JP2000251651A - Image forming device and its sealing method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily enhance the yield of vacuum-tight capability with small power at a low cost. SOLUTION: In this image forming device having joints sealed with an adhesive, a current-carrying heating element 2 formed previously for heating an adhesive 10 is provided at a part of each bonded member tightly fitted to the adhesive 10. In this sealing method of the joints of the image formation device, the current-carrying heating element 2 for heating the adhesive 10 is formed previously at the part of each of the bonded members which are tightly fitted to the adhesive 10, and after the bonded members are combined, the adhesive 10 is heated and softened by carrying a current to the current-carrying heating element 2 and thereafter solidified to seal the device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus having an image forming member such as a phosphor for forming a display image or a latent image and a sealing method thereof, and more particularly, to a flat surface using a polar electron emission source. The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing by sealing an image forming apparatus using an adhesive such as frit glass (low melting glass).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when manufacturing an image display device in which the inside is maintained in a vacuum, a frit glass as a sealing material is applied or placed between glass members and put in a sealing furnace such as an electric furnace. Alternatively, a sealing method is used in which the entire image display device is placed on a hot plate heater (in some cases, sandwiched between the hot plate heaters from above and below) to a sealing temperature and the glass member at the sealing portion is fused with sealing glass. Have been.

Further, a flat-panel image display apparatus using an electron source requires a plurality of electron-emitting devices because an ultra-high vacuum is required to stably operate a cold cathode electron-emitting device and the like for a long time. There is provided a getter that seals a substrate and a substrate having a phosphor at a position facing the substrate with a sealing glass with a frame interposed therebetween, adsorbs emitted gas and maintains vacuum.

[0004] The sealing method using a sealing furnace such as an electric furnace or a hot plate heater requires a long working time in order to uniformly heat the image display device. In order to improve the throughput, if the temperature rise or temperature fall rate is increased, the temperature may be increased or decreased due to the occurrence of thermal distortion due to the generation of the temperature distribution in the image display device. Cracks occur in the image display device, and the image display device cannot be kept airtight in a vacuum.

[0005] Therefore, as a method for improving the sealing throughput, a sealing method using a laser is known as Florod.
January 199 by Corporation
6issue Photonics Spectra
Is disclosed.

[0006] This sealing method is described in Field emiss.
FPD (Flat Panel Displ.)
ay). Specifically, the sealing step is performed by the following method.

[0007] 1. Align the two glass plates (up to 14 inches) across the frit. At this time, frit glass is sandwiched between the sealing portions of the two glass plates.

[0008] 2. Place in a vacuum oven and raise the temperature to about 300 ° C at a rate of several ° C / min.

[0009] 3. The light from the two lasers is computer-controlled to scan and irradiate in an L-shape to heat the frit of the sealing portion to the melting point.

[0010] 4. The frit dissolves and the two glass plates are vacuum sealed.

At this time, the laser used is a diode laser. The output is 15 W, the wavelength is about 800 nm, and the spot size is 0.4 to 1.3 mm.

It has been confirmed that the laser sealing improves the throughput twice.

Heretofore, two types of electron-emitting devices using a thermionic electron-emitting device and a cold cathode electron-emitting device have been known. The cold cathode electron emitting device includes a field emission type (hereinafter, referred to as “FE type”), a metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter, referred to as “MIM type”), a surface conduction type electron emitting device, and the like. Examples of FE type are WP Dy
ke & W. W. Dolan, "Field emi
session ", Advance in Elector
on Physics, 8, 89 (1956) or C.I. A. Spindt, “PHYSICAL Pro
partiesof thin-film field
Emission cathodes with m
olybdenium cones ", J. Appl.
Phys. , 47, 5248 (1976).

Examples of the MIM type include C.I. A. Mea
d, “Operation of Tunnel-Em
issue Devices ", J. Apply. P.
hys. , 32, 646 (1961).

Examples of the surface conduction electron-emitting device include:
M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Ele
ctron Phys. , 10, 1290, (196
5) and the like.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which an electron is emitted by passing a current through a small-area thin film formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface. Examples of the surface conduction electron-emitting device include a device using an SnO ₂ thin film by Elinson et al. And a device using an Au thin film [G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid Fi
lms ", 9,317 (1972)] , In 2 O 3 / S
nO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell and
C. G. FIG. Fonstad: "IEEE Trans.
ED Conf. "519 (1975)], based on carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1
No. 22, p. 22 (1983)].

An image display device of a flat panel which emits a fluorescent material by an electron beam generated from these cold cathode electron-emitting devices has been developed. A surface conduction electron-emitting device emits electrons by passing a current through a conductive thin film having a high resistance part in one part. An example of such a device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-235255. It is shown.

In an image display device using electrons, a vacuum glass envelope in which a face plate, a rear plate and an outer frame are sealed with a sealing material, an electron source for generating electrons and its driving circuit, and collision of electrons An image display member having a phosphor or the like that emits light due to the above, an acceleration electrode for accelerating electrons toward the image display member, a high-voltage power supply thereof, a getter for maintaining a vacuum inside the device, and the like are required.

[0019]

However, the conventional method of manufacturing an image display device has the following disadvantages.

First, as described above, when manufacturing an image display device, frit glass as a sealing material is applied or placed between glass members and placed in a sealing furnace such as an electric furnace. Or place it on a hot plate heater (it may be sandwiched by the hot plate heater from above and below), and heat the entire image forming apparatus to the sealing temperature, including the sealing part, and fuse the glass member of the sealing part with frit glass However, there has been a drawback that extra power or the like is used for heating the area other than the sealed area because the sealing method is used.

Second, the firing conditions of the frit glass are such that the maximum heating rate is 50 ° C./min and the temperature decreasing rate is 20 ° C./min.
It needs to be held down for about a minute. Further, at the sealing temperature, 10
It is necessary to hold for about a minute. Generally, in the sealing step, it is necessary to uniformly heat the entire image display device in order to suppress thermal distortion due to temperature distribution. Therefore, it is necessary to set the temperature rise / fall rate so that the temperature distribution of the entire image display device does not occur. As image forming devices become larger,
Since it is difficult to raise and lower the temperature uniformly and quickly, it is necessary to reduce the temperature raising and lowering rate. For this reason, the throughput of the sealing step of the image forming apparatus becomes very poor.

In order to compensate for the above-mentioned drawbacks, the above-mentioned sealing using a laser is conceivable. However, since the laser sealing scans the laser to melt the frit glass, the apparatus becomes large-scale, and the apparatus becomes large. The cost increases.
In addition, to scan and melt the frit glass,
It becomes more difficult to uniformly heat and melt the frit glass and remove the vacuum seal as the screen size increases.

In view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, the present invention is directed to an image display apparatus which requires a smaller amount of power than heating the entire image display apparatus at a sealing temperature, is easy and inexpensive, and has a high vacuum-tight yield. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for sealing an image display device that enables sealing.

[0024]

Means for Solving the Problems The present inventors have conducted intensive studies to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional method for manufacturing a glass envelope and to achieve the object of the present invention. It has been completed.

That is, the present invention provides: (1) a rear plate on which at least phosphor exciting means is arranged, and a face plate on which a phosphor emitting light by the phosphor exciting means is arranged, facing each other; And the face plate are joined via a support frame and frit glass in the sealing method of the image forming apparatus.
An energizing heating element that is solidified after being softened and then hermetically sealed is disposed in close contact with the sealing glass, and the energizing heating element is in close contact with the frit glass, the support frame, the face plate, or the rear plate. A sealing method for an image forming apparatus, wherein the conductive heating element wiring is formed on at least one member in advance; and (2) the conductive heating element wiring according to (1) is formed by a printing method. (3) A method of sealing an image forming apparatus, wherein the entire image forming apparatus described in (1) and (2) is heated at a temperature lower than a sealing temperature. (3) The method for sealing an image forming apparatus according to any one of (3) to (3), wherein the excitation of the phosphor uses electrons generated from the electron-emitting device; Emitting element (6) A method for sealing an image forming apparatus, which is a field emission type electron emitting element; (6) In an image forming apparatus having a joint portion sealed with an adhesive, a member to be joined is in close contact with the adhesive. (7) An image forming apparatus having a current-carrying heating element formed in advance to heat the adhesive in a portion to be bonded; (7) In a method of sealing a joining portion of an image forming apparatus, In a portion that is in close contact with the adhesive, an energizing heating element for heating the adhesive is formed in advance, and after the members to be joined are combined, by energizing the energizing heating element, the adhesive is formed. A method for sealing the image forming apparatus, wherein the sealing is performed by heating, softening, and then solidifying.

[0026]

According to the sealing method of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, first, in a method of manufacturing an image display device in which a plurality of glass members are sealed using a sealing material, the inside of the image display device is maintained in a vacuum. In order to perform sealing using a local heating unit that directly heats a current-carrying heating element provided in close contact with the frit glass in the sealing portion of the display device, it is necessary to heat the entire image display device to the sealing temperature. Since there is no power, the power can be used effectively. In addition, since only the frit glass needs to be heated to the sealing temperature, the time required to raise and lower the temperature can be reduced, and the image display device can be manufactured in a shorter time.

Second, as compared with the case of using the laser scanning method, the entire portion where the frit glass is arranged can be heated uniformly at the same time, so that the vacuum hermetic sealing is facilitated and the yield is improved. improves. Also,
Since it is not necessary to sequentially scan the portion where the frit glass is disposed, the time can be reduced.

Further, according to the present method, since the heating element for heating and melting the frit glass is formed in advance at a position in contact with the frit glass in the form of wiring, the position of the heating element for locally heating the frit glass is improved. Work such as alignment is not required, and the positional accuracy is improved. Therefore, the yield is also improved.

Further, by forming the heating element by printing, the heating element can be formed at low cost, and the cost can be reduced.

[0030]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. Since the essence of the present invention relates to a sealing method for an image forming apparatus, the present invention is not limited to a sealing method for an image display apparatus using a surface conduction type or field emission type electron emitting element, but uses an electron emitting element. Needless to say, the method can be applied to the sealing method of the image forming apparatus. The present invention is also applicable to an image display device having a phosphor as an image forming member, an image forming device having an image forming member for forming a latent image, and a sealing method therefor.

[Embodiment 1] In this embodiment, a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices, which are cold cathode electron-emitting devices, are formed on a rear plate as electron-emitting devices, and a fluorescent screen (face plate) is provided. A color image forming apparatus having an effective display area of 15 inches diagonally and a length to width ratio of 3: 4 was prepared. First, an image display device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, and then a method of manufacturing the image display device will be described.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the image display device used in the present embodiment, in which a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In FIG. 4, 1 is a face plate, 8
Is a rear plate, 9 is a support frame, and 1, 8, 9 form an airtight container for maintaining the inside of the display panel at a vacuum. When assembling the airtight container, it is necessary to seal the members in order to maintain sufficient strength and airtightness for joining the members.

In the figure, reference numeral 7 denotes an exhaust pipe for connecting to a vacuum device when evacuating the airtight container to a vacuum. Further, these exhaust pipes are also used as a gas introduction pipe for an activation gas in an activation step generated during a process step.

In the figure, reference numeral 16 denotes a Ba evaporation type getter for maintaining a vacuum in the airtight container after sealing the exhaust pipe. B
The a-evaporable getter forms a Ba vapor-deposited film by heating to a high temperature. The Ba vapor deposition film is a very active film and is an excellent vacuum pump having an adsorption / exhaust ability for gases other than the inert gas.

On the rear plate 8, N × M surface conduction electron-emitting devices 19 are formed. (N and M are positive integers of 2 or more and are appropriately set according to the number of target display images.) In the N × M surface-conduction emission devices, M column-directional wirings 12 (lower wirings) ) And N row-direction wirings 14
(Also referred to as upper wiring) to form a simple matrix wiring.

Next, description will be made with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.
5A is a plan view, and FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view. In FIG. 5, 8 is a rear plate (substrate), 11 (a) and 11
(B) is an element electrode, 15 is a conductive thin film, and 20 is an electron emitting portion.

By forming the conductive thin film 15 through the device electrodes 11 (a) and 11 (b) while evacuating the airtight container through the exhaust pipe 7,
Locally destroy, deform or alter the conductive thin film,
Forming an electron emitting portion 20 in an electrically high resistance state,
Further, when the pressure in the hermetic container becomes 1 × 10 ⁻³ Pa or less, about 1 Pa of acetone is introduced as an activating gas through the exhaust pipe 7 into the hermetic container to perform an activating step for remarkably improving the emission current. The voltage is applied to the device electrodes 11 (a) and 11 (b) of the conduction electron-emitting device, and the current is caused to flow through the device to activate the electron-emitting portion 20. (Similar to the disclosure example of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-235255 described in the prior art).

FIG. 2 is a plan view (a) showing the structure of the face plate 1 of the present embodiment, and a cross-sectional view (b) of FIG. In FIG. 2, 1 is a face plate,
2 is an electric heating element, 3 is a metal back, 4 is a phosphor,
Reference numeral 5 denotes ITO, 6 denotes SiO ₂ , 7 denotes an exhaust pipe, and 30 denotes a connection part for a current introduction terminal of a printed wiring. The phosphor screen 4 has red, green,
Phosphors of three primary colors of blue are separately applied.

FIG. 1 is a plan view (a) showing the structure of the rear plate 8 and a sectional view (b) of FIG. In FIG. 1, 8 is a rear plate, 9 is a support frame, 10 is frit glass, 11 is an element electrode, 12 is a lower wiring, 13 is an interlayer insulating film, 14 is an upper wiring, 15 is a conductive thin film, and 16 is an evaporation type. The getter 17 is a silicon oxide film.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the structure of the support frame 9. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 9 denotes a support frame, 2 (R) denotes an electric heating element, and 31 denotes an introduction terminal thereof. The rear plate 8 is shown so that the positional relationship with the rear plate can be understood.

Also, Dox1-Doxm and Doy1-
Doyn and Hv are electric connection terminals of an airtight container provided for electrically connecting the display panel and an electric circuit (not shown). Dox1 to Doxm are electrically connected to the column wiring 12 of the multi-electron beam source, Doy1 to Doyn are row wiring 14 of the multi-electron beam source, and Hv is electrically connected to the metal back 3 of the phosphor screen. Reference numeral 6 denotes an SiO ₂ layer for preventing diffusion of Na contained in the substrate 1 of the face plate, and reference numeral 5 denotes a transparent conductive ITO film for improving the conductivity of the phosphor 4. In this embodiment, the SiO ₂ layer 6 and the ITO film 5 are formed on the face plate, but need not always be provided.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a printed wiring as an electric heating element for locally heating and melting the frit glass 10 (F) which finally forms the hermetic container of the present embodiment.

The image display device to which the manufacturing method of the present invention is applied has been described above.

Next, a method for manufacturing the image display device of the present invention will be described.

(Preparation of Rear Plate) (R-1) The blue plate glass is cleaned, and the silicon oxide film 17 is removed.
Is formed on the rear plate 8 formed by sputtering.
Was formed by screen printing. Next, an interlayer insulating film 13 is formed between the lower wiring 12 and the upper wiring 14. Further, the upper wiring 14 was formed. Next, device electrodes 11 (a) and 11 (b) connected to the lower wiring 12 and the upper wiring 14 were formed. (R-2) Next, a conductive thin film 15 made of PdO was formed by a sputtering method and then patterned to obtain a desired form. (R-3) Frit glass 10 (R) for fixing the support frame 9 was formed at a desired position by printing.

Through the steps described above, the rear plate 8 on which the surface conduction type emission elements 19 formed by simple matrix wiring, the adhesive for the support frame 9, and the like were formed.

(Preparation of Support Frame) (W-1) A method for bonding the support frame and the face plate to the surface of the support frame 9 that contacts the face plate 1 (the upper surface of the support frame in FIG. 1B). Frit glass 10
(F) is formed by a printing method. (W-2) A frit glass 10 (R) for bonding the support frame and the rear plate is locally applied to a surface of the support frame 9 that contacts the rear plate 8 (the lower surface of the support frame 9 in FIG. 1B). The wiring 2 (R), which is an electric heating element for heat melting, is formed by screen printing.

The material of the heating element 2 (R) was a Ni paste containing Ni as a main component. In the present embodiment, the width of the wiring is 1 after the Ni paste is fired at a high temperature by screen printing.
Screen printing was performed so that the thickness was 20 μm. In the present embodiment, the wiring of the heating element is formed by the screen printing method, but printing by a dispenser may be performed, and the present invention is not limited to this. The components of the wiring of the heating element are Ag, Al, W, Ta, Ti, Ni, and C.
Any of r, Pd, Mo, Pt, Au, Cu and the like may be used, and these compounds may be used. In addition, the width and thickness of the wiring are appropriately adjusted according to the material of the wiring.

(Preparation of Face Plate) (F-1) An SiO ₂ layer 6 on a blue glass substrate 1 and ITO
The film 5, the phosphor 4, and the black conductor were formed by a printing method.
A smoothing treatment was performed on the inner surface of the fluorescent film, and thereafter, Al was deposited using a vacuum deposition method or the like to form a metal back 3. (F-2) The wiring 2 (F), which is a local heating element for melting frit glass for fixing the support frame and the face plate, was formed at a desired position by a screen printing method.

The material of the heating element 2 (F) is the same as that of the heating element 2
Same as (R).

Through the above steps, a phosphor in which the phosphors of the three primary colors are arranged in stripes, and a printed arrangement as a heating element for bonding the support frame and the face plate are formed on the face plate.

(Preparation of Airtight Container by Sealing Rear Plate, Support Frame and Face Plate) (FR-1) The rear plate 8 is held on a hot plate on an X, Y, θ adjustment stage, and the face plate and the support frame are held. Was heated to 300 ° C. on a hot plate on a stage. Thus, the sealing temperature (at 400 ° C. or higher,
Heating the members constituting the image display device at a temperature less than (determined by the frit type) is referred to as assist heating. The temperature at that time is called an assist temperature. The assist heating is heating for suppressing heat distribution for preventing the glass from cracking due to thermal strain. (FR-2) At the stage where the rear plate 8, the support frame 9 and the face plate 1 are assist-heated to 300 ° C,
The rear plate, the support frame and the face plate are brought into contact with each other and pressurized while aligning the rear plate and the face plate with the X, Y, and θ adjustment stages. (FR-3) Printed wiring 2 which is a locally energized heating element while performing position adjustment using an X, Y, θ adjustment stage
(F) and 2 (R) are electrically connected to a current introducing portion (30 in FIG. 2A and 31 in FIG. 3) from an external power supply (not shown), thereby energizing the frit glass 10 (F). And raise the temperature of the rear plate and face plate to the sealing temperature. Although the sealing temperature is determined by the frit glass, in the present embodiment, the sealing temperature is 410
° C. 4 due to printed wiring 2 which is a local heating element
At the stage where the frit glass 10 was heated to the sealing temperature at 20 ° C. per minute to 10 ° C., it was held for 10 minutes while applying pressure, and then 10 ° C. per minute by the printed wiring 2 as a local heating element.
And lower the temperature by 20 ° C (390 ° C) from the sealing temperature.
Stop the alignment when lowered, and set the assist temperature 3
The stage was made free to 00 ° C., and the energization of the printed wiring 2 of the local heating element was controlled. (FR-4) Temperature of 10 parts of frit glass is 300 ° C.
Then, the temperature of the hot plate was lowered to room temperature.

(Preparation of Electron-Emitting Element by Vacuum Process) (S-1) The exhaust pipe 7 on the face plate 1 of the airtight container prepared as described above is connected to a vacuum exhaust device, and the inside of the airtight container is evacuated. Exhaust. (S-2) When the pressure in the airtight container becomes 0.1 Pa or less, the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Don.
A voltage was applied to the electron-emitting device 19 through yn, and a forming process was performed on the conductive thin film 15. (S-3) Subsequently, the pressure in the airtight container is 1 × 10 ⁻³ P
a, acetone is introduced as an activating gas through the exhaust pipe 7 into the airtight container at 1 Pa, and the terminal Do
A voltage was applied to the electron-emitting device through x1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn to perform an activation process.

(Degassing Step in Hermetic Container) (D-1) After activating gas is sufficiently exhausted, baking degassing of the hermetic container is performed. The baking temperature was 300 ° C. The heating rate was 2 ° C. per minute. (D-2) After maintaining the temperature of the airtight container at 300 ° C. for 10 hours, the temperature was lowered to room temperature, and the Ba evaporation getter 16 was flashed from outside the airtight container by high frequency heating to form a Ba vapor deposited film. (D-3) Thereafter, a part of the exhaust pipe 7 was melted and heated and sealed.

As described above, cracks or the like may occur regardless of whether a part of the image display device is subjected to a sealing process by locally heating it at a high temperature of 100 ° C. or more higher than other parts, or a high temperature process such as vacuum baking. It was confirmed that no vacuum was generated and the vacuum tightness was maintained without any problem. Furthermore, even with respect to the long-term electron emission characteristics, there is almost no change in comparison with an image display device formed by a conventional sealing method by uniformly heating the entire image display device. No problem was found in the characteristics of the image display device by the sealing method of the example. In the present embodiment, the frit glass portion, which mainly forms vacuum airtightness, is heated to the sealing temperature, and most of the other image forming apparatuses
Since the temperature was kept at 00 ° C., power consumption could be suppressed. In addition, the throughput of the sealing process was increased about 1.5 times, and the production efficiency was improved. further,
By forming the printed wiring in advance as the heating element for local heating, the working efficiency was improved, and the frit glass could be uniformly melted, so that the yield was improved.

Embodiment 2 In the second embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus having the structure shown in FIG. 6 was prepared. In this embodiment, a plurality of field emission devices, which are cold cathode electron emission devices, are formed on the rear plate as electron emission devices, and spacers 10 are used as atmospheric pressure support members to further reduce the weight.
8 were installed. A phosphor was provided on the face plate, and a color image forming apparatus having an effective display area of 10 inches diagonally and an aspect ratio of 3: 4 was prepared. First, a sealing method of the image display device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 103 denotes a rear plate,
01 is a face plate including an image forming member, 105 is a cathode, 106 is a gate electrode, and 107 is an insulating layer between the gate and the cathode.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 104 denotes a support frame;
(F) is an energization heating element for locally heating and melting the frit glass 111 (F) for bonding the face plate 101 and the support frame 104, and similarly, 110
(R) is an energization heating element for locally heating and melting the frit glass 111 (R) for bonding the rear plate 103 and the support frame 104. The gap between the face plate 101 and the rear plate 103 is 1.5 mm
It is. Reference numeral 109 denotes a non-evaporable getter. In the present embodiment, the non-evaporable getter used was a component mainly composed of Ti and composed of Zr, V and Fe, but may be a component mainly composed of Zr and is not particularly limited to this.

Next, a method of manufacturing the image display device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Preparation of Rear Plate) (R-1) The blue plate glass was washed, and the cathode (emitter), gate electrode, wiring, etc. shown in FIG. 6 were prepared by a known method. The cathode material was Mo. (R-2) Frit glass 1 for fixing support frame
11 (R) was formed by printing. (R-3) Non-evaporable getter 109 and spacer 10
8 was positioned on the rear plate and fixed with an inorganic adhesive.

Through the above steps, a rear plate on which a field emission type emission device, a non-evaporation type getter, a spacer, frit glass and the like are formed with a simple matrix wiring was prepared.

(Preparation of Support Frame) (W-1) A frit glass for bonding the support frame and the face plate to the surface of the support frame 104 that contacts the face plate 101 (the upper surface of the support frame 104 in FIG. 7). 111 (F) is formed by a printing method. (W-2) A frit glass 111 for bonding the support frame and the rear plate to the surface of the support frame 104 that contacts the rear plate 108 (the lower surface of the support frame 104 in FIG. 7).
Wiring 110 (R), which is an electric heating element for locally heating and melting (R), is formed by a screen printing method.

As the material of the heating elements 110 (F) and 110 (R), an Ag / Pd (component ratio = 8/2) paste containing an alloy of Ag and Pd as a main component was used. In this embodiment, A
The g / Pd paste was screen-printed by a screen printing method so that the width of the wiring was 0.75 mm and the film thickness was 15 μm after firing at a high temperature. In the present embodiment, the wiring of the heating element is formed by the screen printing method, but printing by a dispenser may be performed, and the present invention is not limited to this. The components of the wiring of the heating element are Ag, Al, W,
Ta, Ti, Ni, Cr, Pd, Mo, Pt, Au, C
and any of these compounds. In addition, the width and thickness of the wiring are appropriately adjusted according to the material of the wiring. Furthermore, the materials of the heating elements used above and below the support frame need not always be the same.

(Preparation of Face Plate) (F-1) A phosphor and a black conductor were formed on a blue plate glass substrate by a printing method. A smoothness treatment was performed on the inner surface of the fluorescent film, and thereafter, Al was deposited using a vacuum deposition method or the like to form a metal back (not shown). (F-2) The wiring 110 (F), which is a local heating element for melting frit glass for fixing the support frame and the face plate, was formed at a desired position by a screen printing method.

The material of the heating element 110 (F) is the same as that of the heating element 110 (R).

Through the above-described steps, a phosphor in which phosphors of three primary colors are arranged in stripes, and printed wiring and the like, which are heating elements for bonding the support frame and the face plate, were formed on the face plate.

(Preparation of Airtight Container by Sealing Rear Plate, Supporting Frame, and Face Plate) (FR-1) The rear plate 103 is held on a hot plate on an X, Y, θ adjustment stage to support the face plate 101 and the support. The frame 104 was heated up to 275 ° C. using a hot plate on a stage. (FR-2) At the stage where the rear plate 103, the support frame 104, and the face plate 101 are assist-heated to 275 ° C., while adjusting the positions of the rear plate and the face plate by the X, Y, and θ adjustment stages,
The rear plate, the support frame and the face plate are brought into contact with each other and pressurized. (FR-2) A current introducing unit from an external power supply (not shown) supplies the printed wirings 111 (F) and 111 (R), which are the locally energized heating elements, while performing alignment using the X, Y, and θ adjustment stages. (Not shown) to supply electricity to the frit glass 110 (F) and 11 (F).
0 (R) is heated to the sealing temperature. The sealing temperature is determined by the frit glass.
Met. At the stage where the frit glass 110 is heated to the sealing temperature at 20 ° C. per minute to 450 ° C. by the printed wiring 110 which is the locally heated heating element, the frit glass 110 is held for 10 minutes while being pressurized. The temperature is lowered at 10 ° C. per minute by the printed wiring 110, and the temperature is lowered by 20 from the sealing temperature.
When the temperature drops by ℃ (430 ℃), stop the alignment,
The stage was set free to an assist temperature of 275 ° C., and the energization of the printed wiring of the local heating element was controlled. (FR-3) After the temperature of the frit glass part reached 275 ° C., the temperature of the hot plate was lowered to room temperature.

(Vacuum Process) (S-1) The exhaust pipe 112 on the face plate of the hermetic container prepared as described above is connected to a vacuum exhaust device, and the inside of the hermetic container is evacuated to a vacuum.

(Degassing Step in Hermetic Vessel) (D-1) When the pressure in the hermetic vessel becomes 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ Pa or less, a current is applied to the non-evaporable getter 109 to remove the non-evaporable getter. Perform gas treatment and activation. The activation temperature of the non-evaporable getter is determined by the non-evaporable getter, but in this embodiment, the heating treatment was performed at 750 ° C. for 5 minutes. (D-2) Next, baking degassing processing of the airtight container is performed. The baking temperature was 350 ° C. The heating rate was 2 ° C. per minute. (D-3) After the temperature of the airtight container was maintained at 350 ° C for 10 hours, the temperature was lowered to room temperature at 2 ° C per minute. (D-4) When the temperature reached room temperature, a part of the exhaust pipe 112 was heated and melted, and sealing was performed.

As described above, cracks or the like may occur regardless of whether a part of the image display device is subjected to a sealing step by locally heating it at a high temperature of 150 ° C. or more higher than other parts, or through a high temperature process such as vacuum baking. It was confirmed that no vacuum was generated and the vacuum tightness was maintained without any problem. Furthermore, even with respect to the long-term electron emission characteristics, there is almost no change in comparison with an image display device formed by a conventional sealing method by uniformly heating the entire image display device. No problem was found in the characteristics of the image display device by the sealing method of the example. In this embodiment, the frit glass part which mainly forms a vacuum hermetic state is heated to the sealing temperature, and most parts of the other image forming apparatus
Since the temperature was maintained at 75 ° C., power consumption could be suppressed. In addition, the throughput of the sealing process was approximately doubled, and the production efficiency was improved. Further, by forming the printed wiring in advance as the heating element for local heating, the working efficiency was improved, and the frit glass could be uniformly melted, thereby improving the yield.

Embodiment 3 In the third embodiment of the present invention, an image forming apparatus having the structure shown in FIG. 8 was prepared. In this embodiment, a plurality of field emission devices, which are cold cathode electron emission devices, are formed on the rear plate as electron emission devices, and spacers 10 are used as atmospheric pressure support members to further reduce the weight.
8 were installed. A phosphor was provided on the face plate, and a color image forming apparatus having an effective display area of 10 inches diagonally and an aspect ratio of 3: 4 was prepared. Example 3
However, the difference from the second embodiment is that, in the third embodiment, the joining of the support frame and the face plate is first performed not by the heating by the electric heating element but by the heating by the sealing furnace in advance, and the supporting is performed. The point is that the face plate with the frame is joined and sealed by the rear plate and the electric heating element.

First, a method for sealing an image display device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Also in this embodiment, the detailed configuration is as follows.
7 and FIG. 7 are the same as those in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 described above except for the energizing heating element 110 (F) in FIG.

Next, a method of manufacturing the image display device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

(Preparation of Rear Plate) (R-1) The blue plate glass is washed, and the cathode (emitter) 105 and the gate electrode 1 shown in FIG.
06, wiring, etc. were created. The cathode material was Mo. (R-2) Frit glass 111 (R) for fixing the support frame 104 was formed by printing. A frit glass having a sealing temperature of 410 ° C. was used. (R-3) Non-evaporable getter 109 and spacer 10
8 was positioned on the rear plate 103 and fixed with an inorganic adhesive.

Through the steps described above, the rear plate 103 on which the field emission type emission device, the non-evaporable getter 109, the spacer 108, the frit glass 111 (R), and the like formed by the simple matrix wiring were formed.

(Preparation of Support Frame) (W-1) The support frame 10 is placed on the surface of the support frame 104 that contacts the face plate (the upper surface of the support frame 104 in FIG. 8).
Frit glass 111 (F) for bonding face plate 4 to face plate 101 is formed by a printing method. The frit glass used had a sealing temperature of 450 ° C. (W-2) Frit glass 111 (R) for bonding the support frame and the rear plate is locally heated and melted on the surface of the support frame 104 that contacts the rear plate 103 (the lower surface of the support frame in FIG. 8). The wiring 110 (R), which is an electric heating element for heating, is formed by a screen printing method.

The material of the heating element 110 (R) is Al
Was used as an Al paste. In this example, screen printing was performed by screen printing on an Al paste so that the wiring width was 0.75 mm and the film thickness was 20 μm after firing at a high temperature. In the present embodiment, the wiring of the heating element is formed by the screen printing method, but printing by a dispenser may be performed, and the present invention is not limited to this. The components of the wiring of the heating element are Ag, Al, W,
Ta, Ti, Ni, Cr, Pd, Mo, Pt, Au, C
and any of these compounds. In addition, the width and thickness of the wiring are appropriately adjusted according to the material of the wiring.

(Formation of Face Plate) (F-1) A phosphor and a black conductor were formed on a blue glass substrate by a printing method. A smoothing treatment was performed on the inner surface of the fluorescent film, and then Al was deposited by using a vacuum evaporation method or the like to form a metal back.

Through the above steps, a phosphor in which phosphors of the three primary colors are arranged in a stripe form, and frit glass 111 (F) for bonding the support frame 104 and the face plate 101 are formed on the face plate 101. did.

(Adhesion of Support Frame and Face Plate) (WF-1) Frit Glass 111 of Support Frame 104
(F) The adhesion surface is brought into close contact with the face plate 101 side to perform alignment. (WF-2) The aligned support frame and face plate are placed in a sealing furnace, heated to a sealing temperature of 450 ° C. at a rate of 10 ° C./min, maintained at a sealing temperature of 450 ° C. for 10 minutes, and then charged at a rate of 5 min / min.
Cooled to room temperature in minutes.

(Preparation of Airtight Container by Sealing Face Plate with Rear Plate and Supporting Frame) A description will be given below with reference to FIG. (FR-1) The rear plate 103 is held on a hot plate on an X, Y, θ adjustment stage,
The heated face plate 101 was heated up to 250 ° C. with a hot plate on a stage. (FR-2) At the stage where the rear plate, the support frame and the face plate were assist-heated to 250 ° C., X,
The rear plate and the face plate with the support frame are brought into contact with each other and pressurized while adjusting the position of the rear plate and the face plate by the Y and θ adjustment stages. (FR-3) Printed wiring 1 that is a local energization heating element while performing position adjustment using an X, Y, and θ adjustment stage
By electrically connecting an external power supply (not shown) to a current introducing unit (not shown) at 10 (R), current is supplied to raise the frit glass 111 (R) to the sealing temperature. Although the sealing temperature is determined by the frit glass, in this embodiment,
The sealing temperature was 410 ° C. After the frit glass 111 (R) was heated to the sealing temperature at 20 ° C./min. To 410 ° C. by the printed wiring 110 (R), which is a local heating element, the frit glass 111 (R) was held for 10 minutes while applying pressure. The temperature is lowered at 10 ° C./min by the printed wiring 110 (R), which is a local heating heating element. When the temperature is lowered by 20 ° C. (390 ° C.) from the sealing temperature, the alignment is stopped, and the assist temperature 25 ° C.
The stage was set free to 0 ° C., and the energization of the printed wiring 110 (R) of the local heating element was controlled. (FR-4) The temperature of the frit glass part 111 is 250
After the temperature reached ℃, the temperature of the hot plate was lowered to room temperature.

(Vacuum Process) (S-1) The exhaust pipe 112 on the face plate of the hermetic container prepared as described above is connected to a vacuum exhaust device, and the inside of the hermetic container is evacuated to a vacuum.

(Degassing Step in Hermetic Vessel) (D-1) When the pressure in the hermetic vessel becomes 1 × 10 ⁻⁴ Pa or less, a current is applied to the non-evaporable getter 109 to remove the non-evaporable getter. Perform gas treatment and activation. The activation temperature of the non-evaporable getter is determined by the non-evaporable getter, but in this embodiment, the heating treatment was performed at 750 ° C. for 5 minutes. (D-2) Next, baking degassing processing of the airtight container is performed. The baking temperature was 300 ° C. The heating rate was 2 ° C. per minute. (D-3) After the temperature of the airtight container was maintained at 300 ° C for 10 hours, the temperature was lowered to room temperature at 2 ° C per minute. (D-4) When the temperature reached room temperature, a part of the exhaust pipe 112 was heated and melted, and sealing was performed.

As described above, cracking occurs not only through a sealing step in which a part of the image display device is locally heated at a temperature of 150 ° C. or higher than other parts, or through a high-temperature process such as vacuum baking. It was confirmed that vacuum airtightness was maintained without any problem. Furthermore, even with respect to the long-term electron emission characteristics, there is almost no change in comparison with an image display device formed by a conventional sealing method by uniformly heating the entire image display device. No problem was found in the characteristics of the image display device by the sealing method of the example.

In the present embodiment, the airtight container is bonded in two stages: (1) overall heat bonding of the face plate 101 and the support frame 104; and (2) local energization heat sealing of the face plate 101 with the support frame 104 and the rear plate 103. An example of the bonding was shown. Since the positioning accuracy of the face plate and the support frame is not so required, the operation of (1) can be performed for a plurality of lots in a simple sealing furnace after simple positioning. As in this example,
The step of bonding the airtight container does not have to be performed once, but may be performed by a sealing step according to the purpose. Further, the bonding of the airtight container may be a process of (1) overall heating bonding of the rear plate and the support frame, and (2) local energization heating sealing of the rear plate with the support frame and the face plate. As described above, the printed wiring, which is a locally energized heating element, may be formed on at least one of the face plate, the support frame, and the rear plate.

In addition, the throughput of the sealing process was approximately doubled, and the production efficiency was improved. Further, by forming the printed wiring in advance as the heating element for local heating, the working efficiency was improved, and the frit glass could be uniformly melted, thereby improving the yield.

Further, the relative positional relationship between the printed wiring, which is the local energizing heating element, and the frit glass may be any one of the face plate side, the support frame side, and the rear plate side.

The shape of the printed wiring as the local heating element and the shape and arrangement of the current introducing terminal 31 of the printed wiring are not particularly limited to the present embodiment.

The sealing method using the printed wiring as the local heating element is not particularly limited to the embodiment.

[0091]

According to the method for sealing an image display device of the present invention, it is not necessary to heat the entire image display device to a sealing temperature, so that electric power can be effectively used. Further, since only the frit glass needs to be heated to the sealing temperature, the time required for raising and lowering the temperature can be reduced, and the image display device can be manufactured in a short time.

Furthermore, since the frit glass can be heated simultaneously and uniformly, vacuum hermetic sealing is facilitated and the yield is improved. Further, since it is not necessary to sequentially scan the portion where the frit glass is disposed as in the case of local heating and sealing using a laser or the like, the time can be reduced.

Further, according to the present method, since the heating element for heating and melting the frit glass is formed in advance at a position in contact with the frit glass as wiring, the positioning of the heating element for locally heating the frit glass is performed. Is unnecessary, and the positional accuracy is improved. Therefore, the yield is also improved.

Further, by forming the heating element by printing, the heating element can be formed at low cost, and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of a rear plate of an image display device (surface conduction electron-emitting device) of Example 1. FIGS.

FIGS. 2A and 2B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of a face plate of the image display device (surface conduction electron-emitting device) of Example 1. FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view illustrating a structure of a support frame of the image display device (surface conduction electron-emitting device) according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the image display device used in the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 6 is a schematic side view showing a configuration of a field emission electron-emitting device.

FIG. 7 is a schematic side view illustrating a configuration of an image display device (field emission type) according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic side view illustrating a configuration of an image display device (field emission type) according to a third embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,101 face plate 2 (F), 2 (R), 110 (F), 110 (R)
Heating element for electric heating (printed wiring) 3 Metal back 4 Fluorescent film 5 ITO 6 SiO ₂ 7 Exhaust pipe 8, 103 Rear plate 9, 104 Support frame 10 (F), 10 (R), 111 (F), 111 ( R)
Frit glass 11 (a), 11 (b) Device electrode 12 Column wiring (lower wiring) 13 Interlayer insulating film 14 Row wiring (upper wiring) 15 Conductive thin film 16 Evaporation getter 17 Silicon oxide film 19 Surface conduction type electron Emission element 20 Electron emission section 30 Introducing terminal connection section 31 Introducing terminal 105 Cathode 106 Gate electrode 107 Gate / cathode insulating layer 108 Spacer 109 Non-evaporable getter

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Ko ▲ Yanagi ▼ Kazuo 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo F-term in Canon Inc. (reference) 5C032 AA01 BB18 DD01 DD10 DE02 DG09 5C036 EE14 EE16 EE17 EF01 EF06 EF09 EG05 EH08 EH26

Claims (11)

[Claims] 1. An image forming apparatus having a joining portion sealed with an adhesive, wherein a current-generating heating element formed in advance for heating the adhesive is provided on a portion of a member to be joined in close contact with the adhesive. An image forming apparatus comprising: 2. A rear plate on which at least a phosphor exciting means is arranged, and a face plate on which a phosphor emitting light by the phosphor exciting means are arranged to face each other, wherein the rear plate and the face plate are The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the bonding is performed by bonding via a support frame and frit glass. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said phosphor exciting means is an electron-emitting device. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein said electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 5. A method for sealing a joining portion of an image forming apparatus, wherein an energizing heating element for heating the adhesive is formed in advance on a portion of a member to be joined in close contact with the adhesive. A method of sealing an image forming apparatus, comprising: heating and softening the adhesive by energizing the energized heating element after combining the members to be heated, and then solidifying and sealing the adhesive. 6. The adhesive material is frit glass,
6. The sealing method for an image forming apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the hermetically sealed member is formed by sealing an airtight container storing the image forming apparatus. 7. A rear plate on which at least a phosphor exciting means is arranged, and a face plate on which a phosphor emitting light by the phosphor exciting means are arranged to face each other. In a sealing method for an image forming apparatus in which bonding is performed via a support frame and frit glass, the frit glass is heated and softened, and then solidified by sealing the frit glass. At least one member of the support frame, the face plate, or the rear plate that is in close contact with the glass, is formed in advance as a current-carrying heating element wiring, and after combining members to be joined, a current is supplied to the current-carrying heating element. A method for sealing an image forming apparatus, comprising sealing. 8. The sealing method for an image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the conductive heating element wiring is formed by a printing method. 9. The method according to claim 7, wherein the entire image forming apparatus is heated at a temperature lower than a sealing temperature. 10. The apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said phosphor excitation utilizes electrons generated from an electron-emitting device.
The method for sealing an image forming apparatus according to any one of the above. 11. The method according to claim 10, wherein the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device or a field emission electron-emitting device.