This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2006-330599, filed on Dec. 7, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing plate, a method for manufacturing the same and a liquid crystal display (LCD) device made using the method, and in particular, relates to the printing plate for a letterpress offset printing, the method for manufacturing the same and the LCD device made using the method.
2. Background Art
In recent years, an LCD device is widely used as a high-resolution display. The LCD device includes functional substrates of which a TFT (thin film transistor) substrate and a CF (color filter) substrate face each other. A Liquid crystal is filled in a gap between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate.
A plural of switching elements such as thin film transistors and electrodes are formed on the TFT substrate, and a color filter, a black matrix and a plurality of electrodes are formed on the CF substrate.
An alignment direction of a liquid crystal molecule changes according to an electric field between the electrodes of the two substrates. The alignment direction of the liquid crystal molecule controls amount of light transmission through the substrates. Thereby, information can be displayed.
The functional substrate includes various patterns with different width and different space thereon. As small space patterns, high definition patterns such as wiring lines and electrodes are exemplified. As comparatively large space patterns, a color filter is exemplified. These patterns are formed using a photolithographic method.
A circuit pattern, an electrode pattern and a contact hole pattern or the like are described as a function pattern, and a substrate in which these functional patterns are formed is described as a functional substrate. In the photolithographic method, processes are complicated and require an expensive production unit. Accordingly, there is a problem that a production cost becomes high.
An alternative technology which lowers the production cost is proposed. For example, an offset printing is proposed in Japanese Patent No. 3730002 as the alternative technology.
Next, the blanket 1 on which a coating film of the ink 5 is applied rolls while pressing a printing plate 6. Thereby, the ink 5 is transferred onto the printing plate 6.
A concave printing plate pattern 35 shown in
Because the printing plate pattern 35 is formed by a photolithographic method in the printing process, dimensional accuracy of the ink pattern 36 formed on the blanket 1 becomes equal to dimensional accuracy obtained by the photolithographic method. Therefore, dimensional accuracy of a transferred ink pattern 7 becomes equal to the dimensional accuracy of the ink pattern 36 formed on the blanket 1, that is, the dimensional accuracy of the photolithographic method.
However, when a width of the printing plate pattern 35 is wide, a defect so-called an inside void may occur.
As shown in
On the other hand, as shown in
An inside void generating area 20 corresponds to an area where the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 touches the bottom 24 of the printing plate pattern 35, shown in
When the ink 21 remains on the bottom 24, a defective part 23 is formed in an ink pattern 36 on the blanket 1. Therefore, when the ink pattern 36 is transferred on the substrate 8, the defective part 23 also occurs in the transferred ink pattern 7.
Boundaries 40 of the inside void part 22 is wavy irregularly. Why the boundaries 40 wave is described below. That is, even if the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 touches the bottom 24 of the printing plate pattern 35, the outer surface 38 does not touch a surface of the bottom 24 uniformly. As shown in
The above-mentioned problem occurs since the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 touches the bottom 24 of the printing plate pattern 35. Therefore, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, it is considered to deepen the printing plate pattern 35 and prevent the outer surfaces 38 from contacting the bottom 24.
However, in such a method, following inconvenience occurs. The printing plate pattern 35 is formed using an etching technology. Therefore, in order to deepen the printing plate pattern 35, a long etching time becomes necessary. A wet etching method is used for an etching of the printing plate pattern 35. The printing plate pattern 35 is isotropically etched in a wet etching method. Thus, since width of the printing plate pattern 35 is various, an appropriate etching condition for a printing plate pattern 35 is not necessarily appropriate to a different printing plate pattern 35. As a result, over etching may occur. The over etching may decrease dimensional accuracy of the printing plate pattern 35.
A main object of the present invention is to provide a printing plate with various widths dimensions which forms an ink pattern without a defective part and which is able to obtain pattern accuracy equal to a photolithographic method, a method for manufacturing the printing plate and an LCD device made by using the printing plate. A printing plate for an offset printing, comprising: a substrate; and a plurality of concave printing plate patterns formed on said substrate, wherein at least one auxiliary pattern is located on a bottom of at least one of said concave printing plate patterns and away from a side face of said concave printing plate pattern.
Exemplary features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken with the accompanying drawings in which:
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail in accordance with the accompanying drawings.
A printing plate for an offset printing includes a concave printing plate pattern, and includes an island-shaped auxiliary pattern which is formed in a concave area of the printing plate pattern. The auxiliary pattern detaches from a side face of the concave area. Thereby, even if a plurality of inside void parts occur in a function pattern, an area thereof is small and each inside void parts are isolated each other. Further, positions of the inside void parts can be regularly arranged.
An ink repellent layer may be provided on the auxiliary pattern so that an ink is not transferred thereon. Thereby, the inside void parts do not occur in the function pattern.
The auxiliary pattern may be formed so as to be lower than a depth of the printing plate pattern. Thereby, when an ink is transferred onto the printing plate, a pressure applied on the auxiliary pattern may be decreased and transferring of an ink thereon is suppressed.
First, a structure of the printing plate 27 is described below. As shown in
In the present invention, at least one auxiliary pattern 9 is provided in the printing plate pattern 25 corresponding to the area 2. Thereby, the printing plate pattern 25 corresponding to the area 2 can be regarded as the printing plate pattern 25 corresponding in the area 1, and occurrence of an inside void can be suppressed.
A preferable width of the auxiliary pattern 9 may be around 3 μm to 10 μm. The reason why a minimum width thereof is specified as about 3 μm is described below. That is, a photolithographic method is used for formation of the auxiliary pattern 9, and it is difficult to realize pattern accuracy of no more than 3 μm in the photolithographic method. Further, since there are also various exposure systems such as a contact exposure method and a proximity exposure method in the photolithographic method, dimensional accuracy is different in the respective methods, and a minimum width thereof cannot be specified.
The reason why a maximum width thereof is specified as about 10 μm is described below. That is, a width of a usual wiring line of an LCD device is about 10 μm. Therefore, the width of the printing plate pattern 25 is set to be about 10 μm. For this reason, the upper limit value of the width of the auxiliary pattern 9, which can be formed without touching the side face 32 thereof, will be about 10 μm mentioned above.
Further, because the above-mentioned description premises on present wiring of a present LCD device, when a device with a smaller line width is developed in the future, the upper limit value of the width of the auxiliary pattern 9 may be changed according to the development thereof.
When the present invention is applied to production of a device other than the LCD device, the width of the auxiliary pattern 9 may be limited according to its device.
In
A method to perform an offset printing using the printing plate 27 of the first exemplary embodiment is described below. First, as shown in
The blanket 1 is made of a silicone rubber and is provided on an external surface of the impression cylinder 2 which rotates in one direction. A printing plate 27 is made of an ink-philic material or is surface-treated with an ink-philic material. Thereby, the ink 5 on the blanket 1 is transferred onto the non-printed pattern Z certainly. Similarly, the ink 5 on the blanket 1 which touched an auxiliary pattern 9 is transferred onto an upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 9 certainly.
Since an outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 touches the upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 9, the outer surface 38 does not touch the bottom 24. Therefore, a defective part 23 as shown in
After that, the blanket 1 on which the ink pattern 36 is formed is rolled while pressing the substrate 8 as shown in
In order to transfer the ink 5 onto the substrate 8 certainly, it is desirable to select the substrate 8 with a surface energy larger than that of the blanket 1.
However, when the substrate 8 with the surface energy smaller than that of the blanket 1 is used, it is desirable to enhance an ink-philic property of the surface of the substrate 8.
In order to enhance the ink-philic property, a method to deposit a film such as a hexamethyldisilazane (HMDS) film or the like on the surface of the printing plate 27 can be exemplified.
In the printing plate 27 according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, it is not necessary to deepen the printing plate pattern 25 so as to prevent the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 from touching the bottom 24 thereof. For this reason, without an excess production cost for deepening the printing plate pattern 25, a high-definition pattern can be formed easily.
Thus, according to the printing plate 27 of the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a functional substrate such as a TFT substrate having function pattern with high accuracy and various widths can be produced easily.
Next, a method for manufacturing the printing plate 27 will be described with reference to
First, as shown in
The etching mask 12 can be formed using a photolithographic method. For example, a metallic film is formed on the substrate for the printing plate 11, and a resist is applied thereon. And a predetermined pattern is formed by exposing and developing the resist.
Next, after a partial metallic film which is not covered with the resist is etched, the resist is removed.
The metallic film which is made of a material such as chromium (Cr) is formed on the substrate for the printing plate 11 by a vapor deposition method or a sputtering method. The metallic film is etched by a wet etching method.
Next, as shown in
Finally, as shown in
A manufacturing method for producing a TFT substrate using the above-mentioned printing plate 27 will be described below.
Here, a production method of an amorphous silicon (a-Si) TFT substrate 45 with an inversely staggered structure of the channel etched type will be described. However, the method may be also applied to a staggered structure, a poly-silicon TFT or the like.
The two substrates 45 and 46 are arranged so as to face each other with a predetermined interval made by a spacer 49, and a liquid crystal 50 is injected therebetween. The TFT substrate 45 includes a plurality of TFTs 51 on the transparent insulating substrate 47 made of a glass or a plastic. The TFT 51 includes a gate electrode 52, a gate insulation film 53 which covers the gate electrode 52, a semiconductor layer 54, a source electrode 55 and a drain electrode 56.
A passivation film 57, a pixel electrode 58 and an alignment layer 59 are formed on the TFT 51. The pixel electrode 58 is connected to an electrode such as a source electrode 55 through a contact hole 64 formed in the passivation film 57.
The CF substrate 46 includes an alignment layer 68, a pixel electrode 67, a black matrix 65, a color filter 66 and a polarizing plate on the transparent insulating substrate 48. An electric field is generated between the pixel electrode 67 and the pixel electrode 58 formed in the TFT substrate 45. The color filter 66 is provided with RGB color layers and makes a color display. The spacer 49 is spherical, for example, and is made of a polymer bead, a silica bead or the like.
The TFT substrate 45 and the CF substrate 46 are manufactured by a similar process basically. An example of manufacturing the TFT substrate 45 using the printing plate 27 will be described below.
First, a gate metallic film is formed, by a sputtering method or the like, on an entire surface of the transparent insulating substrate 47. The gate metallic film is, for example, a laminated film having a molybdenum upper layer of 50 nm in thickness and an aluminum lower layer of 200 nm in thickness can be employed. The lower layer thereof is located in a side of the transparent insulating substrates 47.
Next, a resist pattern for a gate pattern etching is formed using the above-mentioned printing plate 27. The gate metallic film is etched using the resist pattern as an etching mask. The gate metallic film can be etched using a mixed acid which is a mixed-solution of a phosphoric acid, a nitric acid, an acetic acid and water, for example. After an etching of the gate metallic film is completed, the resist is removed. By patterning of this gate metallic film, the gate electrode 52 of the TFT 51 is formed.
When the auxiliary pattern 9 is formed in the printing plate pattern 25, the defective pattern 14 corresponding to the auxiliary pattern 9 occurs in the gate pattern. However, because the defective pattern 14 is isolated and an area thereof in the gate electrode 52 is small sufficiently, a display characteristic is not influenced by the defective pattern 14.
After the gate electrode 52 is formed, a gate insulation film 53 and an a-Si layer and an n+ type a-Si layer are formed in this order. The gate insulation film 53 and the a-Si layer and the n+ type a-Si layer are formed using a plasma CVD method, for example. A thickness of the gate insulation film 53 is set to about 300 nm, and a thickness of the a-Si layer is set to about 200 nm. The a-Si layer becomes a semiconductor layer 54 of the TFT.
Next, a resist pattern for etching the semiconductor layer 54 is formed using the above-mentioned printing plate 27. When the resist pattern is printed on the semiconductor layer 54, it is desirable that an ink-philic property of the surface of the semiconductor layer 54 is improved by a treatment of forming a HMDS film.
These two layers of the n+ type a-Si layer and the a-Si layer are etched using a resist pattern as an etching mask. The resist pattern is removed after the etching. The etching thereof is performed by a dry etching, for example. In such processes, the pattern of the semiconductor region of the two-layered structure is formed. In the area other than the semiconductor region, the gate insulation film 53 is exposed.
The auxiliary pattern 9 is arranged in an area except for a channel region so that the defective pattern 14 does not occur in the channel region. When size of a channel whose region includes the defective pattern 14 changes, transistor characteristics are degraded. In order to prevent the defective pattern 14 from occurring in the channel region, it is preferable to employ a printing plate 27 of following second and third exemplary embodiments.
Next, a drain metallic film is formed all over the transparent insulating substrate 47 using a sputtering method, after the patterning of a semiconductor region is completed. A molybdenum (Mo) film 50 nm thick, a 200 nm thick aluminum (Al) film 200 nm thick and a molybdenum (Mo) film 50 nm thick are formed in turn to form the drain metallic film.
After the drain metallic film is formed, a resist pattern for etching the drain metallic film is formed using the printing plate 27 as shown in
The defective pattern 14 corresponding to the auxiliary pattern 9 may be formed in the drain electrode 56 and the source electrode 55 due to the process. However, because the defective pattern is isolated and an area thereof is too small compared with areas of the drain electrode 56 and the source electrode 55 to influence on display characteristics.
Next, an area of the n+ type a-Si layer between the drain electrode 56 and the source electrode 55 in the semiconductor region is etched using a dry etching. After the area of the n+ type a-Si layer between the drain electrode 56 and the source electrode 55 is etched, a resist formed in a process of patterning the drain layer is removed.
After removing the resist, a passivation film 57 such as a SiNx film 200 nm thick is formed all over the transparent insulating substrate 47 using plasma CVD method, for example. Then, a contact hole 64 is formed by etching the passivation film 57 and a gate insulation film 53 thereunder. First, an etching resist pattern is formed on the passivation film 57 using the above-mentioned printing plate 27. The surface of the passivation film 57 may be improved its ink-philic property by forming an HMDS film before the resist pattern is formed.
The passivation film 57 and the gate insulation film 53 are etched using the resist pattern as an etching mask. By the etching to form the contact hole 64, the surfaces of the gate electrode 52 under the gate insulation film 53 and the drain layer are exposed. After the etching to form the contact hole 64 is completed, the resist pattern is removed. A wet etching using chemicals of a buffered hydrofluoric acid can be employed.
The process makes the defective pattern 14 corresponding to the auxiliary pattern 9 besides the contact hole 64. However, because the defective pattern is isolated, an area thereof is quite small compared with a whole pattern and a forming position thereof is controllable, display characteristics are not degraded.
After forming the contact hole 64, a transparent conductive film which becomes the pixel electrode is formed all over the transparent insulating substrate 47 using a sputtering method, for example. The transparent conductive film becomes the pixel electrode 58, and for example, may be made of an indium tin oxide or an indium zinc oxide 50 nm thick.
Next, a resist pattern to form the pattern of the pixel electrode by an etching is printed on the transparent conductive film using the above-mentioned printing plate 27. When the resist pattern is printed, it is desirable to enhance ink-philic property by forming an HMDS film before the resist pattern is printed. The transparent conductive film is etched by a wet etching, for example, using the resist pattern as an etching mask. After etching the transparent conductive film, the resist is removed.
The defective pattern 14 corresponding to the auxiliary pattern 9 may be formed in the pixel electrode pattern. However, because the defective pattern 14 is isolated, an area thereof is quite small compared with a whole pattern and a forming position thereof is controllable, display characteristics are not degraded.
Although the resist pattern for the etching mask is formed using a printing plate 27 of the first exemplary embodiment in the above-mentioned description, the first exemplary embodiment is not limited to such process. A method for printing an ink to form wiring patterns of the TFT substrate and the CF substrate and the pattern of the gate layer directly can be exemplified. In the method, a step of exposing a resist which is used to etch a wiring material and a gate material and a step of removing a resist can be omitted. Thereby, a production cost can decrease.
An example of an ink used for such a method is described below. An ink used for the gate layer, the drain layer and the light shielding layer may include nano-size metal particles. A preferable grain diameter of the metal particle is from 1 nm to 60 nm, more preferably about 5 nm. An ink for the transparent conductive layer used for the pixel electrode may include nano size particles of transparent metallic oxide such as ITO or IZO. An ink for the passivation film may include an acrylic resin dissolved in a solvent. An ink for a color layer of the color filter may include various dyes and pigments dispersed in a solvent. An ink for the semiconductor layer 54 may include pentacene or tetracene dispersed in a solvent. An ink including polythiophene or polyphenylenevinylene which is a conductive polymer can be also exemplified as an ink for the semiconductor layer 54.
As described above, at least one auxiliary pattern 9 is provided inside at least one printing plate pattern 25 in the printing plate 27 of the present invention. Thereby, even when narrow patterns and wide patterns coexist, a dimensional accuracy of the function patterns finally formed is equal to that of a photolithographic method.
When the present invention is applied to production of the TFT substrate and the CF substrate in an LCD device, yield may improve and a production cost may decrease.
Next, a printing plate for an offset printing of a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention, a manufacturing method and an LCD device will be described with reference to
In the same configuration as the configuration in the first exemplary embodiment mentioned above, the same signs are used, and descriptions of the configuration are omitted appropriately.
The printing plate and the printing operation of the second exemplary embodiment will be described with reference to
At least one auxiliary pattern 9 is formed on a bottom 24 of at least one printing plate pattern 25. The auxiliary pattern 9 is formed so as not to touch a side face 32 of the pattern 25. An ink repellent layer 16 is formed on side faces and bottom faces of the printing plate pattern 25. The ink repellent layer 16 has to be formed on an at least upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 9.
An arrangement and the size of the auxiliary pattern 9, a shape of a impression cylinder 2 and a material of the printing plate 27 are same as that of the first exemplary embodiment.
Next, a printing method using the printing plate of the second exemplary embodiment will be described. First, as shown in
The blanket 1 rolls while pressing the printing plate 27, and as shown in
Then, the blanket 1 having an outer surface 38 on which an ink pattern 36 corresponding to a function pattern is formed is pressed on a substrate 8 and rolls. Thereby, the ink pattern 36 is transferred onto the substrate 8. Selection and a treatment of the substrate 8 of the second exemplary embodiment is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment.
The ink pattern 36 can be transferred on the substrate 8 so as to keep accuracy which is equal to that of a photolithographic method.
Because a defective part 23 does not occur in the ink pattern 36 even if the printing plate 27 with the auxiliary pattern 9 is used, the defective pattern 14 as shown in
Therefore, it is not necessary to deepen the printing plate pattern 25 in order to prevent occurrence of the defective part 23 in the printing plate 27. In other words, because the a cost for adjusting a depth of the printing plate pattern 25 on a substrate having narrow patterns and wide patterns becomes unnecessary in the second exemplary embodiment, a production cost thereof can be lowered.
The ink repellent layer 16 mentioned above is formed all over the printing plate pattern 25 in which the auxiliary pattern 9 is provided. However, in the present invention, a forming method of the ink repellent layer 16 is not limited to such configuration.
An essential operation of the ink repellent layer 16 is to prevent the ink 5 applied on the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 from being transferred on a side face or a bottom of the printing plate pattern 25 including the upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 9. Therefore, the ink repellent layer 16 may be formed as shown in
Next, a method for manufacturing the printing plate of the second exemplary embodiment will be described.
This etching mask 12 can be made of a chromium film, using a photolithographic method of the first exemplary embodiment. The etching mask 12 may be a resist patterned by a photolithographic method. After forming the etching mask 12, as shown in
Next, as shown in
The mask 15 for the ink repellent processing is formed so that the non-printed pattern Z of the substrate for the printing plate 11 may be covered thereby.
Next, as shown in
A fluoride coating resin including as polytetrafluoroethylene, a silicone resin such as dimethylsiloxane or the like may be used as a material of the ink repellent layer 16. As a material of the ink repellent layer 16, solution including a silane coupling agent therein may be also employed. When the solution in which the silane coupling agent is dissolved is used, the solution is applied on a surface of the substrate for the printing plate 11, and then the substrate is dried.
As a method of an application, various methods such as a spin coat method, a slit coat method and a spraying method may be used. At that time, it is desirable to use an ink repellent material whose surface energy after drying is smaller than that of the ink 5. Moreover, it is desirable that the surface energy of the ink repellent material is about 18 dyne/cm or less.
As the ink repellent material, when NovecEGC-1720 (made by Sumitomo 3M Corporation) is used, for example, the printing plate pattern 25 after coating includes a surface energy of 13 dyne/cm, and the printing plate pattern 25 shows an excellent function.
Finally, as shown in
After the printing plate pattern 25 having the auxiliary patterns 9 is formed, as shown in
As shown in
At least one island-shaped auxiliary pattern 9 is formed on at least one printing plate pattern 25 and the ink repellent layer 16 is formed at least on the upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 9.
Thereby, even when narrow patterns and wide patterns coexist, a dimensional accuracy of circuit patterns finally formed is equal to that in a photolithographic method.
When a method for forming the printing plate 27 of the second exemplary embodiment is used for production of a TFT substrate and a CF substrate in an LCD device, for example, yield improves and production costs are reduced.
Next, a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The structure of the printing plate of the third exemplary embodiment and the printing operation using the same will be described with reference to
First, a structure of the printing plate is described. A printing plate 28 of the third exemplary exemplary embodiment can be used for an offset printing, and a printing plate pattern 25 is formed to be concave. An auxiliary pattern 29 is provided in a bottom 24 of at least one printing plate pattern 25. The auxiliary pattern 29 is formed to be a concavo-convex height C lower than a concavo-convex height A of a printing plate pattern 25.
An arrangement and a size of the auxiliary pattern 29, a shape of the impression cylinder 2 and a material of the printing plate 28 are the same these of the first above-mentioned exemplary embodiment. An ink repellent layer 16 may also be formed on an upper surface of the auxiliary pattern 29 in the third exemplary embodiment. Further, a concavo-convex height C of an auxiliary pattern 29 may be zero. In such a configuration, even if an auxiliary pattern 29 is not formed, occurrence of a defective part can be prevented.
Next, a printing method using the printing plate of the third exemplary embodiment will be described. First, as shown in
When this ink 5 is transferred, the outer surface 38 of the blanket 1 also touches an upper surface 31 of the auxiliary pattern 29. However, because the concavo-convex height C of the auxiliary pattern 29 is lower than the concavo-convex height A of the printing plate pattern 25, a contact pressure between the outer surface 38 and the auxiliary pattern 29 of the blanket 1 becomes smaller than that between the outer surface 38 and the non-printed pattern Z of the blanket 1. Therefore, it becomes difficult for the ink 5 to be transferred onto the auxiliary pattern 29.
Then, the blanket 1 on whose outer surface 38 only the ink 5 with a desired pattern is formed is rolled on the substrate 8 as shown in
Next, a method of manufacturing the printing plate of the third exemplary embodiment will be described.
This first etching mask 18 can be made of a metallic film of Cr, for example, using a photolithographic method described in the first exemplary embodiment. A resist patterned by a photolithographic method without using a metallic film, may be used as the first etching mask 18.
Next, as shown in
The second etching mask 19 can be made of a metallic film of Cr, for example, using a photolithographic method like the first exemplary embodiment. A resist patterned by a photolithographic method without using a metallic film, may be used as the second etching mask 19.
Next, as shown in
When the substrate for the printing plate 30 is etched using the second etching mask 19 as an etching mask, the printing plate pattern 25 including the auxiliary pattern 29 is etched uniformly.
That is, without changing the concavo-convex height C of the auxiliary pattern 29, the substrate for the printing plate 30 is etched. Therefore, when an etching amount of the substrate for the printing plate 30 is adjusted, the concavo-convex height C of the auxiliary pattern 29 can be made to be lower than the concavo-convex height A of the printing plate pattern 25 (C<A).
Next, as shown in
Finally, as shown in
As described above, at least one island-shaped auxiliary pattern 29 having a convex shape is provided on a bottom 24 of at least one printing plate pattern 25. The concavo-convex height C of the auxiliary pattern 29 is formed so as to become lower than the concavo-convex height A of the printing plate pattern 25. Moreover, an ink repellent layer 16 may be formed onto an upper surface of an auxiliary pattern 29, if needed.
Thereby, even when the narrow patterns and wide patterns of function patterns coexist, a dimensional accuracy of the function patterns finally formed becomes equal to a precision of the photolithographic method. When the printing plate 28 of the third exemplary embodiment is used for production of a TFT substrate and a CF substrate in an LCD device, for example, yield improves and production costs are reduced.
Each above-mentioned exemplary embodiment is explained about the case when the substrate 8 of which the LCD device of the TFT substrate and the CF substrate is composed is produced using the printing plate of the present invention. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and may be applicable to an optional substrate having function patterns in which a narrow pattern and a wide pattern coexist.
While the invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, the invention is not limited to these embodiments. It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the claims.
Further, it is the inventor's intention to retain all equivalents of the claimed invention even if the claims are amended during prosecution.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2006-330599 | Dec 2006 | JP | national |