JP2013169545A - Liquid applying apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Provided is a liquid coating apparatus capable of accurately coating a liquid material without impairing productivity even if the substrate is thin and long and easily bent.
A liquid application apparatus includes a dispensing unit having a discharge port that discharges a liquid material toward a substrate, a driving mechanism that displaces the dispensing unit in at least a direction perpendicular to the surface of the substrate, and a dispensing. A substrate pressing mechanism 400 disposed so as to protrude from the unit 100 toward the substrate, and the substrate pressing mechanism 400 is in a state where the dispensing unit 100 is displaced so as to approach the substrate by the driving mechanism 200. Originally, the substrate can be pressed.
[Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid application apparatus for applying a liquid material to a substrate.

  In recent LED packages, a structure of sealing with a resin containing a phosphor may be employed. As such a resin coating method, a dispensing method is mainly used. In order to perform application by the dispensing method, it is required to keep the gap between the nozzle and the substrate during resin discharge constant. This is because if the gap varies, the amount of resin applied to the substrate varies.

  When the gap is appropriate, all the resin discharged from the nozzle is transferred to the substrate side. On the other hand, when the gap is too narrow, the tip of the nozzle is inserted into the discharged resin, and the surface area of the nozzle that touches the discharged resin increases, so the amount of resin adhering to the nozzle increases. . Accordingly, the amount of resin applied to the substrate is reduced. In addition, when the gap is too wide, the amount of resin discharged from the nozzle reaches the substrate decreases, so that the amount of resin adhering to the nozzle increases and the amount of resin applied to the substrate decreases. Furthermore, when the amount of resin adhering to the nozzle increases, the resin adhering to the nozzle is transferred to the substrate side at an undesired timing in the subsequent application, so the amount of resin applied to the substrate is locally Increased parts are generated.

  Further, when the gap is too wide, the resin does not reach the substrate, and all the discharged resin crawls up to the nozzle, resulting in poor transfer to the substrate.

  As described above, due to gap variation, whether the resin discharged from the dispensing unit is completely transferred to the substrate side, how much resin remains on the nozzle side, or everything rises to the nozzle side, A difference occurs. That is, even if the amount of resin discharged from the nozzle is constant, variation in the amount of resin transferred to the substrate side occurs due to variation in gap.

  When the amount of resin applied varies, the amount of phosphor varies from package to package and chromaticity variation occurs. For example, when the LED package is used as a backlight module of a liquid crystal television, the chromaticity variation appears as uneven color on the backlight. In order to prevent color unevenness as a backlight, it is necessary to select a combination of LED packages. In order to allow and adjust such combinations, a large intermediate inventory of LED packages must be provided. Therefore, the chromaticity variation of the LED package leads to an increase in the intermediate inventory of the LED package, which increases the cost.

  For this reason, means for keeping the gap between the substrate and the nozzle constant is important in the LED manufacturing process, and various inventions have been made.

  One technique for managing the gap between the substrate and the nozzle is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-170724 (Patent Document 1). According to this technique, the height of the substrate is detected using a laser displacement meter mounted on the coating apparatus. According to this technique, the amount of movement of the head in the Z direction is changed according to the detected substrate height so that the gap between the nozzle and the substrate is constant.

JP 2006-170724 A

  In order to keep the gap between the substrate and the nozzle constant with the technique described in Patent Document 1, it is necessary to detect the substrate height at all the application points. Actually, if it is attempted to detect the substrate height at all the application points, the tact time of the application process becomes longer. Alternatively, the number of coating apparatus installed must be increased. Therefore, detecting the substrate height at all application points remains a problem from the viewpoint of productivity.

  For the reasons described above, the detection of the substrate height is not performed at all application points, only the height at one or several points on the surface of the substrate is detected, and the value of each height is treated as a representative value. A technique of calculating the amount of movement of the head in the Z direction required at the time of coating is conceivable.

  However, the implementation of such a technique is based on the premise that the height value as the representative value and the actual substrate height at each application point are aligned with a certain degree of accuracy. Therefore, it is necessary to hold the substrate with high accuracy in order to withstand practical use even if the number of measurement points of the substrate height is reduced.

  As a method of pressing the substrate, there is a conventional method of sandwiching the substrate between a base plate and a pressing jig. However, in this method, in order to avoid interference between the nozzle and the pressing jig, the pressing mechanism of the pressing jig and the thickness of the pressing jig are naturally limited. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately hold a substrate having a large size and being thin and easily bent, such as a COB substrate in which a chip is directly mounted on a lead frame. For such a substrate, it is difficult to perform quantitative application by reducing the number of measurement points of the substrate height.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and a liquid application apparatus that can apply a liquid material with high accuracy without impairing productivity even if the substrate is thin and long and easily bent. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, a liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention includes a dispensing unit having a discharge port for discharging a liquid material toward a substrate, and a drive for displacing the dispensing unit in a direction perpendicular to at least the surface of the substrate. And a substrate pressing mechanism disposed so as to protrude from the dispensing unit toward the substrate, and the substrate pressing mechanism is displaced so that the dispensing unit approaches the substrate by the driving mechanism. The substrate can be pressed under the condition.

  According to the present invention, the abutment portion selectively biases only the vicinity of the application point of the substrate downward by the operation of lowering the dispensing unit at the time of application, so that even a long and flexible substrate can be accurately controlled. Therefore, the raw material can be applied with high accuracy without impairing productivity.

It is a schematic block diagram of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention. It is a schematic block diagram of the dispensing unit with which the liquid application apparatus in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 1 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 2 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 3 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 4 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 5 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism with which Example 6 of the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention is provided. It is the 1st explanatory view of the application method in a general application device. It is the 2nd explanatory view of the application method in a general application device. It is explanatory drawing of consideration regarding the conventional problem. It is 1st explanatory drawing of the coating method in the coating device based on this invention. It is 2nd explanatory drawing of the coating method in the coating device based on this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the state which apply | coats to a 1st application | coating point with the coating device based on this invention. It is explanatory drawing of the state which apply | coats to a 2nd application | coating point with the coating device based on this invention. It is a graph which shows the experimental result by the liquid coating device in Embodiment 1 based on this invention.

  Embodiments to which the present invention is applied will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the following embodiments. That is, all the configurations described in the following embodiments are not necessarily essential to the present invention. Moreover, this invention includes what combined the following content freely.

  FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of a dispensing unit provided in the liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention. 3-8 is a schematic block diagram of the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism by some examples in embodiment based on this invention. FIG. 9 to FIG. 10 are conceptual diagrams showing details of a general application method. FIG. 11 is a state explanatory diagram for explaining the problem to be solved by the present invention in more detail. 12 to 13 are conceptual diagrams showing details of the coating method according to the embodiment of the present invention. 14-15 is explanatory drawing for demonstrating that the dispersion | variation in the height of a board | substrate is corrected with the liquid application apparatus based on this invention. FIG. 16 is a graph showing the results of a quantitative application experiment of the liquid material performed by the liquid application apparatus according to the present invention.

(Embodiment 1)
(Configuration of liquid application device)
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of the liquid coating apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. The liquid coating apparatus 1001 includes a dispensing unit 100 having a discharge port for discharging a liquid material toward a substrate, a driving mechanism 200 that displaces the dispensing unit 100 in a direction at least perpendicular to the surface of the substrate, and the dispensing unit 100 And a substrate pressing mechanism 400 arranged so as to protrude toward the substrate. The substrate pressing mechanism 400 can press the substrate under a state where the dispensing unit 100 is displaced by the drive mechanism 200 so as to approach the substrate. The liquid coating apparatus 1001 also includes a detection mechanism 300.

Hereinafter, specific configurations of these components will be described.
(Dispensing unit)
The dispensing unit 100 will be described with reference to FIG. The dispensing unit 100 controls the liquid supply from the storage mechanism 11 for storing the liquid material to be applied, the liquid application nozzle 12 having the discharge port 12a for discharging the liquid material, and the liquid application nozzle 12 from the storage mechanism 11. And a discharge mechanism 13 for controlling the discharge amount of the liquid material.

  As the storage mechanism 11, for example, a clear syringe PSY-E series manufactured by Musashi Engineering Co., Ltd. can be used. As the liquid application nozzle 12, for example, a nozzle ARQUE series manufactured by Techdia Co., Ltd. can be used. As the discharge mechanism 13, for example, MEASURING MASTER MPP-1 manufactured by Musashi Engineering Co., Ltd., ML-5000XII manufactured by the same company, or the like can be used.

(Drive mechanism)
The drive mechanism 200 shown in FIG. 1 may be a mechanism having orthogonal three-dimensional drive axes (for example, x, y, and z axes), and is particularly limited as long as these operate independently. It is not something. As the drive mechanism 200, for example, FAD320s manufactured by Musashi Engineering Co., Ltd., SHOT MASTER series manufactured by the same company, or the like can be used.

(Detection mechanism)
The detection mechanism 300 will be described. The detection mechanism 300 irradiates the laser beam from the radiating unit and receives the laser beam reflected and returned from the object. The detection mechanism 300 calculates the distance from the liquid application nozzle 12 to the object from the difference between the wavelength of the received laser beam and the wavelength set as a reference in the detection mechanism internal 300. The drive mechanism 200 is controlled to control this distance.

  In the present embodiment, the detection mechanism 300 only needs to be able to calculate the distance between the liquid application nozzle 12 and the object, and is not limited to the one using the laser beam as described here. .

(Substrate holding mechanism)
The substrate pressing mechanism 400 will be described with reference to FIG.

  The substrate pressing mechanism 400 includes a support portion 42 that extends so as to protrude from the dispensing unit 100, and a contact portion 41 that is pressed against the substrate 51 is supported at the tip of the support portion 42. The contact portion 41 is a part of the substrate pressing mechanism 400. About the structure of the contact part 41, various variations are considered as follows.

Example 1
With reference to FIG. 3, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 1 is demonstrated. The substrate pressing mechanism 400 includes an abutting portion 41 that abuts on the substrate 51 at two portions sandwiching an intersection 55 between a straight line 52 extending from the discharge port 12 a toward the substrate 51 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51. With this configuration, the substrate 51 can be urged downward by the contact portion 41 coming into contact with the substrate 51 when the dispensing unit 100 is lowered. Further, since the abutting portion 41 is disposed so as to abut on the substrate 51 at two portions sandwiching the intersection 55, it is possible to avoid interference between the liquid ejected from the liquid application nozzle 12 and the abutting portion 41. it can. As shown in FIG. 3, when the substrate 51 is in the form of an elongated band and the liquid material should be applied while moving relatively along the center line 53 of the substrate 51, the contact portion 41. Is preferably in contact with the substrate 51 at two portions sandwiching the center line 53.

(Example 2)
With reference to FIG. 4, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 2 is demonstrated. The substrate pressing mechanism 400 includes the contact portion 41 as described in the first embodiment. The contact portion 41 has a surface parallel to the surface 54 of the substrate 51, and the two portions are parallel to each other. It extends to the shape. With this configuration, the effects described in the first embodiment can be obtained, and the substrate can be pressed more stably than in the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4, when the substrate 51 has an elongated strip shape, the contact portion 41 extending in such a linear shape can efficiently hold the substrate 51. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the dispensing unit 100 sequentially applies the liquid material while relatively moving along the center line 53 of the substrate 51.

(Example 3)
With reference to FIG. 5, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 3 is demonstrated. The substrate pressing mechanism 400 has an annular shape parallel to the surface of the substrate 51 so as to surround the intersection point 55 while being separated from the intersection point 55 between the straight line 52 extending from the discharge port 12a toward the substrate 51 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51. A contact portion 41 is provided. With this configuration, it is possible to apply a pressing force to the substrate uniformly around the intersection 55. Therefore, the effects described in the first embodiment can be obtained, and the substrate can be pressed more stably than the first and second embodiments.

Example 4
With reference to FIG. 6, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 4 is demonstrated. The substrate pressing mechanism 400 includes the contact portion 41 as described in the third embodiment, and the contact portion 41 has a rectangular annular shape. Even with this configuration, the effects described in the third embodiment can be obtained. Furthermore, since the contact part 41 is a rectangular annular shape, a wide area inside the contact part 41 can be secured.

  In addition, in the structure of Examples 1-4, the support part 42 which connects the dispensing unit 100 and the contact part 41 is formed of the elastic member from a viewpoint which avoids applying an excessive load to the board | substrate 51. Preferably it is.

  Furthermore, the contact portion 41 itself is preferably formed of an elastic member from the viewpoint of avoiding applying an excessive load to the substrate 51.

  Here, the “elastic member” refers to a material that has the property of deforming when a force is applied from the outside but returning to its original shape when unloaded. For example, SBR (styrene butadiene rubber) used for tires of passenger cars and the like can be mentioned. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and it is only necessary to have the above-described properties with a force within a range in which the substrate 51 is not damaged, and can be appropriately selected according to the type of the substrate.

(Example 5)
With reference to FIG. 7, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 5 is demonstrated. When the contact portion 41 extends linearly and the support portion 42 and the contact portion 41 are formed of an elastic member, the frictional force between the contact portion 41 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51 is reduced. As described above, the tip end portion 41 e of the contact portion 41 may be curved toward the side away from the substrate 51. With this configuration, it is possible to reduce the amount of displacement of the substrate 51 when the dispensing unit 100 is relatively moved toward the distal end portion 41e while the contact portion 41 is in contact with the surface 54 of the substrate 51. . Therefore, it is possible to deal with application operations other than point application.

(Example 6)
With reference to FIG. 8, the board | substrate holding | suppressing mechanism 400 in Example 6 is demonstrated. When the support part 42 and the contact part 41 are formed of an elastic member, the contact part 41 may have a cylindrical shape having a rotation axis parallel to the substrate 51 and perpendicular to the traveling direction of the dispense unit 100. The contact portion 41 is rotatably supported by a support portion 42. By adopting this configuration, the dispensing unit 100 is moved in the direction of the arrow 91 parallel to the substrate 51 while the contact portion 41 is in contact with the surface 54 of the substrate 51, so that a cylindrical shape is formed around the rotation axis. The abutting portion 41 rotates. Therefore, the dispensing unit 100 can be moved in parallel with the substrate 51 while the substrate 51 is pressed by the contact portion 41.

  Furthermore, in all the embodiments described above, the support portion 42 may be provided with a support distance adjusting means for adjusting the distance between the dispensing unit 100 and the contact portion 41. The support distance adjusting means may be manually operated like a micrometer, but is preferably one that automatically operates in conjunction with the program of the discharge mechanism 13 and the drive mechanism 200. This mechanism means that the distance between the contact portion 41 and the liquid application nozzle 12 in the application operation is variable. By adopting this mechanism, for example, the dispensing unit 100 can be pulled apart while keeping the contact portion 41 in contact with the substrate 51.

  The structure of the contact portion 41 may be any structure as long as it can sufficiently hold the substrate 51 and does not interfere with the liquid material discharged from the liquid application nozzle 12 and the contact portion 41. It is not limited only to the shape of the embodiment.

  Moreover, the connection method of the contact part 41 and the support part 42, and the connection method of the support part 42 and the dispensing unit 100 are not specifically limited.

(Coating operation)
A coating method in a general coating apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

A coating method in a general coating apparatus is performed according to the following procedure.
Step S101: The reference height 61 of the substrate 51 is measured by the detection mechanism 300.
Step S102: The dispensing unit 100 is moved by the drive mechanism 200 to a position just above the point where the application is to be performed.
Step S103: The dispensing unit 100 is lowered with reference to the reference height 61 obtained in Step S101. The dispensing unit 100 is lowered by the drive mechanism 200 until the liquid application nozzle 12 reaches the designated height 62.
Step S104: The liquid material 9 is discharged from the liquid application nozzle 12 toward the substrate 51.
Step S <b> 105: In order to separate the discharged liquid material 9 from the liquid application nozzle 12, the dispensing unit 100 is raised by the drive mechanism 200.

  Thereafter, step S102 to step S105 are repeated. FIG. 10 illustrates a state in which the steps S102 ′ and S103 ′ are performed.

(Consideration of conventional problems)
Conventionally, as a method of pressing the substrate, a method of sandwiching the substrate with a base plate and a pressing jig is generally used. In this method, in order to avoid interference between the nozzle and the jig, there is a limitation on the thickness of the jig holding mechanism and the jig. Therefore, there are cases where a pressing jig sufficient to hold the substrate cannot be applied, resulting in variations in the substrate height.

  When the substrate height varies, as shown in FIG. 11, the gaps 63, 64, and 65 vary from application point to application point. For this reason, when the application of the liquid material is simply repeated without impairing the productivity, the application amount of the liquid material will vary.

(Coating operation)
A coating method using the liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

This coating method is performed according to the following procedure.
Step S1: The reference height 71 of the base plate 70 is measured by the detection mechanism 300.
Step S2: The dispensing unit 100 is moved by the drive mechanism 200 directly above the point where the application is performed.
Step S3: The dispensing unit 100 is lowered with reference to the reference height 71 of the base plate 70 obtained in step S1, and the dispensing unit 100 is lowered by the driving mechanism 200 until the liquid application nozzle 12 reaches the designated height 72. At this time, the contact portion 41 provided in the substrate pressing mechanism 400 comes into contact with the substrate 51, thereby biasing the substrate 51 downward.
Step S4: The liquid material 9 is discharged from the liquid application nozzle 12 toward the substrate 51.
Step S5: In order to separate the discharged liquid material 9 from the liquid application nozzle 12, the dispensing unit 100 is raised by the drive mechanism 200.

  Thereafter, step S2 to step S5 are repeated. FIG. 13 illustrates a state in which the steps S2 ′ and S3 ′ are performed subsequently.

  The transition of the gap between the dispensing unit 100 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51 in the coating method using the liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  By the operation of lowering the dispensing unit 100 in step S3, the contact portion 41 contacts the surface 54 of the substrate 51 in the state 81, and the substrate 51 is pushed down. That is, only the vicinity of the application point of the substrate 51 is selectively pressed downward at the application moment. By this operation, the gap between the dispensing unit 100 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51 can be kept constant regardless of the application point at least at the moment of application.

  According to FIG. 14, at the moment of application, the substrate 51 is changed from the state 81 to the state 82 by the substrate pressing portion 41. Further, according to FIG. 15, the state 82 changes to the state 83 at another application point. At this time, the gap 84 in FIG. 14 and the gap 85 in FIG.

  As described above, at each application point, the substrate 51 is quickly pushed down by the operation of the substrate pressing mechanism 400, so that the gap between the dispensing unit 100 and the surface 54 of the substrate 51 is constant at any application point. Kept. Therefore, the liquid material can be applied with high accuracy without impairing productivity.

(Experimental result)
The experimental results according to this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 16 shows that the liquid material is applied to the same lead frame substrate in two ways: a coating method A using a conventional coating apparatus and a coating method B using a coating apparatus in the present embodiment. This is a measurement and comparison of the dispersion of the coating amount at each coating point in each method by weight measurement. The horizontal axis indicates the coating order, and the vertical axis indicates the amount of variation in the coating amount of the liquid material transferred to the substrate side. The liquid material is silicone resin, and the main material of the substrate is copper. In the coating method A, the substrate was pressed by a method of sandwiching between the base plate and the pressing jig. In both coating methods A and B, the height was detected only once.

  In the conventional coating method A, variation is recognized in the coating amount of the liquid material transferred to the substrate side. This is probably because the gap between the liquid application nozzle and the substrate surface is not kept constant because the substrate is not sufficiently pressed down, and the amount of resin adhering to the nozzle varies.

  On the other hand, in the coating method B according to the present embodiment, variation in the coating amount is greatly suppressed. This experimental result shows that the substrate holding mechanism provided in the dispensing unit keeps the gap between the dispensing unit and the substrate surface constant regardless of the application point at the moment of application. Indicates what is being done.

(Action / Effect)
The actions and effects of the liquid coating apparatus in the present embodiment will be summarized below.

  According to the liquid coating apparatus in the present embodiment, the contact portion comes into contact with the surface of the substrate by the operation of lowering the dispensing unit at the time of coating, and pushes down the substrate. That is, the contact portion selectively biases downward only in the vicinity of the application point of the substrate. Accordingly, even a long and flexible substrate can be pressed with high accuracy, and the raw material can be applied with high accuracy without impairing productivity.

  The shape of the substrate to be coated by the liquid coating apparatus according to the present invention is not particularly limited. The effect can be obtained even if the substrate is not elongated.

In addition, you may employ | adopt combining suitably some among the said embodiment.
In addition, the said embodiment disclosed this time is an illustration in all the points, Comprising: It is not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and includes all modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 9 Liquid material, 11 Storage mechanism, 12 Liquid application nozzle, 12a Discharge port, 13 Discharge mechanism, 41 Contact part, 41e Tip part, 42 Support part, 51 Substrate, 52 (It extended toward the substrate from the discharge port) 53 (substrate) center line, 54 (substrate) surface, 55 intersection, 61, 71 reference height, 62, 72 height, 63, 64, 65 gap, 70 base plate, 91 arrow, 100 dispensing unit, 81 , 82, 83 state, 84, 85 gap, 200 drive mechanism, 300 detection mechanism, 400 substrate pressing mechanism, 1001 liquid coating apparatus.

Claims (5)

A dispensing unit having a discharge port for discharging a liquid material toward the substrate;
A drive mechanism for displacing the dispensing unit at least in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the substrate;
A substrate pressing mechanism arranged so as to protrude from the dispensing unit toward the substrate;
The substrate pressing mechanism is a liquid coating apparatus that can press the substrate while the dispensing unit is displaced so as to approach the substrate by the driving mechanism.   2. The liquid according to claim 1, wherein the substrate pressing mechanism includes an abutting portion that abuts the substrate at two portions sandwiching an intersection of a straight line extending from the discharge port toward the substrate and the surface of the substrate. Coating device.   The liquid application apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the contact portion has a surface parallel to the surface of the substrate and extends in a linear shape parallel to each other at the two portions.   The substrate pressing mechanism has an annular contact parallel to the surface of the substrate so as to surround the intersection while being separated from the intersection of the straight line extending from the discharge port toward the substrate and the surface of the substrate. The liquid application apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a unit.   The liquid application apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the contact portion has a rectangular annular shape.

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