JP2961494B2 - Electron emitting element, electron source, and method of manufacturing image forming apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an electron source provided with a plurality of such devices, and an image forming apparatus such as a display device or an exposure device using the electron source. In particular, it relates to a method for producing them.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which an electron is emitted by passing a current through a conductive thin 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 thin film such as a metal oxide which connects 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 on both ends of the conductive thin film.
It is usually performed by applying a voltage and energizing, locally breaking, deforming or altering the conductive thin film to change the structure,
This is a process for forming an electron emission portion in an electrically high resistance state. The electron emission is performed from the vicinity of a crack generated in the electron emission portion by applying a voltage to the conductive thin film on which the electron emission portion is formed and causing a current to flow.

The above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device has an advantage that it can be formed in a large number over a large area since it has a simple structure and is relatively 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 charged beam source and a display device.

Conventionally, as an example of arranging a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices, a surface conduction electron-emitting device is arranged in parallel, and both ends (both device electrodes) of each surface conduction electron-emitting device are wired. (Also referred to as a common wiring). An electron source in which rows connected by a plurality of rows (also referred to as a common wiring) are arranged in a large number of rows (also referred to as a trapezoidal arrangement) (JP-A-64-31332, JP-A-1-2302).
No. 83749, JP-A-1-257552).

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 self-luminous display device that does not require a backlight is used as a surface conduction electron emission device. There has been proposed a display device in which an electron source in which a number of elements are arranged and a phosphor that emits visible light when irradiated with an electron beam from the electron source are combined (US Pat. No. 5,066,883).

The material of the conductive thin film of the surface conduction type electron-emitting device is not limited to a metal compound such as a metal oxide, but many other materials such as metal and carbon can be used. Above all, as a production method when using a metal oxide, a method of forming a metal oxide film by forming an organic metal thin film and then heating and sintering in the air to form a metal oxide film is more effective than a production method of other thin films. Research is ongoing because of the great advantages.

Here, taking a method of applying an organic metal solution to form an organic metal thin film, followed by heating and baking, an example of a method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device which has been conventionally used is shown in FIG. An outline is given below. In addition, the following steps a to
k corresponds to (a) to (k) in FIG.

Step a: Device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed on the substrate 1.

Step b: A film 601 of Cr or the like is formed on the entire surface by vacuum evaporation.

Step c: Further, a resist film 602 is formed on the entire surface.
To form

Step d: Exposure is performed using an exposure mask 603 so as to obtain a desired pattern.

Step e: The resist film 602 is developed.

Step f: A portion of the Cr film 601 where there is no resist film 602 is removed by etching with an acid etchant to form a pattern of the Cr film 601.

Step g: Resist film 60 using an organic solvent
Remove 2.

Step h: An organic metal solution is applied thereon by a method such as a spinner to form an organic metal thin film 604.

Step i: A heating and baking treatment is performed to decompose and oxidize the organometallic thin film 604 to form a metal oxide film 605.

Step j: Cr film 601 by lift-off method
Is removed, and a metal oxide film 605 having a desired pattern is formed.

Step k: The above-described forming process is performed to form the electron emitting portions 2 on the conductive thin film 3.

[0020]

However, the conventional manufacturing method has the following problems.

That is, the lift-off method is used to form the conductive thin film 3 having a desired pattern in the same manner as the patterning of a general thin film.
Since the r film 601 is used as a mask for lift-off, a high vacuum is required. For this reason, it has been difficult to arrange a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices and form the devices over a large area.

As a method suitable for forming a pattern of a large number of conductive thin films over a large area, there is a wet etching method. However, when a main constituent element of the thin film to be patterned is a metal oxide , these are used. Difficult to dissolve. Also, it has been difficult to obtain the etching selectivity necessary to remove only a desired portion.

In particular, when a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are used as an electron source of a display device or the like, it is important to reduce the defect occurrence rate of each device and increase the yield.
In order to reduce the defect occurrence rate, if the device can be manufactured with a smaller number of steps, the achievement can be expected. In addition, in order to reduce the manufacturing cost, it can be expected that the number of steps is reduced.

An object of the present invention is to provide a surface conduction electron-emitting device having a conductive thin film provided with an electron-emitting portion, an electron source using the same, and an image forming apparatus, wherein the main constituent element of the conductive thin film is metal oxide. Another object of the present invention is to provide a manufacturing method that can apply wet etching suitable for forming a pattern over a large area even when the product is formed.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of manufacturing a surface-conduction type electron-emitting device, an electron source and an image forming apparatus using the same, which can reduce the number of steps, reduce the manufacturing cost, and increase the area. Is to provide.

[0026]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which an electron-emitting portion is provided on a conductive thin film connecting a pair of device electrodes. In the manufacturing method, the step of forming the conductive thin film includes a step of forming a thin film containing a metal oxide, and a step of forming a coating material on a region of the thin film containing the metal oxide that becomes the conductive thin film. And a step of reducing the metal oxide in an area where the coating material is not formed, and a wet etching step of selectively dissolving and removing the area subjected to the reduction treatment. The method of manufacturing an electron source, wherein a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices having an electron-emitting portion provided on a conductive thin film connecting a pair of device electrodes is provided on a substrate. A step of forming a conductive thin film of the output element, a step of forming a thin film containing a metal oxide, and a step of forming a coating material on a region to be the conductive thin film in the thin film containing the metal oxide, A method of reducing the metal oxide in a region where the coating material is not formed, and a wet etching step of selectively dissolving and removing the region subjected to the reduction treatment. An electron source having a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices on a substrate in which an electron-emitting portion is provided on a conductive thin film connecting a pair of device electrodes, and irradiation of an electron beam emitted from the electron source In the method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus having an image forming member for forming an image by the method, the step of forming the conductive thin film of the plurality of electron-emitting devices includes the step of forming a thin film containing a metal oxide; A step of forming a coating material in a region of the thin film including the conductive thin film, a step of reducing the metal oxide in a region in which the coating material is not formed, and a step of selectively performing the reduction processing on the region. in the manufacturing method of the image forming apparatus characterized by having a wet etching process for removing dissolved in.

The basic structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention is as shown in FIG.
Is a substrate, 2 is an electron emitting portion, 3 is a conductive thin film including the electron emitting portion, and 4 and 5 are device electrodes. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention has a configuration in which the vertical relationship between the device electrodes 4 and 5 and the conductive thin film 3 is opposite to the device configuration of FIG. Good.

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.
A general conductor material is used, for example, Ni, Cr, Au,
Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, metal or an alloy such as Pd, and Pd, Ag, Au, printed conductors composed of RuO _2, metal or metal oxide such as Pd-Ag and glass, etc. , In ₂ O ₃ —SnO _2, etc., and a semiconductor conductor material such as polysilicon. However, in the present invention, wet etching is performed in a later-described formation step of the conductive thin film 3, so that the device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed before the conductive thin film 3 as shown in FIG. In that case, it is preferable to use a material that is not eroded by the etching solution used for the above etching.

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

The distance L between the device electrodes is preferably several hundred μm to several hundred μm, and more preferably several μm to several hundred μm depending on the voltage applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 and the electric field strength capable of emitting electrons. 10 μm.

The element electrode length W is preferably several μm to several hundred μm in consideration of the resistance value and electron emission characteristics of the electrode, and the element electrode thickness d is several hundred μm to several μm.

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

The main materials constituting the conductive thin film 3 are, for example, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, Fe,
It is an oxide of a metal such as Zn, Sn, Ta, W, and Pb.

The 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 overlap each other (in an island shape). ). In the case of a fine particle film, the particle size of the fine particles is preferably from several to several thousand, particularly preferably from 10 to 200.

The electron emitting portion 2 contains a crack, and the electron emission is performed from the vicinity of the crack. The electron-emitting portion 2 including the crack and the crack itself are formed depending on the thickness, the film quality, the material of the conductive thin film 3 and the manufacturing method such as forming conditions described later. Therefore, the position and shape of the electron-emitting portion 2 are not limited to the positions and shapes as shown in FIGS.

The crack may have conductive fine particles having a particle size of several to several hundreds of mm. The conductive fine particles are similar to some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive thin film 3. Further, the electron emitting portion 2 including the crack and the conductive thin film 3 in the vicinity thereof may include carbon and a carbon compound.

An example of the manufacturing method of the present invention will be described below with reference to the manufacturing process diagram of FIG. 3 using the surface conduction electron-emitting device having the structure shown in FIG. 1 as an example. Note that the following steps a to f
Corresponds to (a) to (f) of FIG.

Step a: 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 by a photolithography technique or a printing method. The device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed on the surface of the substrate 1.

Step b: An organometallic compound is applied on the substrate 1 on which the device electrodes 4 and 5 are provided, and is baked under heating to form a thin film 7 containing a metal oxide. The organic metal compound is an organic compound having a metal as a constituent material of the conductive thin film 3 as a main element, such as an alkoxide, a chelate compound, a complex salt, an organic acid salt, and an organic compound having a carbon-metal bond. It is.

The application of the organometallic compound onto the substrate 1 is performed by dissolving or dispersing the organometallic compound in a solvent to form a solution, and applying the solution by a coating method, a dispersion coating method, a dipping method, or the like.
It can be performed by a spinner method or the like. The solvent used for preparing the above solution is not particularly limited, but examples include butyl acetate, acetone, toluene, hexane, water, ethanol and the like.

The temperature condition of the heating and firing is a temperature at which the organometallic compound is completely decomposed to form a metal oxide or a mixture of a metal and a metal oxide.

By a suitable combination of the above-mentioned organometallic material, coating conditions and heating and firing conditions, the thin film 7 containing the metal oxide can be made into the above-mentioned fine particle film. The use of the fine particle film has an advantage that the subsequent reduction step is completed in a short time.

Step c: A coating material 8 is formed on a region of the thin film 7 containing a metal oxide which is to be the conductive thin film 3 described above.

The coating material 8 is for preventing the reducing agent from coming into contact with the thin film 7 in the region to be the conductive thin film 3 in the subsequent reduction step.

Examples of the material of the coating material 8 include polymer materials such as polyurethane, epoxy, phenoxy, polyimide, fluorocarbon, polyxylene, polyester, polyvinyl, polystyrene, acrylic, allyl polymer, polyamide, phenolic resin, and polysulfide. Can be

The polymer material may be coated by a compressed liquid spray using a polymer precursor or a polymer solution, an airless spray, a vapor spray, or the like.
Dip coating, brush coating, roller coating, impregnation, spin coating,
The LB method, dispersion coating using polymer powder dispersed in water or the like, thermal spraying using polymer powder, flowing immersion, electrostatic powder coating, and the like can be used.

The desired pattern of the coating material 8 can be formed by a method using a photosensitive resin, a silk screen printing method, or the like.

Step d: The thin film 7 other than the area covered with the coating material 8 is subjected to a reduction treatment to form a metal film 9. The reduction treatment can be performed in a reducing solution or in a reducing atmosphere.

Examples of the reducing solution include hydrazine,
Diimide, formic acid, aldehyde, L-ascorbic acid and the like. The temperature at the time of the reduction treatment in the reducing solution depends on the type and concentration of the solution, but is preferably from 20C to 100C.

As the reducing atmosphere, hydrogen, carbon monoxide, or the like diluted with nitrogen, argon, or the like can be used. The temperature during the reduction treatment in a reducing atmosphere is
20 ° C to 400 ° C is preferred.

Step e: The metal film 9 is selectively etched to form the conductive thin film 3 made of a thin film containing a metal oxide having a desired pattern shape.

As an etching solution used for the selective etching, a solution having a property in which a metal is dissolved but an oxide of the metal is hardly dissolved is used. For example, in the case of a combination of palladium and palladium oxide, nitric acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used. Can be used.

The above-mentioned etching solution may decompose or dissolve the coating material 8. In that case, the coating material 8 is removed simultaneously with the etching of the metal film 9. Otherwise, it is necessary to remove the coating material 8 after the etching step. The method of removing the coating material 8 includes a method of removing with a solvent, a method of ashing, and the like.

In the manufacturing method of the present invention, since a vacuum is not required for forming the pattern of the conductive thin film 3, if a printing method or the like is selected for another step (for example, the step of forming the element electrodes 4 and 5), The steps up to this point can be performed consistently without the need for a vacuum device, and in addition to being able to reduce the device cost, it is suitable for manufacturing a large-area electron source in which many elements are integrated.

Further, by selecting an appropriate etchant, the etching rate of the portion subjected to the reduction treatment can be significantly higher than the etching rate of the portion not subjected to the reduction treatment, and it has been difficult to perform patterning by wet etching. The pattern formation of the conductive thin film 3 containing a noble metal as a main constituent element can be easily performed.

Step f: Subsequently, an energization process called forming is performed. When power is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 from a power supply (not shown), an electron-emitting portion 2 having a changed structure is formed at the portion of the conductive thin film 3. The conductive thin film 3 is locally destroyed, deformed or deteriorated by this energization process, and the portion where the structure is changed is the electron emitting portion 2.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the voltage waveform of the forming.

The voltage waveform is particularly preferably a pulse waveform.
There are a case where a voltage pulse having a pulse crest value as a constant voltage is continuously applied (FIG. 4A) and a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse crest value (FIG. 4B).

First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage will be described. T1 and T2 in FIG. 4A are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. For example, T1 is 1 μsec to 10 msec, T2 is 10 μsec to 100 msec,
The peak value (peak voltage at the time of forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, and is applied in a vacuum atmosphere for several seconds to several tens of minutes. Note that the voltage waveform to be applied is not limited to the illustrated triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave can be used.

Next, a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value will be described. T1 and T2 in FIG. 4B are the same as those in FIG. 4A, and the peak value (peak voltage at the time of forming) is increased by, for example, about 0.1 V steps. Is applied under an appropriate vacuum atmosphere as described in the above.

In the meantime, the conductive thin film 3
(See FIGS. 1 and 2) The element current was measured at a voltage that does not locally destroy, deform, or alter the element, for example, a voltage of about 0.1 V, and the resistance was obtained. For example, a resistance of 1 M ohm or more was shown. Sometimes the forming ends.

It is preferable to further perform an activation step.

The activation step is, for example, 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-5 T
Similar to the description of the forming process, a process of repeating application of a pulse with a pulse peak value of a constant voltage at a degree of vacuum of about orr, and converts carbon and carbon compounds from organic substances existing in a vacuum atmosphere into electrons. This is a step in which the state of the device current and the emission current can be significantly improved by depositing the light on the emission portion 2 (see FIGS. 1 and 2). This activation step is preferably performed while measuring, for example, the device current and the emission current, and is completed when, for example, the emission current is saturated, since it is effective and is preferable. In addition, the pulse peak value in the activation step is preferably a peak value of a driving voltage applied when driving the element.

The above-mentioned carbon and carbon compound are graphite (indicating both single crystal and polycrystal) and amorphous carbon (indicating amorphous carbon and a mixture thereof with polycrystalline graphite). Further, the deposited film thickness is preferably 500 ° or less, more preferably 300 ° or less.

The basic characteristics of the thus obtained surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a measurement evaluation system for measuring the electron emission characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. First, this measurement evaluation system will be described.

In FIG. 5, 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 thin film 3 between the device electrodes 4 and 5; An anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie to be emitted, 53 is a high voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 54, and 52 is for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion 5. An ammeter, 55 is a vacuum device, and 56 is an exhaust pump.

The surface conduction type electron-emitting device and the anode electrode 54 are installed in a vacuum device 55.
Is equipped with necessary equipment such as a vacuum gauge (not shown),
Measurement and evaluation of the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be performed under a desired vacuum.

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 surface conduction electron-emitting device can be heated to about 200 ° C. by a heater. In this measurement and evaluation system, the display panel and the inside thereof are connected to a vacuum device 55 at the stage of assembling a display panel (see 201 in FIG. 8) described later.
And by configuring it as an interior thereof, it can be applied to measurement evaluation and processing in the above-described forming step and activation step.

The basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described below are as follows. The voltage of the anode electrode 54 of the above-mentioned measurement and evaluation system is 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode 54 and the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Is usually set to 2 mm to 8 mm.

First, the emission current Ie and the device current If,
FIG. 6 (a solid line in the figure) shows a typical example of the relationship between the element voltages Vf.
Shown in In FIG. 6, the emission current Ie is the device current Ie.
Since it is significantly smaller than f, it is shown in arbitrary units.

As apparent from FIG. 6, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has the following three characteristic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie.

First, when a device voltage Vf higher than a certain voltage (called a threshold voltage: Vth in FIG. 6) is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device, the emission current Ie rapidly increases. Below 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 (referred to as MI characteristic) that monotonically increases with respect to the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie can be controlled by the device voltage Vf.

Thirdly, the amount of charge emitted by the anode electrode 54 (see FIG. 5) 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.

The characteristic shown by the solid line in FIG.
Has the MI characteristic with respect to the element voltage Vf, and the element current If also has the MI characteristic with respect to the element voltage Vf. However, as shown by a broken line in FIG. On the other hand, a voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (referred to as VCNR characteristic) may be exhibited. Which property is shown
It depends on the manufacturing method of the element and the measurement conditions at the time of measurement. However,
Even if the device current If has a VCNR characteristic with respect to the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie is M with respect to the device voltage Vf.
It has an I characteristic.

Because of the characteristic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of 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 adjusted in accordance with an input signal. It can be controlled and can be applied to various fields.

Next, the arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the electron source of the present invention will be described.

The arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the electron source of the present invention is not limited to the ladder arrangement as described in the section of the prior art, or to the arrangement of n Y-directions on m X-direction wirings. An arrangement method in which 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, when the applied device voltage Vf exceeds the threshold voltage Vth, the electron is expressed by the peak value and pulse width of the applied pulse voltage. The amount of release can be controlled. On the other hand, below the threshold voltage Vth, almost no electrons are emitted. Therefore, even when a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged, it becomes possible to apply a pulse-like voltage controlled in accordance with an input signal with only a simple matrix wiring and to select individual devices to be driven independently. .

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

In FIG. 7, 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. It is.

Each of the m X-directional wirings 102 has external terminals DX1, DX2,.
A conductive metal formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like is provided thereon. In addition, the materials,
The film thickness and the wiring width are set.

The n-direction wirings 103 each have external terminals DY1, DY2,... DYn, and are formed in the same manner as the X-direction wiring 102.

The m X-directional wires 102 and the n Y wires 102
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 made of SiO ₂ or the like formed by a vacuum evaporation 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. Further, the X-direction wiring 102 and the Y-direction wiring 103 are led out as external terminals.

Further, the device electrodes (not shown) opposed to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 are provided with m X-direction wirings 102.
And n Y-directional wirings 103, vacuum deposition method, 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. The surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 may be formed on either the substrate 1 or an interlayer insulating layer (not shown).

As will be described in detail later, 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 applying means is electrically connected. The drive 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.

Next, an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention using the electron source of the present invention having the simple matrix arrangement as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of the display panel 201, FIG. 9 is a view showing the fluorescent film 114, and FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the display panel 201 of FIG.
It is a block diagram which shows an example of the drive circuit for performing television display according to the television signal of SC system.

In FIG. 8, 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.
A fluorescent film 114 serving as an image forming member
And a face play on which a metal back 115 and the like are formed.
And 112, a support frame. The rear plate 111, the support frame 112, and the face plate 116 are sealed by applying frit glass or the like to these joints and firing at 400 to 500 ° C. for 10 minutes or more in the air or a nitrogen atmosphere. To form an envelope 118.

In FIG. 8, reference numerals 102 and 103 denote an X-direction wiring and a Y-direction wiring connected to a pair of device electrodes 4 and 5 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104. Dx1 to Dxm, Dy1 to D
yn.

The envelope 118 includes 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, and if the substrate 1 itself has sufficient strength, the rear plate 1
11 is unnecessary, and the support frame 112 may be directly sealed to the substrate 1, and 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 a monochrome, but is composed of the phosphor 1 in the case of a color.
Black stripes (FIG. 9A)
Alternatively, it is composed of a black conductive material 121 called a black matrix (FIG. 9B) and the like, and a phosphor 122.
The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to provide the three primary color phosphors 12 necessary for color display.
The purpose is to make the color mixture or the like inconspicuous by making the painted portion between the two black, and to suppress a decrease in contrast due to reflection of external light on the fluorescent film 114. Black conductive material 12
As the first material, not only a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, but also other materials can be used as long as they are conductive and have little light transmission and reflection.

As a method of applying the fluorescent substance 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 reduce the light emitted from the phosphor 122 (see FIG.
Improving the brightness by specular reflection to the 6th side, acting as an electrode for applying an electron beam accelerating voltage from the high voltage terminal Hv, and damaging by the collision of negative ions generated in the envelope 118. Protection of the phosphor 122 from the laser beam. 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 the fluorescent film 114 is manufactured, and then depositing Al by vacuum evaporation or the like.

In the face plate 116, a transparent electrode (not shown) may be provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 114 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 114.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of a color, the phosphors 122 of each color must correspond to the surface-conduction electron-emitting devices 104, so that it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment.

The inside of the envelope 118 is evacuated to a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁷ Torr through an exhaust pipe (not shown) and sealed.
In addition, getter processing may be performed immediately before or after sealing the envelope 118. This is to heat a getter (not shown) disposed at a predetermined position in the envelope 118 by a heating method such as resistance heating or high-frequency heating.
This is a process for forming a deposition film. The getter is usually composed mainly of Ba or the like.
^{This is} for maintaining a degree of vacuum of ^-5 to 10 ^-7 Torr.

The above-described forming and the subsequent manufacturing steps of the surface conduction electron-emitting device are usually performed by using the envelope 1
This is performed immediately before or after the sealing of 18, and the contents thereof are as described above.

The display panel 201 described above is, for example, shown in FIG.
Can be driven by a driving circuit as shown in FIG.
In FIG. 10, reference numeral 201 denotes the display panel;
202 is a scanning circuit, 203 is a control circuit, 204 is a shift register, 205 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. 10, the display panel 20
1 is connected to an external electric circuit via external terminals Dx1 to Dxm, external terminals Dy1 to Dyn, and a high voltage terminal Hv. Of these, the external terminals Dx1 to Dx1
In xm, surface conduction electron-emitting devices 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 are sequentially arranged in a row (n elements). A scanning signal for driving is applied.

On the other hand, external terminals Dy1 to Dyn have
A modulation signal for controlling an output electron beam of each element in one row selected by the scanning signal is applied. The high voltage terminal Hv is connected to a DC voltage source Va at, for example, 10 kV.
Is supplied. 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 has m switching elements therein (symbols S1 to Sm in FIG. 10).
Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm selects either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 V (ground level) and is electrically connected to the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 201. Things. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm includes a control circuit 203
Operates on the basis of the control signal Tscan output by the device, and in fact, 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 threshold 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 unit 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. ) 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, and stores the contents of Id1 to Idn as appropriate according to a control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 203. The stored contents are output as I'd1 to I'dn and input to the modulation signal generator 207.

The modulation signal generator 207 is a signal line for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in accordance with each of the image data I'd1 to I'dn.
The output signal is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the display panel 201 through the external 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. For voltages exceeding the threshold voltage,
The emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device. By changing the material, configuration, and manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, the value of the threshold voltage and the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may be changed. I can say the thing.

That is, when a pulse-like voltage is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device, for example, when a voltage lower than the threshold voltage is applied, no electron emission occurs, 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 of a fixed length, but uses a voltage modulation circuit capable of appropriately modulating the peak value of the pulse 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.

In the case of using a 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 system using a digital signal, for example, 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 the voltage modulation method using an analog signal, for example, 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 if 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 of the present invention having the display panel 201 and the driving circuit as described above has the external terminals Dx1 to Dx1.
By applying a voltage from Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn, electrons can be emitted from an arbitrary electron-emitting device 104, and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 115 or the transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv. Bee
A television display can be performed according to an NTSC television signal by excitation / emission generated by accelerating the system and causing the accelerated electron beam to collide with the fluorescent film 114.

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for obtaining the image forming apparatus of the present invention used for display and the like, and detailed portions such as materials of each member are limited to those described above. Instead, it is appropriately selected so as to be suitable for the use of the image forming apparatus. Although the NTSC system has been described as an example of the input signal, the image forming apparatus of the present invention is not limited to this, and may employ another system such as a PAL or SECAM system. For example, a high-definition TV system such as a MUSE system may be used.

Next, an example of the above-described trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources and an image forming apparatus of the present invention using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. FIG.

In FIG. 11, reference numeral 1 denotes a substrate; 104, a surface conduction electron-emitting device; and 304, ten common wirings for connecting the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104, each having external terminals D1 to D10. doing.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 is
A plurality is arranged in parallel on the top. 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. Such a drive voltage is applied to the common lines D2 to D9 located between the element rows, and the common lines 304 adjacent to each other, that is, the external terminals D adjacent to each other.
2 and D3, D4 and D5, D6 and D7, and D8 and D9 can be formed as a single common wiring.

FIG. 12 is a view showing the structure of a display panel 301 provided with the above-described trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources.

In FIG. 12, reference numeral 302 denotes a grid electrode,
Reference numeral 303 denotes an opening through which electrons pass, D1 to Dm denote external terminals for applying a voltage to each surface conduction electron-emitting device, and G1 to Gn denote terminals 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. 12, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 8 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 an electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104. The grid electrode 302 applies the electron beam to a stripe-shaped electrode provided orthogonally to the ladder-shaped element rows. In order to pass
A circular opening 303 is provided one by one corresponding to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104.

The shape and arrangement position of the grid electrode 302
It does not necessarily have to be as shown in FIG. 12, and a large number of openings 303 may be provided in a mesh shape.
4 may be provided around or in the vicinity.

The external terminals D1 to Dm and G1 to Gn are connected to a drive circuit (not shown). A modulation signal for one line of an image is applied to the column of the grid electrode 302 in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one by one, so that each electron beam is applied to the fluorescent film 114. The irradiation can be controlled and the image can be displayed line by line.

As described above, the image forming apparatus of the present invention
It can be obtained by using any of the electron sources of the present invention in a simple matrix arrangement or a trapezoidal arrangement, and is suitable not only for the above-described television broadcast display device, but also as a video conference system and a display device such as a computer. A device is obtained. Further, it can be used as an exposure device of an optical printer including a photosensitive drum and the like.

[0134]

The present invention will be further described with reference to the following examples.

Example 1 The surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured as the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this example. FIG. 1A is a plan view of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view. In the drawing, W is the width of the conductive thin film 3, L is the distance between the device electrodes 4 and 5,
W1 represents the width of the device electrode, and d represents the thickness of the device electrode.

A method for manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. Note that the following steps a to f correspond to (a) to (f) of FIG.

Step a: A quartz substrate was used as the substrate 1, and after thoroughly washing the substrate with an organic solvent, a pattern having a desired electrode shape opening was formed on the substrate 1 by a photoresist (RD).
-2000N-41, manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.), and by vacuum evaporation, 50 mm thick Ti and 1000 mm thick Ni
Were sequentially deposited. Thereafter, the device electrodes 4 having a device electrode interval L of 3 μm and a width W1 of 300 μm were formed by a lift-off method.
5 was formed.

Step b: Substrate 1 on which device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed
An organic palladium solution in which an organic palladium compound composed of a palladium acetate salt and an amine was dissolved in a butyl acetate solvent was applied thereon by spin coating to form an organic palladium thin film. Then, using an oven, 3 in the air atmosphere
The organic palladium thin film was decomposed and oxidized by heating at 00 ° C. for 10 minutes to form a PdO film 7.

Step c: Thin film 7 in a region to become conductive thin film 3
The coating material 8 was formed thereon. Using a photoresist (OMR83, manufactured by Tokyo Ohka) as the coating material 8, coating was performed in a pattern of 300 μm × 200 μm through exposure and development steps.

Step d: The PdO film 7 other than the area covered with the coating material 8 is reduced in formic acid to form a Pd film 9
Was changed to.

Step e: Pd film 9 with 50% nitric acid aqueous solution
, And then the coating material 8 was removed by UV ozone ashing. As a result, the patterned PdO
A conductive thin film 3 composed of a fine particle film was formed.

The fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are gathered, as described above, and has a fine structure not only in a state where the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also when the fine particles are adjacent to each other. Alternatively, it refers to a film in an overlapping state (including an island shape).

Step f: Next, the substrate 1 on which the device electrodes 4 and 5 and the conductive thin film 3 are formed is set in the vacuum apparatus 55 of the measurement and evaluation system shown in FIG. ,
The inside of the vacuum device 55 was set to a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁶ Torr. Thereafter, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 by a power source 51 for applying a device voltage Vf, and the electron emission portion 2 was formed by performing a forming process. The voltage waveform shown in FIG. 4A was used for the forming process.

In this embodiment, T1 in FIG.
Second, T2 was 10 ms, the peak value (peak voltage during forming) was 5 V, and the forming process was performed for about 60 seconds.

The electron emission characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured as described above were measured using the above-described measurement and evaluation system.

The measurement conditions were as follows: the distance H between the anode electrode 54 and the surface conduction electron-emitting device was 4 mm;
4 at 1 kV, and a vacuum device 55 for measuring the electron emission characteristics.
The degree of vacuum was set to about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Torr.

As a result, the current-voltage characteristics shown by the solid line in FIG. 6 were obtained for the device manufactured by the manufacturing method in the present example for several times. In the representative device of this example, the emission current Ie rapidly increased from the device voltage of about 8 V, and the device current If was 1.1 mA and the emission current Ie was 0.45 μA at the device voltage of 14 V.

In this embodiment, the process is simplified by using the selective reduction treatment and the wet etching for forming the conductive thin film 3 having a desired pattern.

[Embodiment 2] In this embodiment, a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices as shown in FIG. 1 are arranged in a simple matrix and an electron source as shown in FIG. 7 is used. An example in which such an image forming apparatus is manufactured will be described.

In the production of the electron source, each pattern of the device electrodes 4 and 5 and the conductive thin film 3 described in the first embodiment is expanded to form a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices at the same time, and to simultaneously form the X-direction wirings. (Also called lower wiring) 102 and Y
This can be performed by forming a direction wiring (also referred to as an upper wiring) 103.

An example in which an image forming apparatus is formed using an unformed electron source substrate manufactured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

First, after the substrate 1 of the unformed electron source is fixed to the rear plate 111, a face plate 116 (an image forming member is formed on the inner surface of the glass substrate 113) is placed 5 mm above the substrate 1. The fluorescent film 114 and the metal back 115 are formed.)
And the face plate 116 and the support frame 11
2. A frit glass was applied to the joint of the rear plate 111 and sealed by baking in air at 410 ° C. for 15 minutes or more (see FIG. 8). The fixing of the substrate 1 to the rear plate 111 was also performed using frit glass.

The fluorescent film 114 serving as an image forming member
Is made of only a phosphor in the case of a monochrome, but in this embodiment, the phosphor adopts a stripe shape (see FIG. 9A), and a black stripe is formed first with the black conductive material 121, and Each color phosphor 12 is formed in the gap by the slurry method.
2 was applied to form a fluorescent film 114. Black conductive material 12
As 1, a commonly used material mainly composed of graphite was used.

Further, a metal back 115 was provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 114. The metal back 115 is the fluorescent film 1
After the fabrication of 14, a smoothing process (usually called filming) of the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 is performed, and then A
1 was produced by vacuum evaporation.

In the face plate 116, a transparent electrode may be provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 114 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 114, but in this embodiment, only the metal back 115 is provided. Omitted because sufficient conductivity was obtained.

At the time of performing the above-mentioned sealing, in the case of color, since the phosphors 122 of each color must correspond to the electron-emitting devices 104, sufficient alignment was performed.

The atmosphere in the envelope 118 completed as described above is exhausted by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm
A voltage was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 of each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104 through Dy1 to Dyn, and a forming process was performed in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce an electron-emitting portion 2.

After that, the envelope 1 is passed through an exhaust pipe (not shown).
The inside of the vessel 18 was evacuated to a degree of vacuum of about 10 ^−6.5 Torr, and the exhaust pipe was heated and welded with a gas burner to seal the envelope 118. Finally, gettering was performed by a high-frequency heating method in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing. The getter contained Ba as a main component.

In the display panel 201 (see FIG. 8) constituted by using the electron sources in the simple matrix arrangement as described above, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm, Dy1 to Dy
Through yn, a scanning signal and a modulation signal are applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 by a signal generation means (not shown) to emit electrons, and a high voltage of several kV or more is applied to the metal back 115 through the high voltage terminal Hv. By applying the voltage, the electron beam was accelerated, collided with the fluorescent film 114, and excited and emitted, whereby an image was displayed.

According to the present invention, a non-formed electron source can be manufactured without using a vacuum apparatus by employing a printing method or the like for forming the element electrodes and the matrix wiring. , The speed of manufacturing can be increased.

[Embodiment 3] FIG. 13 shows a display panel (display panel) 201 (see FIG. 8) of Embodiment 2 using image information provided from various image information sources such as television broadcasting. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an image display device of the present invention configured to be able to display.

In the figure, reference numeral 201 denotes a display panel;
1 is a display panel driving circuit, 1002 is a display controller, 1003 is a multiplexer, 10
04 is a decoder, 1005 is an input / output interface circuit, 1006 is a CPU, 1007 is an image generation circuit, 10
08, 1009 and 1010 are image memory interface circuits, 1011 is an image input interface circuit,
1012 and 1013 are TV signal receiving circuits, and 1014 is an input unit.

When the present display apparatus receives a signal containing both video information and audio information, such as a television signal, it naturally reproduces the audio simultaneously with the display of the video. Descriptions of circuits, speakers, and the like related to reception, separation, reproduction, processing, storage, and the like of audio information that are not directly related to the features of the present invention are omitted.

Hereinafter, each component will be described along the flow of the image signal.

First, the TV signal receiving circuit 1013 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wireless transmission system such as radio waves or spatial optical communication.

The format of the received TV signal is not particularly limited. For example, NTSC, PAL, SE
Various systems such as the CAM system may be used. Further, a TV signal composed of a larger number of scanning lines than these, for example, a so-called high-definition TV including the MUSE system is suitable for taking advantage of the display panel 201 suitable for a large area and a large number of pixels. Signal source.

T received by TV signal receiving circuit 1013
The V signal is output to the decoder 1004.

An image TV signal receiving circuit 1012 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wired transmission system such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber. Similarly to the TV signal receiving circuit 1013, the system of the TV signal to be received is not particularly limited, and the TV signal received by this circuit is also output to the decoder 1004.

Image input interface circuit 1011
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal supplied from an image input device such as a TV camera or an image reading scanner. The captured image signal is output to the decoder 1004.

Image memory interface circuit 1010
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal stored in a video tape recorder (hereinafter abbreviated as VTR). The captured image signal is output to a decoder 1004.

Image memory interface circuit 1009
Is a circuit for taking in an image signal stored in a video disk.
04 is output.

Image memory-interface circuit 100
Reference numeral 8 denotes a circuit for capturing an image signal from a device storing still image data, such as a so-called still image disk.
Is output to

The input / output interface circuit 1005
This is a circuit for connecting the present display device to an output device such as an external computer, computer network, or printer. In addition to inputting and outputting image data and character / graphic information, control signals and numerical data can be input and output between the CPU 1006 of the display device and the outside in some cases.

The image generation circuit 1007 includes image data and character / graphic information input from the outside via the input / output interface circuit 1005, or the CPU 1006.
This is a circuit for generating display image data based on the image data and character / graphic information output from the display unit. Inside this circuit, for example, a rewritable memory for storing image data and character / graphic information, a read-only memory storing an image pattern corresponding to a character code,
A circuit necessary for generating an image such as a processor for performing image processing is incorporated therein.

The display image data generated by this circuit is output to the decoder 1004, but may be output to an external computer network or printer via the input / output interface circuit 1005 in some cases.

The CPU 1006 mainly performs operations related to operation control of the display device and generation, selection, and editing of a display image.

For example, a control signal is output to the multiplexer 1003, and image signals to be displayed on the display panel 201 are appropriately selected or combined. At that time, a control signal is generated for the display panel controller 1002 in accordance with an image signal to be displayed, and a display frequency, a scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced), and the number of scanning lines per screen are displayed. The operation of the device is appropriately controlled. Further, image data and character / graphic information are directly output to the image generation circuit 1007,
Alternatively, an external computer or memory is accessed via the input / output interface circuit 1005 to input image data and character / graphic information.

It should be noted that the CPU 1006 may, of course, be involved in work for other purposes. For example, it may be directly related to a function of generating and processing information, such as a personal computer or a word processor. Alternatively, as described above, the computer may be connected to an external computer network via the input / output interface circuit 1005 to perform operations such as numerical calculations in cooperation with external devices.

The input unit 1014 is for the user to input commands, programs, data, and the like to the CPU 1006. For example, in addition to a keyboard and a mouse,
Various input devices such as a joystick, a barcode reader, and a voice recognition device can be used.

The decoder 1004 converts various image signals input from the above 1007 to 1013 into three primary color signals,
Alternatively, it is a circuit for inversely converting a luminance signal into an I signal and a Q signal. As shown by the dotted line in FIG.
004 preferably has an internal image memory. This is for handling television signals that require an image memory when performing inverse conversion, such as the MUSE method.

The provision of the image memory facilitates the display of a still image. Alternatively, in cooperation with the image generation circuit 1007 and the CPU 1006, there is obtained an advantage that image processing and editing including image thinning, interpolation, enlargement, reduction, and synthesis become easy.

The multiplexer 1003 is connected to the CPU 10
A display image is appropriately selected based on a control signal input from the controller 06. That is, the multiplexer 1003 selects a desired image signal from the inversely converted image signals input from the decoder 1004 and outputs the selected image signal to the drive circuit 1001. In that case, by switching and selecting an image signal within one screen display time, it is also possible to divide one screen into a plurality of areas and display different images depending on the areas, as in a so-called multi-screen TV. .

Display panel controller 1002
Is a circuit for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 1001 based on a control signal input from the CPU 1006.

For example, the display panel 201 is related to the basic operation of the display panel 201.
A signal for controlling the operation sequence of the driving power supply (not shown) is output to the driving circuit 1001. As a method related to the driving method of the display panel 201, a signal for controlling, for example, a screen display frequency and a scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced) is output to the driving circuit 1001. In some cases, a control signal relating to image quality adjustment such as luminance, contrast, color tone, and sharpness of a display image is supplied to the driving circuit 10.
01 may be output.

The drive circuit 1001 is a circuit for generating a drive signal to be applied to the display panel 201. The drive circuit 1001 is based on an image signal input from the multiplexer 1003 and a control signal input from the display panel controller 1002. It works.

The function of each section has been described above. With the configuration illustrated in FIG. 13, in this display device, image information input from various image information sources is displayed on the display panel 2.
01 can be displayed. That is, various image signals including television broadcasting are supplied to the decoder 1004.
After being inversely converted in, the signal is appropriately selected in the multiplexer 1003 and input to the drive circuit 1001. On the other hand, the display controller 1002 generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the driving circuit 1001 according to the image signal to be displayed. The drive circuit 1001 applies a drive signal to the display panel 201 based on the image signal and the control signal. Thus, an image is displayed on the display panel 201. These series of operations are totally controlled by the CPU 1006.

In the present image forming apparatus, the image memory built in the decoder 1004 and the image generation circuit 100
7 and the CPU 1006 involve not only displaying a selected one of a plurality of pieces of image information but also enlarging, reducing, rotating, moving, edge emphasizing, thinning out, and interpolating the image information to be displayed. It is also possible to perform image processing such as color conversion, image aspect ratio conversion and the like, and image editing such as synthesis, erasure, connection, replacement, and fitting. Although not particularly described in the description of the present embodiment, a dedicated circuit for processing and editing audio information may be provided as in the above-described image processing and image editing.

Therefore, the present image forming apparatus can be used as a display device for television broadcasting, a terminal device for video conference, an image editing device for handling still images and moving images, a computer terminal device, an office terminal device such as a word processor,
It is possible to combine functions such as game machines with one unit,
It has a very wide range of applications for industrial or consumer use.

FIG. 13 shows only an example of the configuration of an image forming apparatus using a display panel using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron beam source. It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this.

For example, of the components shown in FIG. 13, circuits relating to functions that are unnecessary for the purpose of use may be omitted.
Conversely, additional components may be added depending on the purpose of use. For example, when the present image forming apparatus is applied as a videophone, it is preferable to add a transmission / reception circuit including a television camera, an audio microphone, an illuminator, and a modem to the components.

In the present image forming apparatus, in particular, since the display panel 201 according to the present invention can be easily made thin, the depth of the display device can be reduced. In addition, since it is easy to enlarge the screen, the brightness is high, and the viewing angle characteristics are excellent, it is possible to display an image full of a sense of reality and full of power with good visibility.

[0192]

As described above, according to the manufacturing method of the present invention, the following effects can be obtained.

1) Even when a noble metal is selected as a main constituent element of a conductive thin film to be an electron emission film of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, it is possible to form a pattern thereof and further simplify the manufacturing process. .

2) It is possible to eliminate the need for a vacuum device related to manufacturing, and to reduce the cost of the device.

3) It is particularly effective when a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged to form the device over a large area. In a large-screen image forming apparatus, prevention of image defects and, consequently, manufacturing The yield can be greatly improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a basic surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing another configuration example of the basic surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of a method of manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device of FIG.

FIG. 4 is an example of a voltage waveform used for a forming process.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a measurement evaluation system for measuring electron emission characteristics of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a typical example of the relationship between the emission current Ie and the device current If and the device voltage Vf of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 8 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a display panel including an electron source in a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a fluorescent film used for a display panel.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a driving circuit of an image forming apparatus that performs image display according to an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view of a trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources.

FIG. 12 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a display panel provided with a trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an image forming apparatus according to a third embodiment.

FIG. 14 is a view illustrating a method of manufacturing a conventional surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Electron emission part 3 Conductive thin film 4, 5 Device electrode 7 Thin film containing metal oxide 8 Coating material 9 Metal film 50 Ammeter for measuring device current If flowing through conductive thin film 3 51 Surface conduction type electron A power supply 52 for applying an element voltage Vf to the emission element 52 An ammeter for measuring an emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission unit 2 53 A high voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 54 From the electron emission unit 2 Anode electrode for capturing emitted electrons 55 Vacuum device 56 Exhaust pump 102 X-direction wiring 103 Y-direction wiring 104 Surface conduction electron-emitting device 105 Connection 111 Rear plate 112 Support frame 113 Glass substrate 114 Fluorescent film 115 Metal back 116 Face plate Hv High voltage terminal 118 Envelope 121 Black conductive material 122 Phosphor 201 Display panel 202 scanning circuit 203 control circuit 204 shift register 205 line memory 206 synchronizing signal separation circuit 207 modulation signal generator Va DC voltage source Vx DC voltage source 301 display panel 302 grid electrode 303 aperture through which electrons pass 304 surface conduction type Common wiring for wiring the electron-emitting device 104 601 Cr film 602 Resist film 603 Exposure mask 604 Organic metal thin film 605 Metal oxide film 1001 Display panel 201 drive circuit 1002 Display controller 1003 Multiplexer 1004 Decoder 1005 Input / output interface circuit 1006 CPU 1007 Generation circuit 1008, 1009, 1010 Image memory interface circuit 1011 Image input interface circuit 1012, 101 3 TV signal receiving circuit 1014 Input unit

Claims (16)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which an electron-emitting portion is provided on a conductive thin film that connects a pair of device electrodes, wherein the step of forming the conductive thin film includes a thin film containing a metal oxide. Forming a coating material in a region where the conductive thin film is to be formed in the thin film containing the metal oxide, and reducing the metal oxide in a region where the coating material is not formed. A method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device, comprising: a wet etching step of selectively dissolving and removing a region that has undergone the reduction treatment. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein formic acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used in the reduction treatment. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the metal oxide is PdO. 4. The method according to claim 3, wherein nitric acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used for the wet etching. 5. A method for manufacturing an electron source comprising a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices each having an electron-emitting portion provided on a conductive thin film connecting a pair of device electrodes on a substrate, the method comprising: Forming a conductive thin film, comprising: forming a thin film containing a metal oxide; forming a coating material on a region of the thin film containing a metal oxide, which is to be the conductive thin film; A method for manufacturing an electron source, comprising: a step of reducing the metal oxide in a region where a material is not formed; and a wet etching step of selectively dissolving and removing the region subjected to the reduction process. 6. The method for producing an electron source according to claim 5 , wherein formic acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used in the reduction treatment. Wherein said metal oxide is method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that a PdO. 8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein nitric acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used for the wet etching. 9. The electron source has at least one element row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and wirings for driving each electron-emitting element are arranged in a matrix. Item 10. The method for producing an electron source according to any one of Items 5 to 8 . 10. The electron source has at least one element array in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and wiring for driving each electron-emitting element is arranged in a ladder configuration. a method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 5-8. 11. An electron source comprising a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices each having an electron-emitting portion provided on a conductive thin film connecting a pair of device electrodes on a substrate, and an electron beam emitted from the electron source. In the method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus having an image forming member that forms an image by irradiation, the step of forming the conductive thin film of the plurality of electron-emitting devices includes the steps of forming a thin film containing a metal oxide; A step of forming a coating material on a region of the thin film containing the substance, which is to be the conductive thin film; a step of reducing the metal oxide in a region where the coating material is not formed; and A method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus, comprising a wet etching step of selectively dissolving and removing. 12. A said reduction treatment, formic acid or a manufacturing method of an image forming apparatus according to claim 11 which comprises using the aqueous solution. Wherein said metal oxide is a manufacturing method of an image forming apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, characterized in that a PdO. 14. The method according to claim 13 , wherein nitric acid or an aqueous solution thereof is used for the wet etching. 15. The electron source according to claim 1, wherein the electron source has at least one element row in which a plurality of electron emitting elements are arranged, and wirings for driving each electron emitting element are arranged in a matrix. Item 15. The method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus according to any one of Items 11 to 14 . 16. The electron source has at least one element row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and wiring for driving each electron-emitting element is arranged in a ladder shape. method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus according to claim 11 to 14.