Mask and fabrication method thereof, display panel and touch panel

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10859920-B2
Application number	US-201816059481-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 9, 2018
Priority date	Oct 16, 2017
Publication date	Dec 8, 2020
Grant date	Dec 8, 2020

Abstract

A fabrication method of a mask and a mask, a display panel and a touch panel are provided. The fabrication method of the mask includes: providing a substrate; forming a photoresist material layer on the substrate; and performing at least two scanning exposure processes on the photoresist material layer by using a scanning beam, wherein, each of the at least two scanning exposure processes is performed along a first direction parallel to a surface where the substrate is located, the scanning beam in each of the at least two scanning exposure processes scans the photoresist material layer in a scanning region having a preset width, at least one pair of adjacent scanning regions partially overlap with each other, and a partially overlapping region of the at least one pair of adjacent scanning regions is located in a first region of the mask.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of fabricating a structural layer of a device by using a mask,
wherein the device comprises an effective region and a non-effective region, and during using the mask to form the structural layer of the device, a projection of a first region of the mask on a surface where the device is located coincides with the non-effective region of the device,
a miniature ratio of the mask is X:1, and in a second direction parallel to the surface where the device is located, the effective region has a width of W 1 , the non-effective region has a width of W 2 , the non-effective regions are provided at both sides of each of the effective regions, the mask comprises a preset width L, and the preset width L satisfies:
X *( W 1+ W 2)≤ L≤X *( N *( W 1+ W 2)+2* W 2), wherein N is a positive integer, and X> 0,

wherein the mask is fabricated by a following method:
providing a substrate;
forming a light-shielding material layer on the substrate;
forming a photoresist material layer on the light-shielding material layer;
performing at least two scanning exposure processes on the photoresist material layer by using a scanning beam;
developing the photoresist material layer, to remove a portion of the photoresist material layer;
etching the light-shielding material layer and removing a portion of the light-shielding material layer not covered with the photoresist material layer; and
removing the photoresist material layer, to form a mask pattern,
wherein each of the at least two scanning exposure processes is performed along a first direction parallel to a surface where the substrate is located, the first direction is perpendicular to the second direction, the scanning beam in each of the at least two scanning exposure processes scans the photoresist material layer in a scanning region having the preset width, the preset width is a maximum scanning width of the scanning beam in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, at least one pair of adjacent scanning regions partially overlap with each other, and a partially overlapping region of the at least one pair of adjacent scanning regions is located in the first region of the mask, and in each of the scanning regions, the mask pattern is formed outside the partially overlapping region.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a width of the partially overlapping region is L 1 , the width of the partially overlapping region satisfies: 0≤L 1 ≤2X*W 2 , and the width of the partially overlapping region is a width in the second direction.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the device is a display panel, the display panel includes a plurality of pixel units, each of the pixel units includes a display region and a non-display region, the non-effective region is the non-display region, and the effective region is the display region.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein under a condition that the mask is used for forming a structural layer in the display panel, a projection of the mask pattern on a surface where the display panel is located in the display region or partially located in the non-display region.

5. The method according to claim 4 , wherein the structural layer includes one or more of an active layer, a gate insulating layer, a gate electrode, an interlayer insulating layer, a source-drain electrode layer, a passivation layer, a gate line and a data line.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the device is a touch panel, the touch panel includes a touch function region and a non-touch function region, the non-effective region is the non-touch function region, and the effective region is the touch function region.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein under a condition that the mask is used for forming the touch panel, a projection of the mask pattern on a surface where the touch panel is located is located in the touch function region or partially located in the non-touch function region.

8. A touch panel, fabricated with the method according to claim 1 .

Assignees

• Boe Technology Group Co Ltd
• Hefei Boe Optoelectronics Tech

Inventors

• Liao Liqing
• Li Hongmin
• Tao Jian

Classifications

• H10P50/691

  for Group V materials or Group III-V materials · CPC title

• H10P50/73

  using masks for insulating materials · CPC title

• H10P14/60

  of insulating materials · CPC title

• G03F1/76

  Patterning of masks by imaging · CPC title

• G03F7/70475

  Stitching, i.e. connecting image fields to produce a device field, the field occupied by a device such as a memory chip, processor chip, CCD, flat panel display · CPC title