In-line Automatic Defect Repair System for TFT-LCD Production

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 $400{\pm}100{\mu}m$. Furthermore, a prototype system was constructed, and using a dummy pattern, it was confirmed that the system worked automatically and correctly.