JPS63248035A - Gas discharge luminous device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To extend the life and avoid the erroneous emission by forming the surface layer portion of a cathode electrode out of a pair of electrodes with a metal cilicide and containing nitrogen in the discharge gas. CONSTITUTION:The surface layer portion of a cathode electrode 29 out of a pair of electrodes 29, 31 is formed with a metal cilicide (MSix) (M is metal, (x) is an integer), and nitrogen (N2) is contained in the discharge gas. Therefore, a metal cilicide with the low specific resistance constituting the surface layer portion of at least a cathode electrode 29 is spattered by the gas discharge, scattered in the gas space 21, then combined with N2 contained in the discharge gas, and generates a compound with the high specific resistance such as silicon nitride (SiNy) ((y) is an optional integer) and a nitride of metal silicide (MpSiqNr) ((p), (g), (r) are optional integers). Accordingly, a short circuit across electrodes can be suppressed, the nitrogen compound deposited between electrodes is transparent, thus the luminous brightness is not reduced, the life is extended, and the erroneous emission can be avoided.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention provides a method for use in plasma displays, etc.
The present invention relates to a gas discharge light emitting device that utilizes a discharge phenomenon.

(Prior Art) Conventionally, gas discharge light emitting devices have been used for displaying various information on a display by filling various gases in a sealed glass tube and causing the gas to discharge and emit light.

An example of a conventionally known gas discharge light emitting device will be described below with reference to the drawings.

Ms diagrams (A) and (B) are explanatory diagrams showing a schematic configuration of a direct current type gas discharge light emitting device, which is also widely used in the past. In these drawings, FIG. 3(A) shows the configuration of the device in a schematic cross section, and the hatching etc. showing the cross section are partially omitted. Also, Figure 3 CB)
FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view showing a schematic plan view of a part of the device.

First of all, in this type of gas discharge light emitting device, for example, nickel (Ni) or other conductive material is applied to the surfaces of the first substrate 11 and the second substrate 13, which are made of glass or other transparent insulating material. After deposition, a plurality of striped first electrodes 15 and second electrodes 17 are formed on the first substrate 11 or the second substrate 13 using photolithography or any other suitable technique.

These conventional electrodes are usually formed by depositing various conductive materials in a thin film form by sputtering or any other suitable method, by screen printing a metal paste of the conductive material into a thick film, or by forming a thick film by screen printing a metal paste of the conductive material. , for example, ITO (I
ndium Tin Oxide)
It is composed of transparent conductive oxides such as

In constructing this device, a plurality of first electrodes 15 formed on the surface of the first substrate 11 and a plurality of second electrodes 17 formed on the surface of the second substrate 13 are connected to both substrates 11 and 13. 1
A gas space 21 is formed, and each electrode The gas space at the intersection of 15 and 17 constitutes a gas discharge light emitting element 23 in a gas discharge light emitting device, as shown in FIG. 3(B).

Following the formation of this gas space 21, a sealing agent 25 made of glass or any other suitable material is heated to melt and isolate the gas space 21 from the outside air, and after the gas space 21 is evacuated, e.g. A discharge gas (not shown) containing a mixture of (Ar) and neon (Ne) is introduced to complete the gas discharge light emitting device M27u.

In driving such a gas discharge light emitting device, for example, the first electrode 15 having the above-described configuration is used as the anode electrode 15, and the second electrode 17 is used as the cathode electrode 1.
7, a voltage is applied to these via terminals and wiring (not shown), and light is emitted by gas discharge.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, the above-mentioned light emission is accompanied by plasma formation of the discharge gas sealed in the gas space 21 and sputtering on the cathode electrode 17 . Therefore, the conductive material constituting at least the cathode electrode 17 not only adheres to the surface of the substrate, reducing the transparency of the substrate and the luminance of the device, but also deposits between the respective electrodes. This caused a short circuit between the electrodes, resulting in erroneous light emission.

Regarding the conventional problems mentioned above, for example, the literature: "Nikkei Electronics J (August 26, 1985 issue, No. 18)
As disclosed on page 1), a technique is also known in which a partition made of glass or other insulating material is provided between each electrode, but as gas discharge light emitting elements (light emitting pixels) become smaller and smaller, In order to arrange the partition walls, strict alignment is required, which causes a problem of lowering the yield.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned conventional problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a highly reliable gas discharge light emitting device that has a long life and can avoid erroneous light emission.

(Means for Solving the Problems) In order to achieve this object, the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention provides a gas discharge light emitting device having a pair of electrodes through a gas space into which discharge gas is introduced. In a gas discharge light emitting device comprising a plurality of electrodes, at least the surface layer portion of the cathode electrode of the pair of electrodes is formed of metal silicide (MSi) (where M is a metal and X is a positive number). , nitrogen (
N2).

Further, in carrying out the present invention, it is preferable that the above-mentioned nitrogen be contained in an amount of 1% by weight or more based on the total weight of the above-mentioned discharge gas.

(Function) According to the configuration of the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention, after the metal silicide with low resistivity constituting at least the surface layer portion of the cathode electrode is sputtered and scattered in the gas space with the gas discharge. , nitrogen (N) contained in the discharge gas
2), for example, silicon nitride (SiN) (However,
y is any positive number), metal silicide nitride (M PSI9
A compound with high specific resistance such as N r) (where p, Q, and r are arbitrary positive numbers) is produced. Therefore, when the material is deposited between the electrodes, short circuits between the electrodes can be suppressed.

In general, all of these compounds have high transparency, so
Less reduction in luminance of the device.

(Embodiments) Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a third
FIG. 2 is a drawing configuration diagram showing a schematic cross-section of the apparatus similarly to FIG. In the figure, the same components as those in FIGS. M3 (c) and (B) are designated by the same reference numerals, except for the components that are characteristic of the present invention. In addition, in the preferred embodiment described below, a case will be explained in which both the anode electrode and the cathode electrode constituting the gas discharge luminescent bag @ are both made of metal silicide. A first substrate 11 and a second substrate 13 made of the same material as
After depositing the aforementioned metal silicide (MSi), for example, titanium disilicide (TiSi2) on the surface of the substrate, it is patterned to form a plurality of anode electrodes 29 and cathode electrodes 31, respectively. In forming this electrode, a target made of titanium disilicide (TiSi2) is used.
It is deposited on the surface of each substrate by a conventionally well-known sputtering method.

Thereafter, a gas space is provided by the spacer 19 and isolated from the outside air by the sealant 25 by various arbitrary suitable steps described as the prior art, and then vacuum is reduced to 10-Btorr by a conventionally well-known method. Exhaust.

Subsequently, nitrogen (N
2) Introduce a gas containing. In this preferred embodiment,
As this discharge gas, a discharge gas having a composition of 1% by weight of argon (Ar), 79% by weight of neon (Ne), and 20% by weight of nitrogen (N2) was used, and this was introduced until the pressure reached G200 torr. A gas discharge light emitting device 33 as a preferred embodiment of the present invention as shown in FIG. 1 is prepared.

Hereinafter, a comparison result between the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention illustrated in FIG. 1 and the conventional gas discharge light emitting device illustrated in FIGS. 3(A) and (B) will be described.

In the conventional device used for comparison, the anode electrode 15 and the cathode electrode 17 are made of nickel (Ni), and the composition of the discharge gas is 1.5% by weight of argon and 98.5% by weight of neon (Ne).
The specifications and production conditions were the same as those of the preferred embodiment described above, except that the weight percentages were the same.

In order to compare the conventional gas discharge luminous bag 27 produced in this manner with the gas discharge luminous bag 33 of the present invention, the apparatuses 27 and 33 were continuously operated for 100 hours under the same conditions. The resistance value between the electrodes was measured after driving at the same time.

As a result of this comparative experiment, the gas discharge light emitting device 27 with the conventional configuration was
The average resistance value between the cathode electrodes 29 is 1.
20x 106Ω, reaching a low resistance state (short-circuited state) that easily causes erroneous light emission between the gas discharge light emitting elements, whereas the device 33 of the present invention has a resistance of 1.87x 10'.
It was Ω. As can be understood from this value, the configuration of the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention maintains a state in which sufficient gas discharge light emitting elements can be driven independently even after continuous operation for a long time. It is possible.

As explained above in detail, the case was explained in which the anode electrode and the cathode electrode were made of titanium disilicide (TiSi2), and the discharge gas contained 20% by weight of nitrogen (N2)'a gold. The metal silicides constituting the electrode are tantalum (Ta), niobium (Nb), molybdenum (Mo),
Tungsten (W), chromium (CCr), zirconium (
2r), hafnium (Hf), or manganese (Mn), the same effect as in the above-mentioned preferred embodiment could be obtained. As can be inferred from this, 2f! selected from the metal silicides mentioned above! A mixture of metal silicides of the same or higher quality can also be expected to have the same effects as the above-mentioned preferred embodiments.

In addition, the weight percentage of nitrogen (N2) contained in the discharge gas enclosed in the gas discharge luminescent device made of these metal silicides is f! A comparative experiment similar to the above-mentioned preferred embodiment was conducted on the proportions of nitrogen (N2), and it was found that the effect is produced if the nitrogen (N2) is contained in a small amount in the discharge gas, but it is preferable to % or more is suitable. Further, the discharge gas may be substantially pure nitrogen, and as long as the discharge gas satisfies the above-mentioned conditions, the same effects as in the above-mentioned preferred embodiments were obtained in the case of any metal silicide. Among the gases contained in the discharge gas, gas components other than nitrogen according to the present invention are not limited to the above-mentioned argon or neon.

In the preferred embodiments described above, both electrodes 29 and 31 constituting the gas discharge luminescent bag M are entirely made of metal silicide. However, as described above, it is known that sputtering accompanying the light emission drive mainly occurs on the surface of the cathode electrode where the anode electrode and the cathode electrode face each other. Therefore, even if the cathode electrode described above is made of titanium silicide and the anode electrode is made of a conventional conductive material such as nickel or other conventionally used conductive material, the above-described preferred embodiment may be used. Similar effects can be expected.

Hereinafter, an embodiment of the above case will be described with reference to FIG. 2.

As can be understood from the device configuration diagram shown in FIG. 2, in configuring the cathode electrode, first the first substrate 11
The base of the cathode electrode 35, that is, the base 35a is placed on the surface of the cathode electrode 35.
As previously used, nickel or other conductive material is deposited and patterned. In this case, as the base, it is preferable to deposit gold a, which has an electrical resistivity equal to or lower than that of the metal silicide, in the form of a thin film, or to form it by coating as a conductive thick film.

Subsequently, a metal silicide is laminated as the surface layer portion 35b of the cathode electrode 35 on the base 35a, and then patterned to form the cathode electrode 35 consisting of two layers.

Furthermore, as mentioned above, since the anode electrode does not necessarily have to be made of the metal silicide according to the present invention, in FIG. The diagram shows the configuration when A gas discharge luminescent bag constructed in this way? I
It is clear that the same effects as those of the above-mentioned preferred embodiment can be expected at t37 as well.

In addition, in any of the examples described above, no decrease in the transparency of the substrate that would cause a decrease in brightness when driving the gas discharge light emitting device was observed.

In general, the aforementioned metal silicides applied to this invention all have high melting points, so they have superior heat resistance compared to conventionally known ITO electrodes, etc., and the metal silicides have high melting points. When combined with the metal, an extremely thin film of silicon dioxide (SiO2) is formed on the surface of the silicon dioxide (SiO2). It never reaches.

Although preferred embodiments and other embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above, it is clear that the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. For example, in the embodiments described above, titanium silicide As an example of a method for depositing on a substrate, the case where sputtering was used was explained.
Other chemical vapor deposition methods or other deposition methods may also be used.When performing deposition using this chemical vapor deposition method, the composition ratio of metal to silicon in the target is The specific resistance value of the electrode can be simply and easily changed to any suitable value depending on the design of the gas discharge light emitting device, without being fixed to a specific resistance value depending on the gas discharge light emitting device.

Furthermore, in the above description, an example of an electronic device using plasma discharge will be described, and as explained with reference to FIG. 3(B), a case where gas discharge light emitting elements are arranged in a matrix is described However, it is clear that the present invention is not limited thereto. It should be understood that the design of the gas discharge light emitting element, the film thickness of each component, and other conditions may be modified and modified within the scope of the present invention.

(Effects of the Invention) As can be understood from the above explanation, according to the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention, at least the surface layer portion of the cathode electrode is made of a metal silicide or two types of metal silicides selected from the metal silicides described above. Since it is composed of a mixture of the above metal silicides and also contains nitrogen (N2) in the discharge gas, it is possible to prevent short circuits between gas discharge light emitting elements due to sputtering that occurs during discharge.

Furthermore, in the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention, since the aforementioned nitrogen compound deposited between the electrodes has transparency,
It does not cause a decrease in luminance.

Therefore, the gas discharge luminescent bag MIFr has a long life and can avoid erroneous light emission, and has high reliability.
can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a device for explaining a preferred embodiment of the gas discharge light emitting device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the device for explaining another preferred embodiment of the invention, and FIG. A) and (B) are explanatory diagrams for explaining the prior art. 11...First board, 13...Second board +5.2
9.35...First electrode (cathode electrode) 17, 31
...Second electrode (anode electrode) 19...Spacer, 21...Gas space 23...Gas discharge light emitting element, 25...Sealant 27, 33.37... ...Gas discharge light emitting device 35a...base layer, 35b...surface layer portion.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a gas discharge light emitting device comprising a plurality of gas discharge light emitting elements having a pair of electrodes through a gas space into which discharge gas is introduced, at least the surface layer of the cathode electrode of the pair of electrodes is made of metal. It is formed of silicide (MSi_x) (where M is a metal and x is a positive number), and nitrogen (N
_2) A gas discharge light emitting device characterized by comprising: (2) The gas discharge light emitting device according to claim 1, wherein the nitrogen is contained in an amount of 1% by weight or more based on the total weight of the discharge gas.