Takeshi Arai

In‐line automatic defect repair system for TFT‐LCD production

Abstract An automated circuit repair system was developed for enhancing the yield of nondefective liquid crystal panels, focusing on the resist patterns on the circuit material layer of thin‐film transistor (TFT) substrates prior to etching. The developed system has an advantage over the parallel conventional system: In the former, the repair conditions depend on the type of resist whereas in the latter, the repair parameters must be fine‐tuned for each circuit material. The developed system consists of a resist pattern defect inspection system and a pattern repair system for short and open defects. The repair system performs fine corrections of abnormal areas of the resist pattern. The open‐repair system is equipped with a syringe to dispense resist. To maintain a stable resist diameter, a thermal insulator was installed in the syringe system. As a result, the diameter of the dispensed resist became much more stable than when no thermal insulator was used. The resist diameter was kept within the target of 400±100 μm. Furthermore, a prototype system was constructed, and using a dummy pattern, it was confirmed that the system worked automatically and correctly.