the light polarizing device is disposed corresponding to the light generating device. The measurement comparison device is electrically connected with the light polarizing device, and a plurality of comparison data is preset inside. At least one sample polarizer with known axial polarizing angle is disposed between the light generating device and the light polarizing device. The light source passes the sample polarizer and arrives at the light polarizing device and gets a comparison data and records it in the measurement comparison device. The light polarizing device measures the comparison data by a spectrometer, and thus the comparison data is a transmission rate function curve. The x-coordinate is the wavelength and the y-coordinate is the function curve corresponding to the transmission rate.
step (b): disposing a to-be-measured polarizer between the light generating device and the light polarizing device (Step 501).
step (c): the light source passes the to-be-measured polarizer and arrives at the light polarizing device, and a measured data is received (Step 502), and recorded in the measurement comparison device. The measured data is also a transmission rate function curve. The x-coordinate is the wavelength and the y-coordinate is the function curve corresponding to the transmission rate.
step (d): comparing the measured data and the comparison data by the measurement comparison device, thereby allowing one of the comparison data to become most similar to the measured data (Step 503).
step (e): getting an axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer by using the comparison data most similar to the measured data (Step 504). Certainly, the measurement comparison device can compare the wavelength peak difference and/or amplitude variation of the spectrum of the measured data and the comparison data most similar to the measured data, so as to calculate the axial polarizing angle of the to-be-measured polarizer.
While the invention has been described by way of examples and in terms of the preferred embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements and procedures, and the scope of the appended claims therefore should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements and procedures. Accordingly, that above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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095144587 | Dec 2006 | TW | national |