JP4835307B2 - Color filter inspection method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a color filter inspection method, and more particularly, to a color filter inspection method for searching and obtaining inspection result information stored in a database in a network using a substrate ID and used for determining a defect.

  With the high performance of portable devices and flat-screen TVs, the demand for liquid crystal displays is increasing rapidly, and the demand for cost reduction is increasing. Color liquid crystal displays are made of materials such as glass substrates, liquid crystal materials, polarizing plates, and color filters. Color filters are especially important when high-definition and high-quality displays are required for color liquid crystal displays. Since it is used as a member and accounts for a high percentage of the product price, further price reduction is required.

  The color filter for a liquid crystal display has each colored layer of R / G / B in a region separated by a partition which is a light shielding pattern on a transparent glass substrate (hereinafter referred to as a black matrix or BM in the color filter substrate). It is configured by arranging them.

  Such a color filter for a liquid crystal display may cause various defects due to the presence of dust, foreign matter, etc., and it is necessary to inspect the color filter having such a defect to determine whether it is good or bad. .

  An apparatus for inspecting defects in the color filter has a CCD camera, an inspection light source, and a defect extraction determination processing mechanism, and is used in each manufacturing process.

  With the increase in size of the substrate, there are many forms of connecting inspection machines in-line to each manufacturing process, and inspection machines that inspect by a dedicated inspection machine rather than inspecting products in multiple processes with one inspection machine Is increasing.

  For example, in order to identify the color filter at each step in the manufacturing process of the color filter, a system for applying an identification code to the color filter and inspecting the defect of the color filter has been proposed (for example, see Patent Document 1). .

  In this inspection system, defects generated in one process are detected by an automatic inspection machine, and pass / fail is determined based on set conditions and operator's determination. In this case, since the inspection machine also detects defects within the standard, the substrate on which the defect is detected by the inspection machine may not be NG but a good product. In addition, there is a product in which a customer has been confirmed to have a drop (face loss). In this case, even if a defect is detected by an inspection machine, it is not NG but a good product.

  In this way, when a color filter substrate that is detected as a defect but does not become a substrate NG is inspected by an inspection machine in the subsequent process, the defect detected in the previous process is detected in the same manner. Is required. Repeating such useless inspection and pass / fail determination leads to a decrease in inspection efficiency.

  If a defect is caused by a mask (original), a defect occurs in the same location even on different color filter substrates. By registering the defect position in the inspection machine, the same defect is detected again in another process. Although it is possible to devise a technique that does not cause the defect to occur, this method cannot treat the randomly generated defect in the previous process so as not to be detected in the subsequent process.

For this reason, the defect determined to be a non-defective product in the previous process must be detected again in the next process to make a pass / fail determination, resulting in poor inspection efficiency.
JP-A-11-133225

  The present invention provides a color filter inspection method that improves inspection efficiency by reflecting the defect information detected by the inspection machine in the previous process in the defect determination of the inspection machine in the subsequent process. To do.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a database of inspection result information of a color filter substrate from a plurality of inspection means provided for each color filter substrate manufacturing process, connected to the plurality of inspection means via a network, and The server saves the server in association with the substrate ID assigned to each color filter substrate, and the inspection means provided in the subsequent manufacturing process retrieves and obtains the inspection result information of the previous manufacturing process from the database. A method for inspecting a defect of a color filter substrate used for determining a defect, and when an inspection means provided in a subsequent manufacturing process inspects the color filter substrate, an inspection result of a previous manufacturing process Information is retrieved / obtained from the database and server using the substrate ID, and the inspection result of the subsequent manufacturing process and the previous manufacturing process Test results comparing processing information, the defect is judged that the detected standard in the inspection of the previous manufacturing process, in the inspection method of excluding the color filter substrate from the determination of the test result, an inspection of the color filter substrate In the size determination step for determining whether or not the detected defect is larger than the set size, and in the size determination step, when it is determined that the detected defect is not larger than the set size, n in the same lot as all the extracted defects Comparing with the defects of the color filter substrate in front of the sheet, determining that it is a non-defective product when there is no defect at the same position, determining the common defective product within the standard when there is a defect at the same position, in the size determination process, When it is determined that the detected defect is larger than the set size, all the extracted defects and the defects of the n previous color filter substrates in the same lot are In contrast, if it is determined that the detected defect is larger than the set size in the step of determining as an NG product when there is a defect at the same position and the size determination step, n in the same lot as all the extracted defects When there is no defect at the same position by comparing with the previous color filter substrate defect, it is compared with the previous process inspection result. Provided is a method for inspecting a color filter substrate, comprising a step of determining an NG product when it is not only a defect .

  In such a color filter substrate inspection method, a color filter substrate in which defects are corrected and made non-defective is used as the color filter substrate, and information on the corrected defects is stored in the database and the server as individual color filters. When the inspection means provided in the manufacturing process inspects the color filter substrate, the information on the corrected defect is stored in the database using the substrate ID and stored in association with the substrate ID assigned to the filter substrate. It is possible to search and obtain from the server, compare the inspection result of the manufacturing process and the information of the corrected defect, and exclude the corrected defect from the determination of the inspection result.

  According to the present invention, if the defect detected by the inspection means in a certain process is a defect determined as a non-defective product by the inspection means in the previous process, it is not necessary to make a pass / fail determination again, thereby improving the inspection efficiency. Can do.

  The best mode for carrying out the invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a network connecting an inspection machine, a server, and a database in each process in a method for inspecting a color filter substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a plurality of inspection machines 1, 2, 3,... N are connected to a server and a database (DB) by a network. Each inspection machine includes a CCD camera, an inspection light source, a defect extraction determination processing mechanism, and the like. Each inspection machine performs defect inspection of the color filter substrate and performs pass / fail determination, and simultaneously sends the obtained inspection result data to the server in association with the substrate ID. The substrate ID is printed in advance on the color filter substrate, is read at the time of inspection by each inspection machine, and is associated with the obtained inspection result data.

  The server and the inspection result database have a function of storing inspection result data from inspection machines in each process, and searching and collating as necessary.

  In the inspection machine for the next process, using the ID information of the substrate recognized before the inspection, the previous process inspection result of the color filter substrate being inspected is retrieved from the server and the inspection result database, and the color filter substrate in that process is obtained. The inspection result and the inspection result of the previous process are compared using the defect coordinates and the defect mode.

  FIG. 2 shows an example of inspection result data of the previous process. As shown in FIG. 2, a code number of substrate data and a substrate ID given in advance are attached, and defect coordinates, defect piece information, defect mode, defect size, and determination are shown for each defect number.

  The defect coordinates are expressed in μm coordinates with the upper left corner of the substrate 1 shown in FIG. 3A as the origin (0, 0). In FIG. 3B, the corner portion is shown in an enlarged manner, and the origin is the intersection P of the extension lines of the two sides of the substrate 1. The defect piece information (N, M) means a defect of the piece in the Nth row and the Mth column in the case of a multi-sided substrate. The defect modes include transmission white, transmission black, reflection white, and reflection black. For example, reflection black refers to a defect that appears black in a reflected light inspection due to a foreign substance or the like. The defect size is indicated by classification such as S, M, L, and O. The determination is shown as 1: OK, 2: NG, 3: RP (correction), and the like.

  The post-process inspection result data is also the same as the pre-process inspection result data shown in FIG.

  Next, the defect coordinates and defect sizes in the previous process inspection result data and the subsequent process inspection result data are compared to satisfy the condition range (defect coordinate range and defect size range), and the same defect coordinates and defect size. Are determined to be the same defect and are excluded from the pass / fail determination targets.

  It should be noted that all non-standard NG defects detected are subjected to a comparison process to determine pass / fail. That is, as a result of comparing the defect coordinates and defect sizes of the inspection result data of the previous process and the inspection process data of the subsequent process, it is determined that a defect other than the defect determined to be the same defect is a newly generated defect, and pass / fail Judgment is made. Whether or not to perform such inspection result data comparison processing can be selected before the start of the inspection.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a color filter substrate inspection flowchart according to an embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, a color filter substrate inspection procedure according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, it is checked whether or not the pre-process inspection result of the target substrate lot can be confirmed by the server (whether it is stored in the server), and if it cannot be confirmed, normal inspection is performed. If it can be confirmed, it is determined whether or not the previous process inspection result is reflected, that is, whether or not the inspection method of the present invention is adopted. If the previous process inspection result is not reflected, the normal result is carried out. If the previous process inspection result is reflected, it is checked whether or not the differential inspection function of the inspection machine is turned on. If it is turned on, normal inspection is performed. If it is not turned on, it is turned on. Normal results.

  The normal inspection procedure is performed in the order of acquisition of a substrate ID, setting of a substrate to be inspected, image capture of a substrate inspection area, comparison operation processing, binarization processing, grouping, specified size separation, and defect extraction.

  After extracting the defects in this way, it is checked whether or not the detected defects are larger than the set size. If the detected defects are larger than the set size, the extracted defects are compared with the substrate defects detected n times before. Check for defects at the same position. When the detected defect is not larger than the set size, that is, when the detected defect is smaller than the set size, all the extracted defects are compared with the n-th previous substrate defect to determine whether there is a defect at the same position. When there is no defect at the same position, it is determined as a non-defective product, and when there is a defect at the same position, it is determined as a common defect within the standard.

  When the detected defects are larger than the set size, compare all the extracted defects with the n previous substrate defects to check if there is no defect at the same position, and if there is no defect at the same position In comparison with the previous defect inspection result, it is checked whether there is only a defect at the same position, and if there is a defect at the same position, it is determined as a substrate NG.

  Further, in comparison with the previous defect inspection result, when there is only a defect at the same position, it is determined as a non-defective product with an inspection machine difference, and when it is not only the defect at the same position, it is determined as a substrate NG.

  As described above, the color filter substrate is determined to be any one of the inspection machine difference non-defective product, the substrate NG, the non-defective product, and the common defect within the standard in each process.

    As described above, the description has been given of excluding the defect within the standard detected in the previous process from the determination of the inspection result in the subsequent process. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the color filter in which the defect is corrected and made non-defective It is also possible to target the substrate. That is, when the corrected defect information is stored in the database and the server in association with the substrate ID assigned to each color filter substrate, the inspection means provided in the manufacturing process inspects the color filter substrate. In addition, the corrected defect information is retrieved and obtained from the database and the server using the substrate ID, the inspection result of the manufacturing process and the corrected defect information are compared, and the corrected defect is detected. Can be excluded from the determination of the test result.

The figure which shows the state by which the inspection machine used for the inspection method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention, a server, and an inspection result database (DB) were connected by the network. The figure which shows the test result data in a front process. The figure explaining the origin of the defect coordinate of inspection result data. The figure which shows the flowchart of the inspection method which concerns on one Embodiment of this invention.

Claims (2)

Color filter substrate inspection result information from a plurality of inspection means provided for each color filter substrate manufacturing process is given to each color filter substrate in a database and server connected to the plurality of inspection means through a network. A color filter substrate that is stored in association with the substrate ID, and inspected in a subsequent manufacturing process retrieves and obtains inspection result information of the previous manufacturing process from the database and uses it for defect determination A method for inspecting defects in
When the inspection means provided in the subsequent manufacturing process inspects the color filter substrate, the inspection result information of the previous manufacturing process is retrieved and obtained from the database and the server using the substrate ID, and the subsequent process The color filter substrate that compares the inspection result of the manufacturing process with the inspection result information of the previous manufacturing process and excludes the defect detected in the previous manufacturing process and determined to be within the standard from the determination of the inspection result . In the inspection method,
A process of inspecting the color filter substrate;
A size determination step for determining whether the detected defect is larger than a set size,
When it is determined in the size determination step that the detected defect is not larger than the set size, the extracted defect is compared with the defect of the n previous color filter substrate in the same lot, and there is no defect at the same position The process of determining that the product is a non-defective product and determining that the product is defective within the standard when there is a defect at the same position,
When it is determined in the size determination step that the detected defect is equal to or larger than the set size, the extracted defect is compared with the defect of the n-th previous color filter substrate in the same lot, and there is a defect at the same position. A step of determining that the product is NG, and
If it is determined in the size determination step that the detected defect is equal to or larger than the set size, the extracted defect is compared with the defect of the nth previous color filter substrate in the same lot and there is no defect at the same position. In the case of comparing with the previous process inspection result, when the defect is only in the same position, the inspection machine difference is determined as non-defective product, and when the defect is not only in the same position, the process is determined as NG product.
A method for inspecting a color filter substrate, comprising:   The color filter substrate is a color filter substrate that has been defect-corrected and has been made non-defective, and the corrected defect information is associated with the database and the substrate ID assigned to each color filter substrate in the server. When the inspection means stored in the manufacturing process inspects the color filter substrate, the corrected defect information is retrieved and obtained from the database and the server using the substrate ID, and the manufacturing process is inspected. 2. The method for inspecting a color filter substrate according to claim 1, wherein the result is compared with information on the corrected defect, and the corrected defect is excluded from the determination of the inspection result.

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