We succeed in forming column-spacers (CS) on a flexible 200 ppi color filter (CF) lying directly on a new plastic film by a roll-to-roll process. The CS, 10μm width with 6μm height, were formed onto the designed area of CF by our new transfer method. The photograph of CS on CF is shown in Photograph 1 and 2. The photograph of continuously made CF with CS, 20 m length with 300 mm width, is shown in Photograph 3. This new plastic substrate has a low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) and high barrier property.

Abstract— Column spacers were manufactured by a roll‐to‐roll process for a flexible plastic substrate and an LCD prototype was demonstrated for the first time. The purpose of this paper is to obtain a stable cell gap for plastic LCDs by designing the column spacers. The optimum condition was derived for the properties of the column spacers parameters, such as the cross section, density, and hardness. As a result, we could determine the optimum elastic modulus of the column spacers needed in order to precisely maintain the cell gap of the LCD as well as that of conventional glass plates, resulting in a uniform display luminance.

We applied a photo‐alignment method to the color filter instead of a rubbing method to form an orientation layer continuously. We confirmed that the column spacers with the size of 5.5 μm in height and 20‐μm‐square did not affect both the coating and alignment process.