JP2003272545A - Spacer and image formation device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a manufacturing method of a spacer used for an image formation device easily manufacturable at a low cost while having high accuracy. <P>SOLUTION: This manufacturing method of this spacer uses a catching member for catching a spacer base in a form covering a part of an end face of the spacer base, and imparts a material for film formation to the end face of the spacer base caught by the catching member. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a spacer manufacturing method, a structure, and an image display device to which the spacer is applied.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron-emitting devices, known as a hot cathode device and a cold cathode device, are known.

Among them, the cold cathode device is, for example, a surface conduction type emission device or a field emission type device (hereinafter referred to as FE type).
Also known are metal / insulating layer / metal type emitting element (hereinafter referred to as MIM type).

As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, for example,
MI Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 129
0, (1965) and other examples described later are known.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device is formed on a substrate.
By passing an electric current in a thin film with a small area parallel to the film surface
It utilizes the phenomenon of electron emission. This surface
As the conduction type emission element, Sn by Erlinson et al.
O₂In addition to those using thin films, those using Au thin films [G.Di
ttmer: "Thin Solid Films", 9,317 (1972)], In ₂O
₃/ SnO₂Thin film [M.Hartwell and C.G.Fons
tad: "IEEE Trans.ED Conf.", 519 (1975)] and thin carbon
Membrane [Hiraki Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1, 22
(1983)] has been reported.

Among the image forming apparatuses using the electron-emitting devices as described above, the flat-panel display device having a small depth is space-saving and lightweight, and thus is attracting attention as a replacement for the cathode ray tube display device. .

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an example of a display panel portion forming a flat image display device, and a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In the figure, 3115 is a rear plate and 3116.
Is a side wall, 3117 is a face plate, and the rear plate 3115, the side wall 3116, and the fuse plate 3
117 forms an envelope (airtight container) for maintaining a vacuum inside the display panel.

A substrate 3111 is fixed to the rear plate 3115, and the cold cathode element 3 is mounted on the substrate 3111.
112, NXM pieces are formed. (N and M are positive integers of 2 or more, and are appropriately set according to the target number of display pixels.) Further, the NXM cold cathode elements 311.
As shown in FIG. 5, 2 is wired by M row-direction wirings 3113 and N column-direction wirings 3114. These substrates 3111, cold cathode elements 3112, row-direction wirings 31
A portion constituted by 13 and the column direction wiring 3114 is called a multi-electron beam source. Also, the row wiring 311
An insulating layer (not shown) is formed between the wirings 3 and the column-direction wirings 3114 at least at the intersecting portions to maintain electrical insulation.

A phosphor film 3118 made of a phosphor is formed on the lower surface of the face plate 3117, and a phosphor (not shown) of three primary colors of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) is applied. It is divided. A black body (not shown) is provided between the phosphors of the respective colors forming the phosphor film 3118, and a metal back 3119 made of Al or the like is formed on the rear plate 3115 side surface of the phosphor film 3118. ing.

Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn and Hv are terminals for electrical connection having an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting the display panel and an electric circuit (not shown). Dx1 to Dxm are electrically connected to the row-directional wiring 3113 of the multi-electron beam source, Dy1 to Dyn are electrically connected to the column-directional wiring 3114 of the multi-electron beam source, and Hv is electrically connected to the metal back 3119.

Further, the inside of the airtight container is kept in a vacuum of about 10 <-6> Torr, and as the display area of the image display device becomes larger, the rear plate 3115 due to the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the airtight container. And a means for preventing the deformation or destruction of the face plate 3117 is required. The method of thickening the rear plate 3115 and the face plate 3116 not only increases the weight of the image display device but also causes image distortion and parallax when viewed from an oblique direction. On the other hand, in the example shown in FIG. 5, a structural support (called a spacer or rib) 3120, which is made of a relatively thin glass plate and supports atmospheric pressure, is provided. In this way, the substrate 311 on which the multi-beam electron source is formed
1 and the fluorescent plate 3118 are formed on the face plate 31.
The distance between 16 is normally maintained at a sub-millimeter to several millimeters, and as described above, the inside of the airtight container is kept at a high vacuum.

The spacers described above should not significantly affect the trajectories of electrons flying between the rear plate and the face plate. The cause of affecting the electron orbit is the charging of the spacer. In spacer charging, some of the electrons emitted from the electron source or electrons reflected by the face plate enter the spacer, secondary electrons are emitted from the spacer, or ions ionized by electron collision attach to the surface. It is thought that this is due to a matter.

When the spacer is positively charged, electrons flying in the vicinity of the spacer are attracted to the spacer, so that the display image is distorted in the vicinity of the spacer. The influence of charging becomes more remarkable as the distance between the rear plate and the face plate increases.

In general, as a means for suppressing charging, conductivity is imparted to the charging surface and a slight amount of current is passed to remove the charges. A method of applying this concept to a spacer and coating the surface of the spacer with tin oxide is disclosed in JP-A-57-11835.
It is disclosed in No. 5 Public Relations. Further, JP-A-3-49135 discloses a method of coating with a PdO-based glass material.

Further, by forming an electrode on the contact surface between the face plate and the rear plate of the spacer and uniformly applying an electric field to the covering material, it is possible to prevent the spacer from being broken due to poor connection or current concentration. . This situation will be described with reference to FIG. 2020a is a spacer, 201
7 is a face plate, 2018 is a fluorescent film, 2019 is a metal back, 2015 is a rear plate, 2011 is a substrate, and 2020b is a high resistance film coated on the spacer surface.
2020c is a spacer electrode formed on the spacer, and 90
Reference numeral 1 is a face plate side contact surface of the spacer, and 902 is a rear plate side contact surface. The spacer electrode 2020c is usually formed by using a method such as sputtering. To briefly explain an example of the electrode formation method, first use a negative mask of the required electrode size, and set the mask by high-precision alignment with the member, and then perform film formation on the entire surface To form. After that, the spacer was processed by forming a high resistance film. As another spacer electrode manufacturing method, as shown in FIG.
A method with mass productivity has also been proposed in which the electrodes are formed only on the end face portions by bundling 020 and forming a film on the electrode forming surface 1051. The image display device using the display panel described above is provided with terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 outside the container.
When a voltage is applied to each cold cathode element 3112 through Dyn, electrons are emitted from each cold cathode element 3112. At the same time, the metal back 3119 is attached to the terminal H outside the container.
A high voltage of several hundred [V] to several [kV] is applied through v to accelerate the emitted electrons, and the face plate 3
Collide with the inner surface of 117. Accordingly, the fluorescent film 311
Phosphors of 8 colors are excited to emit light and an image is displayed.

[0017]

As shown in the prior art example, a high resistance film is formed on the surface of the spacer to neutralize the positive charge, thereby alleviating the charge, and electrons flying in the vicinity of the spacer become the spacer. It is possible to prevent being attracted. Further, as described above, by forming an electrode on the contact surface between the face plate and the rear plate of the spacer to uniformly apply an electric field to the covering material, it is possible to prevent the spacer from being broken due to poor connection or current concentration. You can

However, the electrodes of the spacers to be formed on the contact surfaces of the face plate and the rear plate are
In the case where the electron beam is formed so as to extend to the side surface due to poor formation accuracy during the formation, the electron beam is affected and the electron beam cannot reach the desired position.
As a result, the display image is distorted near the spacer, making it difficult to form a high-quality image.

In order to prevent such a spacer electrode from wrapping around the side surface, as shown in FIG. 2B, the dummy spacer 1 for forming an electrode, which is higher than the actual spacer 1020, is formed.
050 is used, and a method is also devised in which the spacers 1020 are alternately arranged so as to be sandwiched by the electrode forming dummy spacers 1050, and the electrodes are formed so as to avoid the wraparound of the electrodes on the side surface portion. There is a demand for a method for more surely preventing the sneak into the side surface.

The present invention has been made for a method of forming a spacer electrode which can eliminate the above-mentioned inconvenience, and provides a method of manufacturing a spacer which is highly accurate, easy, and inexpensive.

In the image forming apparatus having the spacer formed by using the method of the present invention, it is possible to form a high quality image with less beam deviation.

[0022]

A method of manufacturing a spacer according to the present invention uses a holding member for holding the spacer base in a form of covering a part of the end face of the spacer base, and the end face of the spacer base held by the holding member. It is characterized in that a material for forming a film is added to. Further, the edge shape of the spacer base may be rounded.

Further, the spacer substrate may be formed by a heat drawing method.

The side surface of the spacer base may have an uneven shape.

Further, a plurality of the spacer bases are held with the sandwiching member arranged between the spacer bases,
The material may be applied.

The material may be applied by a sputtering method.

The film formed by applying the material may be an electrode.

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention includes an electron-emitting device, an accelerating electrode for accelerating the electron emitted by the electron-emitting device, and a phosphor that emits light when irradiated with the electron emitted by the electron-emitting device. And a spacer manufactured by the manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1 to 9.

The present invention is a method for stably forming the formation position of the low resistance film (electrode) on a spacer in which a corner portion (edge portion of the end face) of the cross-sectional shape of the spacer has an R shape.

Therefore, in the manufacturing method for forming the low resistance film by bundling the dummy spacers and the actual spacers and then forming the low resistance film by a vacuum film forming method such as sputtering or a coating method such as printing or spraying, the dummy spacers are the actual spacers. Since the non-contact portion of the surface contacting with has a convex shape, it is possible to stably manufacture a low resistance film (electrode) without being affected by the R shape of the actual spacer.

Further, a high-resistance film is formed on the actual spacer, is used as an insulating spacer with an electrode without forming the high-resistance film, and the bulk has conductivity without forming the high-resistance film. It can take various forms such as being used as a spacer. Alternatively, the spacer may be formed by a structure including a high resistance part and a low resistance part having an electrode in a layer below the high resistance part. .

The dummy spacers are made by processing a metal such as SUS or AL, a resin such as acrylic or vinyl chloride, or an inorganic material such as glass or ceramic.

Further, by manufacturing the dummy spacers from the heat-stretched glass, the accuracy is further improved and the dummy spacers can be manufactured in a cheaper process.

The structural concept of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

In the present invention, the dummy spacer 1050 for forming electrodes, which is higher than the actual spacer 1020 (height a).
Electrodes are formed in a state where (height b) is used and the spacers 1020 are alternately arranged so as to be sandwiched by the electrode forming dummy spacers 1050. The dummy spacer 1050 for electrode formation in the present invention is a spacer 1 on which an electrode is formed.
It is shaped so as to cover the end face near the side surface of 020. The height c of the dummy spacer 1050 to the surface covering the end surface of the spacer 1020 is set to be larger than the height a.

In FIG. 2A, 1021 is a high resistance part, and 1051 is a low resistance part = electrode. By using the dummy spacer 1050 shown in FIG. 2A, the electrode formation surface 1051 produced does not stick out from the end face of the spacer 1020 as shown in FIG. It is formed limited to the contact surface. FIG. 1B shows an electrode formation surface produced by the method shown in FIG. 4 for comparison.

By adopting the structure shown in FIG. 1A, even if the shape accuracy of the corners of the spacer cross section is poor,
The actual potential regulation is the boundary of the low resistance film forming portion in the flat portion. In particular, in the case of forming an electrode on a spacer substrate having an uneven shape on the side surface, due to the shape of the uneven portion on the side surface, when a plurality of spacers are bundled, the space between the spacer and the dummy spacer (holding member) is increased. A gap is likely to be formed, and the spacer electrode is likely to wrap around the side surface. Therefore, as in the present invention, since the dummy spacer covers a part of the end surface (spacer electrode formation surface) of the spacer, it is possible to reliably prevent the spacer electrode from wrapping around the side surface of the spacer.

Therefore, by using the process shown in FIG. 2A to form a desired spacer electrode shape, the spacer having the inexpensive and highly accurate low resistance electrode position shown in FIG. 1A is obtained. It has become possible to form.

[0039]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

The present invention relates to a spacer structure and a manufacturing method.

FIG. 2A is a diagram for explaining the method of manufacturing the spacer of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows an apparatus for forming irregularities on the surface by the heating and stretching method. In the present embodiment, a member such as glass that is relatively easy to melt can be processed by performing the following steps using the apparatus shown in FIG.

(1) A spacer base material having a similar shape to a desired cross section of the spacer is used. At this time, the cross-sectional area of the desired spacer is S1, the cross-sectional area of the spacer base material is S2, and S1 and S2 are set to satisfy S1 / S2 <1.

(2) Both ends of the spacer base material are fixed, a part of the longitudinal direction is heated to a temperature equal to or higher than the softening point, and one end 1 is sent out at a velocity v1 toward the heating portion and the other end is heated. The part 2 is pulled out at the speed v2 in the same direction as v1.
At this time, these velocities v1 and v2 satisfy S1v1 = S2v2. The heating temperature is usually 500 to 700 ° C., though it depends on the type of spacer material used and the processed shape.

(3) After cooling, the stretched spacer material is cut into a desired length. As a cutting method, various methods such as cutting with a diamond cutter, cutting with abrasive grains, and cutting with a laser can be used. The spacer 1020 shown in FIG. 2A is formed by the method as described above.

Spacer 1020 and dummy spacer 105
The spacers 0 are alternately bundled and arranged so that the spacers 1020 are sandwiched by the dummy spacers 1050. The dummy spacer 1050 has a shape that covers the end face near the side surface of the spacer 1020 on which the electrode is formed as described above. In this state, as shown in FIG. 1A, a Pt electrode is formed by sputtering ( A Pt electrode having a thickness of 0.1 μm was formed by high frequency sputtering in an argon atmosphere. According to this method, the electrodes of the spacers can be formed with high accuracy by accurately forming the boundary of the low resistance portion without using a mask or the like when forming the low resistance film.

Further, in order to improve the adhesiveness between the spacer material and Pt, it is possible to form Pt electrode after forming 0.05 μm of Ti as an underlayer.

Outline of Image Display Device Next, the structure and manufacturing method of the display panel of the image display device to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to specific examples.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the display panel used in this embodiment, in which a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In the figure, 1015 is a rear plate, and 1016.
Is a side wall, 1017 is a face plate, and 1015
1017 to 1017 form an airtight container for maintaining the inside of the display panel in a vacuum. When assembling an airtight container, it is necessary to seal the joints of each member in order to maintain sufficient strength and airtightness.For example, frit glass is applied to the joints, and the joints are placed in the atmosphere or nitrogen atmosphere. Sealing was achieved by firing at 400-500 degrees for 10 minutes or more. A method of evacuating the inside of the airtight container will be described later. Further, since the inside of the airtight container is kept in a vacuum of about 10 <-6> [Torr], in order to prevent the airtight container from being broken by atmospheric pressure or an unexpected impact, as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure, Spacer 1
020 is provided.

The rear plate 1015 has a substrate 1011.
Are fixed, but N × M cold cathode elements 1012 are formed on the substrate 1011. (N and M are positive integers of 2 or more and are appropriately set in accordance with the target number of display pixels. For example, in a display device intended to display a high-definition television, N = 3000, M = 10
It is desirable to set a number of 00 or more. ) The NxM
The cold cathode elements are arranged in a simple matrix by M row-direction wirings 1013 and N column-direction wirings 1014. The portion composed of 1011-1014 is called a multi-electron beam source.

The multi-electron beam source used in the image display device of the present invention is not limited in the material, shape or manufacturing method of the cold cathode device as long as it is an electron source in which cold cathode devices are wired in a simple matrix. Therefore, for example, a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an FE type, or a MIM type cold cathode device can be used.

Next, the structure of a multi-electron beam source in which surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged as cold cathode devices on a substrate and simple matrix wiring is described.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the multi-electron beam source used in the display panel of FIG. Surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged on the substrate 1011 and these devices are wired in a simple matrix by row-direction wiring electrodes 1013 and column-direction wiring electrodes 1014. An insulating layer (not shown) is formed between the electrodes at the intersections of the row-direction wiring electrodes 1013 and the column-direction wiring electrodes 1014 to maintain electrical insulation.

In the multi-electron source having the above-described structure, the row-direction wiring electrodes 1013, the column-direction wiring electrodes 1014, the interelectrode insulating layer (not shown), and the device electrode 1040 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device are previously formed on the substrate. After the conductive thin film 1041 was formed, power was supplied to each element through the row-direction wiring electrode 1013 and the column-direction wiring electrode 1014 to carry out energization forming processing and energization activation processing.

In this embodiment, the substrate 1011 of the multi-electron beam source is fixed to the rear plate 1015 of the airtight container, but the substrate 10 of the multi-electron beam source is fixed.
When 11 has a sufficient strength, the substrate 10 of the multi-electron beam source is used as the rear plate of the airtight container.
11 itself may be used.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view of the fluorescent film provided on the face plate 1017. The fluorescent film 1018 is composed of only the phosphor in the case of monochrome, but in the case of the color fluorescent film, a black conductive material 109 called a black stripe or a black matrix depending on the arrangement of the phosphors.
1 and a phosphor 1092. The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to provide each of the phosphors 1092 of the three primary color phosphors necessary for color display.
This is to make the color mixture portions inconspicuous by blackening the separately-applied portions, and to suppress the decrease in contrast due to the reflection of external light on the fluorescent film 1018. Black conductor 1
Although graphite was used as the main component for 010, other materials may be used as long as they are suitable for the above purpose.

On the rear plate side surface of the fluorescent film 1018, a metal back 1019 known in the field of CRT is used.
Is provided. The purpose of providing the metal back 1019 is
A part of the light emitted by the fluorescent film 1018 is specularly reflected to improve the light utilization rate, and the fluorescent film 101 is prevented from colliding with negative ions.
8 is to be protected, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam accelerating voltage, and to act as a conductive path for excited electrons in the fluorescent film 1018. The metal back 1019 is formed by forming a fluorescent film 1018 on a face plate substrate 1017, smoothing the surface of the fluorescent film (usually called filming), and vacuum-depositing Al on the surface. . The fluorescent film 1018
If a low voltage phosphor material is used for the metal back 1019, the metal back 1019 is not used.

Although not used in the embodiment, a fader is used for the purpose of applying an accelerating voltage and improving the conductivity of the fluorescent film.
A transparent electrode made of, for example, ITO may be provided between the spray substrate 1017 and the fluorescent film 1018.

Spacer FIG. 9 is a schematic sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in FIG. 6, and the numbers of the respective parts correspond to those in FIG. A high resistance film 1020b is formed on the spacer 1020 itself to improve antistatic properties.
The spacers 1020 are arranged as many as necessary to achieve the above purpose and at necessary intervals, and are fixed to the inside of the face plate 1017 and the surface of the substrate 1011 by a fixing member (not shown). In the embodiment described here, the spacer 1020 has a thin plate shape and is arranged in parallel with the row wiring 1013.
3 is electrically connected.

As the spacer 1020, the substrate 1011 is used.
It has an insulation property of withstanding a high voltage applied between the upper row direction wiring 1013 and the column direction wiring 1014 and the metal back 1019 on the inner surface of the face plate 1017,
In addition, the spacer 1020 needs to have electrical conductivity to the extent that the surface of the spacer 1020 is prevented from being charged. This point has already been described.

Insulating member 1020a of spacer 1020
Examples thereof include quartz glass, glass having a reduced content of impurities such as Na, soda lime glass, and ceramic members such as alumina. The insulating member 102
It is preferable that 0a has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of the member forming the airtight container and the substrate 1011.

High resistance film 10 constituting the spacer 1020
A current obtained by dividing the acceleration voltage Va applied to the face plate (metal back or the like) on the high potential side by the resistance value Rs of the high-resistance film that is the antistatic film flows through 20b. Therefore, the resistance value Rs of the spacer is set to a desired range from the viewpoint of antistatic and power consumption. Surface resistance R /
□ is preferably 10 12 Ω or less. In order to obtain a sufficient antistatic effect, 10 11 Ω or less is more preferable. The lower limit of the surface resistance depends on the shape of the spacer 1020 and the voltage applied between the spacers 1020,
It is preferably 10 5 Ω or more.

Thickness of antistatic film formed on insulating material
The t is preferably in the range of 10 nm to 1 μm. Although it depends on the surface energy of the material, the adhesion to the substrate, and the substrate temperature, a thin film of 10 nm or less is generally formed in an island shape, and the resistance is unstable and the reproducibility is poor. On the other hand, when the film thickness t is 1 μm or more, the film stress increases, the risk of film peeling increases, and the film forming time becomes long, resulting in poor productivity. Therefore, the film thickness is 50
It is desirable to be ~ 500 nm.

The surface resistance R / □ is ρ / t. From the preferable range of R / □ and t described above, the specific resistance ρ of the antistatic film is
Is preferably 0.1 to 10 8 [Ωcm]. In order to realize the more preferable range of surface resistance and film thickness, ρ is 10
It is good to set the power of 2 to 10 6 [Ωcm].

As described above, the temperature of the spacer 1020 rises when a current flows through the antistatic film formed thereon or when the entire display generates heat during operation. If the resistance temperature coefficient of the antistatic film has a large negative value, the resistance value decreases when the temperature rises, the current flowing through the spacer increases, and the temperature rises further. And the current continues to increase until it exceeds the limit of the power supply. The value of the temperature coefficient of resistance at which such a current runaway occurs is empirically negative and the absolute value is 1% or more. That is, the temperature coefficient of resistance of the antistatic film is preferably less than -1%.

Metal oxides are excellent as materials having antistatic film properties. Among the metal oxides, oxides of chromium, nickel and copper are preferable materials. The reason is considered that these oxides have a relatively low secondary electron emission efficiency and are difficult to be charged even when the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device hit the spacer. In addition to metal oxides, carbon is a preferable material because of its low secondary electron emission efficiency. In particular, since amorphous carbon has high resistance,
It is easy to control the spacer resistance to a desired value.

However, it is difficult to adjust the resistance value of the above-mentioned metal oxide or carbon to the range of the specific resistance which is desirable as the antistatic film, or the resistance is likely to change depending on the atmosphere. Poor controllability. The nitride of aluminum and a transition metal alloy can control the resistance value in a wide range from a good conductor to an insulator by adjusting the composition of the transition metal. Furthermore, it is a stable material with little change in resistance value in the process of manufacturing a display device described later. In addition, the temperature coefficient of resistance is less than -1%, which is a material that is practically easy to use. Examples of transition metal elements include Ti, Cr and Ta.

The alloy nitride film is formed on the insulating member by thin film forming means such as sputtering, reactive sputtering in a nitrogen gas atmosphere, electron beam evaporation, ion plating, or ion assisted evaporation. The metal oxide film can also be formed by the same thin film forming method, but in this case, oxygen gas is used instead of nitrogen gas. Alternatively, the metal oxide film can be formed by the CVD method or the alkoxide coating method. The carbon film is formed by a vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, a CVD method, or a plasma CVD method. Particularly, in the case of forming amorphous carbon, hydrogen is included in the atmosphere during the film formation or the film formation gas is used as a film formation gas. Use hydrocarbon gas.

Although the structure of the present invention has been described with respect to the spacer of the flat display device, the present invention is not limited to this and can be used as a structure for other purposes.

Further, Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn and Hv are electric connection terminals having an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting the display panel and an electric circuit (not shown). Dx1 to Dxm are row wirings 10 of the multi-electron beam source
13, Dy1 to Dyn are column direction wirings 1014 of a multi-electron beam source, and Hv is a metal back 1 of a face plate.
It is electrically connected to 019.

To evacuate the inside of the airtight container to a vacuum, after assembling the airtight container, an exhaust pipe (not shown) and a vacuum pump are connected, and the inside of the airtight container is reduced to the power of 10 −7 [T].
orr]. After that, the exhaust pipe is sealed, but in order to maintain the degree of vacuum in the airtight container, a getter film (not shown) is formed at a predetermined position in the airtight container immediately before or after the sealing. The getter film is, for example, a film formed by heating a getter material containing Ba as a main component with a heater or high-frequency heating and vapor deposition.
Due to the adsorption action of the getter film, the inside of the airtight container is 1 × 10 −5 or 1 × 10 −7 [Torr].
Maintained at a vacuum level of.

In the image display device using the display panel described above, when a voltage is applied to each cold cathode element 1012 through the terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn outside the container, electrons are emitted from each cold cathode element 1012. At the same time, a high voltage of several hundred [V] to several [kV] is applied to the metal back 1019 through the terminal Hv outside the container to accelerate the emitted electrons to collide with the inner surface of the face plate 1017. As a result, the phosphors of each color forming the phosphor film 1018 are excited and emit light, and an image is displayed.

Generally, the voltage applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 1012 of the present invention which is a cold cathode device is about 12 to 16 [V], and the distance d between the metal back 1019 and the cold cathode device 1012 is 0.1 [mm. ] To 8 [mm], and the voltage between the metal back 1019 and the cold cathode device 1012 is 0.1 [k].
V] to about 10 [kV].

The basic configuration of the display panel, the manufacturing method, and the outline of the image display device according to the embodiments of the present invention have been described above.

[0076]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples.

In the embodiments described below, as a multi-electron beam source, NxM (N = 3072, M) of the type described above having an electron emitting portion in the conductive fine particle film between electrodes.
= 1024), the multi-electron beam source was used in which the surface conduction electron-emitting device of (1024) was matrix-wired by M row-direction wirings and N column-direction wirings.

Example 1 As a spacer forming process of the present invention, FIG.
This will be described with reference to (a).

(Step 1) Fabrication of Spacer Member As the insulating member of the spacer, glass of the same quality as the rear plate having a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 2 mm is prepared, and this is shown in FIG. Cross-sectional shape (side =
A spacer 1020 having a length of 800 mm, a width (height; equal to the distance between the face plate and the rear plate) of 2.0 mm, and an end face portion = width (thickness) of 0.3 mm was produced. The side surface portion has three regions in the direction from the rear plate to the face plate, that is, a rear plate vicinity portion, an intermediate portion, and a face plate vicinity portion.
It has a smooth shape on the face plate side.

Similarly, as the insulating member of the dummy spacer, a glass of the same quality as the rear plate having a width of 50 mm and a thickness of 2 mm is prepared, and this is heated by the above-mentioned heating and stretching method to produce a glass as shown in FIG.
Cross-sectional shape shown in (a) (length 800 mm, plane side = width 2.5
mm, the end face side = thickness 0.3 mm), a dummy spacer 1050 was produced.

The dummy spacer 1050 in this embodiment is
Like the spacer, it was produced by the heating and stretching method, but there is no problem if it is produced by a method such as machining.

Although the thickness was selected to be 0.3 mm as a plate thickness that can be easily produced by heat drawing, there is no problem if the plate thickness is controlled to 0.3 mm or more.

There is no problem even if the dummy spacer is made of a material such as SUS, AL, or a metal material having a thermal expansion coefficient substantially equal to that of glass, and a shape similar to the shape of the heat-stretched spacer. However, in the case of manufacturing by machining or the like, since the plate thickness is not particularly controlled, it is possible to use a special shape when using the above materials. In that case, there is no problem even if the shape of the member other than the shape in contact with the plane of the spacer is convenient for the setting method. That is, it is important to have a convex shape (a shape that covers a part of the spacer end surface) on the end surface portion of the surface that is in contact with the spacer plane. For example, as shown in FIG.
This is the case where a dummy spacer is used.

Further, in the case of producing a spacer and a dummy spacer having a desired cross-sectional shape by heat drawing, it is easy to produce by processing a member before heat drawing into a necessary shape in consideration of the final spacer shape, The shape can be manipulated, and a large amount can be stably manufactured at low cost.

(Step 2) Fabrication of Low Resistive Film Electrode on Spacer Member Next, a method for forming a dummy spacer and spacers by alternately bundling them, which is performed in the present invention, will be described.

First, the shape of the spacer 1020 will be described. In the present embodiment, the cross-sectional shape of the spacer 1020 shown in FIG. 2A has a side surface portion and an end surface portion, and the side surface portion has the rear plate side smooth portion, the uneven middle portion, and the face plate as described above. It is composed of a side smooth portion, and an end surface portion (a contact portion with the face plate and the rear plate) is formed flat. The middle part with unevenness on the side,
The spacers are formed to reduce the static electricity, and the smooth portions on the rear plate side and the face plate side are formed smooth for use in beam position control by the pseudo electrode effect.
The pseudo electrode effect will be described later.

Although the above-mentioned spacers are described simply as uneven shapes, the shapes thereof include stripe-shaped unevenness due to heat drawing and surfaces having random unevenness portions due to sandblasting. In the present invention, the production of the spacer by the heat drawing method is described as an example, but finishing with the roughness of # 1000 to # 4000, which is a plate-shaped spacer having random unevenness, is favorable for the high resistance film property formed in the next step. It is also a surface condition where various results can be obtained.

Next, the shape of the dummy spacer will be described. Figure 2
The cross-sectional shape of the dummy spacer 1050 shown in (a) is composed of a portion of the side surface that is in contact with the spacer and a portion that is not in contact with it. The non-contact portion has a convex shape (a shape that covers a part of the spacer end surface) than the contact portion of the spacer. It is effective that the difference between the height of the convex portion and the portion in contact with the spacer is 1/2 or less of the thickness of the spacer.

The dummy spacers and the spacers are alternately bundled and set. After that, the low resistance film = electrode film, 0.
An Au film with a thickness of 1 μm is formed by vacuum sputtering.

As shown in FIG. 4, when the film is formed without using the dummy spacer of the present invention, the spacer cross-sectional shape is as shown in FIG. Since the boundary between the smooth surface) and the side surface with the unevenness has an R shape or a C shape,
This causes a problem that the beam position becomes unstable.

As described above, the spacer of this embodiment is
The concavo-convex portion is formed to reduce the static electricity of the spacer, and the smooth portions on the face plate side and the rear plate side are used for beam position control by the pseudo electrode effect. For example, when a high resistance film is simultaneously formed on the uneven portion and the smooth portion, the uneven portion has a high resistance and the smooth portion has a low resistance. As a result, the smooth portion having the low resistance produces a potential distribution as if the electrodes were formed. Using the resistance difference generated in this way, a pseudo electrode effect is obtained, but when a high resistance film is formed on the smooth part (when forming the pseudo electrode) and when a low resistance film is formed on the smooth part (when the smooth part is formed). When the low resistance film wraps around), even if they have the same low resistance, a sufficiently large resistance difference occurs between the two, so that the potential distribution is different. That is, the corner
This suggests that the beam control position differs depending on the formation position of the low resistance film in the R-shaped portion. Therefore, when a spacer substrate having a complicated shape is used as in the present embodiment, the shape of the electrode formed on the end face has a great influence on the activation of the electron beam. It is preferable to control.

The electrode shown in FIG. 1 (a) obtained by the manufacturing method according to the present invention shown in FIG. 2 (a) selectively removes a part of the flat portion of the end face in order to solve the above problems. A low resistance film is formed.

FIG. 2A is a sectional view in which the dummy spacers and the spacers are alternately bundled and set. In this state, by forming a low resistance film from the upper side, as shown in FIG.
The low resistance film pattern of the present invention of (a) can be formed.

In the above embodiment, the case of sputtering a metal film has been described, but there is no problem even if the low resistance film is formed by another method by effectively utilizing the set cross-sectional shape.

For example, a method of coating a material to be a low resistance film, not a method such as vacuum sputtering film formation or vacuum deposition (printing formation method using a dummy spacer convex portion as a mask, spray application method of low resistance film) There is no problem even if it is formed by.

(Step 3) Formation of High-Resistivity Film This step is performed when a high-resistance film is required for the spacer substrate, but in the case of an insulating spacer with an electrode or a conductive material having bulk conductivity. This step is not necessary in the case of a flexible spacer.

High resistance films are formed on both sides of the side surface by the sputtering method. A chromium oxide film with a thickness of 5 is used as the antistatic film.
0 nm was laminated. Not limited to this, the antistatic film of the present invention can be used.

Through the above-mentioned (Step 1) to (Step 3), a spacer having a low resistance film having dimensional accuracy and a high resistance film which is an antistatic film can be formed at the ends.

Here, the low resistance film means the antistatic film 102.
0c is a high potential side face plate 1017 (metal back 1019, etc.) and a low potential side substrate 1011 (wiring 1).
(013, 1014, etc.), and is also referred to as an electrode (intermediate layer) below. The electrode (intermediate layer) can have a plurality of functions listed below.

The high resistance film 1020b is electrically connected to the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011.

As described above, the high resistance film 1020b
Is provided for the purpose of preventing charging on the surface of the spacer 1020, but the high resistance film 1020b is provided on the face plate 1017 (metal back 1019 etc.) and the substrate 1.
011 (wiring 1013, 1014, etc.),
There is a possibility that a large contact resistance is generated at the interface of the connection portion, and the charges generated on the spacer surface cannot be removed quickly. In order to avoid this, a low resistance intermediate layer is provided on the contact surface between the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011.

The potential distribution of the antistatic film (high resistance film) 1020b is made uniform.

The electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 form an electron orbit according to the potential distribution formed between the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011. Spacer 1
In order to prevent the electron orbit from being disturbed in the vicinity of 020, it is necessary to control the potential distribution of the antistatic film 1020b over the entire area. When the antistatic film 1020b is connected to the face plate 1017 (metal back 1019, etc.) and the substrate 1011 (wirings 1013, 1014, etc.), unevenness in the connection state occurs due to the contact resistance at the interface of the connection portion, and the antistatic film 1020b is formed. There is a possibility that the potential distribution of will deviate from a desired value. In order to avoid this, the spacer 1020 is provided on the face plate 1017 and the substrate 101.
By providing a low-resistance intermediate layer in the entire length region of the spacer end portion which contacts 1 and applying a desired potential to this intermediate layer portion, the potential of the entire antistatic film 1020b can be controlled.

Control the orbits of emitted electrons.

The electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 form an electron orbit according to the potential distribution formed between the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011. Regarding the electrons emitted from the cold cathode element in the vicinity of the spacer, restrictions (wiring, change of element position, etc.) associated with installing the spacer may occur. In such a case, in order to form an image without distortion or unevenness, it is necessary to control the trajectory of the emitted electrons and irradiate the desired position on the face plate 1017 with the electrons.

For the low resistance film 1020c, a material having a resistance value sufficiently lower than that of the antistatic film (high resistance film) 1020b may be selected, and Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, C
Metals such as u and Pd, or alloys, and Pd, Ag, Au, Ru
It is appropriately selected from a printed conductor composed of a metal such as O ₂ and Pd—Ag or a metal oxide and glass, a transparent conductor such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ and a semiconductor material such as polysilicon. The spacer is connected to the X direction wiring and the metal back on the face plate.

In this example, a display panel in which the spacers 1020 shown in FIG. 2 described above were arranged was manufactured. Hereinafter, a detailed description will be given with reference to FIG. First, the substrate 1011 in which the row-direction wiring electrodes 1013, the column-direction wiring electrodes 1014, the inter-electrode insulating layer (not shown), and the element electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the conductive thin film are formed on the substrate in advance are mounted on the rear plate 1015. Fixed to. Next, the above-mentioned spacer is attached to the substrate 10.
11 row direction wirings 1013 (line width 300 [μm]) were fixed at equal intervals in parallel with the row direction wirings 1013 using a fixing jig (not shown). Then, 5mm above the substrate 1011
A face plate 1017 having a fluorescent film 1018 and a metal back 1019 attached to its inner surface is arranged via a side wall 1016, and the rear plate 1015 and the face plate 10 are arranged.
17 and the respective joint portions of the side wall 1016 were fixed. A frit glass (not shown) is applied to the joint between the substrate 1011 and the rear plate 1015, the joint between the rear plate 1015 and the side wall 1016, and the joint between the face plate 1017 and the side wall 1016 at 400 ° C. to 500 ° C. in the atmosphere.
It was sealed by baking at 10 ° C. for 10 minutes or more.

In this embodiment, the fluorescent film 101 is used.
As shown in FIG. 8B, 8 adopts a stripe shape in which each color phosphor 1092 extends in the column direction (Y direction), and the black conductor 1091 is between each color phosphor (R, G, B) 1092. Not only that, a fluorescent film arranged so as to separate each pixel in the Y direction is used, and the spacer 1020 is formed of a black conductor 1091 region (line width 30 which is parallel to the row direction (X direction)).
0 [μm]) via a metal back 1019. When performing the above-mentioned sealing, the phosphors 109 of each color are used.
2 and each element arranged on the substrate 1011 have to correspond to each other, the rear plate 1015, the face plate 1017, and the spacer 1020 are sufficiently aligned.

The inside of the airtight container completed as described above is evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn are used to perform the operation. Direction wiring electrode 1013 and column direction wiring electrode 10
A multi-electron beam source was manufactured by feeding each element through 14 and performing the above-mentioned energization forming process and energization activation process.

Next, the exhaust pipe (not shown) was heated by a gas burner at a vacuum degree of about 10 <-6> [Torr] to weld and seal the envelope (airtight container).

Finally, a getter process was performed in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing.

In the image display device using the display panel as shown in FIG. 6 completed as described above, each cold cathode device (surface conduction type emission device) 1012 has terminals outside the container Dx1 to Dxm, Dy1. Through Dyn, electrons are emitted by applying a scanning signal and a modulation signal respectively from a signal generating means (not shown), and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 1019 through a high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the emitted electron beam, An image was displayed by causing electrons to collide with the fluorescent film 1018 to excite and emit the phosphors 1092 of each color (R, G, and B in FIG. 8). The applied voltage V to the high voltage terminal Hv
a is 3 [kV] to 10 [kV], each wiring 1013,
The applied voltage Vf between 1014 was set to 14 [V].

At this time, a light emitting spot row is formed in two dimensions at equal intervals including the light emitting spots due to the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacer 1020, and a clear and good color reproducible color image is obtained. I was able to display.
This indicates that even if the spacer 1020 is installed, the disturbance of the electric field that affects the electron orbit did not occur.

The verification of the present invention is performed by using a metallographic microscope or the like.
It can be easily determined by observing the end face. Further, it is a verification means that the boundary position of the low resistance film forming portion of the end face according to the present invention is not formed in the R-shaped portion of the end face portion.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 11 shows another embodiment. The dummy spacers in the figure are produced, the spacers are bundled and set between the dummy spacers, and the low resistance film is formed from below.

This embodiment is effective in the case of a dummy spacer manufactured by machining. 0.3 for heat drawing
mm can be produced, but is not suitable for machining,
The shape of FIG. 11 is improved.

The same effects as in Example 1 are obtained, and the spacer
-No impact on properties, effectiveness and cheap processes.

[0118]

The present invention establishes a process which enables the spacer electrodes to be formed inexpensively while improving the accuracy of forming the spacer electrodes. Further, it is possible to obtain a good display image with excellent beam position control.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is an enlarged sectional view of a spacer electrode forming portion of the present invention, and FIG. 1B is an enlarged sectional view of a conventional spacer electrode forming portion.

2A is a sectional view of a spacer manufacturing method of the present invention: a spacer setting method when forming a low resistance film; FIG. 2B is a sectional view of a conventional spacer manufacturing method: a spacer setting method when forming a low resistance film. Is.

FIG. 3 shows a method of processing a spacer which is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional (old) spacer manufacturing method: a spacer setting method when a low resistance film is formed.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a conventional image display device with a display panel partially cut away.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing the image display device according to the embodiment of the present invention with a part of the display panel cut away.

FIG. 7 is a plan view of a multi-electron beam source of the image display device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view illustrating the phosphor array of the face plate of the image display device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of a display panel that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view and a cross-sectional view of a spacer in the image display device of the embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view of a dummy spacer according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1011 substrate 1012 cold cathode device 1013 row direction wiring 1014 column direction wiring 1015 rear plate 1016 side wall 1017 face plate 1018 fluorescent film 1019 metal back 1020 structure support (also called spacer or rib) 1020a spacer 1020 insulating member 1020b spacer 1020 Concavo-convex layer 1020c High resistance film 1020d of spacer 1020 Low resistance film 21a of spacer 1020 R, G, B phosphors 21b, 1010 Black conductor

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing a spacer, comprising: a sandwiching member sandwiching the spacer substrate in a form of covering a part of an end face of the spacer substrate, wherein a film is formed on an end face of the spacer substrate sandwiched by the sandwiching member. A method for manufacturing a spacer, characterized in that the above material is applied. 2. The method of manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein an edge portion of the end surface of the spacer base is rounded. 3. The method of manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein the spacer base is formed by a heat drawing method. 4. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein a side surface of the spacer base has an uneven shape. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of the spacer bases are held with the sandwiching member arranged between the spacer bases to apply the material. The method for manufacturing the spacer according to item 1. 6. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein the application of the material is performed by a sputtering method. 7. The method of manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein the film formed by applying the material is an electrode. 8. An electron-emitting device, an accelerating electrode for accelerating electrons emitted by the electron-emitting device, and a phosphor that emits light when irradiated with the electrons emitted by the electron-emitting device.
An image forming apparatus comprising: a spacer manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1.