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How to manufacture LCD display?

Author: Liang

May. 13, 2024

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The manufacturing process of FPD | Tech - Matsusada Precision

As mentioned above, there are various types of FPDs. Still, this section will explain the mechanisms of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic EL displays, which are often used in electronic products.

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How does a liquid crystal display (LCD) work?

LCDs are arranged from back to front in the following order: backlight, a glass substrate, polarizer, liquid crystal layer, color filter, and glass substrate. During display, the backlight is always on, and the image is created by adjusting how much of the backlight passes through which part of the color filter.

At this time, the liquid crystal layer is responsible for adjusting the amount of light transmission. The mechanism by which the liquid crystal layer adjusts the transmission of light is the same as for monochrome liquid crystals and utilizes the principle of the polarizer. In their natural state, liquid crystal molecules have the property of lining up in a loosely regular manner, but when they come into contact with a plate with fine grooves (alignment film), they are regularly aligned alo in a regular manner along the grooves.

When light is shone on a liquid crystal in this state, only light with a wavelength in a certain direction is transmitted. On the other hand, when a voltage is applied to a liquid crystal, the molecules are aligned perpendicular to the alignment film, allowing light to pass through regardless of the direction of the wavelength.

The light emitted from the backlight passes through the polarizer, and only light with a wavelength in a certain direction reaches the liquid crystal layer. The grooves of the alignment film are oriented orthogonally to the grooves of the polarizer, so when no voltage is applied, the light from the backlight is blocked and does not appear on the surface.

However, the portion of the liquid crystal layer where voltage is applied allows light to pass through, so light passing through the color filter is recognized as an image. Thus, in a liquid crystal display (LCD), electricity is applied to the liquid crystal layer to let light through or block it, and to adjust the amount of light that passes through.

The whole process of LCD manufacture is explained in detail

Important technical improvements of LCD, such as LED backlighting and wide viewing Angle, are directly related to LCD. And account for an LCD display 80% of the cost of the LCD panel, enough to show that the LCD panel is the core part of the entire display, the quality of the LCD panel, can be said to directly determine the quality of an LCD display.

The production of civil LCD displays is just an assembly process. The LCD panel, the main control circuit, shell, and other parts of the main assembly, basically will not have too complex technical problems.

Does this mean that LCDS are low-tech products? In fact, it is not. The production and manufacturing process of the LCD panels is very complicated, requiring at least 300 process processes. The whole process needs to be carried out in a dust-free environment and with precise technology.

The general structure of the LCD panel is not very complex, now the structure of the LCD panel is divided into two parts: the LCD panel and the backlight system.

LCD panel LED backlight system

LCD panel backlight system

These include backlight plates, backlight sources (CCFL or LED), diffuser plates (to distribute light evenly), diffuser plates, and so on.

Due to the LCD does not shine, so you need to use another light source to illuminate, the function of the backlight system is to this, but currently used CCFL lamp or LED backlight, don’t have the characteristics of the surface light source, so you need to guide plate, spreadsheet components, such as linear or point sources of light evenly across the surface, in order to make the entire LCD panel on the differences of luminous intensity is the same, but it is very difficult, to achieve the ideal state can be to try to reduce brightness non-uniformity, the backlight system has a lot to the test of design and workmanship.

LCD plate in the case of no current translucent state

The LCD plates are horizontal polarizer, color filter, LCD, TFT glass, and vertical polarizer from outside to inside.

In addition, there is a driving IC and printed circuit board beside the LCD panel, which is mainly used to control the rotation of LCD molecules in the LCD panel and the transmission of display signals. The LCD plate is thin and translucent without electricity. It is roughly shaped like a sandwich, with an LCD sandwiched between a layer of TFT glass and a layer of colored filters.

Micro LCD panel, you will see red, green, and blue for a group of three primary colors, generally a group or two groups for a pixel

LCD with light refraction properties of solid crystals, with fluid flow characteristics at the same time, under the drive of the electrode, can be arranged in a way that, in accordance with the master want to control the strength of the light through, and then on the color filter, through the red, green, blue three colors of each pixel toning, eventually get the full-screen image.

According to the functional division, the LCD panel can be divided into the LCD panel and the backlight system. However, to produce an LCD panel, it needs to go through three complicated processes, namely, the manufacturing process of the front segment Array, the manufacturing process of the middle segment Cell, and the assembly of the rear segment module. Today we will be here, for you in detail to introduce the production of the LCD panel manufacturing process.

(I) Previous Array process: thin-film/yellow light/etching/stripping

The manufacturing process of the LCD panel Array is mainly composed of four parts: film, yellow light, etch and peel film. If we just look at it in this way, many netizens do not understand the specific meaning of these four steps and why they do so.

First of all, the motion and arrangement of LCD molecules need electrons to drive them. Therefore, on the TFT glass, the carrier of LCD, there must be conductive parts to control the motion of LCD. In this case, we use ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) to do this.ITO is transparent and also acts as a thin-film conductive crystal so that it doesn’t block the backlight.

The different arrangement of LCD molecules and the rapid motion change can ensure that each pixel displays the corresponding color accurately and the image changes accurately and quickly, which requires the precision of LCD molecule control.ITO film needs special treatment, just like printing the circuit on the PCB board, drawing the conductive circuit on the whole LCD board.

First, the ITO film layer needs to be deposited on the TFT glass, so that there is a smooth and uniform ITO film on the whole TFT glass. Then, using ionized water, the ITO glass is cleaned and ready for the next step.

Next, a photoresist is applied to the glass on which ITO film is deposited, and a uniform photoresist layer is formed on the ITO glass. After baking for a period of time, the solvent of the photoresist was partially volatilized to increase the adhesion of the photoresist material to the ITO glass.

Ultraviolet light (UV) is used to illuminate the surface of the photoresist through a pre-made electrode pattern mask, which causes the photoresist layer to react. The photoresist is selectively exposed under ultraviolet light by covering the photoresist on the glass coated with the photoresist.

 (II)Previous Array process: thin-film/yellow light/etching/stripping

Let’s take a pixel unit, like the one above, where the light part is unexposed and the dark part is exposed.

The exposed part of the photoresist is then washed away with the developer, leaving only the unexposed part, and the dissolved photoresist is then washed away with deionized water.

After development, it is heated and baked to make the unexposed photoresist adhere more firmly to the ITO glass.

Then etch off the ITO film without photoresist covering with appropriate acid etching solution, and only retain the ITO film under the photoresist. ITO glass is conductive glass (In2O3 and SnO2). The ITO film not covered by photoresist is easy to react with acid, while the ITO film covered by photoresist can be retained to obtain the corresponding wire electrode.

(III)Previous Array process: thin-film/yellow light/etching/stripping

Stripping: High concentration of alkali solution (NaOH solution) is used as a stripping solution to peel off the remaining photoresist on the glass so that ITO glass can form ITO graphics exactly consistent with the photolithography mask.

Rinse the basic label of glass with an organic solution and remove the photolithographic tape after reaction to keep the glass clean. This completes the first thin-film conductive crystal process, which generally requires at least five identical processes to form a complex and sophisticated pattern of electrodes on the glass.

Use the same method to pull out the other ITO electrode patterns on the glass

The formation of complex and precise electrode patterns can better control the movement of LCD molecules

This completes the previous Array process. It is not difficult to see from the whole process that ITO film is deposited, photoresist coated, exposed, developed, and etched on TFT glass, and finally, ITO electrode pattern designed in the early stage is formed on TFT glass to control the movement of LCD molecules on the glass. The general steps of the whole production process are not complicated, but the technical details and precautions are very complicated, so we will not introduce them here. Interested friends can consult relevant materials by themselves.

The glass that the LCD board uses makes a craft also very exquisite. (The manufacturing process flow of the LCD display screen) At present, the world’s largest LCD panel glass, mainly by the United States Corning, Japan Asahi glass manufacturers, located in the upstream of the production of LCD panel, these manufacturers have mastered the glass production technology patents. A few months ago, the earthquake caused a corning glass furnace shutdown incident, which has caused a certain impact on the LCD panel industry, you can see its position in the industry.

(Ⅳ)Middle Cell process: TFT glass and color filter bonding

As mentioned earlier, the LCD panel is structured like a sandwich, with an LCD sandwiched between the lower TFT glass and the upper color filter. The terminal Cell process in LCD panel manufacturing involves the TFT glass being glued to the top and bottom of a colored filter, but this is not a simple bonding process that requires a lot of technical detail.

An LCD layer is sandwiched between the lower TFT glass and the upper color filter

The middle Cell process is divided into TFT and CF (color filter) at first

First, the TFT glass through the previous Array process is rinsed with ionized water

As you can see from the figure above, the glass is divided into 6 pieces of the same size. In other words, the LCD made from this glass is finally cut into 6 pieces, and the size of each piece is the final size. When the glass is cast, the specifications and sizes of each glass have been designed in advance.

The basic surface of slaughter TFT glass when the directed film is in a solution state

Then, the organic polymer directional material is coated on the surface of the glass, that is, a uniform directional layer is applied to the appropriate position of ITO glass by the method of selective coating. Meanwhile, the directional layer is cured.

Directional friction: Flannelette material is used to rub the surface of the layer in a specific direction so that the LCD molecules can be arranged along the friction direction of the aligned layer in the future to ensure the consistency of the arrangement of LCD molecules. After the alignment friction, there will be some contaminants such as flannelette thread, which need to be washed away through a special cleaning process.

After the TFT glass substrate is cleaned, a sealant coating is applied to allow the TFT glass substrate to be bonded to the color filter and to prevent LCD outflow.

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(Ⅴ)Middle Cell process: TFT glass and color filter bonding

The terminal Cell process of the TFT glass substrate has been basically completed. The following is the Cell process of the color filter.

As with TFT glass substrate orientation, color filters also need to be coated with an orientation film

Then the alignment is carried out on the alignment film that has been fixed on the surface of the filter

Spray a pad on the surface of the color filter so that there is a distance between the TFT glass substrate and the color filter

Next, enter the process of TFT glass substrate again

LCD is injected into the sealant frame already coated on the TFT glass substrate

Finally, the conductive adhesive is applied to the frame in the bonding direction of the glass of the color filter to ensure that external electrons can flow into the LCD layer. Then, according to the bonding mark on the TFT glass substrate and the color filter, two pieces of glass are bonded together, and the bonding material is solidified at high temperatures to make the upper and lower glasses fit statically.

Color filters are very important components of LCD panels. Manufacturers of color filters, like glass substrate manufacturers, are upstream of LCD panel manufacturers. Their oversupply or undersupply can directly affect the production schedule of LCD panels and indirectly affect the end market.

(Ⅵ)Middle Cell process: TFT glass and color filter bonding

After fitting, the LCD plate can be cut according to the previously designed cutting size to get the final size

As can be seen from the above figure, each LCD panel is left with two edges after cutting. What is it used for? You can find the answer in the later module process

Finally, a polarizer is placed on both sides of each LCD substrate, with the horizontal polarizer facing outwards and the vertical polarizer facing inwards.

A polarizer is an optical plate that allows only light from a certain direction to pass through. It is an optical element that converts natural light into straight polarized light. The mechanism of action is to make the vertical direction light pass through the straight incident light after passing through the vertical polarizer, and the other horizontal direction light is absorbed, or use reflection and scattering and other effects to make its shade.

When making LCD panel, must up and down each use one, and presents the alternating direction, when has the electric field and does not have the electric field, causes the light to produce the phase difference and to present the light and dark state, uses in the display subtitle or the pattern.

Now, you can enter the final process of LCD panel manufacturing: the assembly of the rear module.

(Ⅶ)Rear module assembly: Drive IC/ PRINTED circuit board press

The rear Module manufacturing process is mainly the integration of the drive IC pressing of the LCD substrate and the printed circuit board. This part can transmit the display signal received from the main control circuit to the drive IC to drive the LCD molecules to rotate and display the image. In addition, the backlight part will be integrated with the LCD substrate at this stage, and the complete LCD panel is completed.

Firstly, the heteroconductive adhesive is pressed on the two edges, which allows external electrons to enter the LCD substrate layer and acts as a bridge for electronic transmission

A drive IC pressed on an LCD substrate

Next is the drive IC press. The main function of the drive IC is to output the required voltage to each pixel and control the degree of torsion of the LCD molecules. The drive IC is divided into two types. The source drive IC located in the X-axis is responsible for the input of data. It is characterized by high frequency and has an image function. The gate drive IC located in the Y-axis is responsible for the degree and speed of torsion of LCD molecules, which directly affects the response time of the LCD display. However, there are already many LCD panels that only have driving IC in the X-axis direction, perhaps because the Y-axis drive

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