Method and apparatus for fabricating flat panel display

1. A method of fabricating a flat panel display device comprising:

coating an etch-resist on a thin film;

forming a soft mold having a groove and a protrusion for patterning the thin film;

treating only an end surface of the protrusion;

applying the soft mold to the etch-resist to form an etch-resist pattern such that substantially all of the etch-resist moves into the groove of the soft mold upon applying the soft mold to the etch-resist;

separating the soft mold from the etch-resist pattern; and

etching the thin film by using the etch-resist pattern to form a thin film pattern.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the flat panel display device includes any one of a liquid crystal display (LCD) device, a field emission display (FED) device, a plasma display panel (PDP) and an electro-luminescence (EL) device.

3. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising baking the etch-resist while applying the soft mold to the etch-resist to form the etch-resist pattern.

4. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising stripping the etch-resist pattern after etching the thin film pattern.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein treating the end surface makes a repulsion layer on the end surface having a repulsive force against the etch-resist.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein forming a soft mold includes using one of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), polyurethane and cross-linked novolac resin.

7. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

cleaning the soft mold with ultra violet UV ray and ozone (O 3 ); and

reusing the soft mold for the patterning process of another thin film.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein treating the end surface of the protrusion provides a hydrophilic or hydrophobic property.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein treating the soft mold includes:

exposing the end surface of the protrusion to light;

supplying ozone O 3 to the end surface of the protrusion that is exposed to the light; and

exposing the end surface of the protrusion supplied with the ozone to a self assembly material.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the end surface of the protrusion is one of a hydrophilic property and a hydrophobic property in accordance with a terminal group of the self assembly material.

11. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the terminal group includes at least one of —OH, —COOH and —COH and the end surface of the protrusion surface is a hydrophilic property.

12. The method according to claim 10 , wherein the end surface of the protrusion surface has a hydrophobic property and the terminal group includes at least one of —Cl, —F, —I and —CH 3 .