JP2000251729A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image forming device with a less deterioration over aging (aged reduction) of a brightness by arranging a getter film with a large capacity and a large surface are in an indication area of the image forming device and to provide an image forming device with a less generation of an aged brightness dispersion in an image forming area. SOLUTION: An enclosure 5 is constituted by an electron source 1, a face plate 4 and a support frame 3. A getter structure body 2 having an opening is arranged on the electron source 1 or in an image indication area at an inner wall surface side of the face plate 4. The inside of the enclosure 5 is discharged to vacuum by a non-evaporation getter having a thickness of 10-100 μm formed on the getter structure body 2.

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 electron source and an image forming member (phosphor) for forming an image by irradiating an electron beam emitted from the electron source in a vacuum container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In an image forming apparatus that irradiates an electron beam emitted from an electron source onto a phosphor as an image display member and causes the phosphor to emit light to display an image, the electron source and the image forming member are included. The interior of the sealed vacuum vessel must be kept at a high vacuum. The reason is that when gas is generated inside the vacuum vessel and the pressure rises, the degree of the effect depends on the type of gas, but it adversely affects the electron source, reduces the amount of electron emission, and makes it impossible to display a bright image. It is. Further, the generated gas is ionized by the electron beam to become ions, which are accelerated by an electric field for accelerating the electrons and collide with the electron source, which may damage the electron source. Further, in some cases, a discharge may be generated inside, and in this case, the device may be destroyed. Such an adverse effect on the electron source due to the deterioration of the vacuum becomes more serious in a flat display using an electron source in which a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged on a flat substrate.

As a proposal for reducing the above problem in such an image forming apparatus, there is proposed a method of forming a getter surface by an evaporable getter between an image forming member and an electron source substrate outside a display area of the image forming apparatus. (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 5-151
No. 916), a technique for measuring the increase in the volume of a getter by providing a groove on the inner surface of the image forming member around the image display unit (fluorescent screen) and embedding a non-evaporable getter in the groove No. -121015).

[0004] However, when the above method is used, the arrangement position of the getter material is limited. The problem of vacuum deterioration in a vacuum vessel in a flat plate image forming apparatus includes, in addition to the problems described above,
There is a problem that the pressure tends to increase locally. In an image forming apparatus having an electron source and an image display member, a portion that generates gas in a vacuum vessel is mainly an image display area irradiated with an electron beam and the electron source itself. In the case of a conventional CRT, the image display member and the electron source are separated,
Since there is a getter film formed on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel between the two, the gas generated by the image display member diffuses widely before reaching the electron source, and a part of the gas is adsorbed by the getter film and the part of the electron source is removed. Then the pressure does not rise so much. Further, since the getter film is also provided around the electron source itself, an extremely local pressure increase does not occur even by the gas emitted from the electron source itself. However, in the flat image forming apparatus, since the image display member and the electron source are close to each other, the gas generated from the image display member reaches the electron source before sufficiently diffusing, and causes a local pressure increase. In particular, in the central part of the image display area, it takes time for the gas to diffuse to the area where the getter film is formed. Therefore, it is considered that the local pressure rise is larger than that in the peripheral part. The generated gas is ionized by the electrons emitted from the electron source and accelerated by the electric field formed between the electron source and the image display member, damaging the electron source or causing a discharge to destroy the electron source. Or you may.

In view of such circumstances, in a flat plate image forming apparatus having a specific structure, a structure is disclosed in which a getter material is arranged in an image display area to immediately adsorb generated gas. Have been. For example, JP-A-4-124
No. 36 discloses a method of forming a gate electrode with a getter material in an electron source having a gate electrode for extracting an electron beam. The method includes a field emission type electron source having a conical projection as a cathode, and a pn junction. Are exemplified. The gate electrode is made of Ta, Zr, T
It is made of an alloy such as i, Th, and Hf, and is formed by a semiconductor process. In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 8-22785, a flat display device using an electron source composed of a large number of field emission cathodes relates to an inner wall surface between phosphors of a front panel having phosphors or an electron source. BaAl of about 100 nm is formed on the wall surface between each cathode group by a mask evaporation method.
An evaporable getter such as a Ba film made of ₄ is formed. In JP-A-63-181248 and JP-B-6-3714, an electrode (a grid or the like) for controlling an electron beam is arranged between a cathode group and a face plate of a vacuum vessel. A method of forming a film of a getter material on the control electrode in a flat display having the above structure is disclosed. JP-A-63-1
In the example of JP-A-81248, the getter material is Zr (84
%)-Al (16%) and is formed directly on the electrode by a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method, an ion plating method, a coating method, or the like. In the example of Japanese Patent Publication No. 6-3714, a small piece (for example, a ZrVFe alloy such as St. Setters's St707) obtained by pressing a getter substance on a metal plate having a thickness of 0.1 mm is fixed on the electrode by spot welding. I have.

Also, US Pat. No. 5,453,659,
“Anode Plate for Flat Panel Display having Integr
ated Getter ”, issued 26 Sept. 1995, to Wallace et a
1 discloses that a getter member is formed in a gap between phosphors on a stripe on an image display member (anode plate).

It is needless to say that an electron-emitting device constituting an electron source used for a flat display is simple in structure and manufacturing method from the viewpoint of production technology, manufacturing cost and the like. If the manufacturing process is composed of thin film lamination and simple processing, or if a large product is to be manufactured, one that can be manufactured by a technique that does not require a vacuum device such as a printing method is required.

In this respect, the electron source disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-12436, in which the gate electrode is made of a getter material, and the fluorescent light of the front panel disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-2278, are disclosed. For an electron source flat display device comprising a large number of field emission cathodes having an evaporation type getter deposited film on the inner wall surface between the bodies, or on the wall surfaces between the respective cathode groups of the electron source, manufacture of a conical cathode chip, Alternatively, the production of a semiconductor junction or the like requires a complicated process in a vacuum apparatus, and there is a limit due to the production apparatus for increasing the size.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-181248,
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 6-3714, a device in which a control electrode and the like are provided between an electron source and a face plate has a complicated structure, and the manufacturing process involves complicated steps such as alignment of these members. Become.

The method of forming a getter material on an anode plate disclosed in US Pat. No. 5,453,659 requires electrical insulation between the getter material and the phosphor. It is created by repeatedly performing patterning by photolithography technology for precise fine processing. Therefore, the process becomes complicated, and the size of the image forming apparatus that can be manufactured is limited by the size of the apparatus used for photolithography.

Examples of the electron-emitting device having a structure capable of satisfying the above-mentioned requirement that the manufacturing process is easy include a horizontal field-emission electron-emitting device and a surface conduction electron-emitting device. The horizontal field emission type electron-emitting device is formed by opposing a cathode (cathode) having a sharp electron emission portion on a flat substrate and an anode (gate) for applying a high electric field to the cathode, and is formed by vapor deposition. It can be manufactured by a thin film deposition method such as sputtering, and ordinary photolithography technology. The surface conduction electron-emitting device emits electrons by passing a current through a conductive thin film having a high resistance part in a part thereof, and is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 7-235255 by the present applicant. One example is shown.

In an image forming apparatus using these elements,
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-8224 proposes a method of effectively arranging a getter material in an image display area and activating the getter material.
No. 5 discloses this. In this example, the getter material is made of an alloy containing at least one of Ti and Zr as a main component or an alloy containing at least one of Al, V and Fe as a sub-component. The getter material is formed by a vacuum evaporation method or a sputtering method.

[0013]

In order to adsorb and exhaust gas molecules in a container over a long period of time, it is necessary to increase the volume and surface area of the getter film itself.

However, since the getter material is formed by a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, or the like in the above-mentioned proposal, the getter material which can be formed in one process is considered in consideration of the film forming speed at the time of film formation. The upper limit of the film thickness is several μm at most. In order to form a getter material having a larger film thickness by the same method, an increase in the time required for film formation is unavoidable, leading to an increase in cost. In addition, the surface area of the film formed by the same method can be controlled somewhat depending on the film forming conditions at the time of vapor deposition, but in order to form a film having a larger surface area, the surface shape of the object to be vapor-deposited is processed. Requires special steps.

According to the present invention, a getter film having a large capacity and a large surface area is arranged in a display area of an image forming apparatus by a structure and a manufacturing method suitable for mass production, so that a change in luminance with time (decrease with time) is obtained. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus with a small number and an image forming apparatus with less occurrence of luminance variation with time in an image forming area.

[0016]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus according to the present invention comprises an electron source having a plurality of electron-emitting devices provided on a substrate in an envelope, and an electron source opposed to the substrate. An image forming apparatus having an image forming member arranged in a manner as described above, wherein a structure is disposed on the substrate, and a non-evaporable getter material formed by a thermal spraying method is provided on the structure. It is characterized by the following. Also, on the structure,
A structure in which a non-evaporable getter material is provided and the thickness of the getter material is 10 to 100 μm may be employed.

Here, the structure may be made of a conductive material, and an insulating film may be formed on at least a surface of the structure on the electron source substrate side, which is in contact with the electron source.
Similarly, the structure may be made of a conductive material, and an insulating film may be formed on at least a surface of the electron source substrate which is in contact with the structure. A conductive continuous film may be formed on the surface of the structure on which the non-evaporable getter is provided.
Further, the structure may be connected to a potential regulating electrode of the structure.

Further, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes, in an envelope, an electron source having a plurality of electron-emitting devices disposed on a substrate, and an image forming member disposed to face the substrate. In the image forming apparatus having a plurality of fluorescent films, wherein the image forming member is separated for each image forming unit, a structure having an opening corresponding to the fluorescent film position is arranged on the image forming member, Further, a non-evaporable getter material formed by a thermal spraying method is provided on at least a surface of the structure facing the electron source. Further, the structure may be a structure in which a non-evaporable getter material is provided at least on a surface facing the image forming unit, and the thickness of the getter material is 10 to 100 μm. In any case where the structure is disposed on the image forming member side as described above, at least the surface of the structure supporting the getter material is formed of a conductive continuous film, and the conductive continuous film is formed. May be electrically connected to have the same potential as the image forming member.

The thickness of the structure may be 50 to 250 μm regardless of the position of the structure on the electron source side or the image forming member side. Good.

In the above-described image forming apparatus, the electron source may be an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix are arranged on a substrate, and the electron source may be a surface conduction device. One having an electron-emitting device,
It may have a horizontal field emission type electron-emitting device.

[0021]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

A first example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention made to solve the above-mentioned problem is that an integrated getter structure having openings corresponding to respective electron-emitting devices is arranged on an electron source. The getter structure is formed by forming a non-evaporable getter on a metal plate or a ceramic plate having an opening by a plasma spraying method.

This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 schematically shows an example of the configuration of the image forming apparatus of the present invention. 1
Is an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices 13 are arranged on a substrate and appropriate wirings 11 and 12 are provided. Numeral 3 denotes a support frame, and numeral 4 denotes a face plate. At a joint portion, they are adhered to each other using frit glass or the like to form an envelope 5.

The face plate 4 is formed by forming a fluorescent film 7 and a metal back 8 on a glass substrate 6, and this portion becomes an image display area. The phosphor film 7 is made of only a phosphor in the case of a display device for displaying a black and white image. However, when displaying a color image, the phosphor film 7 is composed of phosphors of three primary colors of red, green and blue. Call) is formed,
In some cases, the structure is separated by a black conductive material.
The black conductive material is called a black stripe, a black matrix, or the like, depending on its shape. Details will be described later. The metal back 8 is formed of a conductive thin film such as Al.
The metal back 8 reflects the light that travels toward the electron source 1 out of the light generated from the phosphor toward the glass substrate 6 to improve the brightness, and the gas remaining in the envelope 5
By the impact of ions generated by ionization by the electron beam,
It also serves to prevent the phosphor from being damaged. Also,
By giving conductivity to the image display area of the face plate 4,
This prevents charge from being accumulated and serves as an anode electrode for the electron source 1. Note that the metal back 8 is electrically connected to the high voltage terminal Hv.
A voltage can be applied from the outside of the envelope 5 through.

Getter structure 2 formed on electron source 1
Characterizes the present invention, and adsorbs gas generated from the electron source 1 and the face plate 4.

The getter structure 2 is, for example, a plate-like structure having an opening corresponding to the electron-emitting device 13, having a size similar to that of the image forming area, and being fixed on the electron source 1. I have. The base material of the getter structure 2 is a cold-rolled steel plate,
Metallic steel sheets such as aluminum killed steel sheets and iron / nickel alloy sheets,
Or it consists of a glass plate, a ceramic plate, or the like. As the thickness of the substrate of the getter structure 2, the shape holding ability at the time of handling,
From the viewpoint of resistance to thermal stress deformation during plasma spraying, 50 μm
m or more, and preferably 250 μm or less from the viewpoints of the effect on the beam trajectory when placed on the electron source substrate and ensuring the patterning accuracy when forming the opening. A non-evaporable getter is formed on one side of these substrates by a reduced pressure plasma spraying method.

As a device for forming a getter film by a thermal spraying method, for example, a reduced pressure plasma thermal spraying device shown in FIG. 14 can be used. When a getter film is formed on the structure, the structure is fixed to the work portion in FIG. 14, a plasma jet is generated from the gun toward the work, and a powdery getter material is formed in the plasma jet. By supply, a getter film can be formed.
Since the getter material is an active material, it is desirable to remove a gas that easily reacts with the getter material such as oxygen from the atmosphere during thermal spraying. Further, in order to keep the plasma flame (flame) good, it is desirable that a gas having a certain pressure exists. Therefore, when forming a getter film,
It is preferable to maintain the inside of the vacuum vessel in a reduced pressure atmosphere of several kilopascals to ten and several kilopascals with an inert gas such as argon or nitrogen. When a ceramic material such as alumina, which will be described later, is formed by a thermal spraying method, it is not necessary to use a reduced pressure atmosphere of an inert gas. For example, the film may be formed in an air atmosphere.

The thickness and surface shape of the sprayed film include the distance between the gun and the work, the atmospheric pressure at the time of injection, the supply speed of the material powder, the material particle size, the power of the plasma, the gas flow rate for plasma generation, and the film formation. It can be controlled by the number of times.

As for the thickness of the getter film, the lower limit of the particle size of the powder material is determined because the lower limit of the particle size of the powder material is determined in order to maintain the exhaust capability for a long period of time and to maintain the getter capability of the raw material powder to facilitate handling. The film thickness is also determined, about 10μ
m or more is preferable. Further, in order to prevent film peeling after thermal spraying, the thickness of the getter material is preferably 100 μm or less. As the getter material, a commonly used non-evaporable getter can be used. For example, Ti, Z
Metals such as r, Hf, V, Nb, Ta, W, and alloys thereof can be used. In addition, A as a component of the alloy
It may contain 1, Fe, Ni, Mn, and the like. In addition, since the surface of the sprayed film of the getter has irregularities of several micrometers to several tens of micrometers, the surface area is larger than the surface of the vapor-deposited film vacuum-deposited on the smooth surface, so that a higher pumping speed can be achieved. In addition, 10 to 10
A film having a thickness of about 0 μm can be easily formed in a short time, and the life of the getter material can be extended by forming such a thick film.

When a conductive base material such as a metal steel plate is used as the base material, the getter structure 2 is formed in advance of the getter structure 2 in order to maintain the electrical insulation between the electrode wirings formed on the electron source 1. It is necessary to form an insulating film on the surface in contact with the electron source 1, or to form an insulating film in a region on the electron source 1 that comes into contact with the getter structure 2. For the formation of the insulating film on the side surface of the getter structure 2, a silicon oxide film formed by RF sputtering, an insulating film formed by a printing method, a sprayed film of a ceramic material such as an alumina film formed by a plasma spraying method, or the like can be used. For forming the insulating film on the electron source 1, a method of forming silicon oxide by a sputtering method, a printing method, or the like can be used. When an insulating material such as glass or ceramic is used as the base material of the getter structure, a conductive continuous film is formed on the surface on which the getter is to be formed before the getter film is formed on the structure. You may keep it. Regardless of whether the base material is conductive or not, the getter material on the getter structure 2 is connected to a potential regulating electrode by a connection (not shown) or a conductive paste or the like, and a certain potential, for example, a getter structure 2 is applied. It is preferable to set to the ground potential when arranged on the electron source, and to set the anode potential when arranged on the face plate side as described later. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the fluctuation of the electron beam trajectory during the operation of the image forming apparatus, which is caused by the potential of the getter structure 2 becoming unstable.

The fixation of the getter structure 2 on the electron source 1 is performed by removing the surface of the getter structure 2 which is in contact with the electron source 1 on the peripheral portion or on one side of the entire surface by releasing gas such as an inorganic adhesive in a vacuum. There is a method of fixing the getter structure 2 on the electron source 1 using a jig that mechanically presses the getter structure 2 on the electron source 1, and the like.

Numeral 11 denotes a row selection terminal for selecting a row of elements to emit electrons, and 12 inputs a signal for controlling the electron emission amount of the electron-emitting elements belonging to the selected row.
Signal input terminal. Note that the row selection terminal is the X in the electron source.
The signal input terminal is connected to the Y-direction wiring. The form of these terminals is appropriately selected depending on the structure of the electron source 1 and the control method, and is not limited to the structure shown in the drawing.

In some cases, an evaporable getter 10 (in the figure, a ring-type getter is schematically shown) is provided in the envelope 5 as an auxiliary pump for keeping the interior of the envelope 5 vacuum. In this case, the getter material scatters in the image display area,
In order to prevent an electrical short circuit between the electrodes, an evaporative getter 10
A shield 9 is provided between the substrate and the region including the electron-emitting device 13, the wiring groups 11, 12 and the anode electrode. still,
When the inside of the envelope 5 can be sufficiently maintained in a vacuum only by the getter structure 2, the evaporable getter 10 and the shield 9 need not be formed.

Next, the structure of the fluorescent film 7 will be described. FIG. 2A shows a case where the phosphors 22 are arranged in a stripe shape, and the phosphors 22 of three primary colors of red (22R), green (22G), and blue (2B) are formed in order, and a black conductive material is provided therebetween. Are separated by a material 21. in this case,
The portion of the black conductive material 21 is called a black stripe. 2 (b) to 2 (d) show the dots of the phosphor 22 arranged in a grid, and the dots are separated by the black conductive material 21. FIG. In this case, the black conductive material 21 is called a black matrix.

As a method of patterning the black conductive material 21 and the phosphor 22 on the glass substrate 6, a slurry method, a printing method, or the like can be used. After the fluorescent film 7 is formed,
A metal back 8 is formed.

The face plate 4 formed as described above, the support frame 3, the getter structure 2, the electron source 1 and other structures are combined, and the support frame 3, the face plate 4, and the electron source 1 are combined. Join. If the substrate of the electron source 1 alone cannot withstand the atmospheric pressure after evacuation, a spacer is disposed between the electron source 1 and the face plate 4 or a reinforcing plate is provided on the back surface of the electron source 1. You may combine and join. For joining, attach frit glass to the joint,
The heating is performed at about 400 ° C. As an actual operation, a heat treatment at about 300 ° C. is performed in the air to remove components contained as a binder in the frit glass (this step is referred to as “temporary firing”), and then an inert gas such as Ar ( inert
In a gas), a heat treatment at 400 ° C. is performed to weld the joint.

Thereafter, when the electron source 1 includes a surface conduction electron-emitting device, necessary processes such as forming and activation of the electron-emitting device are performed, and the inside of the envelope 5 is sufficiently evacuated. After activating the non-evaporable getter on the getter structure by heating the entire envelope 5 at a high temperature of about 350 ° C. for several hours to several tens of hours, the exhaust pipe (not shown) is heated by a burner. Shut off. Finally, if necessary, the evaporable getter 10 (in the figure, a ring-shaped getter is schematically shown) provided in the envelope 5 is heated to deposit a getter material on the inner wall of the envelope 5 to obtain a getter. Form a film of material. The getter film thus formed is located outside the image display area in the envelope 5.

As shown in FIG. 3, a second example of a preferred embodiment of the present invention is a face plate 3 facing an electron source 34.
3 in the image display area, the phosphor 32 of each image forming unit
Is to dispose a getter structure 31 having an opening corresponding to the above. The getter structure 31 has a thickness of 10 μm to 100 μm on a 50 μm to 250 μm thick metal plate having an opening or on one side of a ceramic plate such as glass or alumina by plasma spraying or the like as in the first embodiment.
An m-thick non-evaporable getter film is formed.
The configuration and manufacturing method of the entire image forming apparatus are the same as those of the first embodiment except that the arrangement position of the getter structure is different. Further, when the getter structure is disposed on the face plate as in the present embodiment, it is necessary to electrically connect the getter material on the getter structure so as to be equal to the anode potential. It is also preferable to prevent the fluctuation of the electron beam trajectory in the middle. More preferably, when a ceramic plate such as glass or alumina is used as the base of the getter structure, before forming the getter film on the structure, a conductive continuous film is previously formed on the surface on which the getter is formed. It may be formed.

As described above, a thickness of about 10 to 100 μm and a thickness of several μm to
By arranging the getter structure on which the non-evaporable getter having an uneven surface of several tens of μm is formed on the electron source substrate or in the image display area on the face plate, the getter having a large pumping speed and a total pumping amount can be obtained. ,
Gas generated from the image display area serving as a gas emission source can be quickly and long-term exhausted. This makes it possible to suppress deterioration of the electron-emitting device and fluctuation of the emission current amount.

Although FIGS. 1 and 3 show a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron-emitting device, the present invention is not limited to this, and a horizontal field-emission electron-emitting device or the like may be used. it can.

Next, NTS is performed by the above-described image forming apparatus.
An example of the configuration of a driving circuit for performing television display based on a C-system television signal will be described with reference to FIG. 4, reference numeral 41 denotes an image forming apparatus (also referred to as a display panel) of the present invention, 42 denotes a scanning circuit, 43 denotes a control circuit,
44 is a shift register. 45 is a line memory, 4
6 is a synchronizing signal separation circuit, 47 is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources.

The image forming apparatus 41 has terminals Dox1 through Dx
oxm, terminals Doy1 to Doyn, and high voltage terminal Hv
Connected to an external electric circuit via Terminal Dox1
To Doxm for sequentially driving electron sources provided in the image forming apparatus, that is, a group of surface-conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns, one row at a time (N elements). A scanning signal is applied.

To the terminals Doy1 to Doyn, 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 an electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device to excite the phosphor. This is the accelerating voltage to perform.

The scanning circuit 42 will be described. The circuit has M switching elements inside,
(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 Dox1 to Doxm of the image forming apparatus 41. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm operates based on the control signal T _SCAN output from the control circuit 43, 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 unscanned element based on the characteristics (electron emission threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting element. It is set to output a constant voltage that is equal to or lower than the voltage.

The control circuit 43 has a function of matching the operation of each part so that appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside. Control circuit 43 in accordance with the synchronization signal T _SYNC sent from the synchronizing signal separation circuit 46, it generates the respective control signals of T _SCAN and T _{SF T} and T _MRY to each unit.

The synchronizing signal separating circuit 46 is a circuit for separating a synchronizing signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC television signal input from the outside. The synchronizing signal separated by the synchronizing signal separating circuit 46 includes a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal, but is shown here as a T _SYNC 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 DA
The TA signal is input to the shift register 44.

The shift register 44 is for serially / parallel-converting the DATA signal input serially in time series for each line of an image. The shift register 44 converts the DATA signal into a control signal T _SFT sent from the control circuit 43. (Ie, the control signal T _SFT can be said to be a shift clock of the shift register 44). One line of serial / parallel converted image (electron emitting element N
Drive data for the elements) are Id1 to Id1
It is output from the shift register 44 as N parallel signals of dn.

The line memory 45 is a storage device for storing data for one line of an image for a required time only.
According to the control signal T _MRY sent from the control circuit 3, I
The contents of d1 to Idn are stored. The stored contents are
The signals are output as Id′1 to Id′n and input to the modulation signal generator 47.

The modulation signal generator 47 outputs the image data Id '
1 to Id'n are signal sources for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in accordance with the respective ones of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices. Applied to the electron-emitting device.

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, electron emission has a clear threshold voltage Vth, and electron emission occurs only when a voltage equal to or 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. For this reason, when a pulsed voltage is applied to this element, for example, even if a voltage equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold is applied, electron emission does not occur.
When a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold is applied, an electron beam is output. At that time, the intensity of the output electron beam can be controlled by changing the pulse peak value Vm. 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 in accordance with 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 the 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 47. be able to.

When implementing the pulse width modulation method,
As the modulation signal generator 47, a pulse width modulation type circuit that generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value and appropriately modulates the width of the voltage pulse according to input data can be used.

The shift register 44 and the line memory 45
The digital signal type and the analog signal type can be adopted. This is because the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the synchronizing signal separation circuit 46 into a digital signal. For this purpose, an A / D converter may be provided at the output section 46. In connection with this, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 47 differs slightly depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 45 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 47, and an amplification circuit and the like are added as necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 47 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, an amplification circuit using, for example, an operational amplifier can be used as the modulation signal generator 47, and a level shift circuit and 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 forming apparatus of the present invention which can have such a configuration, each of the electron-emitting devices is provided with an external terminal Do.
By applying a voltage via x1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, electron emission occurs. High voltage terminal H
A high voltage is applied to the metal back 8 via v to accelerate the electron beam. The accelerated electrons collide with the fluorescent film 7 and emit light to form an image.

The configuration of the image forming apparatus described here is an example of an image forming apparatus 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,
High quality TV) can also be used.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention can be used not only as a display device for a television broadcast, a display device such as a video conference system or a computer, but also as an image forming device as an optical printer using a photosensitive drum or the like. Can be used.

[0060]

EXAMPLES Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to specific examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples, and each element within a range in which the object of the present invention is achieved. And those in which the design has been replaced or changed. [Embodiment 1] The image forming apparatus of this embodiment has the same structure as the apparatus schematically shown in FIG.
Is arranged on an electron source 1 in which a plurality of (100 rows × 300 columns) surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a simple matrix wiring.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a part of the electron source 1. FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in the figure. However, FIG.
In FIG. 6, the same symbols indicate the same items. Here, 51 is an electron source substrate, 52 is an X-direction wiring corresponding to Doxm in FIG. 1, 53 is a Y-direction wiring corresponding to Doyn in FIG. 1, 54 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, 55 is a getter structure, 61 Is an interlayer insulating layer, 62 and 63 are device electrodes, 6
4 is a conductive film including an electron emitting portion, 65 is a device electrode 603
A contact hole for electrical connection with the Y-directional wiring 53; 66, an insulating film; 67, a getter structure base;
Is a non-evaporable getter.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing the image forming apparatus according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

Step-a On an electron source substrate 51 in which a 0.5 μm thick silicon oxide film is formed on a cleaned blue plate glass by a sputtering method, 5 nm thick Cr and 600 nm thick Au are deposited by vacuum evaporation. After sequentially laminating, a photoresist (AZ1370 Hoechst) was spin-coated with a spinner and baked.
The resist pattern of the Y-directional wiring 53 is formed by exposing and developing the photomask image, and the Au / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the Y-directional wiring 53 having a desired shape (FIG. 7A). .

Step-b Next, an interlayer insulating layer 61 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm is deposited by RF sputtering (FIG. 7).
(B)).

Step-c A photoresist pattern for forming the contact hole 65 is formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step b, and the interlayer insulating layer 61 is etched using the photoresist pattern as a mask to form the contact hole 65. Etching is CF
RIE (Reactive Ion Etching) using ₄ and H ₂ gas was performed (FIG. 7C).

Step-d Thereafter, a pattern to be a gap G between the device electrodes 62 and 63 and the device electrode is formed by 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 62, 6
No. 3 was formed (FIG. 7D).

Step-e After a photoresist pattern of the X-direction wiring 52 is formed on the device electrodes 62 and 63, 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 52 having a desired shape. (FIG. 8 (e)).

Step-f A Cr film 66 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. (FIG. 8 (f)).

Step-g The Cr film 66 and the conductive film 6 for forming the electron emission portion after firing
4 was etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern (FIG. 8 (g)).

Step-h A pattern is formed such that a resist is applied to portions other than the contact hole 65, 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 65 (FIG. 8H).

Through the above steps, a plurality of (100 rows × 300 columns) conductive films 64 for forming the electron-emitting portions are formed on the electron source substrate 51 by simple matrix wiring using the X-directional wiring 52 and the Y-directional wiring 53. An electron source 1 was formed.

Step-i Next, a face plate 4 serving as an image display portion was prepared. In the face plate 4, a transparent electrode (not shown) made of ITO was provided on the glass substrate 6 in order to enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 7. The fluorescent film 7, which is an image forming member, is a stripe-shaped phosphor (see FIG. 2A) in order to realize color, a black stripe is formed first, and each color phosphor is formed by a slurry method in the gap. The bodies 22R, 22G, and 22B were applied to form the fluorescent film 7. As the material for the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used.

Further, a metal back 8 was provided on the inner side of the fluorescent film 7. The metal back 8 was manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 8 after the fluorescent film 8 was manufactured, and then performing vacuum deposition of Al.

Step-j Next, a getter structure 2 was prepared. The base of the getter structure was formed by forming an opening by photolithography using an amber material (iron / nickel alloy) of a low thermal expansion material having a thickness of 50 μm. In this patterning step, the resist is applied by spraying to a thickness of 7 μm.
The resist was formed by exposing, exposing the resist with an etching solution (alkaline solution), and the like. As shown in FIG. 5, the pattern (opening) shape is such that the opening width in the X direction is Y.
Direction wiring spacing (not including the width of the wiring itself),
The width of the opening in the Y direction is substantially equal to the wiring interval in the X direction (not including the width of the wiring itself). The substrate prepared as described above was fixed on a support (not shown), and mounted in a reduced-pressure plasma spraying apparatus (7MC type manufactured by Sulzer Metco), and a non-evaporable getter material (Zr (75%)-V (20%)) -Alloy powder of Fe (5%), # 325 mesh) was sprayed. At this time, the pressure inside the pressure reducing tank was once reduced to 13 Pa, and then the pressure inside the tank was set to 4.7 kPa with Ar gas to perform thermal spraying. After the thermal spraying, the pressure in the tank was again reduced to 13 Pa, and then nitrogen gas was introduced to atmospheric pressure. After the temperature of the structure was sufficiently lowered, the structure was opened to the atmosphere and taken out. The average thickness of the formed getter material was about 40 μm.
In addition, in this embodiment, before spraying the getter material, the surface on the side where the getter material is not sprayed is about 3 mm in advance by a substantially similar method.
A thermal sprayed film of aluminum oxide having a thickness of 0 μm was formed.

Step-k Next, the envelope 5 shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured as follows.

After the getter structure 2 is fixed to the electron source 1 formed by the above-described steps with an inorganic adhesive, the getter structure 2 and the potential regulating wiring are connected by a connection (not shown) to support The electron source 1 and the getter are combined by combining the frame 3, the shield 9 for suppressing the getter from scattering to the electron-emitting device when the evaporable getter is flashed, the ring-type evaporable getter 10, and the face plate 4. The positions of the structure 2 and the face plate 4 with respect to the respective color phosphors were strictly adjusted and sealed to form the envelope 5. The sealing method is to apply frit glass to the joint and apply 300 ° C in air.
After pre-baking in Ar gas, the members are combined and
Heat treatment was performed at 00 ° C. for 10 minutes to perform bonding.

Before describing the next step, the vacuum processing apparatus used in the subsequent steps will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 9, reference numeral 91 denotes an image forming apparatus (also referred to as an image display panel) in a manufacturing process, and 92 denotes an exhaust pipe, which connects the image forming apparatus 91 and a vacuum chamber 93. The vacuum chamber 93 is connected to a gate valve 94, and the gate valve 94 is connected to an exhaust device 95. The exhaust device 95 is configured by a backup dry pump connected to a magnetic levitation type turbo molecular pump via a valve (not shown). The vacuum chamber 93 is equipped with a pressure gauge 96 for monitoring the internal pressure and a quadrupole mass spectrometer (Q-mass) 97 for monitoring the gas partial pressure inside the vacuum chamber 93. Further, the vacuum chamber 93 is connected to an ampoule in which the introduced substance source 100 is sealed through a gas introduction line 98 and a gas introduction control device 99 provided in the middle of the gas introduction line 98. In the present embodiment, the following steps are performed using the above vacuum processing apparatus using a variable leak valve facing an ultra-high vacuum as the gas introduction control device 99 and using acetone (CH ₃ ) ₂ CO as the introduced substance source 100. Was done.

Step-1 The gas in the envelope 5 completed in the previous step is exhausted by the exhaust device 95 through the exhaust pipe 92 and the vacuum chamber 93.
After the pressure indicated by the pressure gauge 96 reached about 1 × 10 ⁻³ Pa, forming was performed using the apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 10 is a schematic view of an apparatus for applying a voltage to an image forming apparatus under a manufacturing process in a forming process. In this embodiment, the device is also used in an activation process which is a subsequent process.

As shown in FIG. 10, in the image forming apparatus 91 in the manufacturing process, the Y-direction wirings Dy1 to Dyn are commonly connected and connected to the ground, while the X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dxm
Are connected to corresponding terminals of the switching box 104. 101 is a control device, which is a pulse generator 10
2. The switching box 104 is controlled through a control signal bus, and the measured value measured by the ammeter 103 is obtained through a measurement data transfer bus.

The switching box 104 selects one line from the X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dxm, and supplies the selected line to the pulse generator 1 through the ammeter 102.
A pulse voltage from 02 is applied. The non-selected lines are connected to the ground potential by the switching bonks 104. The forming process was performed for each element row in the X direction (300 elements). The waveform of the applied pulse was a rectangular wave pulse as shown in FIG. 11A, and the peak value (peak of the voltage difference between element electrodes) was gradually increased from 0V. The pulse width T1 was 1 msec, and the pulse interval T2 was 10 msec. In addition, a rectangular wave pulse having a peak value of 0.1 V is inserted between the rectangular wave pulses (FIG. 11).
(B)) The resistance of each row was measured by measuring the current. When the resistance value exceeded 3.3 kΩ (1 MΩ per element), the forming of the row was terminated, and the processing of the next row was started. This process is performed for all the rows, the forming of all the conductive films (the conductive films 64 for forming the electron emission portions) is completed, and the electron emission portions are formed in each of the conductive films. The electron source 1 in which the electron-emitting devices were wired in a simple matrix was prepared.

Step-m Next, acetone (CH ₃ ) ₂ CO
And adjusted so that the indicated value of the pressure gauge 96 becomes about 2 × 10 ⁻³ Pa. At this time, it is confirmed that gas molecules of acetone are surely introduced into the vacuum chamber 93 by using the Q-mass 97.

Thereafter, similar to the forming step, FIG.
Using the device described above, 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 pulse generator 102 is a rectangular wave shown in FIG.
V, pulse width T1 = 1 msec, pulse interval 100 m
sec. By switching box 104, 1
The selection line is sequentially switched from Dx1 to Dx100 every msec, and as a result, a rectangular wave of T1 = 1 msec and T2 = 100 msec is applied to each element row with its phase slightly shifted for each row (FIG. 1
2).

The ammeter 103 is used in a mode for detecting the current value in the ON state of the rectangular wave pulse (when the voltage is 15 V), and the average value of this value in each element row is 6
When the current reached 00 mA (2 mA per element), the pulse application was terminated, the inside of the envelope 5 was evacuated, and the activation process was terminated.

Step-n While the evacuation is continued, the entire image forming apparatus 91 and the vacuum vessel 93 are held at 200 ° C. for 5 hours by a heating device (not shown), and are adsorbed on the envelope 5 and the inner wall of the vacuum chamber 93. (CH ₃ ) ₂ CO and its decomposed products are assumed to be once exhausted, and then maintained at 350 ° C. for 10 hours,
Further removal of residual adsorbed gas molecules and activation of the non-evaporable getter material on the getter structure 2 were performed.

Step-o After confirming that the pressure was 1.3 × 10 ⁻⁵ Pa or less, the exhaust pipe was heated with a burner and sealed off. Subsequently, the evaporable getter 10 previously set outside the image display area is flashed by high-frequency heating.

As described above, the image forming apparatus of this embodiment was manufactured.

Example 2 Electron Source 1 of Getter Structure 2
A structure similar to that of the first embodiment is used except that an insulating film is not formed on the surface in contact with the substrate and an insulating film is formed on the X-direction wiring 52 provided in the electron source 1. Were formed, and the same processing was performed to prepare the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment. The insulating film was formed after forming the X-directional wiring corresponding to step-e of Example 1, and a silicon oxide film was deposited to 1.0 μm by RF sputtering using a mask corresponding to the X-directional wiring pattern. I went by. At this time, in order to maintain electrical connection with the external driving device, an insulating film is not deposited at a portion where the wiring is taken out.

Example 3 The substrate of the getter structure 2 was
Using a blue plate glass having the same shape as in the first and second embodiments,
On one surface of the substrate, Cr with a thickness of 10 nm and Cu with a thickness of 1 μm
Was formed by using a material similar to that of Example 1 except that a non-evaporable getter was formed on the same surface after depositing by vacuum evaporation. Of the image forming apparatus was manufactured. Since the getter structure 2 made in the present embodiment is made of an insulating base, an insulating film is not formed on the back surface of the getter structure as in the first embodiment.

Embodiment 4 FIG. 2 shows the arrangement of the color phosphors on the face plate and the shape of the black matrix.
3, a member having the same configuration as that of the first embodiment using the same material as that of the first embodiment except that the getter structure 2 is disposed on the face plate side as shown in FIG. The image forming apparatus of the present embodiment was created by performing the same processing. In this embodiment, a 100 μm-thick aluminum-killed steel sheet having openings corresponding to the phosphors of each color was used as a base of the getter structure 2, and an insulating film on the back surface of the base as in Example 1 Is not formed.

[Example 5] As a substrate of the getter structure 2, a soda lime glass having the same shape as that of Example 4 was used, and Cr having a thickness of 10 nm and Cu having a thickness of 1 µm were deposited on one surface of the substrate by vacuum evaporation. After that, a member having the same configuration as that of the fourth embodiment is formed using the same material as that of the fourth embodiment except that a non-evaporable getter is formed on the same surface. Created. When the getter structure 2 prepared in this example was fixed to the face plate 4, the conductivity between the conductive film portion and the anode electrode portion of the getter structure 2 was secured using a conductive graphite paste.

[Comparative Example 1] Instead of disposing the getter structure 2 in the image forming apparatus, X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dx10
Except that a thin film of a non-evaporable getter made of a Zr-V-Fe alloy was formed on the substrate 0 by a sputtering method, a member having a similar configuration was prepared using the same material as in Example 1, and a similar process was performed. Was performed to produce the image forming apparatus of this embodiment.

Zr (75%), V (20%), Fe
A (5%) alloy was used to form a 300 nm thick getter film having a shape substantially similar to that of the X-direction wiring.

The image forming apparatuses of Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Example 1 described above were compared and evaluated. For the evaluation, a simple matrix drive was performed, the image display device was made to emit light continuously over the entire surface, and the change over time in luminance was measured. The luminance was measured at the center of the image display area, which is most susceptible to the deterioration of the vacuum inside the envelope 5.

In each of Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Example 1, the rate of change (deterioration rate) of the decrease in luminance at the beginning of driving is the highest, and the rate of deterioration gradually decreases as driving continues.
However, there is a difference between the image forming apparatuses of Examples 1 to 5 and the image forming apparatus of Comparative Example 1 particularly in the value of the deterioration rate in the initial stage of driving. Is about 15% larger than the deterioration rate of. Although the deterioration rate after long-term driving is not as large as in the early stage of driving, a difference in luminance occurs in the early stage of driving. Therefore, Comparative Example 1 has a darker screen and lower image quality than Examples 1 to 5.

The reason why the deterioration rates of the image forming apparatuses of Examples 1 to 5 are smaller than that of Comparative Example 1 is that the non-evaporable getter formed in the getter structure 2 disposed in the image display area is as follows. Compared to the getter thin film of Comparative Example 1 formed by the sputtering method, the surface area is large and the amount (volume) of the getter material is large, so that both the initial pumping speed and the total amount of gas that can be adsorbed and evacuated are large. . For this reason, it is possible to positively adsorb and exhaust the deteriorated gas generated particularly in the early stage of driving, and to suppress the deterioration of the electron source, thereby suppressing the decrease in luminance.

[Embodiment 6] In this embodiment, a horizontal field emission type electron-emitting device is used as an electron-emitting device constituting an electron source. The basic structure of the electron source substrate is the same as that shown in the first embodiment, but the portion of the electron-emitting device has a structure as schematically shown in FIG.

In FIG. 13, an emitter 133 and a gate 134 are formed on an insulating substrate 131 via an insulating layer 132. The emitter 133 and the gate 134 are formed of a 0.3 μm thick Pt thin film. The tip of the emitter 133 is an electron emitting portion, and the angle of the tip is 45 °.

The method of manufacturing the electron source substrate is performed in substantially the same procedure as in the first embodiment. However, instead of forming the device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the step-d of the first embodiment, in this embodiment, the emitter electrode and the gate electrode of the horizontal field emission electron-emitting device are formed. Steps of Example 1
The formation and patterning of the conductive film for forming the electron-emitting portion of the surface-conduction electron-emitting device performed in steps f and g are not performed.

The emitter electrode and the gate electrode were formed by sputtering a Pt film having a thickness of 0.3 μm. Subsequently, after a resist layer is formed by applying and baking a resist, exposure and development are performed using a photomask to form a resist pattern corresponding to the shape of the emitter 133 and the gate 134. Thereafter, dry etching is performed to form an emitter 133 and a gate 134 having desired shapes, and then the resist is removed. Thereby, a pair of the emitter 133 and the gate 134 having the shape shown in FIG. 13 is formed at a predetermined position on the insulating base 131.

Using this electron source substrate, an image forming apparatus having a getter structure on the electron source was formed in substantially the same procedure as in Example 1. However, unlike the case where the surface conduction electron-emitting device is used, the forming process and the activation process of the electron-emitting device are not required. The peak value of the voltage pulse used for driving was 100 V.

[Comparative Example 2] Instead of disposing the getter structure 2 in the image forming apparatus, X-direction wirings Dx1 to Dx52 were used.
Example 6 except that a non-evaporable getter thin film made of a Zr-V-Fe alloy was formed thereon by sputtering.
A member having a similar configuration was prepared by using the same material as that described above, and the same processing was performed to form an image forming apparatus of this embodiment.

Zr (75%), V (20%), Fe
A (5%) alloy was used to form a 300 nm thick getter film having a shape substantially similar to that of the X-direction wiring.

Comparative evaluation between Example 6 and Comparative Example 2 was performed in the same manner as Comparative Evaluation between Examples 1 to 5 and Comparative Example 1. Also in this comparison result, the deterioration rate of Example 6 is smaller than the deterioration rate of Comparative Example 2, and this difference is remarkable in the early stage of driving. 2 and continued to display a brighter and better image than the image forming apparatus.

[0107]

As described above, the present invention relates to a getter structure in which a non-evaporable getter having a thickness of about 10 to 100 .mu.m and an uneven surface of several .mu.m to several tens .mu.m formed by a plasma spraying method or the like. By disposing the body in the image display area on the electron source substrate or on the face plate, the gas generated from the image display area serving as a gas emission source can be quickly and for a long time by a getter having a large pumping speed and a total pumping amount. It becomes possible to exhaust air. As a result, it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the electron-emitting device and the fluctuation of the emission current amount. As a result, it is possible to suppress a decrease in luminance when the device is operated for a long time, particularly, a decrease in luminance near the center of the image display area. can do.

Although the present invention is particularly effective in an image forming apparatus having no electrode structure such as a control electrode between an electron source and an image forming member, the present invention is applicable to an image forming apparatus having a control electrode and the like. Similar effects are naturally expected when the invention is applied.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the structure of an envelope according to a first embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a structure of a fluorescent film.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating a structure of a face plate and an electron source according to a second embodiment of the image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration example of a driving circuit for performing television display based on an NTSC television signal by an image forming apparatus configured using electron sources in a matrix arrangement.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining an electron source and a getter structure according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

6 is a cross-sectional view of the electron source AA 'shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 8 is a view for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram illustrating an outline of a vacuum processing apparatus used for manufacturing an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration of an apparatus used for a manufacturing process, a forming process, and an activation process of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a pulse voltage waveform applied to the forming process.

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a pulse voltage waveform applied to each X-direction wiring and a temporal relative relationship during an activation process.

FIG. 13 is a schematic view of an electron-emitting device used in Embodiment 6 of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a schematic view of a thermal spraying apparatus used for manufacturing a getter structure.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 electron source 2 getter structure 3 support frame 4 face plate 5 envelope 6 glass substrate 7 fluorescent film 8 metal back 9 shield 10 evaporable getter 11 row selection terminal 12 signal input terminal 13 electron emission element Hv high voltage terminal 21 Black conductive material 22R, 22G, 22B Phosphor 31 Getter structure 32 Phosphor 33 Face plate 34 Electron source board 41 Display panel 42 Scan circuit 43 Control circuit 44 Shift register 45 Line memory 46 Synchronous signal separation circuit 47 Modulation signal generator Reference Signs List 51 electron source substrate 52 X-direction wiring 53 Y-direction wiring 54 surface conduction electron-emitting device 55 getter structure 61 interlayer insulating layer 62, 63 device electrode 64 conductive film including electron-emitting portion 65 contact hole 66 insulating film 67 getter structure Body substrate 68 Non-evaporable getter 9 Image forming apparatus under manufacturing process 92 Exhaust pipe 93 Vacuum chamber 94 Gate valve 95 Exhaust device 96 Pressure gauge 97 Q-mass 98 Gas introduction line 99 Gas introduction control device 100 Introduced substance source 101 Controller 102 Pulse generator 103 Ammeter 104 Switching box 131 Insulating substrate 132 Insulating layer 133 Emitter 134 Gate

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. An electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices and a plurality of wirings for applying a voltage to the electron-emitting devices are disposed on a substrate in an envelope, and the electron source is disposed to face the substrate. An image forming apparatus having a formed image forming member, wherein a structure is disposed on the substrate, and a non-evaporable getter material formed by a thermal spraying method is provided on the structure. Image forming apparatus. 2. An electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices and a plurality of wirings for applying a voltage to the electron-emitting devices are disposed on a substrate in an envelope, and the electron source is disposed to face the substrate. An image forming apparatus having an image forming member, wherein a structure is disposed on the substrate, and a non-evaporable getter material is provided on the structure, and the thickness of the getter material is 10 An image forming apparatus having a thickness of 100 μm to 100 μm. 3. The structure according to claim 1, wherein the structure is made of a conductive material, and an insulating film is formed on at least a surface of the structure on the side of the electron source substrate which is in contact with the electron source. 3. The image forming apparatus according to 1 or 2. 4. The structure according to claim 1, wherein the structure is made of a conductive material, and an insulating film is formed on at least a surface of the electron source substrate in contact with the structure. 3. The image forming apparatus according to 2. 5. The structure according to claim 1, wherein the structure is made of an insulating material, and a conductive continuous film is formed on a surface of the structure on which the non-evaporable getter is provided. 3. The image forming apparatus according to 2. 6. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the structure is connected to a potential regulating electrode of the structure. 7. An image forming member having an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are disposed on a substrate, and an image forming member arranged to face the substrate in an envelope. In an image forming apparatus having a plurality of fluorescent films separated for each image forming unit, a structure having an opening corresponding to a position of the fluorescent film is arranged on the image forming member, and the structure is at least the electron An image forming apparatus comprising: a non-evaporable getter material formed by a thermal spraying method on a surface facing a source. 8. An image forming member having an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are disposed on a substrate, and an image forming member disposed to face the substrate in an envelope. In an image forming apparatus having a plurality of fluorescent films separated for each image forming unit, a structure having an opening corresponding to a position of the fluorescent film is arranged on the image forming member, and the structure is at least the electron A non-evaporable getter material is provided on the surface facing the source, and the thickness of the getter material is 10 to 10.
An image forming apparatus having a thickness of 100 μm. 9. A structure in which at least a surface of the structure supporting the getter material is formed of a conductive continuous film, and is electrically connected so that the conductive continuous film has the same potential as the image forming member. 9. The method according to claim 7, wherein
An image forming apparatus according to claim 1. 10. The structure according to claim 1, wherein said structure has a thickness of 50 to 250 μm.
10. The method according to claim 1, wherein m is
Item 10. The image forming apparatus according to item 1. 11. The image according to claim 1, wherein the electron source is an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices wired in a matrix are arranged on a substrate. Forming equipment. 12. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electron source includes a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 13. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electron source includes a horizontal field emission type electron emission element.