Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Corporation

Ishikawajima-harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd.

Ishiwawajima-harima Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. & Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha

Yukihiro Iwasaki

Yoshikazu Yoshimoto

Yutaka Nagasawa

The object of the present invention is to provide an inspection apparatus for liquid crystal drive substrates that improves the inspection accuracy of liquid crystal drive substrates, judges defect type more accurately, and does not cause a decrease in throughput. In order to achieve this object, the present invention provides an inspection apparatus for liquid crystal drive substrates that discriminates defective pixels having an abnormal voltage and normal pixels having a normal voltage based on pixel voltage by arranging an electro-optical element plate in opposition to a liquid crystal drive substrate on which pixel electrodes are arranged in the form of a matrix, and calculating the actual voltage of each pixel electrode in the form of a pixel voltage based on the voltage image of the electro-optical element plate obtained by writing a prescribed voltage to the pixel electrodes, and on the electro-optical characteristics of the above electro-optical element plate, wherein the inspection apparatus comprises an image processing apparatus that an image processing apparatus that classifies pixel electrodes of defect candidates for each defect type by comparing said pixel voltage with a threshold value set for each defect type of pixel defect, and finally judges said pixel electrodes of defect candidates for each defect type as defective pixels of each defect type based on judgment conditions provided for each defect type.

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Tsuchiura, Japan

Yukihiro Iwasaki