JP2000242219A - Electron source, image display device drive method and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce dispersion in emission luminance between adjacent pixels by applying a preliminary drive voltage after a stabilizing process being the highest voltage in the voltages applied after the stabilizing process and consisting of virtually the same voltage that a difference of the voltages applied to respective electron emission elements is within a specified value to all adjacent surface conductive type electron emission elements in an electron source. SOLUTION: The preliminary drive voltage Vpre is applied to respective SCE elements 74 constituting the electron source 71 after performed with a forming process, an activation process and the stabilizing process. The upper limit of the preliminary drive voltage Vpre is the voltage of an extent not destroying individual SCE element 74, and is the value variable by elemental constitution and manufacturing method or the like. Further, the lower limit of the preliminary drive voltage Vpre is the highest voltage in the voltages applied after the stabilizing process, and thus, is the value larger than the regular drive voltage Vdrv applied thereafter. Thus, the time when characteristic curve of each of elements is stable, becomes longer.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an electron source having a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices disposed on a substrate, and a method of driving and manufacturing an image display device using the electron source. .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Surface conduction type electrons that emit electrons from an electron emission portion formed in a conductive thin film by passing a current through a small area conductive thin film formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface. An emission element (hereinafter, referred to as an SCE element or an SCE element) has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture.
A large number of elements can be formed over a large area, and application to, for example, an image display device is being studied.

Examples of application of the SCE element to an image display device include US Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-342636 by the present applicant. In these publications, a surface conduction electron-emitting device including a pair of device electrodes provided on a substrate, a conductive film connected to the pair of device electrodes, and an electron-emitting portion formed in the conductive film is two-dimensionally described. A description is given of means for arranging a plurality of elements, providing an electric selecting means for individually selecting emitted electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device, and forming an image in accordance with an input signal, and a manufacturing method.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-2352 by the present applicant has been disclosed.
In 55, a deposit mainly composed of carbon is formed in the vicinity of the electron emission portion by applying a voltage to the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the presence of an organic substance, and the electron emission characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device are improved. Techniques for improving are disclosed.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-2352 by the present applicant
No. 75 discloses a technique for stabilizing the electron emission characteristics by, for example, reducing the residual partial pressure of the organic substance in the environment where the electron-emitting device is formed to 1.3 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-2597 by the present applicant is disclosed.
In 53, the maximum value of the normal driving voltage and the SCE element were previously determined for each of the plurality of SCE elements arranged two-dimensionally in an atmosphere where the partial pressure of the organic gas was 1.3 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less. A method is disclosed in which a voltage pulse higher than a voltage obtained by adding a noise voltage that can be input is applied to suppress luminance unevenness caused by a temperature characteristic or a disturbance of a driving circuit during normal driving.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 10-228 by the present applicant
In 867, each of the SCEs arranged two-dimensionally
A characteristic measurement voltage larger than a normal driving voltage is applied to the element to measure the electric characteristics of the SCE element. According to the measurement result, the partial pressure of the organic gas is 1.3 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less. A technique is disclosed in which a characteristic shift voltage larger than a characteristic measurement voltage is applied in an atmosphere to make the electron emission characteristics of each SCE element uniform and reduce variations in luminance.

An image display device using an SCE element produced by applying the above-described method is expected to have better characteristics than other conventional image display devices. For example, as compared with a liquid crystal display device that has become widespread in recent years, it is superior in that it is a self-luminous type and does not require a backlight and has a wide viewing angle.

[0009]

In recent years, image display devices have not only been used to display images mainly composed of moving images such as television images as in the past, but also have the same It is expected that an image including a semi-fixed pattern formed from color regions is displayed with good reproducibility.

In particular, when displaying an image including a semi-fixed pattern formed from regions of the same color, it is desired to display the regions of the same color more uniformly on the image display device. . This is because the semi-fixed pattern is observed for a long time by human eyes, and if there is a variation in light emission luminance for each pixel, it is likely to be recognized as color unevenness.

For this reason, even in an image display device manufactured using the SCE element, it is necessary to further reduce the variation in luminance, in other words, to further reduce the variation in the emission current value of each element for the same input signal. Was sought. In particular, when displaying a semi-fixed pattern, it has been required to reduce the variation in emission current between adjacent elements.

The following two factors can be cited as causes of variation in a conventional image display device made using SCE elements. (1) Variation occurring during element fabrication (non-uniformity of components, non-uniformity of dimensional accuracy, etc.) (2) Variation occurring after element fabrication (caused by memory characteristics of the element with respect to applied voltage) .

The variation will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2, 5, 6, and 7. FIG. FIG.
FIG. 2A is a schematic view showing a typical configuration of an E element, and FIG.
FIG. 2B is a plan view of a plane type SCE element, and FIG.
FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of the vertical SCE element. 2A to 2C, the same symbols indicate the same kind of constituent members. In FIG. 2, 1 is an insulating substrate, 2
Reference numerals 3 and 3 denote device electrodes, 4 denotes a conductive thin film electrically connected to the device electrodes 2 and 3, 5 denotes an electron emitting portion formed in the conductive thin film, and 21 denotes a step forming portion made of an insulating material.

As shown in FIG. 2, since the length of the electron-emitting portion 5 is formed almost in proportion to the width W 'of the conductive thin film 4, W' varies due to an accuracy problem at the time of device fabrication. When,
The length of the electron-emitting portion 5 varies, and the amount of electron emission also varies. The thickness of the conductive thin film 4 is formed in a thickness of about 1 nm to about 50 nm. In particular, when the thickness is small, the variation in the thickness during the deposition may be relatively large. Such a case may appear as a variation in emission current.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a measuring system for measuring the electrical characteristics of the SCE element described below. In FIG. 5, the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. The members are shown. Here, reference numeral 54 denotes an anode electrode for capturing electrons emitted from the electron-emitting section 5, 51 denotes a power supply for generating a voltage (hereinafter referred to as an element voltage Vf) applied between the element electrodes 2 and 3, 50 Is an ammeter for measuring an element current If flowing between the element electrodes 2 and 3, 53 is a high-voltage power supply for generating a high voltage applied to the anode electrode, and 52 is an emission current Ie flowing to the anode electrode. , 55 is a vacuum chamber, 57 is a vacuum chamber 55 and a vacuum pump 56.
And a gate valve provided between them.

The electrical characteristics of the SCE element are typically represented by the relationship between the emission current Ie and the device voltage Vf and the relationship between the device current If and the device voltage Vf. In order to obtain these relationships, as shown in FIG. 5, the SCE element is placed in an environment evacuated to vacuum, and an anode electrode is placed above the SCE element. Then, a voltage of about 100 V to 10 kV is applied to the anode electrode, an element voltage Vf is applied between the element electrodes, and an element current If flowing at this time is applied.
And the emission current Ie.

FIG. 6 shows a typical example of the electrical characteristics obtained as described above. Here, the emission current Ie is equal to the device current I
Since it is significantly smaller than f, it is shown in arbitrary units.
Note that both the vertical and horizontal axes are linear scales. As shown in the figure, the SCE element has a certain voltage (threshold voltage V
th) When the element voltage Vf of not less than is applied, the emission current Ie sharply increases monotonously, and the S
In the CE device, the device current If also increases monotonously sharply as the device voltage Vf increases.

Variations in the electrical characteristics of the SCE element having the above characteristics appear as shown in FIG. FIG. 7A shows the relationship between the emission current Ie and the device voltage Vf, and FIG. 7B shows the relationship between the device current If and the device voltage Vf. Variations in the electrical characteristics due to the above-described element fabrication accuracy appear as, for example, an electrical characteristic curve A and an electrical characteristic curve B in FIG. In many cases, the curve A and the curve B are in a substantially proportional relationship, and their threshold voltages VthA and VthB are also substantially equal. Also, when the element voltage is VthA (or VthB
) To Vf1, the difference between the curves A and B increases. The relationship between the device current If and the device voltage Vf also tends to be substantially the same as the relationship between the emission current Ie and the device voltage Vf.

On the other hand, as a factor of the variation in the electrical characteristics,
There is also variation due to the memory characteristics of the SCE element. The memory characteristic of the SCE element is a characteristic in which an electric characteristic different from the previous one is redefined according to the maximum value of the element voltage experienced by the SCE element. This is a characteristic that is often found in

This will be described with reference to FIG. 7A. The element voltage Vf2 is changed with respect to the SCE element having the characteristic curve A (or characteristic curve B) in which the maximum element voltage experienced up to that is Vf2 or less. When applied, the subsequent characteristic curve becomes C
The characteristic is that it changes to Even if the voltage Vf1 is applied again to the element having such changed characteristics, the emission current value obtained is Ie3, and the difference from Ie1 (or Ie2) obtained before the characteristics change is enlarged. . Note that the relationship between the device current If and the device voltage Vf also indicates that the emission current I
There is a tendency substantially similar to the relationship between e and the element voltage Vf. Also, the electron emission threshold voltage shifts to the higher voltage side (VthC in the figure). As a direct cause of such variation due to the memory characteristics of the SCE element, it is considered that an abnormal voltage rise occurs for an unspecified element due to disturbance or the like.

In order to reduce the variation as described above, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication Nos.
The technique disclosed in 28867 has been proposed. However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-259573 does not consider the effect of the voltage drop due to the resistance of the wiring connecting each SCE element, and it is necessary to further equalize the electric characteristics of each SCE element after the characteristics are shifted. It is desired to propose a driving method considering the influence of the voltage drop. Also, JP-A-10-2
In 28867, in order to apply a characteristic shift voltage, it is necessary to individually apply a measurement voltage to all elements, and further, a storage means for storing electrical characteristics of all elements is required. If the measurement process itself and the means for storing the measurement result can be omitted, further reduction in manufacturing cost can be expected.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to reduce the variation in the emission current value by a simple method, thereby reducing the SCE
It is an object of the present invention to provide a driving method and a manufacturing method for reducing variation in light emission luminance of each pixel of an image display device using an element, particularly, variation between adjacent pixels.

[0023]

A method for driving an electron source according to the present invention to achieve the above object is as follows. That is, a method of driving an electron source in which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are connected in a matrix by three or more X-directional wirings and three or more Y-directional wirings on a substrate, After the stabilization step, all of the at least nine or more surface conduction type electron-emitting devices have the highest voltage applied after the stabilization step, and are applied to each of the electron-emitting devices. After applying a pre-driving voltage consisting of substantially the same voltage within 3% of the applied voltage,
This is a driving method in which driving is performed at a driving voltage equal to or lower than the preliminary driving voltage and equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold voltage.

The method of manufacturing the electron source of the present invention for achieving the above object is as follows. That is, a method of manufacturing an electron source in which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are connected in a matrix by three or more X-directional wirings and three or more Y-directional wirings on a substrate, For all of the at least nine or more surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the voltage is the highest voltage among the voltages applied or presumed to be applied after the stabilization step after the stabilization step. And a pre-driving voltage consisting of substantially the same voltage with a difference between voltages applied to the respective electron-emitting devices of 3% or less is applied.

In the present invention, the method of applying the pre-driving voltage includes applying a first potential to all of the Y-directional wirings and dividing the X-directional wirings into two groups at predetermined timing. The operation of applying a second potential whose difference from the first potential is equal to the pre-driving voltage to each group and a third potential whose difference between the first potential and the first potential is equal to or less than the pre-driving voltage. The driving method of the electron source may be repeated until all the X-direction wirings experience the second potential. Further, the difference between the first potential and the third potential may be determined by an electron emission threshold. Even if the voltage is equal to or lower than the value voltage, the group to which the second potential is applied may include three or less adjacent X-direction wirings.

Further, the method of applying the pre-driving voltage includes applying a first potential to all of the X-direction wirings, dividing the Y-direction wirings into two groups at predetermined timings, and The operation of applying a second potential whose difference from the first potential is equal to the pre-driving voltage and a third potential whose difference from the first potential is equal to or less than the pre-driving voltage for each of the groups May be repeated until the Y-direction wiring experiences a second potential. Further, a difference between the first potential and the third potential may be an electron emission threshold voltage. The group to which the second potential is applied may be composed of three or less adjacent Y-direction wirings.

The method of applying the pre-driving voltage includes dividing the X-directional wiring into two groups, Group A and Group B, at predetermined timings, and dividing the Y-directional wiring into two groups, Group C and Group D. The voltage applied to group A is V1, the voltage applied to group B is V2, the voltage applied to group C is V3,
When the voltage applied to the group D is V4, V1 and V
3 is equal to the pre-driving voltage, the difference between V2 and V3, V1
An operation in which the difference between V2 and V4 and the difference between V2 and V4 are set to be equal to or lower than the pre-driving voltage and the operation of applying the voltage is repeated until all the electron-emitting devices experience driving by the pre-driving voltage. And the absolute value of one of the potentials V1 and V3 is equal to or less than the electron emission threshold voltage. The group A may include three or less adjacent X-direction wirings, and the group B may include three or less adjacent Y-direction wirings.

Further, the above-described driving method and manufacturing method of the electron source can be used when driving or manufacturing an image display device having a phosphor, which is excited and emits light by irradiation of electrons, above the electron source. it can.

[0029]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail based on embodiments. First, a driving method of the present invention for an electron source using a surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by a configuration and a manufacturing method described later will be described.
FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing an electron source constituting an image display device to which the present invention can be applied. In the figure, 71 is a substrate, 72 is an X-direction wiring, 73 is a Y-direction wiring, and 74 is an SCE element. As shown in the figure, the configuration of the electron source to which the present invention can be applied is composed of a large number of SCs arranged in a matrix on a substrate.
The E elements are formed by a so-called simple matrix connection in which m X-directional wirings and n Y-directional wirings are electrically connected. Note that both m and n are integers of 3 or more.

FIG. 8 shows a state in which the SCE elements 74 are electrically connected in a matrix in the electron source having the matrix configuration shown in FIG. 8, reference numeral 71 denotes an electron source substrate, 72 denotes an X-direction wiring, 73 denotes a Y-direction wiring, and 75 denotes a wiring resistance.

A forming step, an activation step,
After the stabilization step, a pre-driving voltage (hereinafter, referred to as Vpre) is applied to each of the SCE elements constituting the electron source. The upper limit value of the pre-driving voltage Vpre is a voltage that does not destroy individual SCE elements, and is a value that can vary depending on the element configuration, manufacturing method, and the like. The lower limit value of the pre-driving voltage Vpre is the highest voltage among the voltages applied after the stabilization step,
Therefore, the value is larger than the normal drive voltage Vdrv applied later.

The pre-driving voltage Vpre will be described with reference to FIG. 7. If the pre-driving voltage Vpre = Vf2 is applied last, the element current is If2, and then the normal driving voltage Vdrv =
If the element current when Vf1 is applied is If1 and If1 ≦ 0.7
It is preferable to set the voltage Vf2 to be If2. As a result, the time during which the characteristic curve of each element is stable becomes longer, and it is possible to suppress, for a long time, the variation reduced by the preliminary driving from expanding by the normal driving.

At the time of the preliminary driving, the voltages V2 and V2
And a very small voltage dV2 different voltages V22 are continuously applied (for example, V2 = Vff2, V22 = Vf2-dV2), and the currents I2 and I22 flowing when the respective voltages are applied are calculated as follows.

[0034]

(Equation 1) Is obtained, and the change rate of the value of S is observed, whereby the change of the If-Vf characteristic of the electron-emitting device can be observed. According to the experiments of the present inventors, if the preliminary driving is performed for a time until the change rate of the value of S becomes 5% or less, the value of S becomes substantially constant in the subsequent driving, and the effect of the preliminary driving is obtained. Is seen. Therefore, the preliminary driving may be performed for a time until the rate of change of the value of S becomes 5% or less.

The pre-driving is usually performed at the final stage of the manufacturing process, for example, after the stabilization process or as a part of the stabilization process. It is also possible to perform an appropriate refresh mode after the start.

As a method for applying the pre-driving voltage Vpre to each element, for example, as shown in FIG. The voltage of Vpre magnitude is applied to the remaining one X-direction wiring, for example, the j-th X-direction wiring, as the ground potential by electrically sharing the X-direction wirings. By performing this operation for all the X-direction wirings, a preliminary drive voltage is applied to each element.

In the above method, the (m-1) X-direction wirings to which the pre-driving voltage is not applied are set to the same potential as the Y-direction wiring. If the potential difference from the wiring is equal to or less than the electron emission threshold voltage Vth, the device current is extremely small as well as the emission current, and the effect of the voltage drop due to the device current does not appear. You can set it. The number of X-direction wirings selected at one time is not limited to one described above, and can be freely set in consideration of the element current and the wiring resistance. However, if the effect of the wiring resistance cannot be ignored, it is preferable to select adjacent wirings as one group,
More preferably, it is preferable to select three or less adjacent wires. Alternatively, a pre-driving voltage may be applied in the same manner as in the above-described method, with the selected wiring being the Y-directional wiring instead of the X-directional wiring.

As described above, in the electron source to which the pre-driving voltage is applied, any nine adjacent elements, for example, D (j-1, k-1) and D (j-1) shown by symbols in FIG. , k), D (j-1, k + 1), D
(j, k-1), D (j, k), D (j, k + 1), D (j + 1, k-1), D (j
+ 1, k) and D (j + 1, k + 1).
With respect to the individual elements, the effect of the voltage drop due to the wiring resistance when the pre-driving voltage is applied is extremely small, and a substantially uniform pre-driving voltage with a voltage difference of 3% or less can be applied.
D (j, k) is a symbol representing an element at the j-th row and the k-th column in the matrix, where j and k are both integers, and 1 <j <
m, 1 <k <n.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are diagrams showing electrical characteristics of adjacent elements after pre-driving. FIG. 9A shows the relationship between the emission current Ie and the element voltage Vf, and FIG. 9B shows the element current. This shows the relationship between If and the device voltage Vf. In FIG. 9A, an electric characteristic curve A is an electric characteristic of an element from which the largest emission current can be obtained when the element voltage Vf = Vpre among the electric characteristics of the nine adjacent elements. The characteristic curve B is the electric characteristic of the element that can obtain the smallest emission current, and the electric characteristic curve C is the average of the electric characteristics of these nine elements.

When the element after the preliminary driving characteristic of the present invention as described above is driven by the ordinary driving voltage Vdrv, it can be confirmed that the variation of the emission current is reduced particularly between adjacent elements. Was. Further, it was confirmed that the variation in the device current If can be reduced similarly with the reduction in the variation in the emission current Ie.

As another method of applying the pre-driving voltage Vpre to each element, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, elements connected in a simple matrix are individually selected, and each of the selected elements is selected. The same pre-driving voltage Vpre
Is applied. For example, as shown in FIG.
A voltage of -Vx is applied to the X-direction wiring in the row, and 0 V (ground potential) is applied to the other X-direction wirings. Further, a voltage of Vy is applied to the Y-direction wiring in the k-th column, and 0 V (ground potential) is applied to the other Y-direction wirings. This is expressed as 1 ≦ j ≦ m and 1
All the elements selected in the range of ≤k≤n are selected, and the pre-driving voltage Vpre is applied. Vx, Vy
Are each set to a value equal to or greater than 0, and are set in advance so that the sum of Vx and Vy becomes the pre-driving voltage Vpre.

A value such that the value of the device current If flowing when the applied voltages Vx and Vy are independently applied to the device is sufficiently smaller than the device current If flowing when the pre-driving voltage Vpre is applied, for example, FIG. When the value is set to a value near Vth in the electric characteristic diagram of FIG. 5, the current flowing to the elements other than the individually selected elements decreases, and the influence of the voltage drop due to the wiring resistance can be reduced. Further, the influence of the voltage drop can be controlled by appropriately selecting the number of elements to be selected at a time in consideration of the values of the wiring resistance and the element current.
More specifically, if the number of elements to be selected is reduced and, for example, the number of elements connected to three or less wirings adjacent to each other in the X and Y directions is selected, the preliminary driving voltage V
The effect of the voltage drop of pre becomes small.

By applying the pre-driving voltage in the above-described manner, it is possible to reduce the variation of the emission current not only between the immediately adjacent nine elements but also the neighboring elements. Further, the driving method of the present invention described above
There is no need for a step of measuring the electrical characteristics of all the E elements and a storage means for storing the measurement results.

Next, an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied will be described with reference to FIG. The basic configuration of the surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied is roughly classified into a planar type and a vertical type.

First, the plane type surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described. FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.
2A is a plan view, and FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view. In FIG. 2, 1 is a substrate, 2 and 3 are device electrodes, 4 is a conductive thin film,
Reference numeral 5 denotes an electron emitting portion.

Examples of the substrate 1 include quartz glass, glass with a reduced content of impurities such as Na, blue plate glass, a glass substrate in which blue plate glass is laminated with SiO ₂ formed by sputtering or the like, ceramics such as alumina, and a Si substrate. Can be used.

The materials of the opposing device electrodes 2 and 3 are as follows.
General conductor materials can be used. This includes, for example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, C
metals or alloys such as u, Pd and Pd, Ag, Au, R
It can be appropriately selected from a printed conductor composed of a metal or metal oxide such as uO ₂ or Pd-Ag and glass, a transparent conductor such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ and a semiconductor conductor material such as polysilicon. it can.

The element electrode interval L, the element electrode length W, the shape of the conductive thin film 4 and the like are designed in consideration of the applied form and the like. The element electrode interval L can be preferably in the range of several hundred nm to several hundred μm, more preferably several μm
To several tens of μm. The length W of the device electrode is several μm in consideration of the resistance value of the electrode and the electron emission characteristics.
To several hundred μm. Device electrode 2,
The film thickness d of No. 3 can be in the range of several tens nm to several μm. Note that, in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. 2, a configuration in which a conductive thin film 4 and opposing element electrodes 2 and 3 are stacked on the substrate 1 in this order can be adopted.

As the conductive thin film 4, a fine particle film composed of fine particles is preferably used in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics. The film thickness is appropriately set in consideration of the step coverage to the device electrodes 2 and 3, the resistance value between the device electrodes 2 and 3, a forming condition described later, and the like.
It is preferably in the range of several hundreds of pm to several hundreds of nm, more preferably in the range of 1 to 50 nm.
The resistance value is such that Rs is 10 ² to 10 ⁷ Ω / □. Note that Rs is an amount that appears when the resistance R of a thin film having a thickness t, a width w, and a length 1 is R = Rs (l / w). In this specification, the forming process will be described by taking an energizing process as an example, but the forming process is not limited to this, and includes a process of forming a high resistance state by causing a crack in a film. It is.

The material constituting the conductive thin film 4 is Pd, P
t, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, F
e, metal such as Zn, Sn, Ta, W, Pd, PdO, S
oxides such as nO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ ,
HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , YB ₄ , G
dB boride such as _{4, TiC, ZrC, HfC,} Ta,
Carbides such as C, SiC, WC, TiN, ZrN, HfN
Or the like, a semiconductor such as Si or Ge, carbon, or the like.

The fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and has a fine structure in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged or in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other (some fine particles are formed). To form an island-like structure as a whole). The particle size of the fine particles is in the range of several times to several hundred nm of 0.1 nm, preferably in the range of 1 nm to 20 nm.

The electron-emitting portion 5 is constituted by a high-resistance crack formed in a part of the conductive thin film 4 and depends on the thickness, film quality, material and the method of energization forming and the like of the conductive thin film 4 to be described later. It will be. Inside the electron emission unit 5,
In some cases, conductive fine particles having a particle size ranging from several times 0.1 nm to several tens nm are present. The conductive fine particles contain some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive thin film 4. The electron emitting portion 5 and the conductive thin film 4 in the vicinity thereof can also contain carbon and a carbon compound.

Next, a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described. FIG. 2C is a schematic view showing an example of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention can be applied. In FIG. 2C, FIG.
FIG. 2 shows the same parts as those shown in FIGS.
The same reference numerals as in (a) and (b) are used. 21 is a step forming part. The substrate 1, the device electrodes 2 and 3, the conductive thin film 4, and the electron-emitting portion 5 can be made of the same material as in the case of the above-described flat surface conduction electron-emitting device. The step forming portion 21 can be made of an insulating material such as SiO ₂ formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. The film thickness of the step forming portion 21 corresponds to the device electrode interval L of the flat surface conduction electron-emitting device described above, and can be in the range of several hundred nm to several tens μm. This film thickness is set in consideration of the manufacturing method of the step forming portion and the voltage applied between the device electrodes, and is preferably in the range of several tens nm to several μm.

The conductive thin film 4 is laminated on the device electrodes 2 and 3 after the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the step forming portion 21 are formed. Although the electron emitting portion 5 is formed in the step forming portion 21 in FIG. 2C, the shape and the position are not limited to this depending on the forming conditions, forming conditions and the like.

There are various methods for manufacturing the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, one example of which is schematically shown in FIG. Hereinafter, an example of the manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIGS. 3, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 1) The substrate 1 is sufficiently washed with a detergent, pure water, an organic solvent, or the like, and a device electrode material is deposited by a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, or the like. , 3 (FIG. 3A). 2) An organic metal solution is applied to the substrate 1 provided with the device electrodes 2 and 3 to form an organic metal thin film. As the organic metal solution, a solution of an organic metal compound containing the metal of the material of the conductive film 4 as a main element can be used. The conductive thin film 4 is formed by heating and baking the organic metal thin film and patterning it by, for example, a lift-off method using a mask corresponding to the shape of the conductive thin film or by etching or the like (FIG. 3).
(C)). Here, the method of applying the organometallic solution has been described, but the method of forming the conductive thin film 4 is not limited to this, and a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method,
A dispersion coating method, a dipping method, a spinner method, or the like can be used, and direct patterning can be performed by an inkjet method or the like. 3) Subsequently, a forming step is performed. As an example of the method of the forming step, a method by an energization process in a vacuum vessel will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 5, 55
Is a vacuum vessel, which is evacuated through a gate valve 57 by a vacuum pump 56 such as a turbo molecular pump, a sputter ion pump, a cryopump, or the like. Note that an auxiliary pump including a scroll pump, a rotary pump, a sorption pump, and the like may be provided as necessary. Reference numeral 58 denotes a container for storing an activation gas used in the activation step described below, and is connected to the vacuum container 55 through an adjustment valve 59 such as a variable leak valve or a needle valve. Voltage applying means is connected to the device electrodes 2 and 3. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the device electrode 2 is connected to a ground potential, and the device electrode 3 is connected to a power supply 51 through a current introduction terminal. The device electrodes 2, 3
An ammeter 50 is provided to monitor the value of the current flowing between them. Reference numeral 54 denotes an anode electrode used in the subsequent steps, which is connected to the high-voltage power supply 53 through the ammeter 52.

After evacuating the inside of the vacuum vessel, the device electrodes 2, 3
In the meantime, when power is supplied using the power supply 51, the electron-emitting portion 5 having a changed structure is formed at the portion of the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 3C). According to the energization forming, a portion where the structure such as destruction, deformation or alteration is locally formed in the conductive thin film 4 is formed. This portion constitutes the electron emission section 5. FIG. 4 shows an example of the voltage waveform of the energization forming. The voltage waveform is preferably a pulse waveform. The method shown in FIG. 4A in which a pulse having a pulse peak value of a constant voltage is continuously applied and the method shown in FIG. 4B in which a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value are used. There is.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 4A are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. Normally T1 is 1 μsec
-10 msec and T2 are set in the range of 10 msec-10 msec. The peak value of the pulse is appropriately selected according to the form of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Under such conditions, for example, a voltage is applied for several seconds to several tens minutes. The pulse waveform is not limited to a rectangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a triangular wave can be adopted. T1 and T2 in FIG. 4B can be the same as those shown in FIG. 4A. The peak value of the pulse can be increased by, for example, about 0.1 V steps. The end of the energization forming process is, for example, when the conductive thin film 2 is locally broken,
The determination can be made by reading the change in the resistance value caused by the deformation. As an example, the pulse interval T2
During this time, a voltage that does not locally destroy or deform the conductive thin film 2 is applied, and the current can be measured and detected.
For example, an element current flowing by applying a voltage of about 0.1 V is measured, and a resistance value is obtained. When the resistance value indicates 1 MΩ or more, the energization forming is terminated.

4) It is preferable to perform a process called an activation step on the device after the forming. The activation step means that the element current If and the emission current Ie are
This is a process that changes significantly. The activation step can be performed, for example, by repeatedly applying a pulse in an atmosphere containing a gas of an organic substance, similarly to the energization forming. This atmosphere can be formed by using an organic gas remaining in the atmosphere when the inside of the vacuum vessel is evacuated using, for example, an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump, or is sufficiently evacuated once by an ion pump or the like. It can also be obtained by introducing a gas of an appropriate organic substance into a vacuum. The preferable gas pressure of the organic substance at this time varies depending on the above-described application form, the shape of the vacuum vessel, the type of the organic substance, and the like, and is appropriately set according to the case. Suitable organic substances include alkanes, alkenes, aliphatic hydrocarbons of alkynes, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, amines, phenols, carvone,
Examples thereof include organic acids such as sulfonic acid, and the like. Specifically, methane, ethane, saturated hydrocarbons such as propane, ethylene, unsaturated hydrocarbons such as propylene, butadiene,
n-hexane, 1-hexene, benzene, toluene, O
-Xylene, benzonitrile, tolunitrile, chloroethylene, trichloroethylene, methanol, ethanol, isopropanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, diethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, acetic acid, propionic acid and the like, or a mixture thereof can be used. By this treatment, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the device from the organic substance existing in the atmosphere, and the device current If and the emission current I
e changes significantly. The end of the activation step is determined as appropriate while measuring the device current If and the emission current Ie. The pulse width, pulse interval, pulse crest value, and the like are set as appropriate.

5) The electron-emitting device obtained through such a step is preferably subjected to a stabilization step. This step is a step of exhausting the organic substance in the vacuum vessel. It is preferable to use a vacuum-evacuation device that does not use oil so that an organic substance such as oil generated from the device does not affect the characteristics of the element. Specifically, a vacuum evacuation device such as a magnetic levitation type turbo molecular pump, a cryopump, a sorption pump, an ion pump and the like can be mentioned. In the activation step, when an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump is used as an exhaust device, and an organic gas derived from an oil component generated from this is used,
It is necessary to keep the partial pressure of this component as low as possible. The partial pressure of the organic component in the vacuum vessel is preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less, more preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ Pa or less, at a partial pressure at which the above-mentioned carbon and carbon compounds are not substantially newly deposited. Further, when evacuating the inside of the vacuum vessel, it is preferable to heat the entire vacuum vessel to facilitate evacuating the organic substance molecules adsorbed on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel and the electron-emitting device. The heating conditions at this time are 80 to 250 ° C, preferably 150 ° C or more,
It is desirable to perform the treatment as long as possible, but the treatment is not particularly limited to this condition, and the treatment is performed under conditions appropriately selected according to various conditions such as the size and shape of the vacuum vessel and the configuration of the electron-emitting device. The pressure in the vacuum vessel needs to be as low as possible, preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ Pa or less, more preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa.
Pa or less is particularly preferred. After performing the stabilization step, the atmosphere at the time of driving is preferably the same as the atmosphere at the end of the stabilization treatment, but is not limited thereto. Even if the pressure is slightly increased, stable characteristics can be maintained to some extent. By employing such a vacuum atmosphere, the deposition of new carbon or a carbon compound can be suppressed, and H ₂ O or O ₂ adsorbed on a vacuum vessel or a substrate can be removed. As a result, the device current If, The emission current Ie is stabilized.

The basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied obtained through the above-described steps will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing the relationship between the emission current Ie, the device current If, and the device voltage Vf measured using the vacuum processing apparatus shown in FIG. At the time of the measurement, a high voltage was applied to the anode voltage 54 disposed above the electron-emitting device using the high-voltage power supply 53. As an example,
The voltage of the anode electrode is in the range of 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode and the electron-emitting device is 2 mm to 8 mm.
Can be measured as the range of In FIG. 6, since the emission current Ie is significantly smaller than the element current If, it is shown in arbitrary units. In addition. Both the vertical and horizontal axes are linear scales.

As is apparent from FIG. 6, the surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied has three characteristic properties with respect to the emission current Ie. That is, (i) the emission current Ie of the present element rapidly increases when an element voltage higher than a certain voltage (referred to as a threshold voltage, Vth in FIG. 6) is applied, whereas the emission current Ie is reduced below the threshold voltage Vth. Ie is hardly detected. That is, the emission current Ie
Is a non-linear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth. (Ii) Since the emission current Ie depends monotonically on the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie can be controlled by the device voltage Vf. (Iii) The emission charge captured by the anode electrode 54 depends on the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied. That is, the amount of charge captured by the anode electrode 54 can be controlled by the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied.

As understood from the above description, the surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied can easily control the electron emission characteristics according to the input signal. By utilizing this property, it is possible to apply to various fields such as an electron source and an image display device having a plurality of electron-emitting devices.

As an example of the arrangement of the electron-emitting devices, a plurality of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a matrix in the X and Y directions, and the electrodes of the plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in the same row are arranged. One is commonly connected to the wiring in the X direction, and the other of the electrodes of the plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in the same column is commonly connected to the wiring in the Y direction. This is a so-called simple matrix arrangement. Hereinafter, an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement to which the present invention can be applied will be described in detail.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied has the characteristics (i) to (iii) as described above. That is, when the electrons emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device are equal to or higher than the threshold voltage, they can be controlled by the peak value and the width of the pulse-like voltage applied between the opposing device electrodes. on the other hand,
Below the threshold voltage, it is hardly emitted. According to this characteristic, even when a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged, if a pulse-like voltage is appropriately applied to each of the devices, a surface-conduction electron-emitting device is selected according to an input signal to emit electrons. You can control the amount.

Hereinafter, based on this principle, an electron source substrate obtained by disposing a plurality of electron-emitting devices to which the present invention can be applied will be described with reference to FIG. 8, reference numeral 71 denotes an electron source substrate, 72 denotes an X-direction wiring, and 73 denotes a Y-direction wiring.
74 denotes a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 75 denotes a wiring resistance. The surface conduction electron-emitting element 74 may be either the above-mentioned plane type or vertical type.

The m X-direction wirings 72 are Dx1 to Dxm
And a conductive metal formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. The material, thickness, and width of the wiring are appropriately designed. Y direction wiring 73
Consists of n wirings Dy1 to Dyn, and is formed in the same manner as the X-directional wiring 72. These m X-direction wirings 72
An interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided between the n-direction wirings 73 and the n-direction wirings 73 to electrically separate them from each other (m and n are both positive integers).

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is made of SiO ₂ or the like formed by using a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. For example, it is formed in a desired shape on the entire surface or a part of the substrate 71 on which the X-directional wiring 72 is formed. The material and the production method are appropriately set. The X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73 are respectively drawn out as external terminals.

A pair of electrodes (not shown) constituting the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 are electrically connected by a connection (not shown) composed of m X-direction wires 72 and n Y-direction wires 73 and a conductive metal or the like. Connected. Some or all of the constituent elements of the material forming the wiring 72 and the wiring 73, the material forming the connection, and the material forming the pair of element electrodes may be the same or different. These materials are appropriately selected, for example, from the above-described materials for the device electrodes. When the material forming the element electrode is the same as the wiring material, the wiring connected to the element electrode can also be called an element electrode.

The X direction wiring 72 is connected to a scanning signal applying means (not shown) for applying a scanning signal for selecting a row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the X direction. On the other hand, a modulation signal generating means (not shown) for modulating each column of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the Y direction according to an input signal is connected to the Y-direction wiring 73. The driving voltage applied to each electron-emitting device is supplied as a difference voltage between a scanning signal and a modulation signal applied to the device. In the above configuration, individual elements can be selected and driven independently using a simple matrix wiring.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show an image display device constructed using such an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display panel of the image display device, and FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of a fluorescent film used in the image display device of FIG. FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of a driving circuit for performing display according to an NTSC television signal.

In FIG. 10, reference numeral 71 denotes an electron source substrate on which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged; 81, a rear plate on which the electron source substrate 71 is fixed; 86, a fluorescent film 8 on the inner surface of a glass substrate 83;
4 is a face plate on which a metal back 85 and the like are formed. Reference numeral 82 denotes a support frame, and a rear plate 81 and a face plate 86 are joined to the support frame 82 using low-melting frit glass or the like. 74 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 72 and 73 are X-direction wiring and Y-direction wiring connected to a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, respectively.

The envelope 87 includes the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the rear plate 81, as described above. Since the rear plate 81 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the substrate 71, if the substrate 71 itself has sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 81 can be unnecessary. That is, the support frame 82 is directly sealed to the substrate 71, and the envelope 8 is formed by the face plate 86, the support frame 82 and the substrate 71.
7 may be configured. On the other hand, by providing a support (not shown) called a spacer between the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81, the envelope 87 having sufficient strength against atmospheric pressure can be formed. Also, a getter 8 for maintaining the inside of the envelope 87 in a vacuum is provided.
8 are accommodated, and a structure 89 for preventing the getter from scattering into the electron-emitting device may be arranged as necessary.

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a fluorescent film. The fluorescent film 84 in FIG. 10 can be composed of only a phosphor in the case of monochrome. In the case of color fluorescent film,
As shown in FIG. 11, a black conductive material 91 called a black stripe or a black matrix or the like and a phosphor 92 (92R, 92G, 92B) can be formed depending on the arrangement of the phosphor. The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the color separation between the phosphors 92 of the necessary three primary color phosphors black in the case of color display so that color mixing and the like become inconspicuous. An object of the present invention is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to light reflection. As a material of black stripe,
In addition to a commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, a material having conductivity and low light transmission and reflection can be used.

As a method of applying the phosphor on the glass substrate 83, a precipitation method, a printing method, or the like can be adopted regardless of monochrome or color. Usually, a metal back 85 is provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84. The purpose of providing a metal back is
The light emitted from the phosphor toward the inner surface is converted into a face plate 8.
Improve the brightness by specular reflection on the 6 side, act as an electrode for applying electron beam acceleration voltage, protect the phosphor from damage due to collision of negative ions generated in the envelope, etc. It is. The metal back can be manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called “filming”) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film after manufacturing the fluorescent film, and then depositing Al using vacuum evaporation or the like. The face plate 86 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to further increase the conductivity of the fluorescent film 84.

When performing the above-mentioned sealing, in the case of color, it is necessary to make each color phosphor correspond to the electron-emitting device.
Sufficient alignment is essential.

An example of a method for manufacturing the image display device shown in FIG. 10 will be described below. FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram showing an outline of an apparatus used in this step. The image display device 131 under the manufacturing process is connected to the vacuum chamber 133 through the exhaust pipe 132.
, And further connected to an exhaust device 135 via a gate valve 134. The vacuum chamber 133 is provided with a pressure gauge 136, a quadrupole mass analyzer 137, and the like for measuring the internal pressure and the partial pressure of each component in the atmosphere. Since it is difficult to directly measure the pressure inside the envelope 87 of the image display device 131, the pressure inside the vacuum chamber 133 is measured to control the processing conditions.

A gas introduction line 138 is connected to the vacuum chamber 133 to control the atmosphere by introducing a necessary gas into the vacuum chamber. An introduction substance source 140 is connected to the other end of the gas introduction line 138, and the introduction substance is supplied to an ampoule 140a or a cylinder 140b.
It is stored in such as. In the middle of the gas introduction line 138, there is provided an introduction control means 139 for controlling the rate at which the introduced substance is introduced. As the introduction amount control means, specifically, a valve capable of controlling a flow rate to be released, such as a slow leak valve, or a mass flow controller, can be used according to the type of the substance to be introduced.

The inside of the envelope 87 is evacuated by the apparatus shown in FIG. 13 to perform forming. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 14, the Y-direction wiring 73 is electrically commonized to a certain potential, for example, a ground potential, and a voltage is applied to the X-direction wiring 72 based on this potential to perform forming. It can be carried out. Conditions such as the shape of the pulse and the determination of the end of the processing may be selected according to the above-described method for forming the individual elements. In addition, by sequentially applying (scrolling) a pulse with a phase shifted to a plurality of X-direction wirings, it is possible to form elements connected to the plurality of X-direction wirings collectively. In FIG.
141 is a power supply, 142 is an ammeter, and 143 is a switch for selecting an arbitrary X-direction wiring.

After the forming is completed, an activation step is performed.
After sufficiently exhausting the inside of the envelope 87, the organic substance is introduced from the gas introduction line 138. Alternatively, as described in the method of activating the individual elements, first, the gas may be exhausted by an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump, and thereby the organic substance remaining in the vacuum atmosphere may be used. In addition, substances other than organic substances may be introduced as necessary. By applying a voltage to each electron-emitting device in an atmosphere containing an organic substance formed in this manner, carbon or a carbon compound, or a mixture of both, is deposited on the electron-emitting portion, and the amount of emitted electrons is drastic. Is similar to the case of the individual element. At this time, the voltage may be applied by applying the same voltage pulse to the elements connected to one direction wiring by the same connection as in the above-described forming.

After completion of the activation step, it is preferable to perform a stabilization step as in the case of an individual element. While the envelope 87 was heated and maintained at 80 to 250 ° C., the atmosphere was exhausted through an exhaust pipe 132 of an exhaust device 135 that does not use oil, such as an ion pump and a sorption pump, to obtain an atmosphere containing a sufficiently small amount of organic substances. Then, the exhaust pipe is heated with a burner to melt and seal. In order to maintain the pressure after the envelope 87 is sealed, a getter process may be performed.
This is because the getter 8 placed at a predetermined position in the envelope 87 by heating using resistance heating, high-frequency heating or the like immediately before or after the envelope 87 is sealed.
8 is a process of heating to form a vapor deposition film. Getter 8
Numeral 8 generally contains Ba or the like as a main component, and maintains the atmosphere in the envelope 87 by the adsorption action of the deposited film.

Next, an example of the configuration of a drive circuit for performing television display based on NTSC television signals on a display panel configured using electron sources in a simple matrix arrangement will be described with reference to FIG. . In FIG.
101 is an image display panel, 102 is a scanning circuit, 103 is a control circuit, and 104 is a shift register. 105 is a line memory, 106 is a synchronization signal separation circuit, 107 is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources.

The display panel 101 is connected to an external electric circuit via terminals Dox1 to Doxm, terminals Doy1 to Doyn, and a high voltage terminal Hv. Terminal Do
x1 to Doxm are used to sequentially drive electron sources provided in the display panel, that is, a group of surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns, one row (N elements) at a time. A scanning signal is applied. To the terminals Dy1 to Dyn, a modulation signal for controlling an output electron beam of each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting device in one row selected by the scanning signal is applied. The high-voltage terminal Hv is supplied with a DC voltage of, for example, 10 kV from a DC voltage source Va, which applies sufficient energy to excite the phosphor with an electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device. This is the accelerating voltage to perform.

The scanning circuit 102 will be described. This circuit includes M switching elements (schematically indicated by S1 to Sm in the figure). Each switching element selects either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 V (ground level), and is electrically connected to the terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 101. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm operates based on a control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 103, and can be configured by combining switching elements such as FETs, for example.

In the case of the present embodiment, the DC voltage source Vx uses a drive voltage applied to an element that is not scanned based on the characteristics (electron emission threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. It is set to output a constant voltage that is equal to or lower than the voltage. The control circuit 103 has a function of matching the operation of each unit so that appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside. Control circuit 103
Is the synchronization signal Ts sent from the synchronization signal separation circuit 106.
Tscan and Ts for each part based on the sync
ft and Tmry control signals are generated.

The synchronizing signal separating circuit 106 is a circuit for separating a synchronizing signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC system television signal input from the outside, and uses a general frequency separating (filter) circuit or the like. Can be configured. The synchronizing signal separated by the synchronizing signal separating circuit 106 includes a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal, but is shown here as a Tsync signal for convenience of explanation. The luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is referred to as a DATA signal for convenience. The DATA signal is input to the shift register 104. The shift register 104 performs serial / parallel conversion of the DATA signal input serially in time series for each line of an image, and operates based on a control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 103. (That is, the control signal Tsft is
4 shift clock). The data for one line of the image subjected to the serial / parallel conversion (corresponding to drive data for N electron-emitting devices) is output from the shift register 104 as N parallel signals Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 105 is a storage device for storing data for one line of an image for a required time only, and stores the contents of Id1 to Idn as appropriate according to a control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 103. The stored contents are output as I'd1 to I'dn,
The signal is input to modulation signal generator 107. Modulation signal generator 1
Reference numeral 07 denotes a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices according to each of the image data I'd1 to I'dn, and the output signal thereof is supplied to a terminal Doy1.
Through Doyn to the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the display panel 101.

As described above, the electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied has the following basic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie. That is, a clear threshold voltage Vth is required for electron emission.
And electron emission occurs only when a voltage higher than Vth is applied. For a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold, the emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the device. From this, when applying a pulsed voltage to this element,
For example, when a voltage lower than the electron emission threshold is applied, electron emission does not occur, but when a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold is applied, an electron beam is output. At this time, the pulse peak value V
By changing m, the intensity of the output electron beam can be controlled. In addition, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the output electron beam by changing the pulse width Pw.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the electron-emitting device according to the input signal, a voltage modulation method, a pulse width modulation method, or the like can be adopted. When implementing the voltage modulation method, a circuit of a voltage modulation method that generates a voltage pulse of a fixed length and modulates the peak value of the pulse appropriately according to input data is used as the modulation signal generator 107. be able to. When implementing the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 107 generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value and modulates the width of the voltage pulse appropriately according to input data. A circuit can be used.

The shift register 104 and the line memory 10
5 can be either a digital signal type or an analog signal type. This is because the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal may be performed at a predetermined speed. When a digital signal type is used, the synchronization signal separation circuit 106
It is necessary to convert the output signal DATA into a digital signal. This can be achieved by providing an A / D converter at the output unit 106. In this connection, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 107 is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 105 is a digital signal or an analog signal. That is, in the case of the voltage modulation method using a digital signal, for example, a D / A conversion circuit is used as the modulation signal generator 107, and an amplification circuit and the like are added as necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 107 includes, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter for counting the number of waves output from the oscillator, and a comparator for comparing the output value of the counter with the output value of the memory. (Comparator) is used. If necessary, an amplifier for voltage-amplifying the pulse width modulated signal output from the comparator to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be added. In the case of the voltage modulation method using an analog signal, for example, an amplification circuit using an operational amplifier or the like can be used as the modulation signal generator 107, and a level shift circuit or the like can be added as necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, for example, a voltage-controlled oscillation circuit (VOC) can be employed, and an amplifier for amplifying the voltage up to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be added as necessary.

In the image display device to which the present invention can be applied, which has such a configuration, the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm, Doy1 to Doy are provided to the respective electron-emitting devices.
By applying a voltage through n, electron emission occurs. A high voltage is applied to the metal back 85 or a transparent electrode (not shown) via the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam. The accelerated electrons collide with the fluorescent film 84 and emit light to form an image.

The configuration of the image display device described here is an example of an image display device to which the present invention can be applied, and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention. As for the input signal, the NTSC system has been described, but the input signal is not limited to this, and the PAL, SECAM system, etc.
A TV signal composed of a large number of scanning lines (for example,
A high-definition TV system such as the MUSE system can also be adopted.

[0092]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below with reference to specific examples. However, the present invention is not limited to these examples, and each element is set within a range in which the object of the present invention is achieved. And that the design is changed. [Embodiment 1] This embodiment is an example in which the driving method of the present invention is applied to an image display device having a configuration similar to that schematically shown in FIG. The image display device of this embodiment includes an electron source on a substrate, in which a plurality of (240 rows × 960 columns) surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a simple matrix.

FIG. 15 is a schematic plan view of the electron source. Here, 71 is a substrate, 72 is an X-direction wiring, 73 is a Y-direction wiring, and 74 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. FIG. 16 shows a further enlarged view of the vicinity of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74. FIG. 16A is a plan view, and FIG.
It is AA 'sectional drawing in 6 (a). 15 and 16 indicate the same components. Here, 41 and 42 are device electrodes, 43 is a conductive thin film, 44 is an electron emitting portion, 45 is a contact hole for electrically connecting the device electrode 42 and the Y-directional wiring 73, and 46 is an interlayer insulating layer. .

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing the image display device of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 10, 11, 17, and 18. FIG. Step-a 5 nm thick Cr and 600 nm thick Au were sequentially laminated by vacuum evaporation on an electron source substrate 71 in which a 0.5 μm thick silicon oxide film was formed on a cleaned blue plate glass by a sputtering method. Thereafter, a photoresist (manufactured by AZ1370 Hoechst) is spin-coated with a spinner and baked.
The photomask image is exposed and developed to form a resist pattern for the Y-directional wiring 73, and the Au / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the Y-directional wiring 73 having a desired shape (FIG. 17A). . Step-b Next, an interlayer insulating layer 46 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm is deposited by RF sputtering (FIG. 17B).

Step-c A photoresist pattern for forming the contact hole 45 is formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step b, and the interlayer insulating layer 46 is etched using the photoresist pattern as a mask to form the contact hole 45. Etching is CF
RIE (Reactive Io) using ₄ and H ₂ gas
n Etching) method (FIG. 17 (c)). Step-d Thereafter, a pattern to be a gap G between the device electrodes 41 and 42 and the device electrode is formed by a photoresist (RD-2000N).
-41 manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.), and a 5 nm-thick Ti and a 100 nm-thick Ni were sequentially deposited by a vacuum evaporation method. Dissolve the photoresist pattern with an organic solvent and add Ni
/ Ti deposited film is lifted off, and the element electrode interval G is 3 μm.
m, the width of the device electrodes is 300 μm, and the device electrodes 41, 4
2 was formed (FIG. 17D). Step-e After forming a photoresist pattern of the X-directional wiring 72 on the device electrodes 41 and 42, a Ti having a thickness of 5 nm and a thickness of 5
Au having a thickness of 00 nm was sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to form an X-directional wiring 72 having a desired shape (FIG. 18E).

Step-f A Cr film 47 having a thickness of 100 nm is deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and a Pd amine complex solution (ccp
4230 Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated with a spinner and heated and baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes. Further, the conductive thin film 43 formed of fine particles composed of Pd as the main element thus formed had a thickness of 9.4 nm and a sheet resistance of 2.3 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □. ((F) of FIG. 18). Step-g The Cr film 47 and the baked conductive thin film 43 were etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern (FIG. 18 (g)).

Step-h: A pattern is formed such that a resist is applied to portions other than the contact hole 45, and a 5 nm-thick T
i, Au having a thickness of 500 nm was sequentially deposited. Unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to bury the contact holes 45 (FIG. 18H).

Through the above steps, a plurality of conductive thin films 43 are formed on the electron source substrate 71 by the X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73.
Thus, an electron source wired in a simple matrix was formed. Step-i Next, a face plate 86 serving as an image display portion was prepared. The face plate 86 is provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) made of ITO on the glass substrate 83 in order to enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 84. The fluorescent film 84, which is an image forming member, is a stripe-shaped phosphor (see FIG. 11A) in order to realize a color, a black stripe is formed first, and each color is formed in a gap portion by a slurry method. A phosphor 92 was applied to form a phosphor film 84. As the material for the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used.

Further, a metal back 85 was provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84. The metal back 85 was manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 84 after the fluorescent film 84 was manufactured, and then performing vacuum deposition of Al.

Step-j After the substrate 71 on which a number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices have been manufactured as described above is fixed on the rear plate 81, the face plate 86, which has been prepared earlier, is supported 3 mm above the substrate 71. 82 and the face plate 8
6, frit glass was applied to the joint between the support frame 82 and the rear plate 81, and baked at 410 ° C. for 10 minutes in the atmosphere to seal. The fixing of the substrate 71 to the rear plate 81 was also performed with frit glass. When performing the aforementioned sealing,
In the case of color, the phosphors 92 of each color and the surface-conduction electron-emitting device 74 must correspond to each other, so that sufficient alignment was performed.

Subsequently, forming and activation were performed, and a stabilization process was further performed. During the forming and activation in this step, the vacuum apparatus shown in FIG. 13 was used. In FIG. 13, reference numeral 131 denotes an image display device in the manufacturing process, and 132 denotes an exhaust pipe, which connects the image display device 131 in the manufacturing process and the vacuum chamber 133. In addition, vacuum chamber 1
33 is connected to a gate valve 134, and the gate valve 134 is connected to an exhaust device 135. The exhaust device 135 is constituted by a backup dry pump connected to a magnetic levitation type turbo molecular pump via a valve (not shown). Also, the vacuum chamber 133
Is equipped with a pressure gauge 136 for monitoring the internal pressure and a residual gas analyzer 137 for measuring the residual gas amount inside the vacuum chamber 133. Further, the vacuum chamber 133 includes a gas introduction line 138 and a gas introduction control device 139 installed in the gas introduction line 138.
Is connected to the ampoule in which the substance 140 is introduced. In the present embodiment, a variable leak valve compatible with ultra-high vacuum is used as a gas introduction control device,
Benzonitrile was used as the substance to be introduced.

Step-k The gas in the envelope 87 that has completed the previous step is discharged to the exhaust pipe 13.
2 and the vacuum chamber 133 to exhaust the gas by the exhaust device 135. After the pressure indicated by the pressure gauge 136 reached about 1 × 10 ⁻³ Pa, forming was performed using the device shown in FIG. FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a method of applying a voltage to an electron source in an image display device under a manufacturing process in a forming process. In the present embodiment, the method is also used in an activation process which is a subsequent process. You.

As shown in FIG. 14, the electron source substrate 71 constituting the image display device 131 in the manufacturing process connects the Y-direction wirings Dy1 to Dyn to a common ground and connects them to the ground. Dxm are connected to corresponding terminals of the switch box 143, respectively. Each terminal in the switch box 143 can select either the output voltage of the power supply 141 or the ground potential.
The current flowing from the power supply 141 to the electron source is the ammeter 1
42.

The switch box 143 selects one line from the X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dxm, and applies a pulse voltage from the power supply 141 to the selected line through the ammeter 142. The unselected lines are connected to the ground by the switch box 143.
The forming process was performed for each element row in the X direction. The waveform of the applied pulse was a rectangular wave pulse as shown in FIG. 4B, and the peak value (peak of the voltage difference between the element electrodes) was gradually increased from 0V. Pulse width T1 = 1m
sec and the pulse interval T2 = 10 msec. Also,
A rectangular wave pulse having a peak value of 0.1 V was inserted between the rectangular wave pulses, and the current was measured to measure the resistance value of each row. When the resistance value exceeded 1 MΩ per element, the forming of that row was terminated, and the process proceeded to the next row.
This process is performed for all the rows, the forming of all the conductive thin films is completed, and an electron emission portion is formed in each conductive film, and an electron source in which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a simple matrix is created. did.

Step-1 Next, benzonitrile was introduced into the vacuum chamber 133 and adjusted so that the value indicated by the pressure gauge 136 became about 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ Pa. At this time, the residual gas analyzer 137 is used to confirm that the gas molecules of benzonitrile are surely introduced into the vacuum chamber 133. Then, using the apparatus of FIG. 14 similarly to the forming process,
The activation process of each electron-emitting device was performed by applying a pulse voltage through each X-direction wiring.

The pulse waveform generated by the power source 141 is a rectangular wave shown in FIG. 4A, the peak value is 16 V, the pulse width T1 = 60 μsec, and the pulse interval is 69 μsec. The switch box 143 repeatedly switched the selected line from Dx1 to Dxm sequentially in synchronization with the pulse. As a result, each element row has T1 = 60 μs.
ec, a rectangular wave of T2 = 16.6 msec is applied with the phase slightly shifted for each row. The ammeter 142 turns on the square wave pulse (when the voltage is 16 V).
When the time change of the average value of the current flowing in each X-direction wiring becomes almost zero, the pulse application is terminated, the introduction of the activation gas is stopped, and the The activation gas was exhausted from the inside of the enclosure 87 to complete the activation process.

Step-m Next, a stabilizing treatment was performed. The stabilization process was performed by evacuating the entire envelope 87 while heating it at 200 ° C. for 10 hours. After completion of the stabilization process, the pressure in the vacuum chamber 133 at room temperature was about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa. Step-n After that, in order to maintain the pressure inside the panel after sealing, the getter 88 was heated by a high-frequency heating method to perform a process of forming a vapor deposition film made of Ba or the like inside the envelope. Next, the exhaust pipe 132 was welded by heating with a gas burner, and the envelope 87 was sealed.

As described above, the stabilization step, the getter step,
As shown in FIG. 14, a pre-driving voltage was applied to the image display device after the completion of the sealing step in the same manner as in the activation step. That is, the Y-direction wirings Dy1 to Dy1 in the electron source substrate 71
Dyn is commonly connected and connected to the ground, while each of the X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dxm is connected to a corresponding terminal of the switch box 143, and one line is selected from the X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dxm. The operation of applying a pulse voltage from the power supply 141 to the selected line through the ammeter 142 was performed on all the X-direction wirings. The peak value of the applied pre-driving pulse voltage was set to 16V.

When the pre-driving voltage is applied, among the actual elements constituting the nine adjacent pixels, the point where the difference in the applied voltage is the largest is between the element connected to the Y-direction wiring Dy1 and the element Dy3. It is between connected elements. This voltage difference can be determined from the wiring resistance of the X-directional wiring and the element current flowing through each element connected to Dy1 to Dyn.
The current actually flowing through the elements connected to Dy1 to Dy3 was obtained using an ammeter (not shown), and the difference between this value and the voltage applied from the wiring resistance was obtained.
Met. This value is 1. for a pre-drive voltage of 16V.
7%.

Next, the image display device shown in FIG.
A normal image display was performed using the system described above. As a modulation method, a pulse width modulation method was used, and a driving voltage for lighting a pixel was 14.5 V. The value of the driving voltage is smaller than the value of the pre-driving voltage previously applied. With such a driving method, when the image display device displays a semi-fixed image pattern including a large number of regions of the same color, a display with less color bleeding than before, that is,
A display with good uniformity of luminance between adjacent pixels in the same color region could be performed.

[Embodiment 2] The structure and manufacturing method of the image display device used in this embodiment are the same as those of Embodiment 1, and the stabilization step, the getter step, and the sealing step have already been completed. In the present embodiment, a preliminary drive voltage was applied to the image display device using the system shown in FIG. First, in FIG.
The output voltage of Vx is set to -8 V, and the output voltage of Vy is set to +
In the state where the voltage is set to 8 V, only the switch connected to Dy1 in the switch box Swy for Y-direction wiring selects the voltage Vy, and the other switches in Swy select the ground level. In this state, by sequentially selecting Dx1 to Dxm with the X-direction wiring switch box Swx, Dy1
Were driven at a driving voltage of 16V. Subsequently, the driving of the column connected to Dy2,. . . ,
By performing the same driving as the driving of the column connected to Dyn, a preliminary driving voltage was applied to all the pixels.

In this embodiment, as in the first embodiment,
The difference between voltages applied to nine adjacent elements was measured. This value was a small value within the measurement error even at the largest value, and was within about 0.5%.

Next, the image display device shown in FIG.
A normal image display was performed using the system described above. The modulation method used was a pulse width modulation method, and the driving voltage for lighting the pixels was 13.5 V. The value of the driving voltage is smaller than the value of the pre-driving voltage previously applied. According to such a driving method, when an image pattern including a semi-fixed and many regions of the same color is displayed on the image display device, a display with less color bleeding than in the related art, that is, in the same color region, Can be displayed with good uniformity of luminance between adjacent pixels.

[Embodiment 3] The configuration and manufacturing method of the image display device used in this embodiment are the same as those in Embodiment 1, and the stabilization step, getter step, and sealing step have already been completed. In this embodiment, a pre-driving voltage was applied to the image display device using the system shown in FIG.

First, in FIG. 12, when the voltage of Vx is set to 8V and the output voltage of the modulation signal generator 107 is set to -8V, the image display device 10 is set as an NTSC signal.
By driving the operation circuit 102 to sequentially select Dox1 to Doxm by inputting image information such that only a column connected to Doy1 in 1 lights up, all the electron-emitting devices connected to Doy1 are driven by a driving voltage of 16V. did. Continue to Doy
Drive of the column connected to 2, . . , Doyn, and the same driving as the driving of the column connected to Doyn, the pre-driving voltage was applied to all the pixels.

Next, normal image display was continuously performed on the image display device using the system shown in FIG.
As a modulation method, a pulse width modulation method was used, and a driving voltage for lighting a pixel was 15.0 V. The value of the driving voltage is smaller than the value of the pre-driving voltage previously applied. According to such a driving method, when an image pattern including a semi-fixed and many regions of the same color is displayed on the image display device, a display with less color bleeding than in the related art, that is, in the same color region, Can be displayed with good uniformity of luminance between adjacent pixels.

[0117]

As described above, according to the present invention,
In particular, when displaying an image pattern that is semi-fixed and includes many regions of the same color, it is possible to perform display with less color bleeding than before, that is, display with good uniformity of luminance between adjacent pixels in the same color region. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a driving method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view and a schematic cross-sectional view showing an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a manufacturing process of an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing voltage pulses used during a manufacturing process of an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a vacuum apparatus and a measurement system used for manufacturing an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied and measuring electric characteristics.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing electric characteristics of an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing variations in electrical characteristics of a conventional SCE type electron-emitting device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an electrical configuration of an electron source to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 9 is a view showing electric characteristics of an SCE type electron-emitting device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view showing an image display device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an arrangement of a phosphor and a black conductor used in an image display device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of a drive circuit for performing display on an image display device in accordance with an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a vacuum device used during a manufacturing process of the image display device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a voltage application technique in a forming step and an activation step of the image display device.

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing a part of an electron source.

FIG. 16 is a plan view and a cross-sectional view of a surface conduction electron-emitting device formed in an electron source.

FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating a manufacturing process of the electron source.

FIG. 18 is a diagram illustrating a manufacturing process of the electron source.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: substrate, 2 and 3: device electrode, 4: conductive thin film, 5: electron emitting portion, 21: step forming portion, 31: electron source substrate, 3
2: X-direction wiring, 33: Y-direction wiring, 34: surface conduction electron-emitting device, 41 and 42: device electrode, 43: conductive thin film, 44: electron-emitting portion, 45: contact hole, 4
6: insulating layer, 47: Cr film, 50: ammeter, 51: power supply, 52: ammeter, 53: high-voltage power supply, 54: anode electrode, 55: vacuum vessel, 56: vacuum pump, 57: gate valve, 58 : Activation gas container, 59: valve, 7
1: electron source substrate, 72: X-direction wiring, 73: Y-direction wiring, 74: surface conduction electron-emitting device, 75: wiring resistance,
81: rear plate, 82: support frame, 83: glass substrate, 84: fluorescent film, 85: metal back, 86: face plate, Hv: high voltage terminal, 87: envelope, 88: getter, 89: shielding plate, 91: black conductive material, 92: phosphor, 101: image display device, 102: scanning circuit, 10
3: Control circuit, 104: Shift register, 105: Line memory, 106: Synchronous signal separation circuit, 107: Modulation signal generator, Vx and Va: DC voltage source, 131: Image display device, 132: Exhaust pipe, 133: Vacuum chamber,
134: gate valve, 135: exhaust device, 136: pressure gauge, 137: residual gas analyzer, 138 gas introduction line 139: introduction amount control means, 140: introduction material source, 14
1: power supply, 142: ammeter, 143: switch box.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Miki Tamura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 5C080 AA18 BB06 CC03 DD05 DD28 EE29 EE30 FF12 GG02 GG12 JJ01 JJ02 JJ04 JJ05 JJ06

Claims (20)

[Claims] 1. A method for driving an electron source comprising a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices connected in a matrix on a substrate by three or more X-directional wirings and three or more Y-directional wirings,
For all of at least nine or more adjacent surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the electron source, after the stabilization step, the voltage is the highest voltage among the voltages applied after the stabilization step, and After applying a pre-driving voltage consisting of substantially the same voltage within 3% of the voltage applied to the electron-emitting device, driving is performed at a driving voltage lower than the pre-driving voltage and equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold voltage. A method for driving an electron source. 2. The method of applying a pre-driving voltage, comprising: applying a first potential to all of the Y-direction wirings; and dividing the X-direction wirings into two groups at predetermined timings. First for each group
The operation of applying a second potential whose difference from the first potential is equal to the pre-driving voltage and a third potential whose difference from the first potential is lower than the pre-driving voltage is performed by all the X-direction wirings having the second potential. 2. The method for driving an electron source according to claim 1, wherein the method is repeated until the operation is experienced. 3. A group to which the second potential is applied,
3. The method according to claim 2, comprising three or less adjacent X-direction wirings. 4. A method of applying a pre-driving voltage, comprising: applying a first potential to all of the X-direction wirings; dividing the Y-direction wirings into two groups at predetermined timing; First for each group
The operation of applying a second potential whose difference from the first potential is equal to the pre-driving voltage and a third potential whose difference from the first potential is lower than the pre-driving voltage is performed by all the Y-direction wirings having the second potential. 2. The method for driving an electron source according to claim 1, wherein the method is repeated until the operation is experienced. 5. The group to which the second potential is applied,
5. The method of driving an electron source according to claim 4, comprising three or less adjacent Y-direction wirings. 6. The electron source according to claim 2, wherein a difference between the first potential and the third potential is a voltage lower than an electron emission threshold voltage. Drive method. 7. The method of applying a pre-driving voltage, wherein the X-directional wiring is divided into two groups of a group A and a group B at a predetermined timing, and the Y-directional wiring is divided into a group C and a group D. Divided into two groups,
When the potential applied to group A is V1, the potential applied to group B is V2, the potential applied to group C is V3, and the potential applied to group D is V4, the difference between V1 and V3 is equal to the pre-driving voltage. , V2 and V3, V1 and V
The operation of setting each of the difference of V4 and the difference of V2 and V4 to be lower than the pre-driving voltage and applying each potential is repeated until all the electron-emitting devices experience driving by the pre-driving voltage. The method for driving an electron source according to claim 1. 8. The method according to claim 8, wherein said group A has three or less adjacent Xs.
Direction wiring, and the group B is adjacent to 3
8. The method of driving an electron source according to claim 7, comprising the following Y-direction wirings. 9. When the potentials V2 and V4 are equal and V
A difference between one of V1 and V3 and V2 and V4 is a voltage lower than an electron emission threshold voltage;
A method for driving an electron source according to claim 7. 10. A driving method of an image display device having a phosphor which is excited and emits light by irradiation of electrons on an upper portion of the electron source, wherein the driving of the electron source according to claim 1 is performed. A method for driving an image display device, comprising using the method. 11. A method of manufacturing an electron source, comprising connecting a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices on a substrate in a matrix by three or more X-directional wirings and three or more Y-directional wirings. For all of the at least nine or more adjacent surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the source, after the stabilization step,
It is the highest voltage among the voltages applied or estimated to be applied after the stabilization step, and the difference between the voltages applied to the respective electron-emitting devices is substantially the same within 3%. A method for manufacturing an electron source, comprising applying a preliminary drive voltage comprising a voltage. 12. The method of applying the pre-driving voltage,
Applying a first potential to all of the Y-direction wirings;
And the X-direction wirings are divided into two groups at predetermined timings, and a second electric potential whose difference from the first electric potential is equal to the pre-driving voltage for each group;
12. The electron according to claim 11, wherein an operation of applying a third potential having a difference from the first potential lower than the pre-driving voltage is repeated until all the X-direction wirings experience the second potential. Source manufacturing method. 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the group to which the second potential is applied includes three or less adjacent X-direction wirings. 14. The method of applying a pre-driving voltage,
Applying a first potential to all of the X-direction wirings;
And the Y-direction wirings are divided into two groups at predetermined timings, and a second potential having a difference from the first potential equal to the pre-driving voltage for each group,
12. The electron according to claim 11, wherein the operation of applying a third potential having a difference from the first potential lower than the pre-driving voltage is repeated until all the Y-direction wirings experience the second potential. Source manufacturing method. 15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the group to which the second potential is applied comprises three or less adjacent Y-direction wirings. 16. The electron source according to claim 12, wherein a difference between the first potential and the third potential is a voltage lower than an electron emission threshold voltage. Drive method. 17. The method of applying a pre-driving voltage,
The X-directional wiring is divided into two groups, Group A and Group B, at every predetermined timing, and the Y-directional wiring is divided into two groups, Group C and Group D, and the potential applied to Group A is V1, The potential applied to group B is V2, the potential applied to group C is V3,
When the potential applied to the group D is V4, V1 and V
3 is equal to the pre-driving voltage, the difference between V2 and V3, V1
The operation of setting each of the difference between V2 and V4 and the difference between V2 and V4 to be lower than the pre-driving voltage and applying each potential is repeated until all the electron-emitting devices experience driving by the pre-driving voltage. The method for manufacturing an electron source according to claim 11, wherein: 18. The method according to claim 17, wherein said group A comprises three or less adjacent X-direction wirings, and said group B comprises three or less adjacent Y-direction wirings. Manufacturing method of electron source. 19. The potentials V2 and V4 are equal and V
A difference between one of V1 and V3 and V2 and V4 is a voltage lower than an electron emission threshold voltage;
A method for driving an electron source according to claim 17. 20. The method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 11, wherein a method of manufacturing an image display device having a phosphor, which is excited and emits light by irradiation of electrons, above the electron source. A method for manufacturing an image display device, comprising using the method.