JP2992892B2 - Surface conduction electron-emitting device, multi-electron source, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a surface conduction electron-emitting device, a multi-electron source having a plurality of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices, and an image forming apparatus using the multi-electron source. .

[Related Art] Conventionally, as a device capable of emitting electrons with a simple structure, for example, a cold cathode device disclosed by MI Elinson or the like is known [Radio Engineering Electron Physics] (Ra
dio Eng. Electron. Phys.) Volume 10, 1290-1296, 1965
Year].

This 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.
G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid Film
s "), Vol. 9, p. 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:“ IEE
E Trans.ED Conf. ") P. 519, (1975)], using a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .:" Vacuum ", Vol. 26, No. 1, 22,
P., (1983)].

Each of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting devices is manufactured by providing an electrode on a substrate provided with a thin film, applying a voltage between the two electrodes, and forming an electron-emitting portion by an energization process called forming. ing. That is, a current is applied to the thin film by applying a voltage between the two electrodes, and the Joule heat generated thereby locally destroys, deforms or alters the thin film, thereby forming an electron emission portion in an electrically high resistance state. Thereby, an electron emission function is provided.

The above-mentioned electrical high resistance state means that 0.5 μm
It has a crack of about 5 μm and the inside of the crack is a discontinuous film having a so-called island structure. A discontinuous state film having an island structure is generally a state in which fine particles having a diameter of several tens of angstroms to several microns are present on the substrate 1, and the fine particles form a spatially discontinuous and electrically continuous film. Say

Further, in the surface conduction type electron-emitting device which has been reported, the emission current depends on the substrate temperature, that is, as shown in FIG. 3, the emission current gradually decreases as the temperature of the substrate increases, and exceeds a certain temperature. Therefore, some kind of heat radiating means is required because of the characteristic that the temperature decreases rapidly.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] That is, the surface conduction type electron-emitting device according to the above-described conventional example has the following disadvantages due to heat generated by driving.

Since external control by driving or the like is performed, an optimal driving method for the element cannot be obtained.

The configuration becomes complicated due to the provision of the heat sink and the like.

If no heat radiation mechanism is provided, the element characteristics deteriorate.

Due to the above problems, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has many advantages for an image forming apparatus using a multi-electron source, such as a simple device structure and easy miniaturization. Nevertheless, it has not been actively used in industry.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a surface conduction electron-emitting device which has solved the above-mentioned conventional disadvantages, a multi-electron source having a plurality of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices, and an image forming apparatus using the multi-electron source. And

[Means and Actions 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 a surface conduction electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting portion between a pair of electrodes formed on a substrate, wherein the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion has a substrate thickness at the position. Is a surface conduction type electron-emitting device characterized by being processed into a concave shape so as to be thinner than the peripheral substrate thickness.

Also, a second aspect of the present invention is a multi-electron source comprising a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting electrons having an electron-emitting portion between a pair of electrodes on a substrate, wherein the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion is The multi-electron source is characterized in that it is processed into a concave shape so that the substrate thickness at a position is smaller than the peripheral substrate thickness.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image forming apparatus comprising: a grid electrode above the electron emission side of the multi-electron source according to the second aspect of the present invention; and an image forming member formed above the grid electrode by irradiating emitted electrons. Device.

According to the present invention, the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion is processed into a concave shape so that the substrate thickness of the device is smaller than the peripheral substrate thickness. The temperature gradient in the thinned substrate portion becomes steep, and the heat generated in the electron-emitting portion can easily escape to the back surface of the substrate. The effect of such an operation is specifically shown in Table 1 described later.

 Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically described with reference to examples.

Embodiment 1 Embodiment 1 FIG. 1 shows a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

In the drawing, reference numeral 1 denotes an insulating substrate, and reference numeral 4 denotes a substrate processing portion (recess) which is a feature of the present invention. Reference numeral 2 denotes an electrode, and an electron-emitting portion 3 is formed between the two electrodes.

Next, a method of manufacturing the element according to the present embodiment will be briefly described. Of course, the material, manufacturing method, size and the like are not limited to the following.

. As a material of the insulating substrate 1, a 1 mm thick macor (manufactured by Corning Incorporated) was used. A portion corresponding to the electron emitting portion 3 was ground to a depth of 0.3 mm and a diameter of 4 mmφ, and then sufficiently washed. The surface roughness at this time was about 0.1 μm (Ra).

. The device electrode 2 is formed on the cleaned substrate by a general photolithography technique and a vapor deposition technique. Nickel was used as the material, and the thickness was 0.1 μm and the width was 300 μm.
The distance between the opposing element electrodes 2 was 2 μm.

. After forming the device electrode 2, organic palladium (Okuno Pharmaceutical ccp-4230) was applied to the electron-emitting portion 3 by a spinner coating method, and then fired at a temperature of about 300 ° C. for 1 hour.

The emission current of the substrate was measured in a vacuum environment of 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Torr using a measurement system shown in FIG. At this time, the extraction voltage was 1 KV, the element voltage was 14 V, and the extraction electrode was placed 5 mm above the element electrode.

Table 1 below shows the results of a comparison study between the emission current value per element in this example and the value in the conventional example.

Embodiment 2 FIG. 4 shows an image forming apparatus using a multi-electron source according to the present invention, which is a second embodiment of the present invention.

A grid electrode having an electron passage hole 10 above a multi-electron source having a plurality of electron emission device rows in which a plurality of the surface conduction electron emission devices of the first embodiment are connected in parallel to two wiring electrodes.
11 and further above, the phosphor on the image forming plate 13
An image forming member coated with No. 12 was provided. In this image forming apparatus, an XY matrix is formed by electron emitting element rows and grid electrodes in a vacuum environment of 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Torr to enable image formation.

Electrons are emitted from each electron emitting portion 3 by applying a voltage of 14 V to the device electrode 2, electrons are extracted from the electron emitting device by applying an appropriate voltage to the grid electrode 11, and electrons are emitted to the phosphor 12. Collided. Note that a voltage of 500 to 10,000 V was applied to the image forming member provided with the phosphor 12.

In this example, when a fluorescent element was provided on the image forming member and the brightness was measured, there was no noticeable decrease even after 30 hours.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion is thinner by 10% or more than the peripheral substrate thickness so that the substrate thickness at the position is smaller than the peripheral substrate thickness. As a result, since the concave portion is processed, the temperature gradient in the substrate portion which is thinner than the periphery due to the concave processed portion becomes steep, and the heat generated in the electron emitting portion easily escapes to the back surface side of the substrate. Has the following effects.

Since external control by driving or the like is not required, an optimum driving method for the element can be obtained.

There is no need to provide a heat sink or the like, and the configuration is simple.

Since the rise in the substrate temperature can be considerably suppressed, the element characteristics do not deteriorate.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing a surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a characteristic evaluation device. FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a temperature characteristic of a conventional surface conduction electron-emitting device. FIG. 4 is a conceptual diagram of an image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the first embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Insulating board, 2 ... Element electrode 3 ... Electron emission part 4, ... Substrate processing part 5 ... Power supply for element voltage application, 6 ... Ammeter for element current measurement 7 ... Anode electrode, 8 High-voltage power supply 9 Ammeter for emission current measurement 10 Electron passing hole 11 Grid electrode 12 Phosphor 13 Image forming plate 14 Bright spot of phosphor

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Yoshikazu Sakano 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Ichiro Nomura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon (72) Inventor Haruhito Ono 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-63-166120 (JP, A) JP-A-1-279538 ( JP, A) JP-A-63-137447 (JP, U) JP-A-3-130145 (JP, U) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H01J 1/30 H01J 31/12

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A surface conduction electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting portion between a pair of electrodes formed on a substrate, wherein the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion has a substrate thickness at a corresponding position. A surface conduction electron-emitting device, which is formed into a concave shape so as to be thinner than the substrate thickness of the substrate. 2. A multi-electron source comprising a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices having an electron-emitting portion between a pair of electrodes on a substrate, wherein the back surface of the substrate corresponding to the electron-emitting portion is located at the position of the substrate. So that the thickness is smaller than the thickness of the surrounding substrate
A multi-electron source characterized by being processed into a concave shape. 3. An image forming apparatus comprising: a grid electrode above the electron emission side of the multi-electron source according to claim 2; and an image forming member above the grid electrode for forming an image by irradiating the emitted electrons.