JP2884482B2 - Electron emitting element, electron source, and method of manufacturing image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cold-cathode type electron-emitting device, an electron source having a large number of such devices, and a display device or an exposure device using the electron source. The present invention relates to a manufacturing technique of a forming apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron-emitting devices are known, namely, a thermionic electron-emitting device and a cold cathode electron-emitting device. Field emission type (hereinafter, referred to as "FE")
Type ". ), Metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter referred to as “MI
M type ". ) And surface conduction electron-emitting devices.

[0003] As an example of the FE type, W. P. Dyke
and W. W. Dolan, "Field Em
issue ", Advance in Elect
ron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) or C.I. A. Spindt, “Physical
Properties of thin-filmfi
eld emission cathodes wit
h molybdenum cones ", JA
ppl. Phys. , 47, 5248 (1976).
And the like are known.

As an example of the MIM type, C.I. A. Mea
d, “Operation of Tunnel-Em
issue Devices ", J. Appl.
Phys. , 32, 646 (1961).

As an example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device,
M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng.
Electron Phys. , 10, 1290 (1
965).

[0006] The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted by passing a current through a small-area thin film formed on an insulating substrate in parallel with the film surface. Examples of the surface conduction electron-emitting device include a device using an SnO ₂ thin film by Elinson et al. And a device using an Au thin film [G. Dittmer: "Thin Solid
Films ", 9, 317 (1972)], In ₂
O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell
and C.I. G. FIG. Fonstad: "IEEE T
rans. ED Conf. ", 519 (197
5)], using a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum,
26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)].

The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission occurs when a current flows in a conductive film formed on an insulating substrate in parallel with the film surface.

As a typical configuration example of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, a conductive film such as a metal oxide that connects between a pair of device electrodes provided on an insulating substrate is referred to as forming in advance. One in which an electron-emitting portion is formed by an energization process is exemplified. Forming is performed by applying a DC voltage or a very slowly increasing voltage, for example, 1 V /
A process that is usually performed by applying a voltage increase of about one minute and energizing, and locally destroying, deforming, or altering the conductive film to change the structure, thereby forming an electron emission portion in an electrically high-resistance state. It is. The electron emission is performed from the vicinity of a crack generated in the electron emission portion by applying a voltage to the conductive film on which the electron emission portion is formed and causing a current to flow.

The above-mentioned surface conduction type electron-emitting device has an advantage that a large number of arrays can be formed over a large area since it has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture. Therefore, various applications for utilizing this feature are being studied. For example, it can be used for an image forming apparatus such as a display device.

Conventionally, as an example in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arrayed, surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel, and both ends (both device electrodes) of each surface conduction electron-emitting device are wired. (Also referred to as common wiring). An electron source in which rows each connected by a common line are also arranged in a large number of rows (also referred to as a trapezoidal arrangement) (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 64-31332 and 1-283).
749, and 2-257552). In particular, in the case of a display device, a flat panel display device similar to a display device using liquid crystal can be used, and a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are used as self-luminous display devices that do not require a backlight. A display device has been proposed in which an arranged electron source is combined with a phosphor that emits visible light when irradiated with an electron beam from the electron source (US Pat. No. 506).
No. 6883).

[0011]

However, in the above-described electron-emitting devices, since the energization forming is conventionally performed under the same conditions for each element, if the element resistance before the energization forming varies, depending on the element, Since an excessively large current flows through the device because the forming voltage is too high, or a crack is not sufficiently generated in the device because the forming voltage is too low, and thus the device state after forming is likely to vary.

For this reason, in a conventional electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting portion formed by energization forming, variations in electrical characteristics due to variations in resistance of each element before energization forming are likely to occur, and an electron source or an image forming apparatus However, there is a problem that uneven brightness and image unevenness are caused when the method is applied.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an electron source and an image forming apparatus that eliminate variations in the characteristics of an electron-emitting device in which an electron-emitting portion is formed by energization forming, and that have very little luminance unevenness and image unevenness. The purpose is to do.

[0014]

The configuration of the present invention which has been achieved to achieve the above object is as follows.

[0015] That is, the first invention is a method of manufacturing a plurality of electron-emitting devices having an electron emitting portion on a conductive thin film to contact between a pair of electrodes provided on the substrate, electrons in the conductive film In the forming step of forming the emission portion, the resistance value R1 of each conductive film is measured , and the minimum value is determined based on the R1.
Injection beyond the threshold Pth as the required input power
Adjust so that power can be applied to each conductive film.
A method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device, which is performed by applying a forming voltage .

The method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to the first aspect of the present invention further has a feature that "after applying the forming voltage, the resistance value R2 of the conductive film is measured and the resistance value R2 is measured.
2 is lower than a predetermined resistance value R, a forming voltage having a peak voltage higher than the peak voltage of the forming voltage is further applied ”,“ the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. ”.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a method of manufacturing an electron source having an electron-emitting device and driving means for the electron-emitting device, the electron-emitting device is manufactured by the first manufacturing method of the present invention. A method of manufacturing an electron source.

The method for manufacturing an electron source according to the second aspect of the present invention further has a feature that "the electron source is an electron source having at least one element row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. "The electron source is an electron source in which a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix."

Further, a third aspect of the present invention is an electron-emitting device,
A method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming member; and a driving unit that controls irradiation of the image forming member with an electron beam emitted from the electron emitting element in accordance with an information signal. According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus, which is manufactured by the first manufacturing method.

The method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus according to the third aspect of the present invention is further characterized in that the image forming apparatus includes an image forming apparatus having at least one or more element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. "The image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of rows of element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix."

According to the present invention, even if the element resistance R1 before energization forming varies from element to element, R1
It is possible to prevent an excessive current from flowing through an element having a small R1 and to prevent incomplete cracking of an element having a large R1 and to make the electrical characteristics of each element after energization forming uniform. It is.

[0022]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS As described above, the present invention relates to an electron-emitting device, an electron source having a plurality of the electron-emitting devices, and a novel method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus using the same.
The configuration and operation of each invention will be further described below.

The electron-emitting device according to the present invention is classified as a cold cathode type electron-emitting device as described above, and among them, a surface conduction type electron-emitting device is particularly preferable from the viewpoint of electron emission characteristics and the like. It is. Therefore, a surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described below as an example.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing a basic configuration of a surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention.
In the figure, 1 is a substrate, 2 is an electron-emitting portion, 3 is a conductive film, and 4 and 5 are electrodes (device electrodes).

As the substrate 1, for example, quartz glass, Na
And glass having reduced impurity content such as glass, blue plate glass, a laminate obtained by laminating SiO ₂ on a blue plate glass by a sputtering method or the like, and ceramics such as alumina.

The materials of the opposing device electrodes 4 and 5 are as follows.
Common conductor materials are used, such as Ni, Cr, Au,
Metals or alloys such as Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, Pd, and Pd, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-Ag
Printed conductors composed of metals or metal oxides and glass and the like, transparent conductors such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ , and semiconductor conductor materials such as polysilicon are appropriately selected.

The element electrode interval L, the element electrode length W, the shape of the conductive film 3 and the like are designed depending on the form to be applied.

The distance L between the device electrodes is preferably from several hundred angstroms to several hundreds of micrometers, and more preferably from several micrometers to several tens of micrometers depending on the voltage applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5. .

The element electrode length W is preferably several micrometers to several hundred micrometers in consideration of the resistance value and the electron emission characteristics of the electrode.
A few hundred angstroms to a few micrometers.

The electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 1 has a structure in which device electrodes 4 and 5 and a conductive film 3 are laminated on a substrate 1 in this order. 3, the device electrodes 4 and 5 may be stacked in this order.

In order to obtain good electron emission characteristics, the conductive film 3 is particularly preferably a fine particle film composed of fine particles. It is appropriately selected according to the resistance value between the electrodes 4 and 5 and the forming conditions described later. The thickness of the conductive film 3 is preferably several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, particularly preferably 10 angstroms to 500 angstroms, and its resistance value is a sheet of 10 3 to 10 7 ohm / □. It is a resistance value.

The above-mentioned fine particle film is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are gathered, and has a fine structure not only in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlapped (some fine particles). Gather together to form an island-like structure as a whole).

In the present specification, the term “fine particles” is frequently used, and the meaning will be described.

Small particles are called "fine particles", and smaller ones are called "ultra fine particles". Particles smaller than "ultrafine particles" and having a few hundred atoms or less are widely called "clusters".

However, each boundary is not strict, and changes depending on what kind of property is focused on. Further, “fine particles” and “ultrafine particles” may be collectively referred to as “fine particles”, and the description in this specification is in line with this.

For example, in "Experimental Physics Course 14 Surface / Particles" (edited by Yoshio Kinoshita, published on September 1, 1986 by Kyoritsu Publishing Co., Ltd.), "fine particles in this paper have a diameter of about 2-3 μm to 10 nm. And especially when it is referred to as ultrafine particles, the particle size is about 10 nm to 2-3 n.
It means up to about m. It is not exactly strict because both are collectively written as fine particles, but it is a rough guide. When the number of atoms constituting a particle is two to several tens to several hundreds, it is called a cluster. (Page 195, lines 22 to 26).

In addition, the definition of "ultra-fine particles" in the "Hayashi / Ultra-fine Particle Project" of the New Technology Development Corporation has a lower limit of the particle size, which is as follows.

In the "Ultra Fine Particle Project" of the Creative Science and Technology Promotion System (1981 to 1986), a particle having a size (diameter) in the range of about 1 to 100 nm is called "ultra fine particle". ... was to be then one of the ultra-fine particles is the fact that a collection of about 100 to 10 ⁸ much of the atom if you look at the scale of atoms ultra-fine particles are large - huge particles "(" ultra-fine particles - Creative Science and Technology "Hayashi Tax, Ryoji Ueda, Akira Tazaki; Mita Publishing 198
8 years, page 2, lines 1 to 4) / "one smaller than ultrafine particles, that is, one consisting of several to several hundred atoms
Individual particles are usually called clusters ”(ibid., Page 2, lines 12 to 13).

[0039] Based on the general notation as described above,
In the present specification, “fine particles” are an aggregate of a large number of atoms and molecules, and the lower limit of the particle size is several Å to 10 Å and the upper limit is several μm
It refers to the degree.

As a material constituting the conductive film 3, for example, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu,
Metals such as Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, Ta, W, and Pb;
oxides such as dO, SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ , HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , Y
Borides such as B ₄ and GdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC,
Carbides such as TaC, SiC and WC, TiN, ZrN,
Examples include nitrides such as HfN, semiconductors such as Si and Ge, and carbon.

The electron emitting portion 2 is, for example, a crack formed in a part of the conductive film, and the electron emission is performed from the vicinity of the crack. The cracks are formed depending on the film thickness, film quality, material of the conductive film 3 and a manufacturing method such as energization forming conditions described later. Therefore, the position and shape of the electron-emitting portion 2 are shown in FIG.
However, the position and shape are not specified as shown in FIG.

In some cases, conductive fine particles having a particle size of several Angstroms to several hundred Angstroms may be present inside the crack. The conductive fine particles are similar to some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive film 3. Further, it is desirable that the electron emitting portion 2 and the conductive film 3 in the vicinity thereof have a film containing carbon as a main component.

Next, an example of a method of manufacturing the above-described surface conduction electron-emitting device, which is the main feature of the present invention, will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 2, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 indicate the same members.

1) After sufficiently washing the substrate 1 with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, depositing an element electrode material by a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method, or the like, and then depositing the material on the surface of the substrate 1 by a photolithography technique or the like. The device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed (FIG. 2A).

2) An organic metal solution is applied on the substrate 1 on which the device electrodes 4 and 5 are provided, and the solution is allowed to stand.
And the element electrode 5 are connected to form an organometallic film. still,
The organic metal solution is a solution of an organic compound containing a metal as a constituent element of the conductive film 3 as a main element. Thereafter, the organic metal film is heated and baked, and is patterned by lift-off, etching, or the like, to form a conductive film 3 having a desired pattern shape (FIG. 2B).

Although the description has been made with reference to the coating method of the organic metal solution, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, a dispersion coating method, a dipping method, a spinner method, etc. Can form an organometallic film.

3) Subsequently, a forming step by an energizing process is performed.

When a voltage higher than a certain voltage is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 from a power supply (not shown) and the current is applied, an electron emitting portion 2 having a changed structure is formed at the portion of the conductive film 3.
(C)). The conductive film 3 is locally destroyed, deformed or deteriorated by the energization process, and the portion where the structure is changed is the electron emitting portion 2.

The most important feature of the present invention relates to the present forming step, that is, the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3 is measured in advance before the forming voltage is applied, and the resistance value R1 is appropriately determined according to the resistance value R1. The electron-emitting portion 2 is formed by applying a set forming voltage.

Specifically, the forming voltage is preferably a voltage having a voltage peak proportional to the square root of the resistance value R1, for example.

The resistance value R2 of the conductive film 3 is measured even after the application of the forming voltage. If the resistance value R2 is lower than a predetermined resistance value (for example, 1 M ohm), the peak voltage of the forming voltage is further increased. It is preferable to apply a forming voltage having a higher peak voltage.

The steps after the forming step can be performed in a measurement and evaluation system as shown in FIG. This measurement evaluation system will be described.

In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 denote the same members. Reference numeral 51 denotes a power supply for applying a device voltage Vf to the device; 50, an ammeter for measuring a device current If flowing through the conductive film 3 between the device electrodes 4 and 5; An anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie to be emitted; 53, a high-voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 54; 52, an ammeter for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission section 2; Is a vacuum device,
56 is an exhaust pump.

The electron-emitting device and the anode electrode 54 are installed in a vacuum device 55. The vacuum device 55 is equipped with necessary equipment such as a vacuum gauge (not shown). Can be measured and evaluated.

The exhaust pump 56 is composed of a normal high vacuum system such as a turbo pump and a rotary pump, and an ultrahigh vacuum system such as an ion pump.
The entire vacuum device 55 and the substrate 1 of the electron-emitting device are
The heater can heat up to about 200 ° C. In this measurement evaluation system, the display panel and its inside are configured as a vacuum device 55 and its inside at the stage of assembling the display panel as described below, so that the measurement and evaluation in the forming step and the subsequent steps described later are performed. It is applied to processing.

4) Next, it is preferable to perform an activation process for depositing carbon or a carbon compound in a region including the electron-emitting portion 2.

As a method for depositing carbon or a carbon compound in a region including the electron emitting portion 2, ordinary methods such as vacuum deposition, sputtering, CVD, and ion plating can be used. Below, it is more preferable because the method of applying a voltage pulse between the device electrodes 4 and 5 is simple. In particular, in the case of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, the electron emission characteristics are significantly improved by this method.

The vacuum atmosphere in which an organic substance is present in the activation treatment step is formed by using an organic gas remaining in the atmosphere when the inside of the vacuum vessel is evacuated using, for example, an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump. Alternatively, it can be obtained by introducing a gas of an appropriate organic substance into a vacuum once sufficiently evacuated by an ion pump or the like. The preferable gas pressure of the organic substance at this time varies depending on the above-described application form, the shape of the vacuum vessel, the type of the organic substance, and the like, and is appropriately set according to the case. Suitable organic substances include alkanes, alkenes, alkyne aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes,
Ketones, amines, phenols, carboxylic acids, organic acids such as sulfonic acids and the like can be mentioned. Specifically, methane, ethane, propane and the like, saturated hydrocarbons represented by C _n H _{2n + 2} , ethylene, Unsaturated hydrocarbons represented by compositional formulas such as propylene and C _n H _2n , benzene, toluene, methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, etc. Can be used. By this treatment, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the device from the organic substance existing in the atmosphere, and the device current If and the emission current Ie are significantly changed.

The carbon and the carbon compound include, for example, graphite (so-called HOPG ', PG (, GC), and HOPG has a substantially complete crystal structure of graphite.
G indicates that the crystal grain is about 200 ° and the crystal structure is slightly disordered, and GC indicates that the crystal grain is about 20 ° and the disorder of the crystal structure is further increased. ), Amorphous carbon (refers to amorphous carbon and a mixture of amorphous carbon and the above-mentioned graphite microcrystals), and the deposited film thickness is preferably 500 Å or less, more preferably 300 Å or less.

5) It is preferable to perform a stabilizing step of operating the electron-emitting device thus manufactured in a vacuum atmosphere having a higher degree of vacuum than the forming step and the activating step. More preferably, operation is driven after heating at 80 to 150 ° C. in a vacuum atmosphere with a high degree of vacuum.

The vacuum atmosphere having a degree of vacuum higher than the degree of vacuum in the forming step and the activation step is, for example, about 10 −
A vacuum atmosphere having a degree of vacuum of 6 torr or more;
More preferably, it is an ultrahigh vacuum system, and has a degree of vacuum at which carbon and carbon compounds are not substantially newly deposited.

That is, by enclosing the electron-emitting device in the above-mentioned vacuum atmosphere, it is possible to suppress further deposition of carbon and carbon compounds, thereby stabilizing the device current If and the emission current Ie. .

The basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device obtained as described above will be described below.

The basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described below are as follows. In the measurement and evaluation system shown in FIG. 3, the voltage of the anode electrode 54 is 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode 54 and the surface conduction electron-emitting device is 2 Normally, the measurement is performed with the length set to ８8 mm.

First, the emission current Ie and the device current If,
FIG. 4 shows a typical example of the relationship with the element voltage Vf. still,
In FIG. 4A, the emission current Ie is shown in arbitrary units because it is significantly smaller than the element current If.
Note that both the vertical and horizontal axes are linear scales.

As apparent from FIG. 4A, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has the following three characteristic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie.

First, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a certain voltage (referred to as a threshold voltage: Vt in FIG. 4A).
When the device voltage Vf exceeding h) is applied, the emission current Ie sharply increases. On the other hand, when the device voltage Vf exceeds the threshold voltage Vth, the emission current Ie is hardly detected. That is, it is a nonlinear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

Second, since the emission current Ie has a characteristic that monotonically increases with respect to the device voltage Vf (referred to as MI characteristic), the emission current Ie can be controlled by the device voltage Vf.

Thirdly, the emission charge captured by the anode electrode 54 (see FIG. 3) depends on the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied. That is, the amount of charge captured by the anode electrode 54 can be controlled by the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied.

When the emission current Ie is smaller than the device voltage Vf by MI
At the same time as having the characteristics, the device current If may also have the MI characteristics with respect to the device voltage Vf. An example of the characteristic of such a surface conduction electron-emitting device is the characteristic shown in FIG. On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
f is a voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (V
CNR characteristic). Which characteristic is exhibited depends on the manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, measurement conditions at the time of measurement, and the like. However, even in a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which the device current If has VCNR characteristics with respect to the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie has MI characteristics with respect to the device voltage Vf.

Because of the characteristic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention as described above, even in an electron source or an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of devices are arranged, the amount of emitted electrons can be easily controlled according to an input signal. It can be applied to various fields.

Next, as an example of the electron source according to the present invention, an electron source in which a plurality of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged will be described. First, the arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices will be described.

As a method of arranging the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the electron source according to the present invention, in addition to the ladder arrangement as described in the section of the prior art, n electrodes are arranged on m lines in the X direction. There is an arrangement method in which a Y-directional wiring is provided via an interlayer insulating layer, and an X-directional wiring and a Y-directional wiring are connected to a pair of device electrodes of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, respectively. This is hereinafter referred to as a simple matrix arrangement. First, the simple matrix arrangement will be described in detail.

According to the above-mentioned basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, the emitted electrons in the surface conduction electron-emitting device arranged in a simple matrix are arranged between the opposing device electrodes at a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage. It can be controlled by the peak value and pulse width of the pulsed voltage to be applied. On the other hand, below the threshold voltage, almost no electrons are emitted. Therefore, even when a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged, if the pulse-like voltage is appropriately applied to each of the devices, the surface conduction electron-emitting device is selected according to the input signal, and the electron emission amount is determined. , And individual surface conduction electron-emitting devices can be selected and driven independently with only a simple matrix wiring.

The simple matrix arrangement is based on such a principle, and the configuration of the electron source having the simple matrix arrangement, which is an example of the electron source according to the present invention, will be further described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 5, the substrate 1 is a glass plate or the like as described above, and the number and shape of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104 arranged on the substrate 1 are appropriately set according to the application. is there.

The m X-direction wirings 102 have external terminals Dx1, Dx2,..., Dxm, respectively.
A conductive metal or the like formed thereon by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. In addition, the material and the material are so set that the voltage is supplied to the many surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104 almost uniformly.
The film thickness and the wiring width are set.

The n Y-directional wirings 103 have external terminals Dy1, Dy2,..., Dyn, respectively, and are formed in the same manner as the X-directional wiring 102.

These m X-directional wires 102 and n Y wires
An interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided between the direction wirings 103, and is electrically separated to form a matrix wiring. Note that both m and n are positive integers.

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is, for example, SiO ₂ formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like, and has a desired shape on the entire surface or a part of the substrate 1 on which the X-directional wiring 102 is formed. In particular, the film thickness, material, and manufacturing method are appropriately set so as to withstand the potential difference at the intersection of the X-direction wiring 102 and the Y-direction wiring 103. The X-direction wiring 102 and the Y-direction wiring 103 are respectively drawn out as external terminals.

Further, the device electrodes (not shown) facing the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 are provided with m X-direction wirings 102.
, N Y-directional wirings 103, a vacuum deposition method, a printing method,
Connection 1 made of conductive metal or the like formed by sputtering or the like
05 are electrically connected.

Here, the m X-directional wires 102, the n Y-directional wires 103, the connection 105, and the opposing element electrodes may have the same or a part of the constituent elements. Further, they may be different from each other, and are appropriately selected from the above-described materials of the device electrodes and the like. The wires to these device electrodes may be collectively referred to as device electrodes when the material is the same as the device electrodes. Further, the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104
May be formed on the substrate 1 or on an interlayer insulating layer (not shown).

As will be described later in detail, a scanning signal is applied to the X-direction wiring 102 in order to scan a row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104 arranged in the X-direction in accordance with an input signal. A scanning signal applying unit (not shown) is electrically connected.

On the other hand, a modulation signal (not shown) for applying a modulation signal is applied to the Y-direction wiring 103 in order to modulate each of the rows of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104 arranged in the Y direction according to an input signal. The signal generating means is electrically connected. Further, the driving voltage applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 is supplied as a difference voltage between a scanning signal and a modulation signal applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104.

Next, an example of an image forming apparatus according to the present invention constituted by using the electron sources having the simple matrix arrangement as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 is a basic configuration diagram of the display panel 201, and FIG.
FIG. 8 shows the display panel 201 of FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a driving circuit for performing television display in accordance with a TSC television signal.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate of an electron source on which the surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged as described above, 111 denotes a rear plate to which the substrate 1 is fixed, and 116 denotes a glass substrate.
13 is a face plate in which a fluorescent film 114 and a metal back 115 are formed on the inner surface. Reference numeral 112 denotes a support frame, and frit glass or the like is applied to the rear plate 111, the support frame 112, and the face plate 116, and is applied in the air or in nitrogen. Then, the envelope 118 is formed by baking at 400 to 500 ° C. for 10 minutes or more for sealing.

In FIG. 6, reference numerals 102 and 103 denote a pair of device electrodes 4 and 5 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 (FIG. 1).
) And external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn, respectively.

The envelope 118 comprises the face-plate 116, the support frame 112, and the rear plate 111, as described above. However, the rear plate 111 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the substrate 1. If the substrate 1 itself has sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 111 is unnecessary, and the support frame is directly attached to the substrate 1. Seal 112,
The envelope 118 may be constituted by the face plate 116, the support frame 112, and the substrate 1. Further, by further providing a support (not shown) called a spacer between the face plate 116 and the rear plate 111, the envelope 118 having sufficient strength against atmospheric pressure can be obtained.

The fluorescent film 114 is composed of only the phosphor 122 in the case of monochrome, but in the case of the color fluorescent film 114, depending on the arrangement of the phosphor 122, a black stripe (FIG. 7A) or a black matrix (FIG. 7
(B)) a black conductive material 121 and a phosphor 122 called
It is composed of The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the mixed portions between the phosphors 122 of the three primary colors necessary for color display black so that mixed colors and the like are not noticeable, and to reflect external light on the fluorescent film 114. Is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to As a material of the black conductive material 121, not only a material mainly containing graphite, which is often used, but also a material having conductivity and low light transmission and reflection may be used. it can.

As a method of applying the phosphor 122 to the glass substrate 113, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome or color.

Further, as shown in FIG.
A metal back 115 is usually provided on the inner surface side of 4.
The purpose of the metal back 115 is to convert the light emitted from the phosphor 122 (see FIG. 7) toward the inner surface into the face plate 11.
Improving the brightness by specular reflection to the 6 side, acting as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage, and protecting the phosphor 122 from damage due to collision of negative ions generated in the envelope 118 And so on. The metal back 115 can be manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 after manufacturing the fluorescent film 114, and then depositing Al by vacuum evaporation or the like.

The face plate 116 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface of the fluorescent film 114 to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 114.

When performing the above-described sealing, in the case of color, since the phosphors 122 of each color must correspond to the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104, it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment.

The inside of the envelope 118 is evacuated through an exhaust pipe (not shown) and, after reaching a predetermined degree of vacuum, is sealed. Further, a getter process can be performed to maintain the degree of vacuum of the envelope 118 after sealing. This is because the envelope 118
Immediately before or after sealing, a getter (not shown) disposed at a predetermined position in the envelope 118 is heated by resistance heating or high-frequency heating to form a vapor-deposited film. The getter is usually composed mainly of Ba or the like, and is used for maintaining a vacuum degree of, for example, 1 × 10 −5 or 1 × 10 −7 torr by the adsorption action of the deposited film.

The manufacturing steps of the surface conduction electron-emitting device after the above-described forming process are usually performed in the envelope 11
This is performed immediately before or after sealing of No. 8 and the contents thereof are as described above. In the electron source having the above configuration, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm, Dy1 to Dyn
The forming process can be performed by energizing each surface conduction electron-emitting device through the.

The above-described display panel 201 can be driven by a driving circuit as shown in FIG. 8, for example. still,
8, reference numeral 201 denotes a display panel; 202, a scanning circuit; 203, a control circuit; 204, a shift register;
5 is a line memory, 206 is a synchronization signal separation circuit, 207
Is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources.

As shown in FIG. 8, the display panel 201
Are connected to an external electric circuit via external terminals Dx1 to Dxm, external terminals Dy1 to Dyn, and a high voltage terminal Hv. The external terminals Dx1 to Dxm each include a surface conduction electron-emitting device provided in the display panel 201, that is, a group of surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix of m rows and n columns. (Each n elements)
A scanning signal for sequentially driving is applied.

On the other hand, the external terminals Dy1 to Dy
To n, a modulation signal for controlling the output electron beam of each surface conduction electron-emitting device in one row selected by the scanning signal is applied. Further, a DC voltage of, for example, 10 kV is supplied to the high voltage terminal Hv from the DC voltage source Va. This is an accelerating voltage for applying sufficient energy to the electron beam output from the surface conduction electron-emitting device to excite the phosphor.

The scanning circuit 202 includes m switching elements (symbols S1 to Sm in FIG. 8) therein. (Ground level)
Is selected and electrically connected to the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 201.
Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm operates based on a control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 203.
Actually, it can be easily configured by combining elements having a switching function such as an FET, for example.

In the present embodiment, the DC voltage source Vx has a drive voltage applied to the unscanned surface conduction electron-emitting device based on the characteristics (threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. It is set to output a constant voltage that is equal to or lower than the value voltage.

The control circuit 203 has a function of coordinating the operation of each section so that an appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside. A synchronization signal Tsyn sent from a synchronization signal separation circuit 206 described below.
Based on c, each control signal of Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry is generated for each unit.

The synchronizing signal separating circuit 206 is a circuit for separating a synchronizing signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC television signal input from the outside. As is well known, a frequency separating (filter) With the circuit,
It can be easily configured. Sync signal separation circuit 206
The sync signal separated by is composed of a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal, as is well known. here,
It is illustrated as Tsync for convenience of explanation. On the other hand, the luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is referred to as D for convenience.
This is illustrated as an ATA signal. This DATA signal is input to the shift register 204.

The shift register 204 is for serially / parallel-converting the DATA signal input serially in time series for each line of an image, and is based on a control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 203. Operate. This control signal Tsft is supplied to the shift register 20
4 may be rephrased as the shift clock. Also,
One line of serial / parallel converted image (equivalent to drive data for n elements of surface conduction electron-emitting device)
Are output from the shift register 204 as n parallel signals of Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 205 is a storage device for storing data for one line of an image for a required time.
The contents of Id1 to Idn are stored as appropriate according to the control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 203. The stored contents are output as Id′1 to Id′n and input to the modulation signal generator 207.

The modulation signal generator 207 is a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in accordance with each of the image data Id′1 to Id′n. Are applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the display panel 201 through the terminals Dy1 to Dyn.

As described above, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a clear threshold voltage for electron emission, and electron emission occurs only when a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage is applied. Also, for a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage, the emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Materials for surface conduction electron-emitting devices,
By changing the configuration and the manufacturing method, the value of the threshold voltage and the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may change, but in any case, the following can be said.

That is, when a pulse-like voltage is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device, electron emission does not occur even if a voltage lower than the threshold voltage is applied, but a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage is applied. In this case, electron emission occurs. At that time, first, it is possible to control the intensity of the output electron beam by changing the peak value of the voltage pulse. Second, by changing the width of the voltage pulse, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the output electron beam.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to an input signal, there are a voltage modulation method and a pulse width modulation method. In the case of performing the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 207 generates a voltage pulse having a fixed length, and uses a voltage modulation circuit capable of appropriately modulating the pulse peak value according to input data. In the case of performing the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 207 generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value, but a pulse width modulation method circuit capable of appropriately modulating the pulse width according to input data. Used.

The shift register 204 and the line memory 20
Reference numeral 5 may be a digital signal type or an analog signal type, as long as it can perform serial / parallel conversion and storage of an image signal at a predetermined speed.

When using the digital signal system, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the synchronization signal separation circuit 206 into a digital signal. This can be achieved by providing an A / D converter at the output of the synchronization signal separation circuit 206.

In connection with this, the line memory 20
Depending on whether the output signal of 5 is a digital signal or an analog signal,
The circuit provided in modulation signal generator 207 is slightly different.

That is, in the case of a voltage modulation method using a digital signal, a well-known D / A conversion circuit may be used as the modulation signal generator 207, and an amplification circuit or the like may be added as necessary. In the case of a pulse width modulation method using a digital signal, the modulation signal generator 207 includes, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter (counter) for counting the number of waves output from the oscillator, and an output value of the counter and an output value of the memory. It can be easily configured by using a circuit in which comparators for comparison are combined. Further, if necessary, an amplifier may be added for amplifying the voltage of the pulse-width-modulated signal output from the comparator to the drive voltage of the surface-conduction electron-emitting device.

On the other hand, in the case of a voltage modulation method using an analog signal, an amplification circuit using a well-known operational amplifier or the like may be used as the modulation signal generator 207, and a level shift circuit or the like may be added as necessary. You may. In the case of a pulse width modulation method using an analog signal, for example, a well-known voltage-controlled oscillation circuit (VCO) may be used, and a voltage is amplified to a drive voltage of a surface conduction electron-emitting device as necessary. May be added.

The image forming apparatus according to the present invention having the display panel 201 and the driving circuit as described above has terminals Dx1 to Dx1.
By applying a voltage from Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn, electrons can be emitted from the necessary surface conduction electron-emitting device.
15 or a transparent electrode (not shown) to apply a high voltage to accelerate the electron beam, and apply the accelerated electron beam to the fluorescent film 114.
Excitation and emission caused by collision with
The television display can be performed according to the television signal of the C system.

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for obtaining an image forming apparatus used for display and the like. For example, detailed portions such as materials of each member are not limited to those described above. Are appropriately selected so as to be suitable for the use of the image forming apparatus. Also, NTS is used as an input signal.
Although the C method has been described, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to this, but may be another method such as a PAL or SECAM method, and further, a TV signal including a larger number of scanning lines than these, for example, A high-quality TV system such as the MUSE system may be used.

Next, an example of the above-described ladder-shaped electron source and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention constituted by using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10. FIG.

In FIG. 9, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate, 104 denotes a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 304 denotes a surface conduction electron-emitting device.
There are provided ten common wirings for connecting the terminals 04, each having external terminals D1 to D10.

The surface conduction type electron-emitting device 104 is
A plurality is arranged in parallel above. This is called an element row. These element rows are arranged in a plurality of rows to constitute an electron source.

By applying an appropriate drive voltage between the common wiring 304 of each element row (for example, the common wiring 304 of the external terminals D1 and D2), each element row can be driven independently. That is, a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage may be applied to an element row where electron beams are to be emitted, and a voltage lower than the threshold voltage may be applied to an element row where electron beams are not desired to be emitted. The application of such a drive voltage is performed by applying common lines 304 adjacent to each other between the element rows, that is, common lines 304 adjacent to each other, that is, external terminals D2 and D3 and D4 and D5 and D6 and D7 and D8 respectively adjacent to each other. The common wiring 304 of D9 and D9 can be formed as a single integrated wiring.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the structure of a display panel 301 provided with the above-mentioned trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources.

In FIG. 10, reference numeral 302 denotes a grid electrode; 303, an opening through which electrons pass; D1 to Dm, external terminals for applying a voltage to each surface conduction electron-emitting device;
Gn is an external terminal connected to the grid electrode 302. Further, the common wiring 304 between each element row is formed on the substrate 1 as an integral same wiring.

In FIG. 10, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 6 denote the same members, and the major difference from the display panel 201 using the electron sources in the simple matrix arrangement shown in FIG. The point is that a grid electrode 302 is provided between the electrodes 116.

The grid electrode 302 is provided between the substrate 1 and the face plate 116 as described above. The grid electrode 302 is capable of modulating the electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104. In order to pass
One circular opening 303 is provided for each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104.

The shape and arrangement position of the grid electrode 302
It is not always necessary that the openings 303 are as shown in FIG. 10. A large number of openings 303 may be provided in a mesh shape, and the grid electrodes 302 may be provided, for example, around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104. Good.

The external terminals D1 to Dm and G1 to Gn are connected to a drive circuit (not shown). Then, by applying a modulation signal for one image line to the column of the grid electrode 302 in synchronization with sequentially driving (scanning) the element rows one by one, each electron beam is irradiated on the fluorescent film 114. And images can be displayed line by line.

As described above, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention can be obtained by using any of the electron sources in the simple matrix arrangement and the trapezoidal arrangement. An image forming apparatus suitable as a display device for a video conference system, a computer, or the like can be obtained. Furthermore, the present invention can be used as an exposure device of an optical printer including a photosensitive drum.

[0127]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to specific examples. However, the present invention is not limited to these examples, and each of the examples is set within a range in which the object of the present invention is achieved. This includes the case where the element is replaced or the design is changed.

Example 1 The structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this example is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and a method of manufacturing the same will be described below with reference to the manufacturing process diagram of FIG.

Step-a Using a sufficiently cleaned blue glass substrate 1, Ti having a thickness of 5 nm and Pt having a thickness of 30 nm were sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation. Patterning was performed by photolithography to form device electrodes 4 and 5 having a device electrode interval L of 2 micrometers and a width W of 300 micrometers (FIG. 2A).

Step-b Next, an organic Pd complex (ccp4230, Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.)
Was spin-coated with a spinner and heated and baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes to form a conductive film 3 mainly composed of fine particles of palladium oxide. By photolithography, patterning was performed into a shape as shown in FIG.

Step-c The substrate 1 having undergone the above steps is placed on the vacuum apparatus 5 of the measurement and evaluation system shown in FIG.
5 and evacuated by a vacuum pump 56 to obtain 2 × 10
After reaching a degree of vacuum of −5 torr, a voltage is applied between the element electrodes 4 and 5 from a power supply 51 for applying the element voltage Vf, and an energization process (forming process) is performed to cause the electron-emitting portion 2 to operate. It was formed (FIG. 2C).

In this embodiment, the ammeter 50 also serves as a current detecting means for detecting the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3, and the power supply 51 serves for detecting the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3. At the same time as the voltage applying means, it also serves as a voltage applying means for applying an appropriate forming voltage according to the resistance value R1. Further, 57 evaluates the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3 based on the information of the current detecting means 50, and
Reference numeral 1 denotes a microprocessor for controlling so as to apply an appropriate forming voltage according to the resistance value R1.

In the present embodiment, the voltage waveform shown in FIG. 11 was used in the forming process. In FIG. 11, reference numeral 21 denotes an R1 measuring voltage for measuring the element resistance value R1, and reference numeral 22 denotes a forming voltage having a voltage peak proportional to the square root of R1.

The R1 measurement voltage 21 has a pulse width of 0.1 s
ec, a rectangular pulse having a pulse peak value VR = 0.1,
When the peak current value detected by the ammeter 50 is defined as IP, the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3 is evaluated as R1 = IP / VR.

The forming voltage 22 is a rectangular pulse having a pulse width of 0.1 sec and a pulse peak value Vf = C1 × √R1, using C1 as an appropriate proportional coefficient.

As described above, the energization forming is
This is a means to generate a crack part that is an electron emission part by energization processing.Joule heat generated at the time of energization is the main factor, so the minimum input power required to generate a crack is required Threshold P as power
th exists.

Here, the threshold value Pth can be expected to be substantially the same if the element structure is substantially equal and the pulse width is the same even if the resistance value R1 before forming varies. Therefore, the threshold value V of the forming voltage
th is (Vth) with respect to an element having an element resistance of R1.
^The relationship ² / R1 = Pth (= constant) is satisfied.

In the device of this embodiment, Pth is 0.080
W was measured, and Vth = 0.28√R1 was determined.
Further, as the above-mentioned proportional coefficient C1 for the forming voltage 22 having a voltage peak Vf proportional to the square root of R1, a coefficient which is 1 or more and 1.5 or less in the square root of the threshold value Pth as the minimum input power required for the forming process. Was used. Specifically, a value of C1 = 1.1 × √ (Pth) = 1.1 × √ (0.080) = 0.31 was used assuming that the above coefficient was 1.1. That is, by using a voltage slightly larger than the threshold value of the forming as the peak value Vf of the forming voltage, it is possible to prevent incomplete cracking of the element and to prevent an excessive current from flowing through the element. did.

That is, by applying the R1 measuring voltage 21 for measuring R1, and then applying the forming voltage 22 having the above-mentioned voltage peak Vf proportional to the square root of R1, an appropriate value corresponding to the element resistance R1 is obtained. Element voltage R1 before forming is applied.
Even if there is variation, excessive current flows through the element,
Conversely, incomplete cracking of the element was prevented.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, the voltage waveform shown in FIG. 12 is used in the forming process in the embodiment 1.

In the forming process of this embodiment, the resistance value R2 of the conductive film 3 after the application of the forming voltage is measured, and if this resistance value R2 is lower than a predetermined resistance value R0, the peak voltage of the forming voltage is measured. As in the first embodiment, except that a forming voltage having a higher peak voltage is applied again.

In FIG. 12, reference numeral 31 denotes 21 of the first embodiment.
An R1 measurement voltage for measuring R1 is the same as (see FIG. 11), and 32 is a forming voltage having a voltage peak proportional to the square root of R1 similarly to 22 (see FIG. 11) of the first embodiment. . However, in the present embodiment, a triangular wave pulse was used as the forming voltage. Also, 3
Reference numerals 3 and 34 denote R2 measurement voltages for measuring the resistance value R2 of the conductive film 3 after the application of the forming voltage. Reference numeral 35 denotes a reforming voltage applied when the resistance value R2 is lower than a predetermined resistance value R0, and has a peak voltage Vf2 higher than the peak voltage Vf1 of the forming voltage 32. On the other hand, when the resistance value R2 is higher than the predetermined resistance value R0, the reforming voltage 35 is not applied.

Here, the resistance value R0 is selected as, for example, R0 = R1 × 100 in consideration of the fact that the resistance value rises by about two digits when forming is completed.
When R0 is selected in this way, if the resistance value R2 of the conductive film 3 after application of the forming voltage is R2> R0, it is determined that the forming is completed and a complete crack structure is formed. If R2 <R0, it can be detected that the forming has not yet been completed and that an incomplete crack structure has been formed.

That is, in this embodiment, after the forming voltage 32 is applied, the resistance R2 of the conductive thin film 3 is measured, and if the resistance R2 is lower than the predetermined resistance R0, the forming voltage 32 is applied. Forming voltage 35 having a peak voltage Vf2 higher than peak voltage Vf1 of
In addition to inspecting the quality of the device in parallel with the device production, it is also possible to immediately repair the defective device in which an incomplete crack structure was detected, realizing the production of an electron-emitting device with a low defective product rate. Was done.

(Embodiment 3) An example in which an electron source as shown in FIG. 5 in which many surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a simple matrix will be described.

The X-direction wiring 102, the Y-direction wiring 103, the device electrodes 4 and 5 of each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104, and their connection 105 extend the electrode forming pattern of the first embodiment. Since the conductive film 3 of the conductive electron-emitting device 104 can be formed by expanding the conductive film forming pattern of the first embodiment, the description is omitted here.

Hereinafter, the forming step in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 13, components having the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 5 are the same. Reference numeral 61 denotes current detecting means for detecting the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3, and reference numerals 63 and 64 denote voltage applying means for detecting the resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3 and the resistance value R1. Is a voltage applying means for applying an appropriate forming voltage according to the above. Reference numeral 62 denotes a resistance value R1 of the conductive film 3 based on information of the current detecting means 61.
Is evaluated at each selected point of the matrix, and the voltage application means 63 and 64 control so as to sequentially apply an appropriate forming voltage according to the resistance value R1 of each element.

In this embodiment, the wirings 102a to 102c and 10
By applying a voltage to 3a to 3c, the resistance value R1 of each of the conductive films matrix-wired by these is measured, and then an appropriate forming voltage corresponding to the resistance value R1 is applied using the wirings 102 and 103. Forming of a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices is performed by sequentially repeating the application. As a result, a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices can be formed uniformly, and a plurality of electron-emitting portions having uniform cracks can be formed on the same substrate.

[0150]

As described above, according to the present invention,
After measuring the resistance value R1 of the conductive film, by applying an appropriate forming voltage according to the resistance value R1,
Even when the resistance value R1 of each element before forming is varied, it is possible to prevent an excessive current from flowing through the element and conversely prevent the element from being incompletely cracked and to provide an electron having uniform characteristics. An emission element is obtained.

Therefore, in an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are formed on the same substrate, and in an image forming apparatus constituted by using the electron source, uneven brightness and uneven image are suppressed.
A more reliable device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view and a longitudinal sectional view schematically showing an example of a surface conduction electron-emitting device which is an example of an electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an example of a measurement evaluation system for a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing emission current-device voltage characteristics (IV characteristics) of a surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus using an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a fluorescent film in the display panel of FIG.

8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a drive circuit that drives the display panel of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a schematic plan view of a trapezoidal-shaped electron source according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus using a trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources according to the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a forming voltage waveform according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating a forming voltage waveform according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a view for explaining a forming step in Embodiment 3 of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Electron emission part 3 Conductive film 4,5 Device electrode 21 R1 measuring voltage 22 Forming voltage having a voltage peak proportional to the square root of R1 31 R1 measuring voltage 32 Forming voltage 33,34 Forming voltage application Subsequent resistance value measuring voltage 35 Reforming voltage 50 Ammeter for measuring element current If 51 Power supply 52 Ammeter for measuring emission current Ie 53 High voltage power supply 54 Anode electrode 55 Vacuum device 56 Exhaust pump 57 Micro Processor 61 Current detecting means for detecting resistance value 62 Microprocessor 63, 64 Voltage applying means 102 X-directional wiring 103 Y-directional wiring 104 Surface conduction electron-emitting device 105 connection 111 rear plate 112 support frame 113 glass substrate 114 fluorescent film 115 Metal Bar H 116 face plate 118 envelope 121 black conductive material 122 phosphor 201 display panel 202 scanning circuit 203 control circuit 204 shift register 205 line memory 206 synchronization signal separation circuit 207 modulation signal generator 301 display panel 302 grid electrode 303 opening 304 Common wiring

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H01J 9 / 02,1 / 30

Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] In a method of manufacturing a plurality of electron-emitting devices having an electron-emitting portion in a conductive thin film connecting a pair of electrodes provided on a substrate, a forming step of forming an electron-emitting portion in each conductive film. Measured the resistance value R1 of each conductive film, and based on this R1
And the threshold Pth as the minimum required input power
The above input power can be applied to each conductive film.
This is done by applying a forming voltage adjusted
A method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device characterized by that. 2. After applying the forming voltage, a resistance value R2 of the conductive film is measured, and when the resistance value R2 is lower than a predetermined resistance value R, a peak voltage higher than a peak voltage of the forming voltage. The method according to claim 1, further comprising applying a forming voltage having the following formula. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 4. A method of manufacturing an electron source having an electron-emitting device and driving means for the electron-emitting device, wherein the electron-emitting device is manufactured by the method according to claim 1. Method of manufacturing an electron source. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the electron source is an electron source having at least one element row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. 6. The method for manufacturing an electron source according to claim 4, wherein said electron source is an electron source in which a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix. . 7. An image forming apparatus comprising: an electron-emitting device; an image forming member; and driving means for controlling irradiation of the image forming member with an electron beam emitted from the electron-emitting device in accordance with an information signal. A method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus, wherein the electron-emitting device is manufactured by the method according to claim 1. 8. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus having at least one or more element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. Manufacturing method. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 7, wherein a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix.
3. The method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus according to claim 1.