Apparatus for substrate registration and anchoring in inkjet printing

Abstract

Printing on a substrate includes printing a support structure by printing a liquid precursor material and curing the liquid precursor material, printing one or more alignment markers by printing the liquid precursor material outside the support structure and curing the liquid precursor material, positioning a substrate within the support structure, performing a registration of the substrate using the one or more alignment markers, and printing one or more device structures on the substrate while registered by printing and curing the liquid precursor material.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A substrate registration/alignment apparatus, comprising:
 a droplet ejection printer; and   a controller configured to cause the droplet ejection printer to
 print a support structure by printing a liquid precursor material and curing the liquid precursor material, 
 print one or more alignment markers by the printing liquid precursor material outside the support structure and curing the liquid precursor material, 
 after a substrate has been loaded onto the support structure, perform a registration of the substrate using the one or more alignment markers, and 
 print one or more device structures on the substrate while anchored and registered by printing and the curing liquid precursor material. 
   
     
     
         2 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , further comprising an optical sensor to capture an image of the substrate, support structure and alignment markers. 
     
     
         3 . The apparatus of  claim 2 , wherein the controller is configured to determining a measured position of the alignment markers from the image and compare the measured position of the alignment markers to a default position of the alignment markers. 
     
     
         4 . The apparatus of  claim 3 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a measured position of the substrate from the image and compare the measured position of the substrate to a default position of the substrate markers. 
     
     
         5 . The apparatus of  claim 4 , wherein the controller is configured to determine a transform to apply to data defining structures to be printed on the substrate based on the comparisons. 
     
     
         6 . The apparatus of  claim 5 , wherein the controller is configured to apply the transform to the data and to cause the droplet ejection printer to print the device structures on the substrate using the transformed data. 
     
     
         7 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the controller is configured to print the one or more alignment markers as dots, strips, or frames. 
     
     
         8 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , wherein the support structure comprises a circular aperture for the substrate, and the controller is configured to print the alignment markers as strips extending along radial segments that have a center of the aperture as an origin. 
     
     
         9 . The apparatus of  claim 1 , comprising a source of the liquid precursor material, and wherein the liquid precursor material comprises a polymer precursor. 
     
     
         10 . A substrate registration/alignment apparatus, comprising:
 a droplet ejection printer; and   a controller configured to cause the droplet ejection printer to
 print a support structure by printing a liquid precursor material and cure the liquid precursor material, 
 print one or more alignment markers by printing the liquid precursor material outside the support structure and cure the liquid precursor material, 
 after a substrate has been loaded onto the support structure, perform a registration of the substrate using the one or more alignment markers, 
 print one or more anchors on the substrate and the support structure by printing and cure the liquid precursor material to secure the substrate to the support structure, and 
 print one or more device structures on the substrate while anchored and registered by printing and curing the liquid precursor material.