阅读说明：本技术 一种金属掩膜板及其制备方法 (Metal mask plate and preparation method thereof ) 是由 李晓凯 兰兰 于 2018-06-07 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明公开了一种金属掩膜板及其制备方法。所述金属掩膜板的制备方法包括：提供掩膜板基材；在所述掩膜板基材的第一侧减薄所述中间部中的第一区域,所述第一区域包括所述非显示区；在所述第一侧形成所述至少一个显示区内的多个像素开孔。本发明实施例提供的技术方案,使得形成的金属掩膜板中显示区与周围区域强度之差减小,金属掩膜板在张网过程中产生褶皱的几率降低,金属掩膜板的张网精度得到提高。(The invention discloses a metal mask plate and a preparation method thereof. The preparation method of the metal mask plate comprises the following steps: providing a mask plate base material; thinning a first region in the middle part on a first side of the mask substrate, wherein the first region comprises the non-display region; a plurality of pixel openings in the at least one display area are formed at the first side. According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, the intensity difference between the display area and the surrounding area in the formed metal mask plate is reduced, the probability of generating wrinkles of the metal mask plate in the screen stretching process is reduced, and the screen stretching precision of the metal mask plate is improved.)

1. A preparation method of a metal mask plate is characterized by comprising the following steps:

Providing a mask plate substrate, wherein the mask plate substrate comprises a middle part, a first edge part and a second edge part, the first edge part and the second edge part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the middle part, the middle part comprises at least one display area and a non-display area, the edges, which are closest to the first edge part and the second edge part, of the area where the at least one display area is positioned are a first edge and a second edge, the first edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the first edge part, and the second edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the second edge part;

Thinning a first region in the middle part on a first side of the mask substrate, wherein the first region comprises the non-display region;

And forming a plurality of pixel openings in the at least one display area on the first side to form the metal mask plate.

2. The production method according to claim 1, wherein the first edge portion includes a first portion to be cut and a first auxiliary portion on a side of the first portion to be cut close to the intermediate portion, and the second edge portion includes a second portion to be cut and a second auxiliary portion on a side of the second portion to be cut close to the intermediate portion; the first region further includes a first auxiliary portion and a second auxiliary portion.

3. The method of manufacturing according to claim 2, wherein the first area further includes the first portion to be cut and the second portion to be cut.

4. The method of manufacturing according to claim 1, wherein thinning the first region and forming the plurality of pixel openings are performed using the same process.

5. A production method according to claim 1, characterized in that the first region in the intermediate portion is thinned by a wet etching process.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the display area is in the shape of a circle, a rounded rectangle, or a notched rounded rectangle, and wherein the notch in the notched rounded rectangle is located on an edge of the rounded rectangle that is closer to or farther from the first edge portion.

7. the method of claim 1, wherein the first region has a thickness after thinning that is 60% to 80% of the thickness before thinning.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of the mask substrate ranges from 20 μm to 50 μm.

9. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the at least one display region is arranged in order along an arrangement direction of the first edge portion and the second edge portion.

10. A metal mask characterized by being formed by the method for producing a metal mask according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

Technical Field

the embodiment of the invention relates to a preparation technology of a metal mask plate, in particular to a metal mask plate and a preparation method thereof.

Background

the organic light emitting display device has the advantages of self-luminescence without backlight, flexible display, wide viewing angle, high color saturation and the like, is widely applied to various electronic devices, and is favored by users.

In the preparation process of the organic light-emitting display device, the evaporation material is evaporated to the position corresponding to the pixel on the substrate through the mask of the metal mask plate to form an organic light-emitting functional layer. The metal mask plate comprises a display area corresponding to the display area of the display substrate formed subsequently, a plurality of pixel openings are formed in the display area, the strength of the display area is lower than that of the surrounding area, the metal mask plate is different in strength with other areas in the screen stretching process of the metal mask plate, wrinkles are easy to generate, and the problem can be more prominent especially for the metal mask plate with the special-shaped display area.

disclosure of Invention

The invention provides a metal mask plate and a preparation method thereof, which are used for reducing the intensity difference between a display area and a surrounding area in the formed metal mask plate, reducing the probability of generating wrinkles of the metal mask plate in the mesh opening process and improving the mesh opening precision of the metal mask plate.

In a first aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a metal mask, where the method for manufacturing a metal mask includes:

Providing a mask plate substrate, wherein the mask plate substrate comprises a middle part, a first edge part and a second edge part, the first edge part and the second edge part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the middle part, the middle part comprises at least one display area and a non-display area, the edges, which are closest to the first edge part and the second edge part, of the area where the at least one display area is positioned are a first edge and a second edge, the first edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the first edge part, and the second edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the second edge part;

Thinning a first region in the middle part on a first side of the mask substrate, wherein the first region comprises the non-display region;

And forming a plurality of pixel openings in the at least one display area on the first side to form the metal mask plate.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a metal mask plate, where the metal mask plate is formed by using the preparation method of the metal mask plate in the first aspect.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment of the invention, the first area in the middle part is thinned at the first side of the mask plate, wherein the first area comprises the non-display area, and the first side is provided with the plurality of pixel openings in at least one display area, so that the intensity difference between the display area and the surrounding area in the formed metal mask plate is reduced, the probability of generating wrinkles in the metal mask plate in the screen stretching process is reduced, and the screen stretching precision of the metal mask plate is improved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, a brief description is given below of the drawings used in describing the embodiments. It should be clear that the described figures are only views of some of the embodiments of the invention to be described, not all, and that for a person skilled in the art, other figures can be derived from these figures without inventive effort.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method for manufacturing a metal mask according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a schematic top view of a mask substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the dashed line AB of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the dashed line CD in FIG. 1;

fig. 5 is a schematic top view of a metal mask according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along dashed line EF in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a schematic sectional view taken along the dashed line GH in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a further cross-sectional view taken along dashed line EF in FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a further cross-sectional view taken along line EF of FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 is a further cross-sectional view taken along line EF of FIG. 5;

FIG. 11 is a schematic top view of another mask substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 12 is a schematic top view of another mask substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples. It is to be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not limiting of the invention. It should be further noted that, for the convenience of description, only some but not all of the relevant aspects of the present invention are shown in the drawings. Before discussing exemplary embodiments in more detail, it should be noted that some exemplary embodiments are described as processes or methods depicted as flowcharts. Although a flowchart may describe the operations (or steps) as a sequential process, many of the operations can be performed in parallel, concurrently or simultaneously. In addition, the order of the operations may be re-arranged. The process may be terminated when its operations are completed, but may have additional steps not included in the figure. The processes may correspond to methods, functions, procedures, subroutines, and the like.

Fig. 1 is a schematic flow chart of a method for manufacturing a metal mask according to an embodiment of the present invention. The preparation method of the metal mask plate in the embodiment is used for preparing the metal mask plate used in evaporation coating of the light-emitting functional layer in the organic light-emitting display device. As shown in fig. 1, the preparation method of the metal mask plate may specifically include the following steps:

Step 1, providing a mask plate substrate, wherein the mask plate substrate comprises a middle part, a first edge part and a second edge part, the first edge part and the second edge part are respectively positioned at two opposite sides of the middle part, the middle part comprises at least one display area and a non-display area, the edges, which are closest to the first edge part and the second edge part, of the area where the at least one display area is positioned are a first edge and a second edge, the first edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the first edge part, and the second edge is positioned on a boundary line of the middle part and the second edge part.

fig. 2 is a schematic top view of a mask substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 2, the mask substrate includes a middle portion 100, and a first edge portion 200 and a second edge portion 300 respectively located at two opposite sides of the middle portion 100, the middle portion 100 includes at least one display region 110 and a non-display region 120, the region of the at least one display region 110 is located at a first edge 111 and a second edge 112 respectively located at the nearest sides of the first edge portion 200 and the second edge portion 300, the first edge 111 is located on an intersection line 101 of the middle portion 100 and the first edge portion 200, and the second edge 112 is located on an intersection line 102 of the middle portion 100 and the second edge portion 300.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, only the middle portion 100 includes two display regions 110 for illustration, but not limiting the number of the display regions 110, in other embodiments of this embodiment, the number of the display regions 110 included in the middle portion 100 may be 1 or more than two, and this embodiment is not limited in this embodiment.

And 2, thinning a first area in the middle part on the first side of the mask substrate, wherein the first area comprises the non-display area.

illustratively, a schematic top view of the mask substrate after the first area thinning is also shown in fig. 1. On the premise that fig. 1 is a schematic top view of the mask substrate after the first region is thinned, fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional structure along a dotted line AB in fig. 1, and fig. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional structure along a dotted line CD in fig. 1. As shown in fig. 3 and 4, the thinned first region includes the non-display region 120.

And 3, forming a plurality of pixel openings in the at least one display area on the first side to form the metal mask plate.

Exemplarily, fig. 5 is a schematic top view of a metal mask provided in an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 6 is a schematic sectional view along a broken line EF in fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a schematic sectional view along the broken line GH in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 6 and 7, a plurality of pixel openings 130 in the display region 110 are formed on the first side of the mask substrate, i.e., the same side as the thinned first region. With continued reference to fig. 6 and 7, when the plurality of pixel openings 130 are formed, the thickness of the display region 110 except for the pixel openings 130 is also reduced. Specifically, in the prior art, a wet etching process is usually adopted to form a plurality of pixel openings 130, and an etching area corresponds to an area where each pixel opening 130 is located, and ideally, an area 131 of the display area 110 except for the pixel openings 130 is not etched, and the thickness is also kept constant. However, in the actual production process, for the case that the distance L between the adjacent pixel openings 130 is small and the thickness K of the mask substrate is large, the region 131 of the display region 110 except for the pixel openings 130 is also etched by a certain amount, so that the thickness of the display region 110 after the pixel openings 130 are formed is reduced. It should be noted that, as shown in fig. 6 and 7, since the non-display area 120 is thinned in advance, the difference between the intensities of the area 131 of the display area 110 except for the pixel opening 130 and the non-display area 120 is reduced, so that the deformation amount of the two areas in the web stretching process is not greatly different.

Fig. 8 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along a dashed line EF in fig. 5. The structure of the metal mask in fig. 8 is similar to that of the metal mask in fig. 6, except that the thickness of the region 131 of the metal mask display region 110 in fig. 8 except for the pixel openings 130 is not reduced after the pixel openings 130 are formed, i.e., is equal to the thickness of the mask substrate. It is understood that, although the wet etching process used in forming the pixel opening 130 does not affect the region 131 of the display region 110 except for the pixel opening 130, since the display region 110 is formed with a plurality of pixel openings 130, the intensity of the display region 110 is still lower than that of the surrounding region, and the difference between the intensities of the display region 110 and the non-display region 120 is also reduced after the non-display region 120 is thinned.

Specifically, whether the thickness of the display area 110 is reduced after the pixel openings 130 are formed is related to the thickness K of the mask substrate, the distance L between adjacent pixel openings 130, and the inclination angle θ of the sidewall in the pixel openings 130, which are mutually influenced and need to be considered together to determine whether the thickness of the display area 110 is reduced after the pixel openings 130 are formed.

According to the technical scheme provided by the embodiment, the first area in the middle part 100 is thinned on the first side of the mask plate, the first area comprises the non-display area 120, and the plurality of pixel holes 130 in the at least one display area 110 are formed on the first side, so that the thickness difference between the display area 110 and the surrounding area in the formed metal mask plate is reduced, the probability of wrinkles generated in the screen-stretching process of the metal mask plate is reduced, and the screen-stretching precision of the metal mask plate is improved.

Illustratively, the thickness of the mask substrate can range from 20 μm to 50 μm.

alternatively, as shown in fig. 2, the at least one display area 110 is sequentially arranged along the arrangement direction X of the first edge portion 200 and the second edge portion 300. It is to be understood that, in other embodiments of this embodiment, the arrangement manner of the at least one display area 110 may also be in other forms, for example, the arrangement manner may be an array arrangement, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment.

with continued reference to fig. 5, the first edge portion 200 includes a first portion to be cut 220 and a first auxiliary portion 210 on a side of the first portion to be cut 220 adjacent to the middle portion 100, and the second edge portion 300 includes a second portion to be cut 320 and a second auxiliary portion 310 on a side of the second portion to be cut 320 adjacent to the middle portion 100. Fig. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along a dashed line EF in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 9, the first region further includes a first auxiliary portion 210 and a second auxiliary portion 310, i.e., the thinned region includes the non-display region 120, the first auxiliary portion 210, and the second auxiliary portion 310.

it should be noted that the first portion to be cut 220 and the second portion to be cut 320 are portions to be cut after the formed metal mask is expanded.

fig. 10 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along a dashed line EF in fig. 5. As shown in fig. 10, the first region further includes the first to-be-cut portion 220 and the second to-be-cut portion 320, that is, the thinned region includes the non-display region 120, the first auxiliary portion 210 and the second auxiliary portion 310, and the first to-be-cut portion 220 and the second to-be-cut portion 320.

It should be noted that, in other embodiments of this embodiment, the thinned first region may include the non-display region 120, a portion of the first auxiliary portion and a portion of the second auxiliary portion, where the portion of the first auxiliary portion and the portion of the second auxiliary portion are preferably symmetrical structures, and further, the portion of the first auxiliary portion and the portion of the second auxiliary portion are both disposed near the middle portion 100, that is, the first region is a continuous region; alternatively, the thinned first region may include the non-display region 120. The first and second auxiliary portions 210 and 310 and a part of the first area to be cut and a part of the second area to be cut, wherein the part of the first area to be cut and the part of the second area to be cut are preferably symmetrical structures, and further, the part of the first area to be cut and the part of the second area to be cut are both arranged close to the middle portion 100, i.e., the first area is ensured to be a continuous area.

Alternatively, the same process may be used for thinning the first region and forming the plurality of pixel openings 310.

Illustratively, a wet etching process may be used to thin the first region in the middle portion 100. It should be noted that wet etching is a commonly used thinning process in the prior art, and the use of the wet etching process to thin the first region in the middle portion 100 can increase the compatibility of the present solution with the prior art and reduce the difficulty in preparing the metal mask plate.

With continued reference to fig. 2, the display area 110 may be in the shape of a rounded rectangle. In other embodiments of this embodiment, the shape of the display area 110 may also be a circle, as shown in fig. 11, or a rectangle with rounded notches, where the notches in the rectangle with rounded notches are located on the side of the rectangle with rounded notches close to or far from the first edge portion, as shown in fig. 12.

illustratively, the thickness of the first region after thinning can be 60% -80% of the thickness before thinning. Such an arrangement does not cause an excessive decrease in the overall strength of the metal mask plate while reducing the difference in strength between the display region 110 and its surrounding region.

The embodiment of the invention also provides a metal mask plate, and the metal mask plate is formed by adopting the preparation method of the metal mask plate in any embodiment of the invention.

It is to be noted that the foregoing is only illustrative of the preferred embodiments of the present invention and the technical principles employed. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention is not limited to the particular embodiments described herein, but is capable of various obvious changes, rearrangements and substitutions as will now become apparent to those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, although the present invention has been described in greater detail by the above embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and may include other equivalent embodiments without departing from the spirit of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is determined by the scope of the appended claims.