The present invention claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 81440/2002 filed in Korea on Dec. 18, 2002, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fabrication of a display device, and particularly, to a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors have been commonly used for displaying information in television and computer systems. The CRT monitors produce high quality images and have relatively high brightness. However, as sizes of image display screens increase, depths of the CRT monitors have increased, thereby occupying a very large volume. In addition, weight of the CRT monitors have been problematic for use in portable display devices. In order to address these problems, flat panel display devices, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) devices, plasma display panel (PDP) devices, organic electro-luminescence display (OELD) devices, light emitting diode (LED) devices, and field emission display (FED) devices, have been substituted for the CRT monitors. Among these various flat panel display devices, the liquid crystal display (LCD) devices are commonly used in notebook and desktop computers because of their low power consumption.
In addition, a thin film transistor T and a pixel electrode 7 are formed on the lower substrate 10, wherein the thin film transistor T includes a gate electrode 1 to which a scan signal is supplied, a semiconductor layer 3 for transmitting a data signal corresponding to the scan signal, a gate insulating layer 2 for electrically isolating the semiconductor layer 3 and the gate electrode 1, a source electrode 4 formed on an upper part of the semiconductor layer 3 for supplying the data signal, and a drain electrode 5 for supplying the data signal to the pixel electrode 7. The semiconductor layer 3 comprises an active layer 3a formed by depositing amorphous silicon (a—Si) and an n+ doped ohmic contact layer 3b on both upper sides of the active layer 3a. A passivation layer 6 and the pixel electrode 7 are formed on the thin film transistor T, and a first alignment layer 4a is formed on an upper part of the pixel electrode 7 for aligning liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal material layer 15. The pixel electrode 7 is made of a transparent conductor, such as indium tin oxide (ITO) or indium zinc oxide (IZO), so that light can be transmitted through the pixel electrode 7.
In
To fabricate the LCD device, several thin film deposition and photolithographic processes should be performed. For example, to fabricate the thin film transistor T, the color filters 11, and the black matrix 12, a photoresist pattern is formed by applying photoresist material. Then, the photoresist material undergoes exposure and strip processes using a mask, and an etching process is performed using the photoresist pattern as a mask. Accordingly, the process for forming the photoresist material includes rather complex fabrication processes and is not suitable for large area display devices. Thus, a printing method is used to pattern the photoresist material without the need for the exposure process.
In
In
For example, when spacing between adjacent resist portions 31 is relatively narrow, the resist pattern 31 may include openings, as shown in
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device that substantially obviates one or more of the problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for a liquid crystal display device that includes forming a resist pattern.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be apparent from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention will be realized and attained by the method particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described, a method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device includes providing a cliché having a plurality of grooves, each of the grooves having different depths and widths, filling resist material into the plurality of grooves, transferring the resist filled in the grooves onto a printing roll to form a plurality of resist portions along a circumference of the printing roll, and applying the resist portions onto a surface of an etching layer, wherein the applied resist portions form a resist pattern along the surface of etching layer.
In another aspect, a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes preparing one of a glass and plastic substrate, forming a plurality of grooves in the substrate, each of the grooves having different depths and widths, filling resist material into the plurality of grooves, transferring the resist material filled in the plurality of grooves onto a printing roll to form a plurality of resist portions, applying the plurality of resist portions onto an etching object layer to form a resist pattern, and etching the etching object layer using the resist pattern as a mask.
In another aspect, a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes preparing one of a glass and plastic substrate, depositing an organic layer onto the substrate, forming a plurality of grooves through a surface of the organic layer, each of the grooves having different depths and widths, depositing resist material on the surface and plurality of grooves of the organic layer, removing portions of the resist material deposited on the surface of the organic layer using a blade, transferring the resist material filled in the grooves onto a printing roll to form a plurality of resist portions, and applying the resist portions formed on the printing roll onto an etching object layer.
In another aspect, a method for fabricating a liquid crystal display (LCD) device includes providing a first substrate, forming a plurality of first grooves through a surface of the first substrate, each first groove having a first depth and a first width, forming a plurality of second grooves through the surface of the first substrate, each second groove having a second depth smaller than the first depth and a second width larger than the first width, filling resist material into the plurality of first and second grooves, attaching an etching object substrate onto the surface of the first substrate, applying at least one of heat and pressure to the etching object substrate, and applying the resist material filled in the first and second grooves onto the etching object substrate by separating the etching object substrate from the first substrate to form a resist pattern on the etching object substrate having a plurality of first portions corresponding to the plurality of first grooves and a plurality of second resist portions corresponding to the plurality of second grooves, wherein a first thickness of the first resist portions is larger than a second thickness of the second resist portions.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further understanding of the invention as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
In
In
In
Alternatively, the grooves 105 may be formed by etching the substrate 101 without forming the buffer layer 103 on the substrate 101. However, cracks may be generated on lower portions of the substrate 101 due to the impact of the printing roll 133 with the substrate 101. Thus, the buffer layer 103 may absorb the impact of the printing roll 133 to protect the substrate 101.
In addition, the resist 133 may be easily separated from the cliché 100 by making use of adhesion property changes of the resist 133 according to differences in temperature. For example, when the resist 133 has improved adhesion properties at elevated temperatures, the resist 133 may be easily separated from the cliché 100 when the temperature of the printing roll 133 is elevated by using heaters built into the cliché 100 and/or the printing roll 133. Moreover, when the resist 133 has improved adhesion properties at reduced temperatures, the resist 133 may be easily separated from the cliché 100 by setting a temperature of the printing roll 133 to be lower than a temperature of the cliché 100.
In
Accordingly, the plurality of resist portions 131 may be easily separated from the printing roll 133 by controlling the temperature of substrate 130 using a heater installed in the stage 300, whereby the plurality of resist portions 131 may be attached easily onto the substrate 130.
Although not shown, heaters may be installed on the cliché 100, the printing roll 133, and/or on the stage 300, wherein heat produced by the heaters may be individually controlled in order to maintain uniform temperatures along entire areas of the cliché 100, the printing roll 133, and the stage 300.
In
Next, after the desired resist pattern is formed on the etching object layer 130a, etching object layer 130a may be etched using an etching process, thereby forming a patterned metal layer (i.e., the gate line, the data line, and the electrode structures of the thin film transistor) or a patterned insulating layer (i.e., contact holes).
In
In
In
In
In
In
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the method of fabricating a liquid crystal display device of the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Thus, it is intended that the present invention cover the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
10-2002-0081440 | Dec 2002 | KR | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
4294650 | Werthmann | Oct 1981 | A |
5259926 | Kuwabara et al. | Nov 1993 | A |
5514503 | Evans et al. | May 1996 | A |
5527663 | Togawa et al. | Jun 1996 | A |
5544582 | Bocko et al. | Aug 1996 | A |
5678483 | Johnson | Oct 1997 | A |
5701815 | Bocko et al. | Dec 1997 | A |
6001515 | Evans et al. | Dec 1999 | A |
6233031 | Ishitaka | May 2001 | B1 |
6356318 | Kawahata | Mar 2002 | B1 |
6759348 | Cho et al. | Jul 2004 | B1 |
20030124866 | Kim et al. | Jul 2003 | A1 |
20040125249 | Cho et al. | Jul 2004 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
0 471 628 | Feb 1992 | EP |
63-205608 | Aug 1988 | JP |
3-280416 | Dec 1991 | JP |
4-94115 | Mar 1992 | JP |
4-239684 | Aug 1992 | JP |
4-249189 | Sep 1992 | JP |
4-296724 | Oct 1992 | JP |
5-11270 | Jan 1993 | JP |
6-202314 | Jul 1994 | JP |
7-240523 | Sep 1995 | JP |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
20040119935 A1 | Jun 2004 | US |