Development of high precision linear transfer module using air floating system for flat panel display

Recently, there is an increasing requirement for high precision linear transfer platform using for flat panel display (FPD) production and inspection process such as liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP), and organic light-emitting diode (OLED). As next generation technology in the area of transfer platform, precision positioning and transfer flatness control under the 10μm is required for inline process such as automatic optical inspection (AOI), surface treatment, and marking. As magnetic roller conveyer type is used as transfer platform for FPD, there are many problems such as contamination of panel by contact between roller and panel, deterioration of quality, and uncontrollable flatness. The requirements of the high precision linear transfer module are high positioning accuracy and high transfer flatness. To satisfy these requirements, it has to be designed with the direct drive linear motion system and air floating system. In this work, linear transfer module having air floating system is proposed, where moving system using linear motor is mounted at the inside of the air floating system, and air floating system is used for floating the FPD panel, control system are used for performance requirement. The developed high precision linear transfer module is verified by performance test.