Techniques for Arrayed Printing of a Permanent Layer with Improved Speed and Accuracy

摘要

A repeatable manufacturing process uses a printer to deposits liquid for each product carried by a substrate to form respective thin films. The liquid is dried, cured or otherwise processed to form from the liquid a permanent layer of each respective product. To perform printing, each newly-introduced substrate is roughly mechanically aligned, with an optical system detecting sub-millimeter misalignment, and with software correcting for misalignment. Rendering of adjusted data is performed such that nozzles are variously assigned dependent on misalignment to deposit droplets in a regulated manner, to ensure precise deposition of liquid for each given area of the substrate. For example, applied to the manufacture of flat panel displays, software ensures that exactly the right amount of liquid is deposited for each “pixel” of the display, to minimize likelihood of visible discrepancies in the resultant display.

主权项

1. A method of fabricating a flat panel device, the method comprising:
receiving a first substrate; using a printer to print a liquid onto the first substrate, the liquid carrying a material that will form a permanent layer of the flat panel device; and processing the liquid to form the permanent layer therefrom; wherein
(a) the method further comprises detecting position of a fiducial on the first substrate and detecting error dependent on difference between the position of the fiducial and an expected feature position,(b) using the printer comprises receiving stored data defining where the permanent layer for the flat panel device is to be printed, rendering the stored data according to the error, to generate adjusted data, and printing droplets of the liquid onto the first substrate according to the adjusted data, and(c) rendering the stored data further comprises
assigning individual nozzles of a printhead of the printer to deposit respective droplets of the liquid in a specific region of the first substrate, in dependence on the error,in a manner where a target aggregate volume of the liquid deposited in the specific region is restricted to fall within a predetermined error threshold relative to a desired amount volume of the liquid for the specific region.