JP2604577B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly to an image forming apparatus having a storage element using an electron beam by a solid-state electron beam generator.

[Summary of Disclosure] The present specification and the drawings disclose that an image forming apparatus using a solid-state electron beam generator is provided with a plurality of storage elements having an electron beam generation source, a detection unit, and a driving unit for these units.
By transferring information stored in these storage elements by a transfer means, a sufficient luminance can be obtained without the need for complicated XY matrix driving.

[Prior art] Conventionally, as an image forming apparatus using an electron beam, CR
A vacuum tube such as T, an XY address type fluorescent display tube having a matrix electrode structure, and the like are known.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since the CRT is driven by a single electron beam in a point-sequential manner, its luminance is naturally limited.

On the other hand, in the XY address type fluorescent display tube, although sufficient luminance can be obtained by increasing the acceleration voltage, there is a disadvantage that the driving circuit becomes complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide an image forming apparatus that does not require a complicated XY matrix driving circuit and can obtain sufficient luminance.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention relates to a storage element having an electron beam source, an electron beam detection unit, and a driving unit for operating the electron beam source in accordance with a signal from the electron beam detection unit. An image forming apparatus comprising: at least two memory units in which a plurality of the units are arranged; and deflecting means for transferring image information between the memory units.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention further has the following features: "the deflection means is capable of controlling the amount of deflection of the electron beam";"the electron beam source is a solid-state electron beam generator";
Is also included.

[Operation] When an electron beam is incident on the electron beam detecting means, electric charges are temporarily stored in the electron beam detecting means. The electron beam source is driven by sending this electric charge to the driving means and turning it on. The electron beam source emits an electron beam corresponding to the charge stored in the electron beam detecting means.

For example, two memory units in which a plurality of such storage elements are arranged are arranged, and an electron beam emitted from an electron beam source of a storage element belonging to one memory unit is deflected by the action of an electric field or a magnetic field, and The image information is two-dimensionally transferred by making it incident on the electron beam detecting means region of the storage element belonging to the memory unit.
Since the path of the electron beam depends on the strength of the magnetic field,
By appropriately selecting the strength of the magnetic field, the electron beam can be transferred to a predetermined storage element. That is, a function equivalent to that of the XY matrix drive circuit can be obtained by the shift operation.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a storage element used in the present invention, and FIG.
The figure is a circuit diagram for explaining the operation.

In FIG. 1, D is an electron beam detecting means, T is a driving means, E is a solid electron beam generator as an electron beam source, DN, D
I, DP, TB, TE, TC, EP, EN, EG are electrodes, GND is ground terminal, 10
Indicates an insulating layer, p and n indicate semiconductors, and EB indicates an electron beam. In the second figure, 11 is a constant current source, 12 to 14 _{switch, V W, V R, V} B, V G electrode, IN is an input terminal, OUT denotes an output terminal, and other designations first It corresponds to that of FIG.

In Figure 2, the electron beam mode incident electron beam EB in the electron beam detecting means D W mode, the electron beam source E
The mode for emitting EB is referred to as R mode.

First, in the W mode, the switches 12 to 14 are connected to the W side. At this time, in the electron beam detecting means D , the electrode
Using DN as a reference voltage, a positive voltage is applied to the electrode DI as a bias, and a negative voltage is applied to DP as a reverse bias. Then, when the electron beam EB is incident on the electrode DI, the electrode
Through the DI, holes of the electron-hole pairs are accumulated in the insulating layer 10 near the interface of the n-layer in contact with the insulating layer 10 in the insulating layer 10. The charges accumulated as holes are stored relatively stably even without irradiation with the electron beam EB. At this time, between the electrodes DN~DP reverse bias V _B, and the current does not flow. Similarly the electrode TB to be a reverse bias V _B of the driving means T is applied, becomes a cut-off state, the electron beam source which follow
E does not work either.

The readout (emission) of the charges thus accumulated is as follows.
It is performed as follows. First, the switches 12 to 14 are connected to the R side to set the R mode. Then, when a reverse voltage is applied between the electrodes DI to DP according to the presence or absence of the electric charge accumulated in the insulating layer 10, the state of the electron beam detecting means D is detected by using a phenomenon in which the breakdown voltage is different. That is, the electrode DI
A voltage that is higher than that at the time of writing, and does not break down when no charge is stored in the insulating layer 10, and breaks down when a charge is stored in the insulating layer 10 so that a current flows. To perform reading. By utilizing such a breakdown effect, a highly sensitive electron beam detector can be obtained.

Further, a completely destructive read mode _RD used under the condition that almost all of the electric charge stored in the electron beam detecting means D is discharged to the outside at the time of reading, and a partial destructive read mode in which only a part of the stored electric charge is read R _N can be set. this
The _RD mode and the _RN mode can be achieved by, for example, reading out a sufficient time for the accumulated charge to be released in the _RD mode, and reading out the _RN mode in a time shorter than that. .

 Hereinafter, the reading of charges by the above method will be described.

First, when the electron beam detecting means D breaks down,
Current flows from electrode DI to DP. This allows the electrodes TB to TE
Since the current flows in the forward direction, the driving means T is turned on, the conduction between TC and TE is conducted, and the electron beam source E is driven.

As the electron beam source E, as shown in FIG. 1, for example, JP-B-54-30274 and JP-A-54-111272 (US Pat.
8), JP-A-56-15529 (USP 4303930), JP-A-57-3
A preferred example is the solid-state electron beam generator disclosed in No. 8528 or the like. Here, the operation will be briefly described.By applying a positive potential to the electrode EN, that is, applying a reverse bias to the EP to generate electrons by the avalanche effect and applying a positive voltage to the extraction electrode EG. The electron is drawn out into a vacuum. Further, in the present invention, as a solid-state electron beam generator utilizing such a PN junction, a negative work function type operated by a forward bias, other so-called field emission type, and a thermionic emission type Etc. can be used.

On the other hand, when the electron beam detecting means D does not break down, no current flows in the direction from the electrodes DI to DP and the driving means T is turned off.
The state remains in the F state, and the electron beam EB is not emitted from the electron beam source E.

In FIG. 2, the presence or absence of information can be electrically read from the output terminal OUT in the R mode, and the information can be written by forcibly applying a voltage to the input terminal IN.

Next, an example of an image forming apparatus using the storage element will be described with reference to FIGS.

3. In FIG. 3, MU1 and MU2 are memory units each having the above-mentioned storage element as a matrix of 2 columns and 3 rows, and the individual units U111, U121,... Can be formed by semiconductor technology such as epitaxial growth and lithography. It can be formed at a high density of about 1000 × 1000 pixels required for a display device. SR1 provided in MU1 is a shift register for inputting information to the outside, and is for writing information to input terminals IN of units U111, U121,.... This shift register can be formed on a semiconductor substrate by an ordinary electric circuit. 20 is a grid for accelerating electrons. Such an accelerating action can be similarly obtained with the extraction electrode EG of the electron beam source E , but is preferably provided when a relatively large accelerating voltage is applied. The grid 20 is provided with a number of holes (not shown) so that the electron beam EB can be easily transmitted.

Denotes a magnetic field applied by a magnetic field generating means (not shown). this Is set to an appropriate size such that, for example, the electron beam EB emitted from E121 of the unit U121 enters the D122 of the memory unit MU2.

Next, the operation of the image forming apparatus having the above configuration will be described.

In FIG. 3, when the electron beam detecting means D121, D211, D321 of the memory unit MU1 has information as electric charge and there is no other electric charge, first, the memory unit MU1 is set to the R mode, and the memory unit MU2 is set to W mode. Set the mode. The electron beam EB emitted from the electron beam source of E121, E211, E321 according to the information stored in the MU1 is mainly
It is accelerated by the electric field of the voltage _VA between the ground terminal GND1 and passes through the grid 20. This electron beam is And passes through the grid 20 again, is accelerated again by an electric field mainly due to the voltage _VA between the ground terminal GND2 and the grid 20, and is incident on the electron beam detecting means of D122, D212 and D322 of the memory unit MU2. In this case, since there is almost no electric field on the side of the grid 20 opposite to the memory units MU1 to MU2, the electron beam source E and the electron beam detecting means D mainly correspond to the magnetic field. Depends on the strength of the

Next, a case where information stored in the memory unit MU2 is re-transferred to the memory unit MU1 will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the memory units MU1 and M
The voltage _VA between U2 and the grid 20 is reversed, the memory unit MU1 is set to the W mode, and the MU2 is set to the R mode. After that, a magnetic field having the same strength in the direction opposite to that of FIG. Is applied, the electron beams EB emitted from the electron beam sources E122, E212, E322 enter the electron beam detecting means D121, D211, D321. However, as shown To When the electron beam is appropriately selected such that, the electron beams enter D221 and D311 shifted down by one line. That is, the information can be shifted by controlling the intensity of the electric field. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the electron beam EB from the electron beam source E322 enters the area of the ground terminal GND1 and is lost.

If such a shift function is used, information can be developed two-dimensionally on the memory units MU1 to MU2 by taking in external information from the shift register SR1 and sequentially shifting the information.

Next, the memory unit MU2
The case where the information developed in (1) is transferred to the display surface 15 will be described.

In FIG. 5, the display surface 15 has a stripe-shaped phosphor R
(Red), G (green), B (blue), and a metal back layer 16 formed thereon. As is clear from the description in FIGS. 3 and 4, the information developed in the memory unit MU2 includes the voltages V _A and V _F and the magnetic field. Is incident on the display surface 15. By such a shift operation, the image information sequentially input from the shift register SR1 reaches the phosphors R, G, B on the display surface 15. Then, each phosphor is excited by the electron beam EB to display an image. This display image can be viewed from the arrow direction A. As described above, in the present invention, by transferring information between the memory units and shifting the information appropriately, it is possible to obtain a function equivalent to that of a normal XY matrix driving circuit. .

Next, the above operation will be described with reference to the driving waveform diagram of FIG. In FIG. 6, from the first clock to the fifth clock, information is transferred from the shift register SR1 to the memory units MU1 and MU2 including new information written in the units U111 and UZ21 every odd clock. On the other hand, in the even clock, information is transferred from the memory unit MU2 to MU1, But , The data is shifted by one line. At this time, it is desirable that the read mode be the completely destructive read mode _RD .

Next, in the sixth clock, the memory unit MU2
Is incident on the phosphor RGB as the electron beam EB to perform image display. The operation from the seventh clock to the eleventh clock is the same as the operation from the first clock to the fifth clock.

During 12 clock can be read by the sixth clock time as well as completely destructive read mode R _D, as shown in 12, 13 and 14 clock Figure 6, the partial destructive read mode R _N The phosphor RGB may be continuously excited.

In the above embodiment, the phosphor surface has the same size as each unit of the storage element, but it is also possible to use an enlarged electron optical system. FIG. 7 shows an example using such an optical system. In FIG. 7, a vacuum vessel
The memory units MU1 and MU2 described above are provided in the unit 17, and the electron beam EB emitted from the memory unit MU2 is
Are formed on the display surface 15 by the magnifying electron optical system 18.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 19 denotes a magnetic field coil as magnetic field generating means. In the figure, for simplification, it is shown by a two-dot chain line.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, transfer of image information is performed between memory units in which a plurality of storage elements each having an electron beam source, an electron beam detection unit, and a driving unit are arranged. Because multiple electron beams can be irradiated on the phosphor screen at the same time without using a complicated matrix drive circuit,
A display device with high luminance can be obtained. In addition, by using an enlarged electron optical system, it can be used for displaying a large screen image.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a storage element, FIG. 2 is a circuit diagram thereof, and FIG.
5 to 5 are explanatory diagrams showing an example of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 6 is a driving waveform diagram, and FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing another example of the image forming device. 10: insulating layer, 11: constant current source, 12-14: switch, 15: display surface, 16: metal back layer, 17: vacuum vessel, 18: magnified electron optical system, 19: electromagnetic coil, 20: grid, D : Electron beam detecting means, T : driving means, E : electron beam source.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical display location H01L 27/115 H01L 27/10 434 (72) Inventor Naoshi Hayakawa 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Within Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Isamu Shimoda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Masahiko Okunuki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A storage element having an electron beam source, an electron beam detecting means, and a driving means for operating the electron contact source in accordance with a signal from the electron beam detecting means is used as one unit, and a plurality of the units are arranged. An image forming apparatus comprising: at least two memory units; and deflecting means for transferring image information between the memory units. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said deflecting means is capable of controlling the amount of deflection of the electron beam. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electron beam source is a solid-state electron beam generator.