JP3062991B2 - Electron emitting element, electron source, and method of manufacturing image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

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

[0002]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[0011]

When the electron-emitting device used in the above-mentioned electron source, image forming apparatus or the like is driven for a long time, stable and controlled electron-emitting characteristics and improvement of its efficiency have been desired.

The above-mentioned efficiency means, for example, in the case of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, a current flowing when a voltage is applied to a pair of opposing device electrodes (hereinafter referred to as “device current If”).
(Hereinafter referred to as "emission current Ie"). That is, it is desirable that the device current If be as small as possible and the emission current Ie be as large as possible.

If stable and controlled electron emission characteristics and improved efficiency are achieved, for example, in an image forming apparatus using a phosphor as an image forming member, a bright and high-quality image forming apparatus with a low current, such as a flat television, can be used. Is achieved. In addition, as the current is reduced, it can be expected that the drive circuits and the like constituting the image forming apparatus will also be reduced in cost.

Conventionally, in order to improve the efficiency, a step of applying a voltage to a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion in an atmosphere containing an organic compound gas is applied to the surface-conduction type electron-emitting device subjected to the forming treatment. (Hereinafter, this step is referred to as activation). The devices after such activation include:
It is considered that carbon and carbon compounds are deposited at (or near) the electron-emitting portion.

However, a general surface-conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the above-described method can be driven for a long time by emitting electrons in a state where the organic compound gas is exhausted.
There is a problem that the emission current is reduced.

One of the causes of the decrease in the emission current is considered to be that the deposited carbonaceous film is desorbed with long-term operation, and the crystallinity of the film is determined by the electron source and the image formation. It contributes to the stability of the device. That is, if a film having carbon with high crystallinity as a main component can be formed, the emission current Ie can be increased and the variation in the electron emission characteristics of each element can be suppressed. In addition, long-term driving is possible, and furthermore, stable electron sources and image forming apparatuses can be expected to be manufactured.

In view of the above circumstances, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electron-emitting device capable of maintaining a high electron emission efficiency and driving stably even when driven for a long time, and an electron source and an image forming apparatus using the same. Is to provide.

[0018]

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

[0019]

That is, a first aspect of the present invention is a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device having a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion between electrodes, the method comprising:
A step of applying a voltage to the conductive film to form a film containing carbon as a main component at least in the gap portion of the conductive film having a gap in a part thereof, and the carbon or carbon compound is exhausted .
In an atmosphere, the conductive film on which the film containing carbon as a main component is formed, and a film containing carbon as a main component in a gap between the conductive films.
The voltage value applied to the conductive film in the process of forming
In the manufacturing method of the electron-emitting device characterized by having a step of applying a voltage not exceeding.

The first aspect of the present invention is further characterized by:
Te, "the conductive film having a gap in part, electrically conductive formed by forming a gap membrane" it, forming a gap "the conductive film, a voltage on the conductive film That the step of applying a voltage to the conductive film in the step of forming a gap in the conductive film is performed by increasing the voltage value with time. Voltage value applied to the conductive film in the step of forming a gap in the conductive film is smaller than the voltage value applied to the conductive film "," the step of applying a voltage to the conductive film after the evacuation, The method includes a step of heating a film containing carbon as a main component ”, and the step of applying a voltage to the conductive film after the evacuation is a step of improving the crystallinity of the film containing carbon as a main component. "The atmosphere after the exhaust is
1 × 10 −6 torr or less ” ,
Forming a film containing a main component and the exhausted atmosphere
And the step of repeatedly applying a voltage with air
That "it," the conductive film is made of a fine particle "it,
"The fine particles are metal or metal oxide", "The film containing carbon as a main component is mainly composed of amorphous carbon or graphite or a mixture thereof", "The electron emission element has a surface conduction property. Type electron-emitting device. "

[0022]

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

A second feature of the present invention is that the electron source is an electron source having at least one or more element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. The electron source is an electron source in which a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix. "

Further, a third invention is the manufacturing method of the image forming panel and an image forming member for forming an image by irradiation of the electron emitting device and the electron beam, the electron-emitting device, of the present invention in the manufacturing method of the image forming panel characterized in that it is manufactured by the first method.

The third feature of the present invention is further characterized as follows. "The image forming panel is an image forming panel having at least one or more element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. "The image forming panel is an image forming panel in which a plurality of rows of element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix." ”.

Further, a fourth aspect of the present invention is to provide an electron-emitting device,
An image forming apparatus, comprising: an image forming member; and a driving unit configured to control irradiation of the image forming member with an electron beam emitted from the electron emitting element according to an information signal. An image forming apparatus is manufactured by the first method of the present invention.

A fourth feature of the present invention is that the image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus having at least one element row in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. "The image forming apparatus is an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of the electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix," and "The image forming member is a phosphor." , Is also included.

[0029]

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

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

The surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention includes a planar type and a vertical type. First, a basic configuration of a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing the basic structure of a planar surface-conduction type electron-emitting device.
1 is a substrate, 2 is an electron emission portion, 3 is a conductive film, and 4 and 5 are electrodes (device electrodes).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In addition, the definition of “ultrafine particles” in the “Hayashi / Ultrafine Particle Project” of the New Technology Development Corporation has the following lower limit of the particle size, and is as follows.

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

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

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

The fine particle film is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are gathered, and has a fine structure not only in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlapped (some). Particles gather,
(Including a case where an island structure is formed as a whole). In the case of a fine particle film, the particle size of the fine particles is preferably from several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, and particularly preferably from 10 angstroms to 200 angstroms.
Angstrom.

The electron emitting portion 2 includes 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 have a thickness, film quality,
It is formed depending on a material and a manufacturing method such as forming conditions described later. Therefore, the position and shape of the electron-emitting portion 2 are not limited to the position and shape as shown in FIG.

[0050] Inside the crack, there may be conductive fine particles having a particle size of several Angstroms to several hundred Angstroms. The conductive fine particles are similar to some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive film 3. Further, the electron-emitting portion 2 including the crack and the conductive film 3 in the vicinity thereof
Has a film containing carbon as a main component.

Next, the basic structure of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIG. 2 is a view showing the basic structure of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 21 denotes a step forming member, and other reference numerals which are the same as those in FIG. 1 denote the same members.

The substrate 1, the electron-emitting portion 2, the conductive film 3, and the device electrodes 4 and 5 are made of the same material as the above-mentioned flat surface-conduction type electron-emitting device.

The step forming member 21 is formed, for example, by a vacuum evaporation method,
It is made of an insulating material such as SiO ₂ provided by a printing method, a sputtering method or the like. The film thickness of the step forming member 21 corresponds to the element electrode interval L (see FIG. 1) of the above-mentioned flat surface conduction electron-emitting device. , 5 are set, but are preferably several hundred angstroms to several tens of micrometers, particularly preferably several hundred angstroms to several micrometers.

The conductive film 3 is usually formed after the formation of the device electrodes 4 and 5, and thus is laminated on the device electrodes 4 and 5. make,
The device electrodes 4 and 5 may be stacked on the conductive film 3. Further, as described in the description of the planar type surface conduction electron-emitting device, the formation of the electron-emitting portion 2 depends on the thickness, the film quality, the material of the conductive film 3 and the manufacturing method such as the forming conditions described later. Therefore, the position and shape are not limited to the position and shape as shown in FIG.

In the following description, of the above-mentioned planar type surface conduction type electron-emitting device and the vertical type surface conduction type electron-emitting device, a planar type will be described as an example. A vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device may be used instead of the electron-emitting device.

Various methods are conceivable for producing the basic structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention, and one example will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 1 indicate the same members.

1) After sufficiently cleaning the substrate 1 with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, depositing an element electrode material by a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, or the like, and then depositing the material on the surface of the substrate 1 by a photolithography technique or the like. The device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed (FIG. 3A).

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

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

3) Subsequently, a forming step is performed. As an example of the method of the forming step, a method by an energization process will be described below, but the forming step according to the present invention is not limited to this, and a crack is generated in the conductive film 3 to form a high resistance state. Any method may be used.

When power is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 from a power source (not shown), the electron-emitting portion 2 having a changed structure is formed at the conductive film 3 (FIG. 3C). The conductive film 3 is locally destroyed, deformed or deteriorated by the energization process, and the portion where the structure is changed is the electron emitting portion 2.

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

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

First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage will be described with reference to FIG.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 4A are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, for example, T1 is 1 microsecond to 10 milliseconds, and T2 is 10 microseconds to 100 milliseconds.
Milliseconds, and the peak value (peak voltage at the time of forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the above-described electron-emitting device.
Under a vacuum atmosphere having an appropriate degree of vacuum of about 0 to the power of -5, application is performed for several seconds to several tens minutes. The voltage waveform to be applied is not limited to the triangular wave shown in the figure, but may be a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave, and the peak value, pulse width, pulse interval, and the like are also limited to the values described above. Instead, a desired value can be selected according to the resistance value of the electron-emitting device or the like so that the electron-emitting portion 2 is formed favorably.

Next, a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value will be described with reference to FIG.

T1 and T2 in FIG.
As in (a), the peak value (peak voltage at the time of forming) is increased by, for example, about 0.1 V steps,
The voltage is applied in an appropriate vacuum atmosphere similar to that described with reference to FIG.

During the pulse interval T2, the element current is measured at a voltage that does not locally destroy, deform, or alter the conductive film 3, for example, a voltage of about 0.1 V, and the resistance value is obtained. It is preferable that the forming be terminated when the resistance exceeds ohms.

The steps from the above forming step to the subsequent steps can be performed in a measurement evaluation system as shown in FIG. 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 film 3 between the device electrodes 4 and 5; An anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie to be emitted; 53, a high-voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 54; 52, an ammeter for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission section 2; Is a vacuum device,
56 is an exhaust pump.

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

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

[0074] 4) the element having been subjected to the forming to facilities a process called activation step 1,2. These steps are steps that can significantly improve the states of the device current If and the emission current Ie.

The activation step 1 is a step of depositing carbon and a carbon compound on the electron-emitting portion 2 of the device and in the vicinity thereof. In other words, this is a step of depositing carbon and a carbon compound on a portion (electron emission portion 2) of the high-resistance structure generated in the conductive film 3 due to the above-mentioned forming, and further imparting a certain degree of electron emission.

This activation step 1 can be performed, for example, by repeatedly applying a pulse between the device electrodes 4 and 5 in an atmosphere containing an organic substance gas, similarly to the energization forming. The above atmosphere can also be obtained by introducing a gas of an appropriate organic substance into a vacuum once sufficiently evacuated by an ion pump or the like. The preferable gas pressure of the organic substance at this time varies depending on the above-described application form, the shape of the vacuum vessel, the type of the organic substance, and the like, and thus is appropriately set.

Suitable organic substances include organic acids such as aliphatic hydrocarbons of alkane, alkene and alkyne, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, amines, phenols, carboxylic acids, sulfonic acids and the like. Specific examples thereof include saturated hydrocarbons represented by C _n H _{2n + 2} such as methane, ethane, and propane, and unsaturated hydrocarbons represented by a composition formula such as C _n H _2n such as ethylene and propylene. Hydrocarbon, benzene, toluene, methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid and the like can be used. By this treatment, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the device from the organic substance existing in the atmosphere, and the device current If and the emission current Ie are significantly changed.

In the activation step 1, for example, the device current If
It is preferable to perform the measurement while measuring the emission current Ie and to end the measurement when the emission current Ie is saturated, for example, because it is effective. The pulse width, pulse interval, pulse crest value and the like of the voltage pulse applied in the activation step 1 are appropriately set, but it is preferable to apply the voltage pulse while increasing the pulse crest value. It is preferable that the pulse crest value is gradually increased from the voltage at which the forming is completed to about the operation drive voltage.

The partial pressure of the organic compound gas to be introduced is 10 ^-1 to 10 ^-7 torr in the case of using an ordinary vacuum exhaust device.
It is preferred that it is about.

The carbon and carbon compound deposited on the device include, for example, graphite (so-called HOPG ', P
G (, GC) is included, HOPG has a substantially complete graphite crystal structure, PG has a crystal grain of about 200 ° and has a slightly disordered crystal structure, and GC has a crystal grain of about 20 ° and has a more disordered crystal structure. Refers to what has become. ), Amorphous carbon (refers to amorphous carbon and a mixture of amorphous carbon and the above-mentioned graphite microcrystals), and the film thickness thereof is preferably 500 ° or less, more preferably 300 ° or less. More preferred.

Next, an activation step 2 is performed. This step is
This is a step of applying a voltage that does not exceed the pulse peak value of the activation step 1 between the device electrodes 4 and 5 in an atmosphere in which the organic compound gas is sufficiently exhausted. The applied voltage waveform at this time is preferably such that a voltage pulse is applied with a constant pulse peak value.

The partial pressure of the organic component in the vacuum vessel from which the organic compound has been evacuated is a partial pressure at which the carbon and the carbon compound are not substantially newly deposited. Specifically, the partial pressure is, for example, preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ torr or less, and more preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ torr or less.
Particularly preferred is 10 ^-10 torr or less. Further, when evacuating the inside of the vacuum vessel, it is preferable to heat the entire vacuum vessel to facilitate evacuating the organic substance molecules adsorbed on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel and the electron-emitting device. The heating conditions at this time are:
The temperature is preferably not less than 5 hours at 80 to 200 ° C., but is not particularly limited to this condition, and the conditions are appropriately selected depending on various conditions such as the size and shape of the vacuum vessel and the configuration of the electron-emitting device. The pressure in the vacuum vessel needs to be as low as possible, and is preferably 1 to 3 × 10 ⁻⁷ torr or less.
Particularly preferably, it is not more than × 10 ⁻⁸ torr.

It is preferable to use a vacuum evacuation device that does not use oil so that the oil generated from the device does not affect the characteristics of the element. Specifically, a vacuum exhaust device such as a sorption pump or an ion pump can be used.

In the activation step 2, the carbon and the carbon compound deposited in the activation step 1 are heated or irradiated with electrons by the device current or the emitted electrons. As a result, the remaining organic compound gas and the carbon compound that is a condensation reaction product thereof are eliminated from the carbon and the carbon compound, and carbon having low crystallinity is converted into hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide,
At the same time as being desorbed as carbon dioxide or the like, some of the carbon having a high degree of crystallinity undergoes crystal rearrangement and is transformed into carbon having higher crystallinity. In this process, the element current If and the emission current Ie change in a decreasing direction.

In the present invention, the activation step 1 and the activation step 2 are preferably performed repeatedly. That is, in the carbon and the carbon compound formed in the activation step 1, a large amount of the organic compound gas remains, and the carbon and the carbon compound, which are the condensation reaction products, contain a large amount of low crystallinity. In this case, even if it is desorbed as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, or the like by performing the activation step 2, it is not always possible to obtain a substance having sufficiently high crystallinity. When such low-crystalline carbon and carbon compound are deposited, the stability of the electron-emitting device is poor, the resulting emission current is small, and the practicability is low. In other words, the crystallinity of the carbon and the carbon compound has a large effect on the device characteristics, and the higher the crystallinity containing more graphite than the hydrocarbon or amorphous carbon, the more the device is held in a high vacuum. It shows stable characteristics with little deterioration when driven. Therefore, the activation step 1,
By repeating Step 2, the amount of carbon and carbon compound having good crystallinity formed on the device can be increased, the stability can be increased, and the emission current can be increased.

In the activation step 2, it is preferable to heat the element in order to improve desorption and crystallinity. The heating temperature is preferably from 100 to 500C.

[0087]

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing a change in device current when the above-mentioned activation step 1 and activation step 2 are repeated. As the activation steps 1 and 2 are repeated, the device current value after the activation step 2 increases. Further, in the repeatedly performed activation steps, the carbon and carbon in each activation step 1 are set so that the device current value after the final activation step 2 does not exceed the device current values after all the activation steps 1. It is preferable to sufficiently deposit the compound.

The atmosphere at the time of driving after performing the activation step 2 is preferably the same as that at the end of the activation step 2. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and the organic substance may be sufficiently removed. For example, even if the degree of vacuum itself is slightly reduced, sufficiently stable characteristics can be maintained. By adopting such a vacuum atmosphere, the deposition of new carbon or a carbon compound can be suppressed, and as a result, the device current If and the emission current I
e becomes stable.

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

The basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described below are as follows. In the measurement and evaluation system shown in FIG. 5, the voltage of the anode 54 is 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode 54 and the surface conduction electron-emitting device is 2 Normally, the measurement is performed with the length set to ８8 mm.

First, the emission current Ie and the device current If,
FIG. 6 shows a typical example of the relationship with the element voltage Vf. still,
In FIG. 6A, the emission current Ie is shown in arbitrary units because it is significantly smaller than the device current If.

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

First, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a certain voltage (referred to as a threshold voltage: Vt in FIG. 6A).
When the device voltage Vf exceeding h) is applied, the emission current Ie sharply increases. On the other hand, when the device voltage Vf exceeds the threshold voltage Vth, the emission current Ie is hardly detected. That is, it is a nonlinear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

Second, since the emission current Ie has a characteristic (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.

Third, the emission charge captured 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.

When the emission current Ie is smaller than the device voltage Vf by MI
At the same time as having the characteristics, the device current If may also have the MI characteristics with respect to the device voltage Vf. An example of the characteristics of such a surface conduction electron-emitting device is the characteristic shown in FIG. On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
f is a voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (V
CNR characteristic). Which characteristic is exhibited depends on the manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, measurement conditions at the time of measurement, and the like. However, the device current If will now be described as an example of the electron source according to the present invention, with respect to an electron source in which a plurality of the above-described surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged. First, the arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices will be described.

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

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

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

In FIG. 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 according to the present invention arranged on the substrate 1 are appropriately set according to the application. Things.

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

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

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

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

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

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

As will be described 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 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 in accordance with an input signal. The signal generating means is electrically connected. Further, the driving voltage applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 is supplied as a difference voltage between a scanning signal and a modulation signal applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104.

Next, an example of the image forming apparatus according to the present invention constituted by using the electron sources having the simple matrix arrangement as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 8 is a basic configuration diagram of the display panel 201, and FIG.
FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display panel 201 of FIG.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a driving circuit for performing television display according to an NTSC television signal.

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.
13 is a face plate in which a fluorescent film 114 and a metal back 115 are formed on the inner surface. Reference numeral 112 denotes a support frame, and frit glass or the like is applied to the rear plate 111, the support frame 112, and the face plate 116, and is applied in the air or in nitrogen. Then, the envelope 118 is formed by baking at 400 to 500 ° C. for 10 minutes or more for sealing.

In FIG. 8, reference numerals 102 and 103 denote a pair of device electrodes 4 and 5 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 (FIG. 1).
) And external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn, respectively.

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

The fluorescent film 114 is composed of only the phosphor 122 in the case of monochrome, but in the case of the color fluorescent film 114, depending on the arrangement of the phosphor 122, a black stripe (FIG. 9A) or a black matrix (FIG. 9A) is used. 9
(B)) a black conductive material 121 and a phosphor 122 called
It is composed of The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the mixed portions between the phosphors 122 of the three primary colors necessary for color display black so that mixed colors and the like are not noticeable, and to reflect external light on the fluorescent film 114. Is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to As a material of the black conductive material 121, not only a material mainly containing graphite, which is often used, but also a material having conductivity and low light transmission and reflection may be used. it can.

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

Further, as shown in FIG.
A metal back 115 is usually provided on the inner surface side of 4.
The purpose of the metal back 115 is to convert the light emitted from the phosphor 122 (see FIG. 9) toward the inner surface into the face plate 11.
Improving the brightness by specular reflection to the 6 side, acting as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage, and protecting the phosphor 122 from damage due to collision of negative ions generated in the envelope 118 And so on. The metal back 115 can be manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 after the fluorescent film 114 is manufactured, and then depositing Al by vacuum evaporation or the like.

The face plate 116 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface 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 color, since the phosphors 122 of each color must correspond to the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 104, it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment.

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

The manufacturing steps of the surface conduction electron-emitting device after the above-described forming process are usually performed in the envelope 11
This is performed immediately before or after sealing of No. 8 and the contents thereof are as described above.

The display panel 201 described above is, for example, as shown in FIG.
Can be driven by a driving circuit as shown in FIG.
In FIG. 10, 201 is a 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, 2
07 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 Dxm
The 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 driven by one row (each n element). The scanning signal for going forward is applied.

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

The scanning circuit 202 includes m switching elements (symbols S1 to Sm in FIG. 10) therein, and each of the switching elements S1 to Sm outputs the output voltage of the DC voltage power supply Vx or 0V. (Ground level) to be electrically connected to the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 201. 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 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 externally input image signal. A synchronization signal Tsyn sent from a synchronization signal separation circuit 206 described below.
Based on c, each control signal of Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry is generated for each unit.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the synchronization signal separating 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
5 depends on whether the output signal is a digital signal or an analog signal.
The circuit provided in modulation signal generator 207 is slightly different.

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

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

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for obtaining the image forming apparatus according to the present invention used for display and the like. For example, detailed portions such as materials of each member are limited to the above-described contents. However, 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 input signal, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention is not limited to this, and PAL, SECA
Other systems such as the M system may be used, and a TV signal including a larger number of scanning lines than these systems, for example, a high-definition TV system such as the MUSE system may be used.

Next, an example of the above-described ladder-shaped electron source and an image forming apparatus according to the present invention constituted by using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 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 type electron-emitting device 104 is
A plurality is arranged in parallel above. This is called an element row. These element rows are arranged in a plurality of rows to constitute an electron source.

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

FIG. 12 is a diagram 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; 303, an opening through which electrons pass; D1 to Dm, external terminals for applying a voltage to each surface conduction electron-emitting device;
Gn is an external terminal connected to the grid electrode 302. Further, the common wiring 304 between each element row is formed on the substrate 1 as an integral same wiring.

In FIG. 12, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 8 denote the same members, and the major difference between the display panel 201 using the electron sources in the simple matrix arrangement shown in FIG. The point is that a grid electrode 302 is provided between the electrodes 116.

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

The shape and arrangement position of the grid electrode 302
It is not always necessary that the openings 303 are as shown in FIG. 12. A large number of openings 303 may be provided in a mesh shape, and the grid electrodes 302 may be provided, for example, around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104. Good.

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

As described above, the image forming apparatus according to the present invention can be obtained by using either the simple matrix arrangement or the trapezoidal arrangement according to the present invention. In addition, an image forming apparatus suitable as a display device such as a video conference system and a computer can be obtained. Furthermore, the present invention can be used as an exposure device of an optical printer including a photosensitive drum.

[0152]

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

Embodiment 1 The structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this embodiment is the same as that shown in FIG. 1, and the manufacturing method will be described below with reference to the manufacturing process diagrams of FIGS. explain.

1) Using a quartz substrate as the insulating substrate 1,
This was sufficiently washed with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent (FIG. 13A).

2) A resist material (RD-2000N, manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated at 2500 rpm for 40 seconds, and prebaked by heating at 80 ° C. for 25 minutes (FIG. 13).
(B)).

3) The device electrode interval L was 2 μm, and the device electrode length W was 500 μm. Contact exposure was performed using a mask corresponding to the electrode shape, and development was performed with a developer for RD-2000N (FIG. 13C). Then, it baked by heating at 120 degreeC for 20 minutes.

4) Using a resistance heating vapor deposition machine, nickel was vapor-deposited at 0.3 nm per second until the film thickness became 100 nm (FIG. 13D).

5) Lift off with acetone,
After washing with isopropyl alcohol and then butyl acetate, drying was performed to pattern the device electrodes 4 and 5 (FIG. 1).
3 (e)).

6) Next, chromium is applied on the entire surface of the substrate to a thickness of 50 nm.
Vapor deposition was performed (FIG. 14A).

7) A resist material (AZ1370, manufactured by Hoechst) was spin-coated at 2500 rpm for 30 seconds.
Prebaked by heating at 0 ° C. for 30 minutes (FIG. 14B).

8) Exposure is performed using a mask having a pattern for applying a conductive film material (FIG. 14 (c)).
It was developed with IF312 (FIG. 14 (d)). Then, 12
It was post-baked by heating at 0 ° C. for 30 minutes.

9) (NH ₄ ) Ce (NO ₃ ) ₆ / HCl
The chromium was etched by immersion in a solution having a composition of O ₄ / H ₂ O = 17 g / 5 cc / 100 cc for 30 seconds (FIG. 14).
(E)).

10) The resist was peeled off by ultrasonic stirring in acetone for 10 minutes (FIG. 14 (f)).

11) Organic Pd (ccp4230 manufactured by Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated at 800 rpm for 30 seconds, baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes, and palladium oxide (Pd
O) A fine particle-shaped conductive film 3 mainly composed of fine particles (average particle diameter: 7 nm) was formed (FIG. 14 (g)).

12) Lift off chromium and remove conductive film 3
(FIG. 14 (h)). This pattern had a width of 300 μm, and was arranged almost at the center of the device electrodes 4 and 5.

The conductive film 3 has a thickness of 10 nm.
The sheet resistance was 5 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □. Note that the fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and has a fine structure not only in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlapped (island shape) ), And the particle size refers to the diameter of fine particles whose particle shape can be recognized in the above state.

13) The substrate 1 having undergone the above steps is placed in the vacuum vessel 55 of the measurement and evaluation system shown in FIG. 5, evacuated by a vacuum pump, and after reaching a degree of vacuum of 2 × 10 ⁻⁷ torr, the power supply 51
A voltage is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 to perform an energization process (forming process) to form the electron-emitting portion 2 (FIG. 1).
5 (a), (b)). The voltage waveform of the forming process was a waveform as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4B, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. In this embodiment, T1 is 1 millisecond, T2 is 10 milliseconds, and a rectangular wave is used instead of a triangular wave. Peak value of square wave (Peak voltage during forming)
Was subjected to a forming process by increasing the voltage in steps of 0.1 V. Also, during the forming process, at the same time, 0.1 mm
A resistance measurement pulse was inserted between T2 at a voltage of V to measure the resistance. The forming process was terminated when the measured value of the resistance measurement pulse showed 1 M ohm, and at the same time, the application of the voltage to the surface conduction electron-emitting device was terminated.

The device fabricated as described above was activated by introducing acetone at about 1 × 10 ^-4 torr at room temperature and applying a voltage between the device electrodes 4 and 5 (activation step 1). Was done. The voltage waveform in the activation step 1 is a rectangular wave having a pulse width of 100 microseconds and a pulse interval of 10 milliseconds, and the peak value of the rectangular wave is 3.3 from 10 V to 14 V.
The test was performed while gradually increasing the voltage at mV / sec.

The acetone was exhausted, and the degree of vacuum was reduced to 6 × 10 ^−8.
After the pressure was set to torr, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 for 2 hours to perform activation (activation step 2).

The voltage waveform in the activation step 2 has a pulse width of 1
A rectangular wave having a pulse width of 00 microseconds and a pulse interval of 10 milliseconds was used, and the peak value of the rectangular wave was fixed at 14 V.

The activation steps 1 and 2 were repeated three more times.

The characteristics of the device obtained as described above are
A voltage of 1 kV is applied to the anode electrode 54,
The distance H between the device and the electron-emitting device is 4 mm, and the degree of vacuum is 1 ×
The measurement was performed under an environment of 10 ^-8 torr. As a result, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current If is 1.8 mA, the emission current Ie is 0.9 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η is 0.0
5%. The reduction rates δf and δe of the device current If and the emission current Ie were 55% and 50%, respectively.

However, the reduction rates δf and δe at an arbitrary time t from the measurement start t = 0 are as follows: δf = If (t = t) / If (t = 0) × 100 δe = Ie (t = t) / Ie (t = 0) × 100.

(Example 2) The activation step 1 of Example 1
An electron-emitting device was produced in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 except that methane was introduced at room temperature at 1 torr.

Thereafter, the air was evacuated to 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ torr, and If and Ie were measured. As a result, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current If is 1.5 mA and the emission current Ie
Was 1.2 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η was 0.08%. Further, the reduction rate δ of the device current If and the emission current Ie
f and δe were 60% and 58%, respectively.

(Embodiment 3) In the first embodiment, the device substrate was
Example 1 except that activation step 2 was performed by heating to 0 ° C.
An electron-emitting device was produced in exactly the same manner as described above.

Thereafter, the air was evacuated to 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ torr, and If and Ie were measured. As a result, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current If is 1.7 mA and the emission current Ie
Was 1.4 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η was 0.082%. Further, the reduction rate δ of the device current If and the emission current Ie
f and δe were 59% and 60%, respectively.

[0179]

[0180]

Comparative Example 1 An electron-emitting device was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that only the activation step 1 was performed and the activation steps 1 and 2 were not repeated. For the obtained device, If,
Ie was measured. As a result, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current If is 1.5 mA and the emission current Ie is 0.6.
μA, and the electron emission efficiency η was 0.04%. Further, the reduction rates δf, δe of the device current If and the emission current Ie
Were 42% and 40%, respectively.

Example 4 In the same manufacturing method as in Example 1, a large number of electron-emitting devices were formed in a line on a substrate, and a plurality of conductive films as shown in FIG. Substrate 1 was produced. Next, using the substrate 1 on which the plurality of conductive films are ladder-shaped, FIG.
The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. This manufacturing method will be specifically described below.

First, after fixing a substrate 1 on which a plurality of conductive films are ladder-shaped wiring on a rear plate 111, a grid electrode 3 having an electron passage hole 303 is provided above the electron source substrate 1.
02 is arranged in a direction orthogonal to the common wiring 304. Furthermore, a face plate 1 is placed 5 mm above the electron source substrate 1.
16 (formed by forming a fluorescent film and a metal back on the inner surface of a glass substrate) via a support frame 112, and a face plate 116, a support frame 112, and a rear plate 11 are provided.
Frit glass is applied to the joint of No. 1 and 430 is applied in air.
It sealed by baking at ℃ for 10 minutes or more. The fixing of the electron source substrate 1 to the rear plate 111 was also performed with frit glass.

As the fluorescent film, a color fluorescent film in a stripe arrangement (see FIG. 9A) was adopted, a black stripe was formed first, and each color phosphor was applied to the gap. As a material of the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used. Note that a slurry method was used for applying the phosphor onto the glass substrate.

Further, a metal back was provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film. The metal back was manufactured by performing a smoothing treatment (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film after the fluorescent film was manufactured, and then vacuum-depositing Al.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of color, the phosphors of each color must correspond to the electron-emitting devices. Therefore, sufficient alignment is performed.

The atmosphere in the envelope 118 completed as described above is evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after sufficient vacuum has been introduced, the device electrodes are passed through the external terminals D1 to Dm. A voltage was applied in between, and the above-described forming was performed to form an electron-emitting portion.

Next, 1 × 1 acetone was placed in the envelope 118.
0 ^-4 torr was introduced, and a voltage was applied between the device electrodes through the external terminals D1 to Dm for 10 minutes to perform the activation step 1. Thereafter, the acetone was evacuated.

Next, the inside of the envelope 118 is about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ to
After setting the degree of vacuum to rr, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes for 200 minutes to perform the activation step 2.

Furthermore, the above activation steps 1 and 2 were repeated three times.

Finally, the inside of the envelope 118 is about 1 × 10 ⁻⁷ t.
After setting the degree of vacuum to orr, the exhaust pipe (not shown) is welded by heating with a gas burner, and the envelope 118 is sealed. Then, a getter process is performed to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing. went.

In the image display device according to the present invention completed as described above (see FIG. 12), each electron-emitting device has
Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage through the external terminals D1 to Dm, and the emitted electrons are applied to the grid electrode 30.
After passing through the second electron passage hole 303, it is accelerated by a high voltage of several kV or more applied to a metal back (not shown) through a high voltage terminal Hv, and collides with a fluorescent film (not shown) to excite and emit light. At this time, by applying a voltage corresponding to the information signal to the grid electrode 302 through the terminals G1 to Gn outside the container, the electron beam passing through the electron passage hole 303 is controlled to display an image.

In this embodiment, 50 μm is provided 10 μm above the electron source substrate 1 via SiO ₂ (not shown) which is an insulating layer.
By arranging the grid electrode 302 having the electron passage hole 303 having a diameter of
When V was applied, the on and off of the electron beam could be controlled with a modulation voltage within 50 V. In addition, the display image had good contrast, and no significant change was observed in the display image even when displayed continuously for several hours.

Embodiment 5 An example in which an image forming apparatus is manufactured using an electron source in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in a simple matrix will be described.

FIG. 16 is a plan view of a part of the substrate 1 on which a plurality of conductive films are arranged in a matrix. Also, A- in FIG.
FIG. 17 shows an A ′ cross-sectional view. However, FIGS. 7, 8, and 16
17 and FIG. 17 indicate the same members.

Here, 1 is a substrate, 102 is an X-direction wiring (also called a lower wiring), 103 is a Y-direction wiring (also called an upper wiring), 3 is a conductive film, 4, 5 are device electrodes, and 401 is an interlayer insulating film. A layer 402 is a contact hole for electrical connection between the element electrode 4 and the lower wiring 102.

First, a method for manufacturing an electron source will be specifically described in the order of steps with reference to FIG. The following steps a to h correspond to (a) to (h) of FIG.

Step-a A substrate 1 in which a 0.5 μm thick silicon oxide film was formed on a sufficiently cleaned blue plate glass by a sputtering method
After vacuum-depositing 5 nm thick Cr and 600 nm thick Au in this order by vacuum evaporation, a photoresist (AZ1370, manufactured by Hoechst) is spin-coated with a spinner, baked, and then a photomask image is formed. exposure,
Developing to form a resist pattern of the lower wiring 102,
The Au / Cr deposited film was wet-etched to form the lower wiring 102 having a desired shape.

Step-b Next, an interlayer insulating layer 401 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm was deposited by RF sputtering.

Step-c The contact hole 4 was formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step b.
A photoresist pattern for forming the second layer 02 was formed, and the interlayer insulating layer 401 was etched using the photoresist pattern as a mask to form a contact hole 402. Etching is CF ₄
(Reactive Ion) using H2 and H ₂ gas
Etching) method.

Step-d Thereafter, the device electrode pattern was changed to a photoresist (RD-20).
00N-41 manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.), and 5 nm thick Ti and 100 nm thick Ni were sequentially deposited by a vacuum evaporation method. The photoresist pattern was dissolved with an organic solvent, and the Ni / Ti deposited film was lifted off to form device electrodes 4 and 5 having a device electrode interval L of 3 micrometers and a width W of 300 micrometers.

Step-e After forming a photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 103, Ti having a thickness of 5 nm and A having a thickness of 500 nm were used.
u was sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to form an upper wiring 103 having a desired shape.

Step-f Next, a 1000-Å-thick Cr film 403 is deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and an organic Pd (ccp42
30, Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated with a spinner and baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes. The conductive film 3 formed of fine particles of PdO as the main element thus formed has a thickness of about 100 ° and a sheet resistance value of 5 × 10 ⁴ Ω /.
It was □.

Step-g The Cr film 403 and the baked conductive film 3 were etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern.

Step-h A resist was applied to portions other than the contact hole 402 to form a pattern, and 5 nm thick Ti and 500 nm thick Au were sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation. Unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to bury the contact holes 402.

Through the above steps, the lower wiring 102, the interlayer insulating layer 401, the upper wiring 103, the device electrodes 4 and 5, the conductive film 3 and the like were formed on the insulating substrate 1.

Next, an example in which an image forming apparatus is configured using the substrate 1 (FIG. 16) on which a plurality of conductive films 3 manufactured as described above are arranged in a matrix will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. explain.

The substrate 1 (FIG. 16) on which a plurality of conductive films 3 are arranged in a matrix as described above is
After fixing the fluorescent film 114 on the inner surface of the glass plate 113, 5 mm above the substrate 1.
And a metal back 115 are formed via a support frame 112, and frit glass is applied to the joint between the face plate 116, the support frame 112 and the rear plate 111, and the frit glass is applied at 430 ° C. in the air. It was sealed by baking for more than a minute. Also, the substrate 1 on the rear plate 111
Was also fixed with frit glass.

The fluorescent film 114 is composed of only the phosphor 122 in the case of monochrome, but in this embodiment, the phosphor 122 is used.
Adopts a stripe shape (FIG. 9A), a black stripe is formed first, and each color phosphor 122
Was applied to form a fluorescent film 114. As a material of the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used.

As a method for applying the phosphor 122 to the glass substrate 113, a slurry method was used. Also, the fluorescent film 11
4 was provided with a metal back 115 on the inner surface side. The metal back 115 was manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 after the fluorescent film 114 was manufactured, and then performing vacuum deposition of Al.

When the above-mentioned sealing was performed, in the case of color, the phosphors 122 of each color and the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 had to correspond to each other, so that sufficient alignment was performed.

The atmosphere in the envelope 118 completed as described above was exhausted to 1 × 10 ^-6 torr by a vacuum pump not using oil through an exhaust pipe (not shown). Then, to no vessel terminals D _x1 a voltage is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 of the D _xm and D _y1 to the electron-emitting device 104 through the D _yn, thereby forming an electron-emitting portion 2 performs the forming of the above.

Next, 1 × 1 acetone was placed in the envelope 118.
0 ^-4 torr is introduced, and the outer terminals D _x1 to D _xm and D _y1
Or the device electrodes 4 and 5 of the electron-emitting device 104 through _Dyn.
The activation step 1 was performed by applying a voltage for 10 minutes. Thereafter, the acetone was evacuated.

Next, the inside of the envelope 118 is about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ to
After the degree of vacuum was rr, a voltage of 20 was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5.
The activation step 2 was performed by applying voltage for 0 minutes.

Furthermore, the above activation steps 1 and 2 were repeated three times.

Next, at a degree of vacuum of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ torr,
After baking at 120 ° C. for 10 hours, the exhaust pipe (not shown) is welded by heating with a gas burner to form an envelope 118.
Was sealed. Finally, a getter process was performed to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing.

In the image forming apparatus completed as described above, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn
, A scanning signal and a modulation signal are applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 104 from a signal generation unit (not shown) to emit electrons, and a high voltage of several kV or more is applied to the metal back 114 through the high voltage terminal Hv. Then, an image was displayed by accelerating the electron beam, colliding with the fluorescent film 115, exciting and emitting light.

As a result, a good contrast was obtained in the displayed image, and no significant change was observed in the displayed image even after continuous display for a long time.

[0219]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to improve the crystallinity of the carbonaceous film coated on the region including the gap (crack) of the conductive film, and to improve the electron conductivity as compared with the prior art. An electron-emitting device having high emission efficiency and high stability can be obtained.

Further, in the electron source including the electron-emitting device and the driving means for the electron-emitting device, stable and controlled electron-emitting characteristics can be obtained, and the device can be manufactured with a high yield.

Also, in the image forming apparatus, stable and controlled electron emission characteristics can be obtained. For example, in the case of an image forming apparatus using a phosphor as an image forming member, a bright, high-quality image forming apparatus with a low current, for example, A color flat TV was realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIGS. 1A and 1B are a plan view and a longitudinal sectional view schematically showing a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device which is an example of an electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device which is an example of an electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a view for explaining a method of manufacturing a basic configuration of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a forming waveform.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating an example of a measurement evaluation system for a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 6 is a graph showing emission current-device voltage characteristics (IV characteristics) of a surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention.

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

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus using an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a fluorescent film in the display panel of FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a drive circuit that drives the display panel of FIG. 8;

FIG. 11 is a schematic plan view of an electron source in a trapezoidal arrangement.

FIG. 12 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus using a trapezoidal arrangement of electron sources.

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron-emitting device according to the example of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron-emitting device according to the example of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron-emitting device according to the example of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a partial plan view of a matrix arrangement of electron sources according to an embodiment of the present invention.

17 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A 'in FIG.

FIG. 18 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source having the matrix arrangement according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 19 shows an activation step 1 and an activation step 2 according to the present invention.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a change in the element current If when this is repeated.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Electron emission part 3 Conductive film 4, 5 Element electrode 21 Step forming material 50 Ammeter for measuring element current If 51 Power supply 52 Ammeter for measuring emission current Ie 53 High voltage power supply 54 Anode electrode 55 Vacuum device 56 Exhaust pump 102 X-direction wiring (lower wiring) 103 Y-direction wiring (upper 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 faceplate 118 outside Enclosure 121 Black conductive material 122 Phosphor 201 Display panel 202 Scanning circuit 203 Control circuit 204 Shift register 205 Line memory 206 Synchronous signal separation circuit 207 Modulation signal generator 301 Display panel 302 Grid electrode 303 Opening 304 Common wiring 401 Interlayer insulation Layer 402 Contact hole 403 Cr film

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (56) References Patent 2850104 (JP, B2) European Patent Application Publication 660357 (EP, A1) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 9/02

Claims (23)

(57) [Claims] In a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device having a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion between electrodes, the conductive film is formed under an atmosphere of carbon or a carbon compound.
By applying a voltage, at least on the gap portion of the conductive film having a gap in part, the steps of forming a film containing carbon as a main component, in an atmosphere wherein the carbon or carbon compound is evacuated, prior to
A film mainly containing serial carbon formed conductive film, wherein
Forming a film containing carbon as the main component in the gap between conductive films
A method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device characterized by a step of applying a voltage not exceeding the voltage applied to the conductive film in the extent. 2. The conductive film having a gap in a part thereof is formed by a step of forming a gap in the conductive film.
2. The method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to item 1 . 3. The step of forming a gap in the conductive film,
3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising a step of applying a voltage to the conductive film. Application of 4. A voltage to the conductive film in the step of forming the gap on the conductive film, method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to claim 3 for increasing with the voltage value time. 5. A process for applying a voltage to the conductive film in the evacuated atmosphere, the electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 1-4 comprising the step of heating the film mainly containing carbon Manufacturing method. 6. A process for applying a voltage to the conductive film in the evacuated atmosphere, according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which is a process to improve the crystallinity of the film mainly containing carbon A method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device. Wherein said evacuated atmosphere, 1 × 10-6
A method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to any one of claims. 1 to 6 torr or less. 8. A process for forming a film containing carbon as a main component.
And applying a voltage in the evacuated atmosphere.
9. The method according to claim 1, further comprising the step of repeating the step.
Manufacturing method of the above-mentioned electron-emitting device. Wherein said conductive film, method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 8 comprising microparticles. Wherein said fine particles, method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to claim 9 which is a metal or a metal oxide. 11. A film mainly containing carbon, method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 10 comprising an amorphous carbon or graphite or mixtures thereof as a main component. 12. The electron emission device, method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 11 which is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 13. A method for manufacturing an electron source having an electron-emitting device and driving means for the electron-emitting device, wherein the electron-emitting device is manufactured by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12. A method for manufacturing an electron source, comprising: 14. The method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 13 , wherein said electron source is an electron source having at least one element row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel. 15. The method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 13 , wherein said electron source is an electron source in which a plurality of element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected are arranged in a matrix. 16. A method for manufacturing an image forming panel having an electron-emitting device and an image-forming member for forming an image by irradiating an electron beam, wherein the electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 1 to 12 . A method for producing an image forming panel, which is produced by a method. 17. The image forming panel according to claim 17 , wherein at least one element row in which a plurality of said electron-emitting devices are connected in parallel.
17. The method for manufacturing an image forming panel according to claim 16 , which is an image forming panel having rows or more. 18. The image forming panel, an image forming panel of claim 16 multiple is an image forming panel for a plurality of rows of-connected element array is arranged in a matrix of the electron-emitting devices Production method. 19. The method for manufacturing an image forming panel according to claim 16 , wherein said image forming member is a phosphor. 20. An image forming apparatus comprising : an electron-emitting device; an image-forming member; and driving means for controlling irradiation of the image-forming member with an electron beam emitted from the electron-emitting device in accordance with an information signal. in the manufacturing method, a manufacturing method of an image forming apparatus, wherein said electron-emitting devices are manufactured by the method according to any one of claims 1 to 12. 21. The image forming apparatus, a manufacturing method of a plurality of image forming apparatus according to claim 20 which is an image forming apparatus having a connection has been element array at least one row or in parallel of the electron-emitting device. 22. The image forming apparatus, a manufacturing method of a plurality of image forming apparatus according to claim 20 which is an image forming apparatus in which a plurality columns of-connected element array is arranged in a matrix of the electron-emitting devices. 23. The method according to claim 20 , wherein said image forming member is a phosphor.