JP2012164537A - Electron beam device and method of manufacturing image display unit - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To maintain high vacuum in the internal space for a long time by suppressing deterioration of a non-evaporation getter 39 attached previously to the inner surface side of a first substrate 12 thereby maintaining high getter performance after sealing, in a method of manufacturing an electron beam device by vacuum baking and cooling the first substrate 12 provided with an electron emission element 32 and a second substrate 13 provided with an image display member 36 and an anode 37, and then facing the first and second substrates each other, and sealing them while inserting a support frame 22 into the peripheral part.SOLUTION: During vacuum baking of the first substrate 12, a counter plate is brought close to the inner surface side of the first substrate 12 before an attached non-evaporation getter 39 reaches the activation temperature. In this state, vacuum baking at the activation temperature or higher and subsequent cooling are performed.

Description

  The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus and a method for manufacturing an image display apparatus, and more particularly to an electron beam apparatus and an image display apparatus capable of maintaining the inside of the envelope of the obtained electron beam apparatus and the image display apparatus in a high vacuum for a long time. It relates to the manufacturing method.

  As an image display device which is one of image forming devices, an image display device having an electron beam device in which a cathode and an anode of an electron-emitting device are arranged to face each other is known. In this image display device, a rear plate provided with a number of electron-emitting devices that emit electrons in response to an image signal, a fluorescent film that emits light upon receiving electrons and displays an image, and an electron acceleration electrode are provided. The face plate is disposed opposite to the inside, and the inside is maintained in a vacuum. As a configuration for forming the vacuum internal space, a support frame is sandwiched between the peripheral portions of the face plate and the rear plate, and this support frame is joined to both the face plate and the rear plate to form an envelope. Is often taken.

  In order to maintain the inside of the envelope constituting the electron beam apparatus and the image display apparatus at a high vacuum, it is preferable to vacuum bake the face plate and the rear plate before the joint sealing. By performing the vacuum baking, the emitted gas can be kept low, and the inside of the envelope can be kept at a high vacuum after the joining and sealing. In addition, when a getter is provided inside the envelope, a small amount of released gas from the member inside the envelope can be adsorbed by the getter after joining and sealing, and the inside of the envelope can be kept at a higher vacuum.

  Patent Document 1 discloses that the face plate and the rear plate are subjected to vacuum baking in a heating vacuum chamber when manufacturing an image display device. The vacuum-baked face plate and rear plate are cooled in a cooling vacuum chamber, faced to each other, and sandwiched with a support frame at the periphery to form an envelope. Patent Document 1 also discloses that a non-evaporable getter is previously attached to a face plate or a rear plate.

Japanese Patent No. 4235640

In the technique of Patent Document 1, vacuum baking is performed in a state where a rear plate and a face plate are arranged to face each other. The baking temperature is 350 ° C. to 380 ° C., and the degree of vacuum at this time is disclosed as 10 ⁻⁴ Pa. When the face plate or the rear plate has a non-evaporable getter, the getter is activated at the time of vacuum baking, but the getter performance after activation greatly depends on the degree of vacuum exposed at that time. Further, the non-evaporable getter is activated at a temperature exceeding 300 ° C. over 10 minutes to 1 hour, and the higher the temperature, the shorter the time required for activation. The activated getter functions as a chemical pump and adsorbs surrounding gas molecules.

After vacuum baking, until the envelope is bonded and sealed, the higher the gas molecular weight adsorbed by the non-evaporable getter, the lower the getter performance after bonding and sealing, so the inside of the envelope is maintained at a high vacuum. The period of time that can be shortened. After the vacuum baking, the degree of vacuum is the worst until the envelope is joined and sealed, and the cooling period takes a long time. Generally, it takes about 2 hours for the rear plate and the face plate to cool to about 100 ° C., which is the process temperature of the getter process for vapor deposition of the evaporative getter, and the degree of vacuum is higher than 10 ⁻⁵ Pa. It will not be. This is because it takes a long time for cooling in a vacuum, and even if exhaust gas from the rear plate and face plate wither, exhaust gas from chamber walls, heaters, reflectors, etc., which are components of the vacuum chamber, does not wither. is there. In other words, there is a problem that the non-evaporable getter deteriorates because the activated non-evaporable getter adsorbs the gas released from the vacuum chamber during the cooling period.

  Therefore, the present invention suppresses deterioration after activation of the non-evaporable getter, maintains high getter performance after sealing the junction, and lengthens the inside of the envelope constituting the electron beam apparatus and the image display apparatus to a high vacuum. An object of the present invention is to provide an electron beam apparatus capable of maintaining time and a method for manufacturing an image display apparatus.

In order to solve the above-described problems, the present invention provides a first substrate on which an electron-emitting device is provided and a second substrate on which an anode is provided, after vacuum baking and cooling, In the manufacturing method of the electron beam apparatus, facing the installation side of the anode on the inner surface side, and sandwiching and supporting the support frame at the periphery,
A non-evaporable getter is previously attached to the inner surface of at least one of the first and second substrates, and the non-evaporable type provided at the time of the vacuum baking of the first and / or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter. Before the getter reaches the activation temperature, a counter plate is brought close to the inner surface side of the first and / or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter, and in this state, the vacuum baking is performed at a temperature equal to or higher than the activation temperature. And a method for manufacturing the electron beam apparatus, characterized in that the subsequent cooling is performed.

  According to the present invention, the counter plate is brought close to the attachment surface of the non-evaporable getter, thereby performing vacuum baking and cooling while maintaining a high degree of vacuum in the gap space between the attachment surface of the non-evaporable getter and the counter plate. be able to. For this reason, deterioration after activation of the non-evaporable getter can be suppressed, the getter performance after bonding sealing is kept high, and the inside of the envelope constituting the electron beam apparatus and the image display apparatus is kept in a high vacuum. Can maintain time.

It is the schematic which shows an example of the image display apparatus which can be manufactured by this invention. It is the schematic which shows an example of the manufacturing apparatus used for the manufacturing method of the image display apparatus which concerns on this invention. It is an example of the baking temperature profile at the time of vacuum baking of a rear plate. It is the schematic of the carrier for vacuum baking, and its peripheral part. It is a figure which shows the gas adsorption rate change during NEG activation. It is a figure which shows the degree of vacuum outside the gap space and the gap space, and the flow of gas. It is a figure which shows the adsorption | suction performance with respect to the water of NEG material. 6 is a schematic view of a peripheral portion of a carrier for vacuum baking in Example 2. FIG. It is explanatory drawing of the rear plate proximity | contact process in Example 3. FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described. The method for manufacturing an electron beam apparatus of the present invention can be suitably used for a method for manufacturing an image display apparatus using the electron beam apparatus obtained thereby. In particular, a rear plate on which an electron-emitting device is formed and a face plate on which an image forming member (phosphor film) and an anode (electron accelerating electrode) are formed are arranged facing each other and sealed to form an envelope. The image display device is a preferred embodiment to which the present invention is applied.

  FIG. 1A is a partially broken perspective view showing an example of an image display device that can be manufactured according to the present invention. The image display device 10 includes a first substrate 12 and a second substrate 13. The first substrate 12 and the second substrate 13 are sealed with the support frame 22 sandwiched between the peripheral portions thereof, thereby forming an envelope 11 (airtight container) having an internal space that is sealed and maintained in a vacuum. Yes.

  In the image display device 10, the first substrate 12 corresponds to a rear plate, and the second substrate 13 corresponds to a face plate. The support frame 22 is bonded to the first substrate 12 or the second substrate 13 in advance, and the second substrate 13 or the first substrate 12 is placed on the opposite side of the support frame 22 in the sealing process after vacuum baking and cooling described later. So that the envelope 11 can be formed. The support frame 22 is vacuum baked together with the first substrate 12 when previously bonded to the first substrate 12 and is vacuum baked together with the second substrate 13 when bonded to the second substrate 13 in advance. become. Further, the support frame 22 is not bonded to any of the first and second substrates 12 and 13, and the first and second substrates 12 and 13 are simultaneously supported in the sealing process after vacuum baking and cooling described later. You may make it join to the frame 22. FIG. In this case, the support frame 22 may be vacuum-baked together with the first or second substrate 12 or 13, but may be vacuum-baked separately.

  A large number of electron-emitting devices 32 that emit electrons in accordance with image signals are provided on the inner surface side of the first substrate 12 (on the surface facing the second substrate 13), and each electron-emitting device 32 is in response to image signals. Wiring (X-direction wiring 33, Y-direction wiring 34) for driving is formed. The electron-emitting device 32 has a plurality of methods such as an SCE (surface conduction) type, a Spindt type, and a CNT (carbon nanotube) type, and the SCE type is particularly preferable. The second substrate 13 is made of a glass material, and on the inner surface side, a fluorescent film 36 that is an image forming member that receives light to emit light and displays an image is provided. An anode 37 called a metal back is formed on the fluorescent film 36, and the anode 37 and the fluorescent film 36 are stacked. The anode 37 is made of a conductive material such as an Al thin film, and functions as an electrode that attracts electrons. The anode 37 is supplied with a potential from a high-voltage terminal Hv provided in the envelope 11. The installation side of the electron emission element 32 of the first substrate 12 is opposed to the installation side inner surface side of the anode 37 and the fluorescent film 36 of the second substrate 13. The cathode of the electron-emitting device 32 provided on the first substrate 12 and the anode 37 provided on the second substrate 13 are arranged to face each other to constitute an electron beam apparatus.

  FIG. 1B is a detailed cross-sectional view of the vicinity of the electron-emitting device of the image display apparatus of FIG. An evaporation type getter 38 is attached to the surface of the anode 37 which is the inner surface side of the second substrate 13. The evaporable getter 38 is attached before the sealed and sealed envelope 11 is formed in a vacuum environment. For example, it is attached by forming a getter metal such as Ti or Ba to a thickness of about 10 to 100 nm by a vacuum deposition method such as a sputtering method or an EB deposition method. As the film thickness increases, the adsorption performance of the evaporative getter 38 improves. However, as the film thickness increases, the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device 32 are less likely to enter the fluorescent film 36, and the brightness of the image display device 10 decreases. To do. Therefore, a Ti film formed with a uniform film thickness distribution of about 30 nm is particularly preferable.

  A non-evaporable getter 39 is attached to the inner surface side of the first substrate 12, which is the first substrate 12 with a non-evaporable getter. In this example, the non-evaporable getter-attached substrate is the first substrate 12, but both the second substrate 13 or the first and second substrates 12, 13 can be non-evaporable getter-attached substrates. . However, when forming the image display device by providing the fluorescent film 36 on the second substrate 13, the non-evaporable getter 39 is preferably attached to the first substrate 12 instead of the second substrate 13. In general, the fluorescent film 36 generates a large amount of gas, so that the gas generated from the fluorescent film 36 can be easily removed by vacuum baking without deteriorating the non-evaporable getter 39. In the following description, the non-evaporable getter is referred to as NEG.

  The NEG 39 is provided in advance before being put into the vacuum chamber for a vacuum baking process or a bonding sealing process, as with the electron emitter 32, the X-direction wiring 33, and the Y-direction wiring 34. For example, a NEG material that is a getter metal such as Ti or Zr or an alloy containing these is formed by forming a film to a thickness of about 100 to 3000 nm by sputtering such as DC sputtering or vacuum deposition. it can. When the film thickness is increased, the adsorption performance of NEG 39 is improved. However, when the film thickness is too thick, pattern formation becomes difficult regardless of the dry method or the wet method. Therefore, a Ti film or a Zr film formed with a film thickness of about 1 μm by DC sputtering is particularly preferable.

  The evaporable getter 38 has a high adsorption performance for active gases such as water and oxygen, whereas NEG 39 has a high adsorption performance for hydrogen, CO, and the like. For this reason, it is possible to maintain the inside of the envelope 11 in a high vacuum for a long time with the minimum necessary film thickness by designing the required performance by assigning it to each function.

  Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an image display device manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention. The first substrate 12 is put into the upper left load lock chamber (L1R) of FIG. 2, and after the load lock chamber (L1R) is evacuated, the first substrate 12 is transferred to the inline baking chamber (H21R to H33R) and vacuum baked. To be cooled. The inline bake chambers (H21R to H33R) are vacuum bake chambers arranged in a straight line, and each of the six divided zones is kept at a constant temperature. The temperature increase zones (H21R, H22R) are set to gradually increase the temperature from room temperature, the constant temperature heating zone (H23R) is set to a predetermined temperature, and the temperature decrease zones (H31R to H33R) gradually increase in temperature. The temperature is set to lower. An example of the baking temperature profile when the first substrate 12 passes through the inline baking chamber (H21R to H33R) is shown in FIG. The first substrate 12 vacuum-baked in the in-line baking chamber (H21R to H33R) is cooled to about 120 ° C., which is the pre-sealing temperature, and then sealed through the transfer chamber (TRV4) and the cluster chamber (T6). It is sent to the arrival room (S8).

  Similarly to the first substrate 12, the second substrate 13 is put into the lower left load lock chamber (L1F) of FIG. 2, and after the load lock chamber (L1F) is evacuated, the inline bake chamber (H21F to H33F) is entered. Transported, vacuum baked and cooled. The baking temperature profile when the second substrate 13 passes through the in-line baking chamber (H21F to H33F) is the same as the baking temperature profile of the first substrate 12 in FIG. The temperature may be different from that of the first substrate 12. The purpose of the vacuum baking is to degas the first and second substrates 12 and 13 and to activate the NEG 39. Although it is desirable to vacuum bake both the first and second substrates 12 and 13 at a high temperature, there are limitations. In the case of the first substrate 12, when the vacuum baking is performed at a high temperature, the device performance of the electron-emitting device 32 is affected by the surface oxidation. On the other hand, the second substrate 13 can be heated up to 450 ° C. although the phosphor film 36 is deteriorated at a high temperature. When the heating temperature is different by 50 ° C., the degassing effect is greatly different, and it is known that the same effect can be obtained by treating at 400 ° C. for 1 hour and treating at 450 ° C. for 10 minutes. That is, when the second substrate 13 is vacuum-baked, it is more preferable that the set temperature of the constant temperature heating zone, which is the highest temperature, is set to 450 ° C. because the processing time can be shortened. The second substrate 13 vacuum-baked in the in-line baking chamber (H21F to H33F) is cooled to about 120 ° C., which is the pre-sealing temperature, and then gettered via the transfer chamber (TRV4) and the cluster chamber (T6). Sent to room (E7). The second substrate 13 sent to the getter chamber is sent again to the sealing chamber (S8) via the cluster chamber (T6) after the evaporation type getter 38 is formed in the getter chamber (E7).

  The first and second substrates 12 and 13 sent to the sealing chamber (S8) are heated again in a state of being opposed to each other in the sealing chamber (S8). The container 11 is obtained. The envelope 11 whose inside is an airtight container is transported reversely through the cluster chamber (T6) and the transport chamber (TRV4) and sent to the unload chamber (UL5). After the unload chamber (UL5) is vented to atmospheric pressure, the envelope 11 is taken out from the manufacturing apparatus to the atmosphere.

  In the manufacturing method described above, the first and second substrates 12 and 13 are vacuum-baked using two series of vacuum chambers, but the first and second substrates are controlled by controlling the heating temperature using only one series of vacuum chambers. 12 and 13 may be vacuum-baked.

  Hereinafter, the manufacturing method will be described in detail with reference to FIG. FIG. 4A is a schematic view of the vacuum baking carrier 40 used when the first substrate 12 is vacuum-baked, and FIG. 4B is a schematic view of the periphery of the vacuum baking carrier 40.

<Step S1: Input process>
First, as shown in FIG. 4A, the first substrate 12 in which the support frame 22 is bonded to the inner surface side with a highly airtight bonding member such as frit glass or a low melting point metal is placed on the vacuum baking carrier 40. . The support frame 22 is preliminarily coated with a bonding member 24 for bonding and sealing made of a low-melting-point metal sealing material made of In, Sn, or an alloy material containing these as a main component. As shown in FIG. 4B, the first substrate 12 is provided with a NEG 39 on the inner surface side, and is a first substrate 12 with a non-evaporable getter.

In the vacuum baking carrier 40, a counter plate 41 having approximately the same size as that of the first substrate 12 is installed in advance at a position facing the inner surface side of the first substrate 12. The counter plate 41 is preferably made of a glass material that emits relatively little gas during heating and relatively little thermal deformation during heating. Further, for the purpose of reducing the surface adsorbed gas in the atmosphere, it is desirable to use a glass material coated with a noble metal thin film such as Au or Pt with a thickness of about several nm as the counter plate 41. The first substrate 12 does not interfere with the opposing plate 41 when the first substrate 12 is loaded and unloaded, and the first substrate 12 is thermally deformed during the vacuum baking, so that the joining member 24 on the support frame 22 is connected to the opposing plate 41. The first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 are installed with an appropriate distance so as not to contact each other. This appropriate distance varies depending on the size of the first substrate 12, but if the substrate size is up to 1 m square, there is a risk of interference if the distance between the first substrate 12 and the opposing plate 41 is at least 50 mm. Absent. Furthermore, when evacuating the entire vacuum baking carrier 40 in the vacuum chamber, it is necessary to evacuate the gap space between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 in a short time, and the gap distance is also about 50 mm. It is necessary to. When the gap distance is short, for example, when the gap distance is several mm, it takes 1 hour to evacuate the gap space to 10 ⁻⁵ Pa.

The vacuum baking carrier 40 thus prepared is put into the load lock chamber (L1R) of the manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. After vacuuming to about 10 ⁻⁵ Pa in the load lock chamber (L1R), the vacuum baking carrier 40 is transferred to the first temperature raising zone (H21R) of the inline baking chambers (H21R to H33R) in a vacuum state. The temperature increase zone is set to 150 ° C. for H21R and 280 ° C. for H22R in order to increase the temperature in two steps in order to heat the first substrate 12 to 410 ° C. in a stepwise manner. When the carrier 40 for vacuum baking is transported, if the temperature change is steep, the substrate temperature unevenness increases and there is a risk of causing cracks in the substrate. It is preferable to optimize as described above.

<Step S2: proximity process>
Next, before reaching the activation temperature of NEG 39, for example, when the vacuum baking carrier 40 is heated in the temperature raising zone (H21R, H22R) or immediately after being transferred to the constant temperature heating zone (H23R), the first substrate 12 is moved to a position where the distance from the opposing plate 41 is reduced. As shown in FIG. 4B, the distance between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 is reduced by pushing up the push-up pins 44 attached to the carrier base 43 in order to support the first substrate 12. The counter plate 41 can be brought close to the inner surface side of 12. However, when the support frame 22 is attached to the first substrate 12, as shown in FIG. 4A, the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 are approximately It can only approach 20mm. Although the interval between the counter plate 41 and the support frame 22 can be reduced, the bonding member 24 is provided on the upper surface of the support frame 22, so if the interval between the counter plate 41 and the support frame 22 is too small. This joining member 24 easily comes into contact with the opposing plate 41. For this reason, a skirt 42 may be provided around the periphery of the vacuum baking carrier 40. More specifically, the support frame 22 is usually attached to the inner side of the inner peripheral edge of the first substrate 12, and the skirt 42 includes the outer peripheral edge of the first substrate 12 and the outer peripheral edge of the counter plate 41. Is a thing interposed between the two. When the skirt 42 is provided, the distance d between the gaps of the moved first substrate 12 and the skirt 42 can be easily reduced to about 4 mm or less. The NEG 39 attached to the inner surface side of the first substrate 12 is activated at a temperature of approximately 300 ° C. or higher, and gas adsorption starts. The NEG 39 has an activation temperature for the proximity of the opposing plate 41 to the inner surface side of the first substrate 12 and the shielding between the outer peripheral edge portion of the first substrate 12 and the outer peripheral edge portion of the opposing plate 41 by the skirt 42. Done before reaching.

<Step S3: Heating process>
Next, together with the vacuum baking carrier 40, the first substrate 12 is heated for a predetermined time at a maximum temperature of 410 ° C. that is equal to or higher than the activation temperature of the NEG 39. In order to activate the NEG 39 formed on the first substrate 12, it is necessary to heat for a predetermined time. FIG. 5 shows the results of measuring the getter adsorption performance simultaneously with heating when vacuum-baking 1 μm Ti metal NEG with Ti deposited by EB vapor deposition at 400 ° C. The horizontal axis represents the heating time, and the vertical axis represents the getter adsorption rate of each gas of water (H ₂ O), carbon dioxide (CO ₂ ), and carbon monoxide (CO). The straight line in the graph is the baking temperature profile of the Ti film. The adsorption performance of Ti metal NEG to water reaches its maximum value immediately after being heated to 350 ° C., and the adsorption performance of Ti metal NEG to carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide finally reaches its maximum value after reaching 400 ° C. for 1 hour. Can be seen from the graph. In the present invention, as shown in FIG. 3, the first substrate 12 is vacuum-baked at a temperature exceeding 400 ° C. for 1 hour after the first substrate 12 is heated to 400 ° C.

  The amount of gas released from the vacuum-baked first substrate 12 is released in two stages. First, the gas adsorbed on the surface of the material is released at a temperature around 200 ° C. Mainly surface adsorbed gas such as water. Next, emitted gas is emitted gas from the electron-emitting device 32, the X-direction wiring 33, the Y-direction wiring 34, and the NEG 39 formed on the first substrate 12 at a temperature of about 400 ° C., and is occluded in each member. Gas is the center. Mainly oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen, etc. After NEG 39 is activated, the amount of gas adsorbed by NEG 39 becomes larger than the value obtained by adding the amount of gas released from first substrate 12 and the amount of gas released from counter plate 41.

FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing the degree of vacuum and the gas flow inside and outside the gap space between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 after one hour has passed since the start of vacuum baking at 410 ° C. is there. As shown in FIG. 6, the degree of vacuum inside the chamber (outside the gap space) of the vacuum chamber in the constant temperature heating zone (H23R) stops at 10 ⁻⁵ Pa. This is because the gas released from the chamber walls, heaters, reflectors, and the like, which are constituent members of the vacuum chamber, does not wither. For example, if the whole chamber is covered with a heater and vacuum-baked and degassed, the gas released from the chamber will be halved, but the heater / reflector is always cooled to about 100 ° C by flowing cooling water, so it will be baked It is difficult to reduce the emission gas. On the other hand, when the counter plate 41 is configured to be close to the first substrate 12, the NEG 39 adsorbs gas, so the degree of vacuum in the gap space between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 is significantly better. Become.

Here, in FIG. 4B, the length L of the projecting portion of the skirt 42 is 20 mm and the gap distance d is 4 mm, and the released gas of each member after vacuum baking and the adsorption performance of NEG 39 are used. Thus, the vacuum degree distribution in the gap space was calculated by simulation. As a result, it was found that even if the inside of the vacuum chamber (H23R) (outside of the gap space) was 10 ⁻⁵ Pa, a high vacuum of 10 ⁻⁷ Pa level was maintained in almost all areas of the gap space. The most area of the gap space is an area where the electron-emitting device 32 is formed on the first substrate 12 and corresponds to a display effective area of the image display device.

<Step S4: Cooling step>
Next, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is sequentially transported to the temperature lowering zones (H31R, H32R, H33R) and stays for a predetermined time, thereby cooling the first substrate 12 with a baking temperature profile as shown in FIG. The first substrate 12 is cooled to about 120 ° C., for example, and then transferred to the transfer chamber (TRV 4) together with the vacuum baking carrier 40. In the transfer chamber, the push-up pin 44 shown in FIG. 4B is lowered to move the distance between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 to about 50 mm, and then the vacuum baking carrier 40 is moved to the cluster chamber (T6). Let In the cluster chamber, the first substrate 12 is separated from the vacuum baking carrier 40 and is transported alone to the sealing chamber (S8).

  The second substrate 13 is vacuum baked in another in-line baking chamber (H21F to H33F) shown in FIG. 2 in parallel with the vacuum baking process of the first substrate 12. The second substrate 13 is set in advance on a vacuum baking carrier 40 having a structure similar to that for the first substrate 12 and having a size corrected for the second substrate 13 having a different substrate size. The second substrate 13 is put together with the vacuum baking carrier 40 into another load lock chamber (L1F) in the lower left of FIG. Next, the temperature is raised stepwise in the temperature raising zones (H21F, H22F, H23F), heated to 450 ° C. in the constant temperature heating zone (H31F), and cooled to 120 ° C. or less in the temperature lowering zones (H31F, H32F). Subsequently, like the first substrate 12, the second substrate 13 is sequentially transferred to the transfer chamber (TRV4) and the cluster chamber (T6) and then sent to the getter chamber (E7). In the getter chamber, a Ti film is deposited to a thickness of about 30 nm as an evaporation type getter 38 on the surface of the anode 37 on the inner surface side of the second substrate 13 by EB vapor deposition. Next, the second substrate 13 is transferred alone to the sealing chamber (S8).

  The 1st and 2nd board | substrates 12 and 13 conveyed by the sealing chamber (S8) are arrange | positioned facing each other. In the sealing chamber (S8), the first and second substrates 12 and 13 are reheated to a sealing pre-temperature of 120 ° C. and held for a predetermined time until the overall temperature distribution becomes small. Thereafter, bonding and sealing are performed by local heating only in the vicinity of the support frame 22 while applying pressure from both sides. The local heating can be performed by energizing the metal sealing material or using a lamp or a laser.

  The envelope 11 which is bonded and sealed into an airtight container is transferred from the sealing chamber (S8) to the unload chamber (UL5) via the cluster chamber (T6) and the transfer chamber (TRV4). After the unload chamber (UL5) is vented to atmospheric pressure, the envelope 11 is carried out of the apparatus, and the vacuum baking process and the bonding sealing process are completed.

  In the above description, the NEG 39 is formed on the inner surface side of the first substrate 12, and the first substrate 12 is a non-evaporable gettered substrate. However, the NEG 39 may be attached to at least one of the first and second substrates 12 and 13, and the counter plate 41 is brought closer to the first or second substrate 12 or 13 with the non-evaporable getter. What should I do? One of the first and second substrates 12 and 13 may be provided with a non-evaporable getter, and the support frame 22 may be attached in advance to the peripheral portion on the other inner surface side. In this way, it is possible to suppress the deterioration of the NEG 39 only by bringing the counter plate 41 close to the inner surface of the first or second substrate 12 or 13 with the non-evaporable getter without using the skirt 42.

  Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to specific examples. As shown in FIG. 1, the image display device of each embodiment described below includes a first substrate 12 corresponding to a rear plate made of glass and a second substrate 13 corresponding to a face plate also made of glass. And have. On the first substrate 12, a plurality of (1080 rows × 5760 columns) surface conduction electron-emitting devices 32 are electrically connected to the X-direction wiring 33 and the Y-direction wiring 34, and are simply matrix wiring. On the X-direction wiring 33, a Ti film as NEG39 is formed with a thickness of 1 μm by DC sputtering. On the second substrate 13, an anode 37 called a metal back made of an Al thin film is formed on the fluorescent film 36, which is an image forming member, with a thickness of 0.1 μm by an EB vapor deposition method. A Ti film is formed with a thickness of 30 nm by EB vapor deposition.

[Example 1]
In this embodiment, the NEG 39 is formed on the entire surface of the first substrate 12 having the support frame 22 (inside and outside of the support frame 22).

  First, the first substrate 12 and the support frame 22 are joined. On the support frame 22 made of the same glass material as the glass constituting the first substrate 12, a joining member 24 for joining and sealing made of an alloy material mainly composed of Sn, which is a low melting point metal, has a width of 4 mm in advance by a dispensing method. It is applied with a thickness of 0.3 mm.

  Next, the first substrate 12 is set on a vacuum baking carrier 40 made of SUS as shown in FIG. 4 before being put into the manufacturing apparatus of the image display device of FIG. The first substrate 12 has a size of about 800 mm × 1300 mm × 1.1 mm and is accurately placed at a predetermined position using a robot or the like. The first substrate 12 is placed on the plurality of push-up pins 44 and supported in a state where heat conduction with the vacuum baking carrier 40 is reduced. The push-up pin 44 is installed on the carrier base 43 in a slidable state.

  In the carrier 40 for vacuum baking, a counter plate 41 is disposed in advance at a position facing the first substrate 12 via the NEG 39. The counter plate 41 is made of a glass material that has a relatively small thermal deformation as compared with metal, that is, a material having a small linear expansion coefficient, and faces the first substrate 12 so as to reduce the amount of released gas during vacuum baking. The surface is precoated with a thickness of 5 nm by sputtering. The standard slide position of the push-up pin 44 is a position where the distance between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 is 50 mm.

  On the outer periphery of the vacuum baking carrier 40, that is, on the four sides of the first substrate 12, skirts 42 are installed along the outer periphery. That is, the skirt 42 is disposed between the NEG 39 formed on the outer side of the support frame 22 and the opposing plate 41. The skirt 42 is installed for the purpose of reducing the conductance between the gap space between the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 and the outside of the gap space. As shown in FIG. 4 (b), the smaller the gap distance d between the first substrate 12 and the skirt 42, and the longer the length L of the skirt 42, the longer the gap between the gap space and the outside of the gap space. The effect of reducing conductance is great. In this embodiment, the length L of the ridge portion of the skirt 42 is about 20 mm, and the gap distance d when the push-up pin 44 is in the standard slide position is about 35 mm.

<Step S1: Input process>
With the first substrate 12 installed, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is put into the load lock chamber (L1R) of the image display apparatus manufacturing apparatus of FIG. After the introduction, evacuation is started, and after reaching a degree of vacuum of the order of 10 ⁻⁵ Pa, the intermediate gate is opened and the vacuum baking carrier 40 is conveyed to the inline baking chamber (H21R to H33R). The in-line baking chambers (H21R to H33R) are vacuum baking chambers arranged in a straight line, and each of the six divided zones is held at different predetermined temperatures. The heating mechanism of the in-line bake chamber (H21R to H33R) is composed of an IR lamp heater and a metal reflector, and has a configuration with less emission gas. The first transported temperature raising zone (H21R) is a zone heated at a constant temperature of 150 ° C., and the first substrate 12 is heated to 150 ° C. while staying for 30 minutes (FIG. 3). Next, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is conveyed to the temperature raising zone (H22R). The temperature rising zone (H22R) transported second is a zone heated to a constant temperature of 280 ° C., and the first substrate 12 is heated to 280 ° C. while staying for 30 minutes (FIG. 3).

<Step S2: proximity process>
Next, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is conveyed to a constant temperature heating zone (H23R). Immediately after being conveyed, the push-up pin 44 of the vacuum baking carrier 40 is pushed up by a linear motor installed in the manufacturing apparatus (FIG. 4). By sliding the push-up pin 44, the first substrate 12 is brought close to the counter plate 41 and the skirt 42, and the first substrate 12 is moved to a position where the gap distance d between the first substrate 12 and the skirt 42 is 4 mm. This movement is completed in about one minute from immediately after the conveyance to the constant temperature heating zone (H23R).

<Step S3: Heating process>
10 minutes after carrying in the constant temperature zone (H23R), the first substrate 12 is heated to 400 ° C. and rises to 410 ° C. or higher while staying for 80 minutes (FIG. 3). The NEG 39 formed on the first substrate 12 starts getter activation when the first substrate 12 is heated to about 300 ° C., starts gas adsorption, and the getter activation is completed after about 1 hour. .

Here, the distribution of the degree of vacuum inside the inline bake chamber (H21R to H33R) in a state where the getter activation is completed will be described. The vacuum chamber that heats the workpiece to 400 ° C. or higher can only be evacuated to the 10 ⁻⁵ Pa level even if it is evacuated with a large cryopump or the like. In this case, most of the gas is a water component. For NEG39, the main cause of performance deterioration after activation of the getter is the adsorbed water component, and the influence when exposed to a moisture pressure environment of 10 ⁻⁵ Pa for 1 hour or longer is great.

In FIG. 7, the adsorption | suction performance with respect to the water of NEG material which consists of Ti film | membrane with a film thickness of 1 micrometer is shown. This is a graph in which the horizontal axis represents the gas adsorption amount and the vertical axis represents the adsorption rate. In the case of an NEG material activated in an ideal high vacuum state, the NEG material has an initial velocity performance that maximizes the upper left adsorption rate. . Thereafter, as the gas (water) is adsorbed, the adsorption rate for water decreases according to the amount of adsorption. That is, the performance of the NEG material is deteriorated. It has been found that NEG39 left for 1 hour in a moisture pressure environment of 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ Pa deteriorates to an adsorption rate = 20 m ³ / m ² / s as shown in FIG. It was also found that, under a moisture pressure environment of 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less, the gas adsorption amount is reduced by one digit or more, so that it hardly deteriorates. Therefore, after activation of NEG39, it is necessary to treat NEG39 in a vacuum environment in which the degree of vacuum, in particular, the water pressure is 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Pa or less.

In FIG. 4 (b), L = 20 mm, and with the push-up pin 44 pushed up to a position where d = 4 mm, the gap space is obtained by simulation using the released gas of each member after vacuum baking and the adsorption performance of NEG39. The degree of vacuum distribution was calculated. As a result, even if the inside of the vacuum chamber (H23R) (outside of the gap space) is 10 ⁻⁵ Pa, a high vacuum of 10 ⁻⁷ Pa level is maintained in most areas of the gap space. It is expected that performance degradation after activation is negligibly small.

<Step S4: Cooling step>
Next, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is conveyed to the temperature lowering zone (H31R to H33R) in a state where the gap distance d is 4 mm by the push-up pins 44. The first substrate 12 is cooled to a temperature of 120 ° C. or less by staying at three temperature-falling zones in several tens of minutes. Immediately before exiting the last temperature lowering zone (H33R), the push-up pin 44 is pushed down to lower the first substrate 12 to the standard slide position. Thereafter, the carrier 40 for vacuum baking is transported in the transport chamber (TRV4) and moves to the entrance to the cluster chamber (T6). The first substrate 12 is separated from the vacuum baking carrier 40 by the vacuum robot installed in the cluster chamber (T6), and is transported alone to the sealing chamber (S8). The time required from when the push-up pin 44 is pushed down until it is carried into the sealing chamber (S8) is about 15 minutes, and the degree of vacuum, particularly the water pressure, is less than 10 ⁻⁶ Pa. Is small enough to be ignored.

  The second substrate 13 is vacuum baked in another in-line baking chamber (H21F to H33F) in parallel with the vacuum baking process of the first substrate 12. The second substrate 13 is preliminarily placed on a vacuum baking carrier 40 having a structure similar to that for the first substrate 12 and having a size corrected for the second substrate 13 having a small substrate size. The second substrate 13 together with the vacuum baking carrier 40 is put into the manufacturing apparatus from another load lock chamber (L1F) in the lower left of FIG. 2 and evacuated. Next, the temperature is raised stepwise in the temperature raising zones (H21F, H22F, H23F), heated to 450 ° C. in the constant temperature heating zone (H31F), and cooled to 120 ° C. or less in the temperature lowering zones (H31F, H32F). . Further, since the temperature during vacuum baking is higher than that in the case of the first substrate 12, the degree of vacuum is two or more times that of the first substrate 12. However, since there is no problem of NEG performance deterioration, the life performance of the final image display device Has no effect at all.

  Similarly to the first substrate 12, the second substrate 13 is sequentially transferred to the transfer chamber (TRV4) and the cluster chamber (T6) and then sent to the getter chamber (E7). In the getter chamber (E7), after the Ti film is deposited as an evaporation type getter 38 on the surface of the anode 37 on the inner surface of the second substrate 13 by EB vapor deposition, the second substrate 13 is sealed alone. It is conveyed to the chamber (S8).

  The 1st and 2nd board | substrates 12 and 13 conveyed by the sealing chamber (S8) are arrange | positioned facing each other. In the sealing chamber, the first and second substrates 12 and 13 are reheated to be 120 ° C., which is the pre-sealing temperature, and reheated for 30 minutes until the overall temperature distribution becomes small. After that, while applying pressure from both sides, only the vicinity of the support frame 22 is locally heated to melt the metal sealing material and perform sealing. Local heating is performed by a method in which a current of several tens of A is intermittently passed between opposing corners (lower right and upper left). The temperature distribution is reduced by switching the flow path to another opposing corner (upper right and lower left) and flowing it alternately.

  The envelope 11 which is bonded and sealed into an airtight container is transferred from the sealing chamber (S8) to the unload chamber (UL5) via the cluster chamber (T6) and the transfer chamber (TRV4). After the unload chamber is vented to atmospheric pressure, the envelope 11 is carried out of the apparatus, and the vacuum baking process and the bonding sealing process are completed.

  As described above, in the image display device 10 manufactured in the present embodiment, the NEG 39 has the same high initial performance as that obtained when the getter is activated in an ideal high vacuum environment, and the getter performance after the joint sealing is performed. Therefore, the inside of the envelope 11 can be maintained at a high vacuum for a long time. Therefore, it is possible to provide the image display device 10 having a long image quality life. Further, since the NEG 39 has high initial performance, it is possible to set the NEG 39 thin in advance, and the degree of design freedom such as reducing the process cost of the thick film is improved.

  In the technique of Patent Document 1, the rear plate and the face plate are opposed to each other and vacuum baking is performed simultaneously. However, by separately vacuum baking the first substrate 12 and the second substrate 13 as described above, An effect is obtained.

The first effect is an improvement in the degree of vacuum. In the case of manufacturing the image display device, the second substrate 13 is formed by printing a phosphor material in which glass frit or the like is dispersed with a print mask and then baking the phosphor material 36 to form a pattern. The fluorescent film 36 has a small amount of residual components such as a solvent even after firing, and emits a large amount of gas during vacuum baking. In comparison after vacuum baking at 450 ° C. after 1 hour, a measurement result was obtained that the second substrate 13 had a larger release gas rate than the counter plate 41 by one digit or more. By using the counter plate 41 that emits less gas during the vacuum baking of the first substrate 12, a high degree of vacuum (moisture pressure) in the gap space of less than 10 ⁻⁶ Pa can be obtained.

  Another effect is that the vacuum baking temperature can be set to different temperatures for the first substrate 12 and the second substrate 13. By setting the second substrate 13 to 450 ° C. and the first substrate 12 to 410 ° C., the degassing process could be completed in a constant temperature heating time of about 80 minutes. When both the first and second substrates 12 and 13 are vacuum-baked at the same temperature, it is difficult to raise the heating temperature only to about 410 ° C. due to restrictions on heating of the first substrate 12. When the second substrate 13 used for manufacturing the image display device, which has a large amount of released gas, is degassed to the same extent, a processing time of 5 times or more is required, so the constant temperature heating time needs to be 400 minutes or more. Arise. For this reason, the entire baking process time from the temperature rise to the temperature drop takes twice or more, and the treatment tact is reduced by half. Separately vacuum baking the first substrate 12 and the second substrate 13 is very effective in terms of manufacturing cost.

  In the present embodiment, the vacuum baking carrier 40 is sequentially put into and out of each zone set to constant temperature heating, and is conveyed to the next zone. However, in order to perform heat treatment according to the heating time shown in FIG. 3, the heating chamber may be changed to a size (length) according to the processing time, and the heat treatment may be performed while being conveyed at a constant speed.

[Example 2]
In the first embodiment, the NEG 39 is formed on the entire inner surface of the first substrate 12. In this embodiment, the NEG 39 is formed on the inner side and the outer side of the support frame 22 on the inner surface side of the first substrate 12 having the support frame 22. Attach NEG materials in different states. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, NEG 39 is formed as a non-evaporable first getter in a region inside the envelope 11 and inside the support frame 22. An NEG 45 that is thicker than the non-evaporable first getter and has higher adsorption performance is attached as a non-evaporable second getter to a region outside the support frame 22 outside the envelope 11.

  FIG. 8 shows a schematic cross-sectional structure of the periphery of the vacuum baking carrier 40 when the first substrate 12 is set on the vacuum baking carrier 40 in this embodiment. In the vacuum baking carrier 40, a counter plate 41 is disposed in advance at a position facing the attachment surface of the NEG 39, and a skirt 42 is disposed between the NEG 45 and the counter plate 41. As NEG45, alloy NEG material powder sintered and formed into a plate shape, or glass base material surface coated with NEG material can be used. These have high adsorption performance and are inexpensive, and can be easily attached using a clip or the like. The adsorption performance per unit area of the NEG 45 can be easily made higher than that of the NEG 39, which makes it easy to suppress the invasion of gas into the region inside the support frame 22. Further, if the NEG 45 is detachably attached, the NEG material 45 is removed from the envelope 11 after joining and sealing to form the envelope 11, thereby forming the four sides of the rear plate 21. By exposing the lead wiring pattern, subsequent connection work can be facilitated. The other steps are the same as those in the first embodiment.

[Example 3]
In this embodiment, the support frame 22 is not bonded to the first substrate 12 in advance, but the support frame 22 is bonded to the second substrate 13 in advance, and the NEG 39 is formed on the entire inner surface of the first substrate 12. In the case of this configuration, the first substrate 12 does not have the support frame 22 provided with the bonding member 24 on the upper surface, so that the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 can be brought closer to those of the first embodiment (FIG. 9). ).

In the vacuum baking carrier 40, a counter plate 41 is disposed in advance at a position facing the first substrate 12 via the NEG 39. The skirt 42 described with reference to FIG. 4 is unnecessary, and the first substrate 12 and the counter plate 41 are separated by 4 mm. It can be close to the following distance. The degree of vacuum distribution in each gap space was calculated by simulation when the distance between the first substrate 12 and the opposing plate 41 was 18.8 mm and when the first substrate 12 was pushed up and brought close to 4 mm. As a result, when the gap distance is 18.8 mm, the degree of vacuum is worse than 10 ⁻⁶ Pa in more than half of the gap space, and when the gap distance is 4 mm, 10 ⁻ It was found that the vacuum degree distribution was less than ⁶ Pa. That is, if the distance between the opposing plate 41 and the first substrate 12 is reduced to 4 mm, the degree of vacuum in the gap space during the vacuum baking process can be less than 10 ⁻⁶ Pa over the entire surface. The other steps are the same as those in the first embodiment.

  12: first substrate (rear plate), 13: second substrate (face plate), 22: support frame, 32: electron-emitting device, 36: phosphor film (image forming member), 37: anode (metal back), 39 : NEG [non-evaporable (first) getter], 41: counter plate, 42: skirt, 45: NEG (non-evaporable second getter)

Claims (9)

After vacuum-baking and cooling the first substrate with the electron-emitting device and the second substrate with the anode, face each other with the electron-emitting device installation side and the anode installation side facing the inner surface In the manufacturing method of the electron beam device, the support frame is sandwiched between the peripheral portions and sealed,
A non-evaporable getter is previously attached to the inner surface of at least one of the first and second substrates, and the non-evaporable type provided at the time of the vacuum baking of the first and / or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter. Before the getter reaches the activation temperature, a counter plate is brought close to the inner surface side of the first and / or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter, and in this state, the vacuum baking is performed at a temperature equal to or higher than the activation temperature. And a subsequent cooling method for manufacturing the electron beam apparatus.   2. The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 1, wherein one of the first and second substrates is provided with the non-evaporable getter, and a support frame is attached in advance to the peripheral portion on the other inner surface side. .   A support frame is attached in advance to the inner periphery of the first or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter, and the inner surface of the first or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter to which the support frame is attached. The counter plate is brought close to the side, and a skirt is interposed between the outer peripheral edge portion of the first or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter and the outer peripheral edge portion of the counter plate, 2. The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vacuum baking at a temperature equal to or higher than the activation temperature and the subsequent cooling are performed in a state.   The first or second substrate with the non-evaporable getter includes a non-evaporable first getter attached inside the support frame and a non-evaporable second getter attached outside the support frame. The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 3, comprising:   5. The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the adsorption performance of the non-evaporable second getter is higher than the adsorption performance of the non-evaporable first getter.   6. The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the non-evaporable second getter is removable.   The method for manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the counter plate is made of a glass material.   The method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the counter plate is made of a glass material coated with a noble metal thin film.   A substrate provided with an image forming member that emits light when irradiated with an electron beam and displays an image together with an anode as the second substrate in the method of manufacturing an electron beam apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8. A manufacturing method of an image display device characterized by the above.

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