JP2981764B2 - Electron beam generator, image forming apparatus and optical signal donating apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron beam generator using an electron-emitting device, and an image forming apparatus and an optical signal donating device configured using the electron beam generator.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an electron-emitting device of an electron beam generator, for example, a device that applies a reverse bias voltage to a PN junction to cause avalanche breakdown development to emit electrons out of the device, metal- A device having a structure of an insulator layer and a metal layer, wherein electrons that have passed through the insulator layer are emitted from the metal layer to the outside of the device by a tunnel effect by applying a voltage between the two metals (MI
M), a surface conduction type (SCE) that applies a voltage to a high resistance thin film in a direction perpendicular to its thickness direction and emits electrons from the thin film surface to the outside of the device. A field effect type (F) that locally generates a high-density electric field by applying a voltage and emits electrons from the metal to the outside of the device.
E) and others have been proposed.

Here, the above-mentioned SCE type electron-emitting device will be described in detail. This is based on MIElinson.
[Radio Engineering Electron Physis (Radio Eng. Electron. Phy
s.) Volume 10, 1290-1296, 1965] is a cold cathode device,
It utilizes the phenomenon that electron emission occurs when a current flows through a thin film having a small area formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface, and is generally called a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

Examples of the surface conduction electron-emitting device include a device using an SnO ₂ (Sb) thin film developed by Elinson et al., And a device using an Au thin film [G.
Solid Films (G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid Fil
ms "), 9, 317, (1972)], using ITO thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad:" I.E.E.E.Trans.E.E. "
Dee Conf. ”(M. Hartwell and CGFonstad:“ I
EEE Trans. ED Conf. ") P. 519, (1975)], using a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .:" Vacuum ", Vol. 26, No. 1,
No.22, (1983)].

Such surface conduction electron-emitting devices are: 1) obtain a high electron emission efficiency; 2) are easy to manufacture because of their simple structure; 3) can be formed with a large number of devices on the same substrate; 4). It has advantages such as fast response speed, and has the potential to be widely applied in the future.

On the other hand, a thin image display device in which a plurality of planarly developed electron sources and phosphor targets each receiving irradiation of an electron beam from the electron source are opposed to each other is disclosed in
No. 1956, and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho 60-225342.

FIG. 5 shows an outline of an image display device when a thermoelectron source is used as an electron source. In this figure, 51 is a glass substrate, 52 is a support, 53 is a wiring electrode, 54 is an electron-emitting portion, 55
Denotes an electron passage hole, 56 denotes a modulation electrode, 8 denotes a glass plate, 9 denotes a transparent electrode, and 10 denotes an image forming member. Consists of 7 is a face plate, and 12 is a luminescent spot of the phosphor. The electron emission portion 54 is formed by a thin film technique and has a hollow structure that does not come into contact with the glass substrate 51. The wiring electrode 53 may be formed using the same material as that of the electron-emitting member, or may be formed using another material. Generally, an electrode having a high melting point and a small electric resistance is used. Support 52
Is formed of an insulator material or a conductor material.

This device applies a voltage to the wiring electrode 53, emits electrons from an electron emitting portion having a hollow structure, and extracts electrons by applying a voltage to a modulation electrode 56 that modulates these electron flows according to an information signal. The picked-up electrons are accelerated and collide with the image forming member 10. Further, an XY matrix is formed by the wiring electrode 53 and the modulation electrode 56, and an image is displayed on the phosphor.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of an image display device using the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron source.

In the figure, 60 is an insulating substrate, 61 is a wiring electrode, 62 is a device electrode, and 63 is an electron emitting portion. This image display device uses a linear electron source group in which elements are arranged between wiring electrodes 61 and a modulation electrode 66 group in XY.
An image is displayed by performing matrix driving.

These image display devices are usually 1 × 10 ⁻⁷ to 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ to
In order to drive in a vacuum state of rr, a display device must be manufactured by vacuum-sealing the entire system.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the above-described image display device (display) has the following problems.

. Since it is difficult to align the image forming member 10 provided on the face plate 7, the modulation electrodes 56 and 66, and the electron emission portions 54 and 63,
It is difficult to produce a large screen and high definition display.

. If the absolute positions of the modulation electrodes 56 and 66 and the electron emission portions 54 and 63 differ depending on the location, the displayed image will be uneven. Therefore, it is necessary to manufacture with extremely accurate alignment.

. In view of the above, manufacturing a large-screen and high-definition display requires a large capital investment, and the price of the display is very high.

. In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, it is necessary to adopt a configuration in which even if the configuration position of the modulation electrode is changed, the characteristics and the like of the electron-emitting device are not affected at all.

That is, an object of the present invention is to provide an electron beam generator, an image forming apparatus using the same, and an optical signal providing apparatus that solve the above-mentioned problems.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The configuration of the present invention achieved to achieve the above object is as follows.

That is, a first aspect of the present invention is an electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting portion to which a voltage is applied via electrodes between electrodes arranged side by side on a substrate, and the electron-emitting device. And a modulation electrode that modulates an electron beam emitted from the electron beam according to an information signal, wherein the electron-emitting device is disposed on the modulation electrode via an insulating layer, and An electron beam generating device, wherein a modulation electrode is present at least at a position surrounding immediately below an electron emission portion of the electron-emitting device, and the modulation electrode is not present at least immediately below the electron emission portion of the electron-emitting device. .

The first electron beam generator of the present invention further has the following features: the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device; and the insulating layer has a thickness of 0.1 μm to 5 μm. A plurality of linear electron-emitting devices to which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected, and a plurality of the modulation electrodes constitute an XY matrix; and a voltage application for applying a voltage to the electron-emitting devices and the modulation electrode. Means are separate and independent.

According to the first electron beam generator of the present invention, the alignment accuracy between the modulation electrode and the electron-emitting device is improved, and the modulation electrode is not provided immediately below the electron-emitting portion of the electron-emitting device. The purpose is to eliminate damage to the electron-emitting device due to its presence. Further, according to the above matrix configuration, the linear electron emission element group and the modulation electrode group
By performing matrix driving, an electron beam can be scanned. According to the configuration in which the voltage applying means for applying a voltage to the electron-emitting device and the modulation electrode are separate and independent, the voltage is applied to the modulation electrode in accordance with the information signal, and the electron beam is modulated regardless of the device driving. Can be.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, at least an image forming member is provided on the electron emission side of the first electron beam generator of the present invention, the image forming member configured to form an image by collision of electrons. In the device.

The above-mentioned image forming member may be any member that emits light, charges, deteriorates, etc. when electrons collide, such as a phosphor and a resist material.

In a third aspect of the present invention, at least a luminous body that emits light by collision of electrons is provided on the electron emission side of the first electron beam generator of the present invention, and light emission caused by the collision of the electrons is used as a signal. An optical signal providing apparatus characterized in that the optical signal providing apparatus is configured to obtain the optical signal.

The above is the configuration of the present invention, and the specific contents will be described in detail in Examples.

[Operation] In the present invention, the lamination and arrangement of the electron-emitting devices on the modulation electrode with an insulating layer interposed therebetween is performed by using a thin-film manufacturing technique as described in an embodiment to be described later. In addition, there is an advantage that the electron emission element and the modulation electrode can be easily aligned, and the conventional alignment variation can be prevented.

Next, by not providing a modulation electrode directly under the electron emission part,
Migration of charged particles in a region extending from such a portion that occurs when it is present to the insulating layer and the electron emission portion of the device does not occur, and as a result, damage to the device is reduced, leading to improvement in life. Become.

Further, simply providing the modulation electrode below the electron-emitting device requires that the insulating layer be made thicker in order to prevent the migration of the charged particles and the like. Since the modulation of the electron flow becomes difficult, it is necessary to drive the modulation electrode by increasing the applied voltage, but as described above, all these problems can be solved by not providing the modulation electrode at least immediately below the electron emission portion. Will be done.

That is, the thickness of the insulating layer can be reduced and the modulation electrode can be driven at a low voltage. For example, when compared with the case where the modulation electrode is not present immediately below the electron emitting portion, the thickness of the insulating layer is reduced from 0.5 to 10 μm to 0.1 to 5 μm, and the applied voltage is −40 to −50 V. Can be reduced to -25 to -40V.

Further, in an image forming apparatus and an optical signal providing apparatus using an electron beam generating apparatus having the above-described functions and effects, it is possible to obtain a high-definition image display and an optical signal without display unevenness.

[Examples] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples.

Embodiment 1 In the present invention, an example of an electron beam generator is shown in FIGS.
Description will be made based on the drawings. FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG.
3 shows a cross section.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present apparatus, wherein 1 is an insulating substrate, 2 is a modulation electrode characteristic of the present invention, 3 is an element electrode constituting a surface conduction electron-emitting device (SCE), 4 is The electron-emitting portion, and further, an insulating layer 5 is stacked between the electron-emitting devices (3 and 4), the substrate 1, and the modulation electrode 2.

Here, as the substrate material, any material having an insulating property may be used, and glass, alumina ceramics and the like are preferable.
The modulation electrode material may be a conductive material such as gold, nickel or tungsten, but preferably has a coefficient of thermal expansion as close as possible to the substrate material. Further, as the material forming the insulating layer, silicon dioxide, glass, and other ceramic materials are preferable.

 Next, the manufacturing process of the present apparatus will be described.

. First, quartz glass (made by Corning Incorporated) as the insulating substrate 1 was rubbed with a neutral detergent and sufficiently washed with ultrasonic cleaning with an organic solvent, and then a resist pattern was formed by photolithography.

. Next, by a resistance heating method, Ti as an undercoat material (to improve adhesion) is about 50 mm, and Ni as a modulation electrode material is about 950 mm.
After vapor deposition on the entire surface of the resist pattern, the width (a) is about 2 mm and 40 μm × 200 μm (b × c) by the lift-off method.
The modulation electrode pattern 2 having the holes 2 'was formed.

. Next, as shown in the figure, an SiO ₂ film is formed as an insulating layer 5 on the modulation electrode 2 and a part of the upper surface of the substrate 1 by sputtering.
A 1.5 μm mask was deposited.

. Next, an SCE element electrode pattern 3 having a gap above the hole 2 'of the modulation electrode 2 was formed in exactly the same manner as the modulation electrode pattern formation method described above. At this time, the device electrode width was 15 μm, and the electrode gap was 2 μm.

. Next, Cr for patterning an electron-emitting material, which will be described later, was vapor-deposited on the entire surface by about 1000 ° C. by a resistance heating method.

. Next, a resist pattern was formed by photolithography in order to remove only Cr near the electron-emitting portion 4 (25 μm × 150 μm).

. Next, desired Cr was removed by etching. Cerium ammonium nitrate and an aqueous solution of perchloric acid were used as an etchant.

. Next, organic palladium as a release material (CCP-4230 manufactured by Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) is dispersed and applied, and then in air at ~ 300 ° C.
It was baked for 12 minutes to form an entire surface.

. Next, Cr for patterning the emission material was etched out using the above-described etchant.

Using an electron beam generator manufactured by the above method, a fluorescent plate is placed at a position 5 mm above the device, and the entire system is exposed to 1 KV from the outside under an environment of about 2 × 10 ^-6 Torr.
And a voltage pulse of 14 V was applied between the device electrodes 3. As a result, spot light corresponding to the electron beam emitted to the phosphor plate was observed.

Further, when a voltage of −40 V to +30 V was applied to the modulation electrode 2, the amount of the electron beam continuously changed according to the modulation voltage. The modulation voltage at this time is -40 V or less and O
FF control, ON control was possible at + 30V or more. Also, even if the hole 2 'of the modulation electrode is larger than the electron emission region,
There were no major obstacles to the modulation function.

On the other hand, the same spot light was observed using an electron beam generator manufactured under the same conditions except that the hole 2 'of the modulation electrode 2 was not provided. Similar results were obtained, but the luminance varied over time and the electron-emitting portion deteriorated.
In the device having the hole 2 ', no change occurred even when the device was driven at about 500 hours. However, in the device without the hole 2', the spot light was significantly changed by the drive at approximately 300 hours. Was.

Second Embodiment In the present embodiment, an image display device in which a plurality of electron beam generators based on the concept of the first embodiment are arranged and an image display unit is formed above the electron beam generator will be described.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the present embodiment. In this figure, 1 is an insulating substrate, and 2 is a modulation electrode having a hole 2 'as shown in the first embodiment. Reference numeral 6 denotes a wiring electrode, reference numeral 3 denotes an element electrode of an SCE-based electron source, and reference numeral 4 denotes an electron-emitting portion. These constitute one linear electron source (linear electron-emitting device). 7 is a glass plate 8, a transparent electrode 9, a phosphor 10, a metal back 1.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a face plate that is sequentially stacked, and reference numeral 12 denotes a spot light position.

In manufacturing such an apparatus, first, a linear electron source in which a plurality of SCE type electron-emitting devices are arranged in a line between the wiring electrodes 6 (2 mm pitch) is further arranged at a 2 mm pitch,
Except that a plurality of modulation electrodes 2 are orthogonally arranged corresponding to each row of the linear electron-emitting devices, and further that Cu is laminated as the wiring electrode 6 in a thickness of 2 μm, the same direction as in Example 1 An electron beam generator was formed on a soda lime glass (manufactured by Ichikawa Special Glass Co., Ltd.) as an insulating substrate 1.

Next, a face plate 7 having a phosphor 10 as a screen forming member was provided at a distance of 5 mm from the substrate 1 (the envelope was not shown), and an image display device was manufactured. This device has 20 lines x
A multi-element configuration of 20 rows was adopted.

In the image display device having the above structure, a bias voltage of 1.5 KV is applied to the phosphor surface, a voltage pulse of 14 V is applied to the pair of wiring electrodes 6, and a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in a line are formed. Emitted electrons. At the same time, a voltage was applied to the group of modulation electrodes 2 as an information signal to control ON / OFF of the electron beam.

Also, a voltage pulse is applied to the adjacent wiring electrode 6,
The one-line display described above was performed. This was sequentially performed to display an image of one screen. That is, an XY matrix was formed by the scanning electrode 6 and the modulation electrode 2 using the wiring electrode 6 as a scanning electrode, and an image could be displayed.

As described above, in this embodiment, since the electron-emitting device and the modulation electrode are formed integrally, an alignment is easy, and a thin and high-luminance image display device is provided. In addition, the device life is improved by not providing a modulation electrode directly below the electron emitting portion. Furthermore, since the thin film manufacturing technology is used as the manufacturing technology, a large-screen, high-definition display can be obtained at a low cost, and the distance between the electron-emitting portion and the modulation electrode can be extremely accurately manufactured. As a result, an extremely uniform image display device having no luminance unevenness was obtained.

Embodiment 3 In this embodiment, an optical signal providing apparatus using the electron beam generator shown in Embodiment 2 will be described.

In manufacturing such an apparatus, a face plate having a phosphor 10 which emits light by collision of electrons is provided at a position 5 mm above the substrate in the electron beam generator obtained in Example 2 to provide an optical signal providing apparatus. Produced.

In such an apparatus, a bias voltage of 1.5 KV was applied to the phosphor surface, and a voltage pulse of 14 V was applied to the pair of wiring electrodes to emit electrons from the plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in a line. At the same time, a voltage of +30 V to −40 V was applied to the modulation electrode as an information signal to control ON / OFF of the electron beam.

If the above method is used, for example, in an apparatus configured as shown in FIG. 4, when an electric signal is given as external information to the optical signal providing apparatus 41, the electric signal becomes an optical signal and the pixel signal is a photoreceptor. The photosensitive paper 45 on the drum 43 is reached. Further, by moving the drums 43 and 44 by rotation, a desired image can be formed on the photosensitive paper.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the electron-emitting devices are stacked on the modulation electrode via an insulating layer and the modulation electrode is not provided at least immediately below the electron-emitting portion. Has a significant effect.

(1). Positioning of the electron source and the modulation electrode becomes easier,
Product yield due to misalignment or the like is improved.

(2). The effect of the modulation electrode on the electron emission portion is reduced, and the life of the device can be improved.

(3). The thickness of the insulating layer interposed between the electron-emitting device and the modulation electrode can be reduced.

(4). According to the above (3), low voltage driving of the modulation electrode can be achieved.

(5). In the image forming apparatus and the optical signal providing apparatus,
It is possible to obtain an image display and an optical signal with high definition and without display unevenness or light emission unevenness.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of an electron beam generator according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA in FIG. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an example of the image display device of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an application example of the optical signal providing apparatus of the present invention. 5 and 6 are perspective structural views showing a conventional image display device. 1,60 insulating substrate, 2 modulation electrode 2 'hole, 3,62 element electrode 4,63 electron emission section, 5 insulating layer 6,61 wiring electrode, 7 … Face plate 8… Glass plate, 9… Transparent electrode 10… Phosphor, 11… Metal back 12… Spot light, 41… Optical signal providing device 43, 44… Drum, 45… Photosensitivity Paper 51: Glass substrate, 52: Support 53: Wiring electrode, 54: Electron emission portion 55, 65: Electron passage hole, 56, 66: Modulation electrode

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Hidetoshi Suzuki, 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (72) Tetsuya Kaneko 3-30-2, Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (56) References JP-A-63-6718 (JP, A) JP-A-3-20941 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H01J 1/30 , 3/08 H01J 29 / 04,29 / 52 H01J 31/12-31/15

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] An electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting portion to which a voltage is applied via electrodes between electrodes arranged on a substrate along the surface of the substrate, and emitted from the electron-emitting device. In an electron beam generating device having a modulation electrode that modulates an electron beam in accordance with an information signal, the electron-emitting device is stacked on the modulation electrode via an insulating layer, and the modulation electrode is An electron beam generator, which is located at least at a position immediately below an electron-emitting portion of the electron-emitting device, and wherein the modulation electrode is not present at least immediately below the electron-emitting portion of the electron-emitting device. 2. The electron beam generator according to claim 1, wherein said electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 3. The electron beam generator according to claim 1, wherein said insulating layer has a thickness of 0.1 μm to 5 μm. 4. A XY matrix comprising a plurality of linear electron-emitting devices to which a plurality of said electron-emitting devices are connected and a plurality of said modulation electrodes.
An electron beam generator according to any one of the above. 5. The electron beam generator according to claim 1, wherein voltage applying means for applying a voltage to said electron-emitting device and said modulating electrode are separate and independent. 6. An image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein at least an image forming member for forming an image by collision of electrons is provided on the electron emitting side of the electron beam generating apparatus according to claim 1. . 7. A light-emitting body which emits light by collision of electrons is provided at least on an electron emission side of the electron beam generator according to claim 1, and light emission by the collision of electrons can be used as a signal. An optical signal providing apparatus having a configuration.