JP4355783B2 - Vacuum contact exposure apparatus and exposure method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a vacuum contact exposure apparatus and an exposure method, and more specifically, for example, for producing a position detection element used for position control of a printing apparatus that prints a large advertisement sheet and other long and large printed matter. The present invention relates to a vacuum contact exposure apparatus and an exposure method.

  At present, for example, in a certain kind of printing apparatus that prints a long printed matter, in order to control the position of the printing apparatus, for example, a width of a certain size is applied to a planar substrate such as a resin film or a glass plate. The position detection element formed by aligning the code bars in parallel at equal intervals is used, and the number of code bars from the reference position is counted by the light emitting diode and the light receiving diode provided in the printing apparatus. Thus, the moving distance of the printing apparatus is detected, and thereby the position of the printing apparatus is controlled.

Such a position detection element is produced by, for example, a method in which an optical image of the original is exposed by irradiating ultraviolet rays in a state where the original on which a slit image is formed is in close contact with the surface of a substrate made of a photosensitive film. Various exposure apparatuses that perform such exposure processing have been proposed (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
JP 2002-091011 A

Currently, such a position detection element is required to have a total length of, for example, 3 m or more. When producing such a long position detection element, as disclosed in Patent Document 1 above, for example. In the exposure apparatus, the entire photosensitive film is baked in one exposure process, so it is the limit to produce a position detection element with a total length of 1 m even if it is the longest. It was made by joining together.
However, with such a manufacturing method, it is difficult to obtain high-precision continuity in the bar pattern at the boundary portion of each position detecting element element, and the yield in manufacturing a long position detecting element is low, resulting in production. There is a problem of low efficiency.
On the other hand, there is a method of manufacturing a position detection element using image processing technology. However, in such a manufacturing method, high accuracy can be obtained in the continuity of the bar pattern, but the cost is high and it is long. Such a position detecting element cannot be produced advantageously.

  The present invention has been made based on the above situation, and is a vacuum contact exposure apparatus of a type in which an exposure head including a light source device and an original is step-driven and repeats contact exposure after movement. An object of the present invention is to provide a vacuum contact exposure apparatus capable of obtaining high-precision continuity in a bar pattern at a boundary portion of a processing unit region to be performed, and an exposure method implemented in the exposure apparatus.

The vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to the present invention has a base having a holding unit on which a long planar object to be exposed is adsorbed and held, and runs on the base along the longitudinal direction of the object to be exposed. An exposure head having a light source device provided so as to be drivable. The original plate provided with the predetermined image pattern provided on the exposure head is brought into vacuum contact with the surface of the object to be exposed and irradiated with light. By exposing the optical image of the original,
The exposure head is step- driven by a driving unit made of a linear motor so that the exposure process is sequentially performed for each of a plurality of processing unit areas obtained by dividing the object to be exposed in the longitudinal direction ,
A position detection element having a bar pattern continuous to the plurality of processing unit regions is formed by the slit image of the original plate .

  In the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, the base is preferably composed of a stone surface plate.

  In the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, the driving means includes a propulsion magnetic guideway made of a permanent magnet or an electromagnet disposed on both sides of the travel path of the exposure head on the base, and the travel path. And a magnetic guideway for levitation made of a permanent magnet or an electromagnet disposed on at least one side, and the exposure head is driven with at least one side levitation in the traveling path. it can.

Furthermore, in the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, the exposure head includes a box-shaped housing, and in this housing, a light source device is provided at the upper portion, and the original is placed on the surface of the object to be exposed at the lower portion. A vacuum contact mechanism for vacuum contact is provided, and the vacuum contact mechanism includes a frame-shaped cantilevered base frame that holds the original plate and an elevating mechanism that drives the base frame up and down. A decompression mechanism for decompressing the space between the original plate and the object to be exposed, which is provided with a frame-shaped seal member on its lower surface so as to surround the periphery of the original plate, and is partitioned by the seal member. It is preferable that the seal member has a circular or substantially circular outer peripheral edge shape in its cross section, and an elliptical or elliptical inner peripheral edge shape.
In such a vacuum contact exposure apparatus, the base frame is preferably provided with a balancing weight extending on the opposite side of the horizontally extending frame portion where the original is held.

  Further, in the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, position detection means for detecting the position of the exposure head on the base is provided, and based on the movement distance of the exposure head detected by the position detection means. The exposure head can be positioned with respect to each processing unit area.

The exposure method of the present invention sets a plurality of processing unit areas obtained by dividing a long planar object to be exposed into the same size in the longitudinal direction,
An exposure head including an original plate on which a light source device and a predetermined image pattern are formed is step-driven by a driving unit including a linear motor,
By performing the contact exposure process for exposing the optical image of the original by exposing the original provided on the exposure head to the surface of the object to be exposed in vacuum and irradiating with light, each processing unit area is sequentially subjected to the exposure of the original. A position detection element having a bar pattern continuous to the plurality of processing unit regions is formed by the slit image .

According to the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, the exposure head can be controlled with high positional accuracy by being driven stepwise by a driving means comprising a linear motor. Is obtained by separately exposing each of the plurality of processing unit areas divided in the longitudinal direction, and high continuity is obtained in the image pattern at the boundary portion of the continuous processing unit areas, and the exposure is performed. Since the processing is sequentially performed for each of the plurality of processing unit areas divided in the longitudinal direction of the object to be exposed, high work efficiency can be obtained when processing a long object to be exposed.
Therefore, for example, in the case of producing a long position detecting element, there is substantially no restriction on the size of the length dimension, and an element having a bar pattern (slit image) having high accuracy continuity is advantageously produced. be able to.

  In addition, because the base is composed of a stone surface plate, distortion due to the environmental conditions (especially temperature conditions) in which the device is installed due to the high levelness and high deformation resistance of the stone surface plate itself, There is substantially no adverse effect due to vibration, and a high levelness is secured on the holding surface of the object to be exposed, so that the exposure head can be positioned with higher accuracy.

  Further, since the cantilevered base frame holding the original plate in the exposure head is configured to be driven in the vertical direction in a state where the weight balance is adjusted by the balancing weight, the tip of the base frame is The moment is substantially zero, and the original can be brought into close contact with the surface of the object to be exposed in a state where high flatness is secured on its lower surface. As a result, the original and the object to be exposed in the plane of the base frame Can be positioned with high accuracy.

  Further, since the bank frame used to achieve vacuum adhesion between the original plate and the object to be exposed is constituted by a seal member having a specific cross-sectional shape, the seal member itself has high flexibility and high deformation durability. Depending on the property, a reliable vacuum contact state between the original and the object to be exposed is achieved.

  According to the exposure method of the present invention, a boundary between successive processing unit regions is obtained by separately exposing each of a plurality of processing unit regions obtained by dividing a long object to be exposed in the longitudinal direction. High continuity is obtained in the image pattern in the portion, and high work efficiency is obtained when processing a long object to be exposed.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
1 is a side view showing an outline of the configuration of an example of the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the vacuum contact exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is an overview of the configuration of an example of an exposure head. The sectional views shown are respectively shown.

  This vacuum contact exposure apparatus (hereinafter simply referred to as “exposure apparatus”) includes a light source device, an optical system that collimates light emitted from the light source device, and an exposure mechanism including an exposure master as one moving body. The exposure head is configured such that the exposure head is step-driven and the contact exposure process is repeatedly performed. The base 10 has a high horizontal surface, and the base 10 has a longitudinal direction along its longitudinal direction. The exposure head 20 is movably provided.

  The base 10 is composed of, for example, a stone surface plate, and is supported from the lower surface by a plurality of support leg members 12 arranged at equal intervals in the longitudinal direction.

  In the base 10, a suction plate 11 that constitutes an exposure target holding unit that holds, for example, a photosensitive film W, which is a long exposure target, is held at the center of the upper surface of the exposure head 20. It is arranged along the travel path.

  The suction plate 11 has a large number of suction holes 11A opened on the upper surface formed at a substantially uniform density, and is installed outside the apparatus through a flow path 11B formed in the thickness of the suction plate 11. It is connected to appropriate suction means (not shown).

On the base 10, propulsion magnetic guideways 13A and 13B are disposed on both sides of the travel path of the exposure head 20 so as to extend in parallel with each other, and a levitation magnetic guideway 14 is disposed on at least one side of the travel path. The propulsion magnetic guideways 13A and 13B are arranged to extend in parallel.
The propulsion magnetic guideways 13A and 13B and the levitation magnetic guideway 14 are each composed of a permanent magnet or an electromagnet.

The exposure head 20 includes a base plate 21 provided with movable elements 22, 22, 22 corresponding to the propulsion magnetic guide ways 13 A, 13 B and the levitation magnetic guide way 14, and a housing 23 provided on the base plate 21. In the housing 23, the light source device 30 is disposed at the upper center position, and the vacuum contact mechanism 35 for vacuum-adhering the original plate 38 to the surface of the photosensitive film W is disposed at the lower portion. ing.
The mover 22 includes, for example, a permanent magnet or an electromagnet, thereby constituting a linear motor type driving means.

An opening 21A having a width dimension larger than the width dimension of the object to be exposed holding portion (suction plate) is formed in the center portion of the base plate 21 so as to penetrate in the thickness direction. An original structure 40 constituting the mechanism 35 is located.
The base plate 21 is subjected to positioning control on the base 10 based on a movement amount detected by a position detection means (not shown) such as a photo encoder.

  The light source device 30 constituting the exposure head 20 includes, for example, an air-cooled ultraviolet mercury lamp 32, a reflecting mirror 33 provided above the ultraviolet mercury lamp 32, and ultraviolet rays from the ultraviolet mercury lamp 32 directed downward. And a condenser lens 34 for projection.

  The vacuum contact mechanism 35 constituting the exposure head 20 is arranged to be movable up and down along a guide (not shown) fixedly arranged on the base plate 21 so as to extend in the vertical direction on one side of the traveling path of the exposure head 20. The vertical movement block 36, a frame-like cantilevered base frame 37 having a light transmission opening in the center, the base end of which is supported by the vertical movement block 36, and the photosensitive film of the base frame 37 An original structure 40 constituted by holding a Fresnel lens 39 that collimates ultraviolet rays from the original plate 38 and the condenser lens 34 by a frame-like horizontal frame portion 37A extending in parallel with the holding surface of W, and a base frame 37. A lifting mechanism 41 that is driven to move up and down together with the vertical movement block 36, a photosensitive film W held on the suction plate 11, and the original 3 It is constituted by a pressure reducing mechanism for reducing the space between.

  In this embodiment, the elevating mechanism 41 includes a drive motor 42 disposed in the vertical movement block 36, and a power transmission belt 44 that transmits the power of the drive motor 42 to a ball screw 43 screwed into a guide. It is constituted by.

  On the lower surface of the original structure 40, a bank frame constituted by a specific seal member 50 made of an elastic body is provided so as to surround the outer peripheral edge of the original plate 38, and on the inner side of the seal member 50. A suction port 46 opening at a position is formed.

  The seal member 50 is made of, for example, silicone rubber. As shown in FIG. 4, the seal member 50 has an annular shape in which the outer peripheral contour is circular or substantially circular and the inner peripheral contour is oval or elliptical as shown in FIG. 4. Is used. Since the bank frame is constituted by the sealing member 50 having such a specific cross-sectional shape, the reliability of the original plate 38 and the photosensitive film W is improved due to the high flexibility and high deformation durability of the sealing member 50 itself. In addition, it is possible to reliably obtain a high vacuum contact state, and to reliably prevent unevenness and exposure failure caused by the dust and the like by using a material that does not easily generate dust and the like. .

  In the original structure 40, a vacuum chamber 45 is formed between the original 38 and the Fresnel lens 39, so that the vacuum structure 45 is defined by a sealing member between the original 38 and the photosensitive film W by a suction mechanism. Good adhesion can be reliably obtained when the space to be decompressed is brought into vacuum contact with both.

  In the vacuum contact mechanism 35 in this exposure apparatus, a balancer which is a weight for balancing the weight balance is provided at a position opposite to the direction in which the base frame 37 extends of the vertical movement block 36, and the fulcrum position C is the periphery of the base plate 21. The base frame 37 can be moved up and down in a state where a high horizontal surface is ensured on the lower surface of the original plate 38.

1 to 3, reference numeral 15 denotes a film mounting device for placing a photosensitive film W as an object to be exposed at a predetermined position on the suction plate 11, and 16 denotes an operation setting for the exposure device. An operation panel 17 is an air supply unit for supplying cooling air to the light source lamp, and 18 is an original plate mounting unit for mounting the original plate on the exposure head. The original plate is placed in an appropriate posture in the vertical and horizontal directions. It has an alignment function for adjustment.

The operation of the vacuum contact exposure apparatus having the above configuration will be described below.
After the photosensitive film W supplied from the film mounting device 15 is arranged at a predetermined position on the suction plate 11, the photosensitive film W is sucked and held by the suction plate 11 by operating the suction means. In the state, the exposure head 20 divides the photosensitive film W into the same size in the longitudinal direction, and a plurality of processing unit areas (in FIG. 2, a total of 10 processing unit areas S1 to S10 are shown. The first processing unit area S1 is moved to the stop position.
Specifically, in the exposure head 20, the base side of the original structure 40 is floated above the photosensitive film W by the action of the levitation magnetic guideway 14 and the movable element 22 corresponding thereto, and the distal end side is movable. In the state of being contacted via, for example, a bearing provided in the motor 22, it is driven by the action of the propulsion magnetic guideways 13 </ b> A and 13 </ b> B and the corresponding movable elements 22 and 22, so The movement is stopped when the position detecting means detects that it has moved by a set distance. Here, the moving distance of the exposure head 20 can be measured, for example, by detecting the reflected light using laser light.

Then, after the exposure head 20 is moved to a predetermined position, the contact exposure process is performed on the first processing unit region S1 in the photosensitive film W. That is, the raising / lowering mechanism 41 in the vacuum contact mechanism 35 is operated to lower the original structure 40 so that the seal member 50 is brought into contact with the surface of the suction plate 11, and the original 38 and the photosensitive film W partitioned by the seal member 50. The air in the space is exhausted (evacuated) by the suction mechanism, and further, the original structure 40 is lowered, whereby the seal member 50 is deformed and the original 38 and the photosensitive film W are in vacuum contact with each other. In this state, the ultraviolet mercury lamp 32 constituting the light source device 30 is turned on, and the ultraviolet light collimated by the condenser lens 34 and the Fresnel lens 39 is converted into the first processing unit region S1 in the photosensitive film W. By irradiating the entire surface, an optical image (slit image) of the original plate 38 is exposed at a ratio (equal magnification) of 1: 1.
When the contact exposure process for the first processing unit region S1 is completed, the ultraviolet mercury lamp 32 is turned off, the original structure 40 is raised by the elevating mechanism 41, and then the exposure head 20 is moved to the base side of the original structure 40. In the state of being floated above the photosensitive film W, the second processing unit region S2 is moved stepwise at the stop position, that is, the set movement amount, and the contact exposure processing as described above is performed.

The processing as described above is repeatedly executed for each of the set processing unit regions, and the photosensitive film W on which the slit image has been exposed in this manner is then developed, thereby obtaining a position detection element.
An example of the control of the exposure head 20 in the above exposure apparatus shows that, for example, when processing a photosensitive film W having a total length of 4 m, the photosensitive film W is processed in units of 10 units each having a length of 40 cm. Dividing into regions, the movement amount (target value) of the exposure head 20 is set to 40 cm.

Thus, according to the exposure apparatus having the above-described configuration, the position of the exposure head 20 can be controlled with high accuracy by increasing the accuracy of the structure of the exposure apparatus.
In other words, since the exposure head 20 is step-driven by a driving means including a linear motor, the stop position of the exposure head 20 can be controlled within an error range of ± 2 μm or less with respect to the target position, so that continuous processing High continuity is obtained in the image pattern at the boundary between the unit regions, and the contact exposure processing is sequentially performed on each of the plurality of processing unit regions obtained by dividing the exposure head 20 in the longitudinal direction of the photosensitive film W. In the case of producing a long position detection element, high productivity can be obtained.
Therefore, for example, in the case of producing a long position detecting element, there is substantially no restriction on the size of the length dimension, and an element having a bar pattern (slit image) having high accuracy continuity is advantageously produced. be able to.

  Further, since the base 10 is composed of a stone surface plate, distortion due to environmental conditions (especially temperature conditions) in which the apparatus is installed due to the high horizontal surface and high deformation resistance of the stone surface plate itself, Therefore, it is possible to reliably position the exposure head 20 with high accuracy by ensuring that the holding surface of the photosensitive film W has a high levelness.

  Further, the cantilevered base frame 37 holding the original plate 38 in the exposure head 20 is configured to be driven in the vertical direction in a state in which the weight balance is adjusted by a balancer that is a balancing weight. The moment of the tip of the base frame 37 is substantially zero, and the original plate 38 is in close contact with the surface of the photosensitive film W in a state in which a high horizontal surface is ensured on the lower surface thereof. The positioning of the original plate 38 and the photosensitive film W can be performed with high accuracy.

  Further, since the bank frame used to achieve vacuum adhesion between the original plate 38 and the photosensitive film W is constituted by the seal member 50 having a specific cross-sectional shape, the seal member 50 itself has high flexibility and Due to the high deformation durability, a reliable vacuum contact state between the original plate 38 and the photosensitive film W is achieved.

  Furthermore, the ultraviolet light from the ultraviolet mercury lamp 32 is collimated and irradiated by the condenser lens 34 and the Fresnel lens 39, whereby the transfer performance of the image pattern of the original plate 38 can be improved, and the desired image pattern. Can be obtained with high accuracy.

As mentioned above, although embodiment of this invention was described, this invention is not limited to said embodiment, A various change can be added.
For example, when performing exposure processing stepwise, the number of processing unit areas to be set and the amount of movement of the exposure head (target value) according to the set processing unit area are not particularly limited, It can be set as appropriate.
In addition, the size of each processing unit area may be different from each other.
A magnetic guideway for levitation may be provided on both sides of the traveling path of the exposure head on the base, and the exposure head may be driven in a state where both sides are floated.

Below, the example of experiment conducted in order to confirm the effect of this invention is shown.
A vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to the present invention was manufactured according to the configuration shown in FIGS. The specific configuration and operating conditions of this vacuum contact exposure apparatus are as follows.

The base was a stone surface plate having a thickness of 30 cm and a weight of 3.5 tons, and was set to a state in which the variation of the height level from the absolute horizontal plane in the plane of the upper surface of the base was 10 μm or less.
As the light source lamp, an air-cooled ultraviolet mercury lamp with power consumption of 1 kW was used, and the distance between the light source lamp and the original plate was 50 cm when the original plate and the photosensitive film were in close contact with each other.
The original plate was made of glass having a length of 500 mm, a width of 400 mm, and a thickness of 8 mm.
The bank frame was made of silicone rubber, and the outer peripheral contour in the cross section was a circle having a diameter of 6 mm, and the inner peripheral contour was an ellipse having a major axis of 4 mm and a minor axis of 1 mm.
A weight having a weight of 30 g was used as the balancer, and the height level variation from the absolute horizontal plane in the plane of the lower surface of the original plate was set to 5 mm or less during the raising / lowering operation of the original plate structure.
<Operating conditions>
The exposure head was step-driven with a moving distance of 40 cm, and 10 exposure processes were sequentially repeated. The exposure conditions were an irradiation intensity of ² mW / cm ² and an exposure time of 8 seconds.

  In the position detection element obtained as described above, the code bar pattern at the boundary portion of the continuous processing unit region has a code bar pattern with respect to the target dimension in both the width dimension of the code bar and the distance between the code bars. It was confirmed that it was within an error range of ± 2 μm or less (in practice, an allowable error range of ± 4 μm) and had high continuity.

It is a side view which shows the outline of a structure in an example of the vacuum contact exposure apparatus of this invention. FIG. 2 is a plan view of the vacuum contact exposure apparatus shown in FIG. 1. It is sectional drawing which shows the outline of a structure in an example of an exposure head. It is sectional drawing which shows an example of a structure of the sealing member used as a bank frame.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Base 11 Adsorption plate 11A Suction hole 11B Flow path 12 Supporting leg member 13A, 13B Magnetic guideway for propulsion 14 Magnetic guideway for levitation 15 Film mounting device 16 Operation panel 17 Air supply unit 18 Original plate mounting unit 20 Exposure head 21 Base plate 21A opening 22 mover 23 housing 30 light source device 32 ultraviolet mercury lamp 33 reflecting mirror 34 condenser lens 35 vacuum adhesion mechanism 36 vertical movement block 37 base frame 37A horizontal frame portion 38 original plate 39 Fresnel lens 40 original plate structure 41 lifting mechanism 42 for driving Motor 43 Ball screw 44 Power transmission belt 45 Vacuum chamber 46 Suction port 50 Seal member W Photosensitive film C Support point position

Claims (7)

A light source device provided with a base having a holding part that holds and holds a long planar object to be exposed, and is capable of traveling on the base along the longitudinal direction of the object to be exposed. And exposing the optical image of the original by irradiating the original with the predetermined image pattern formed on the exposure head in vacuum contact with the surface of the object to be exposed. A vacuum contact exposure apparatus,
The exposure head is step- driven by a driving unit made of a linear motor so that the exposure process is sequentially performed for each of a plurality of processing unit areas obtained by dividing the object to be exposed in the longitudinal direction ,
2. A vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a position detection element having a bar pattern continuous to the plurality of processing unit regions is formed by an original slit image .   The vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the base is constituted by a stone surface plate.   The driving means includes a magnetic guideway for propulsion made of a permanent magnet or an electromagnet disposed on both sides of the travel path of the exposure head on the base, and a permanent magnet or a magnet disposed on at least one side of the travel path. 3. A vacuum contact exposure according to claim 1, further comprising a levitation magnetic guideway made of an electromagnet, wherein the exposure head is driven in a state where at least one side of the travel path is levitated. apparatus. The exposure head includes a box-shaped housing, and in this housing, a light source device is provided at the top, and a vacuum contact mechanism for vacuum-adhering the original to the surface of the object to be exposed is provided at the bottom,
The vacuum contact mechanism includes a frame-shaped cantilevered base frame that holds the original and a lifting mechanism that drives the base frame up and down. The base frame has a frame-like shape that surrounds the periphery of the original on the lower surface. And a decompression mechanism for decompressing the space between the original plate and the object to be exposed, which is defined by the seal member. 4. The vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer peripheral edge has a circular or substantially circular shape, and the inner peripheral edge has an elliptical or oval shape. .   5. The vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the base frame is provided with a balancing weight extending on the opposite side of the horizontally extending frame portion holding the original.   Position detecting means for detecting the position of the exposure head on the base is provided. Based on the movement distance of the exposure head detected by the position detecting means, the position of the exposure head with respect to each processing unit area is determined. 6. The vacuum contact exposure apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vacuum contact exposure apparatus is performed. A plurality of processing unit areas are set by dividing a long planar object to be exposed into the same size in the longitudinal direction,
An exposure head including an original plate on which a light source device and a predetermined image pattern are formed is step-driven by a driving unit including a linear motor,
By performing the contact exposure process for exposing the optical image of the original by exposing the original provided on the exposure head to the surface of the object to be exposed in vacuum and irradiating with light, each processing unit area is sequentially subjected to the exposure of the original. An exposure method , wherein a position detection element is formed by a bar pattern continuous with the plurality of processing unit regions by a slit image .

Images