JP3200284B2 - Method of manufacturing electron source and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing an electron source ,
An invention relates to a manufacturing method of an image forming apparatus Viewing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron emitting devices, a thermionic electron source and a cold cathode electron source, are known. The cold cathode electron sources include a field emission type (hereinafter abbreviated as FE type), a metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter abbreviated as MIM type), and a surface conduction type electron emission element.

[0003] As an example of the FE type, WP Dyk
e & WW Dolan, "Field emissi
on ", Advance in Electron P
physics, 8, 89 (1956) or C.I.
A. Spindt, "PHYSIACL Proper
ties of thin-film field e
mission cathodes with mol
ybdenum cones ", J. Appl. Phys.
s., 47, 5248 (1976) and the like.

As an example of the MIM type, CA Me
ad, "The tunnel-emission a
mplifier, J. Appl. Phys., 32,
646 (1961).

[0005] Examples of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device include MI Elinson, Radio Eng.
Electron Pys., 10, (1965).

The above-mentioned 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 a substrate in parallel with the film surface. Examples of the surface conduction type electron-emitting device include a device using a SnO ₂ thin film by the above-mentioned E. Elinson, and a device using an Au thin film [G. Dittme].
r: "Thin Solid Films", 9, 31
7 (1972)], using an In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell and CG Fons]
tad: "IEEE Trans. ED Conf.
, 519 (1975)], a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (19
83)] have been reported.

[0007] A typical device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices is described in the aforementioned M.A. Hartwell (M. Ha
rtwell) is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 21, reference numeral 221 denotes a substrate, and 222 denotes a conductive film, which is formed of a metal oxide thin film or the like formed by sputtering on an H-shaped pattern, and is referred to as energization forming described later. The electron emission unit 223 is formed by the energization process
Is formed. Incidentally, the device electrode interval L1 in FIG.
5 to 1.0 mm, and W 'is set to 0.1 mm.
Further, since the position and shape of the electron emitting portion 223 are unknown, they are shown as a schematic diagram.

Conventionally, in these surface-conduction type electron-emitting devices, as described above, the electron-emitting portion 223 is generally formed by performing an energization process called energization forming on the conductive film 222 before electron emission. Met.

That is, the energization forming means that a DC voltage or a very slowly increasing voltage, for example, about 1 V / min is applied to both ends of the conductive film 222 and energized to locally destroy, deform or deform the conductive film. The purpose is to form the electron-emitting portion 223 that has been altered and is in an electrically high-resistance state. Note that, for example, the electron emission portion 223 is
Has a crack generated in a part thereof, and electrons are emitted from the vicinity of the crack. The surface conduction type electron-emitting device that has been subjected to the energization forming process applies a voltage to the conductive film 224 and causes a current to flow through the device, thereby forming the electron-emitting portion 2.
23 allows electrons to be emitted.

The above-described surface conduction electron-emitting device has an advantage that a large number of such devices can be arrayed and formed over a large area because the structure is simple and its manufacture is easy. Therefore, various applications that can make use of such advantages are being studied. For example, a charged beam source, a display device and the like can be mentioned.

As an example in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged and formed, a surface-conduction electron-emitting device is arranged in parallel, called a ladder-type arrangement, as will be described later. An electron source in which rows each connected by a common wiring are arranged in a large number of rows (for example, JP-A-64-31332, JP-A-1-283)
749, JP-A-1-257552 and the like).

Further, in particular, in image forming apparatuses such as display apparatuses, in recent years, flat panel display apparatuses using liquid crystal have been
Although it has become widespread in place of T, flat panel display devices using this liquid crystal are not self-luminous, and therefore have problems such as having to have a backlight. It has been desired.

An example of a self-luminous display device is a display device in which an electron source in which a number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged and a phosphor that emits visible light by electrons emitted from the electron source are combined. (US Pat. No. 5,066,883).

[0015]

However, the behavior of the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device in a vacuum is hardly known, and more stable and controlled electron emission characteristics and improvement of its efficiency are desired. It has been rare.

Here, the efficiency refers to a current (hereinafter, referred to as a device current If) discharged into a vacuum with respect to a current flowing through the device (hereinafter referred to as a device current If) when a voltage is applied to a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. 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 more stable and controlled electron emission characteristics and improved efficiency can be achieved, for example, in an image forming apparatus using a phosphor as an image forming member, a high-quality image forming apparatus with a low current and a high brightness can be used. For example, a flat television is realized. In addition, with the reduction in current, it can be expected that drive circuits and the like that constitute the image forming apparatus will also be inexpensive.

[0019] The present invention is directed to the above mentioned above, the purpose and method of manufacturing an electron source for obtaining a high electron emission device efficiency, to provide a method for producing images forming apparatus.

[0020]

According to the present invention for achieving the above object, a method of manufacturing an electron source comprising a plurality of electron-emitting devices having a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion between opposing electrodes is provided. A voltage is applied between the electrodes under a carbon compound atmosphere in a plurality of conductive films including
The applied has a first <br/> depositing carbon or a carbon compound, and a first step of depositing a carbon-or carbon compound, vapor pressure at an ambient temperature at about該工The reaction is performed using a carbon compound having a pressure of 5,000 hPa or less .
Electrons, characterized in that it comprises a second step you exhaust things
It is a manufacturing method of the source .

[0021]

Further, the present invention provides an image forming apparatus having an electron source and an image forming member for forming an image based on an input signal .
In the manufacturing method , the electron source is manufactured by the above manufacturing method.
A method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus characterized by being manufactured .

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail.

As described above, in the surface conduction electron-emitting device, an electron-emitting portion is generally formed by previously performing an energization process called energization forming on a conductive film. The present applicant has found that it is preferable to further perform an activation process on the device after the completion of the trimming process.

This activation step is performed, for example, by applying the same voltage as that of the energization forming to the element after the above-mentioned forming in a vacuum device evacuated by a vacuum evacuation system containing oil, for example. In this activated element, carbon is deposited on the electron-emitting portion (or in the vicinity thereof). Therefore, in the activation step, the presence or absence of an organic material in a vacuum atmosphere in which an element is applied when a voltage is applied is important.

In order to adsorb the organic material to the electron-emitting portion, a method of exposing the electron-emitting device to a gas atmosphere containing the organic material can be considered.
A gaseous material that is easy to introduce into a vacuum device at room temperature and hardly condenses (liquefies) on the element surface was used. However, a gaseous organic material at room temperature is easily desorbed from the vicinity of the electron emission portion. , Because the amount of adsorption is small, it is difficult to activate
Alternatively, there has been a problem that activation takes time. In order to adsorb such a material, it is possible to increase the partial pressure of the organic material around the element. However, a large amount of material is required, or the organic material is exhausted (removed) after the activation step. And it took time. It is also possible to increase the amount of adsorption by lowering the element temperature,
The device for the activation step becomes complicated.

On the other hand, Japanese Patent Application No. 4-1945 by the present applicant.
As described in No. 64, 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-5 torr
When electron emission continues for a long time at a low vacuum of about r, it collides with oil from the exhaust system which is present in a small amount in the vacuum, contaminants are deposited near the electron emission portion, and the electron emission characteristics deteriorate. The problem arose. Therefore, excess organic material is exhausted (removed) as much as possible from the element atmosphere after the activation process.
It is desired to do.

According to the present invention, a carbon compound having a specific vapor pressure is selected based on the above findings, and the above-mentioned activation treatment is performed using the selected carbon compound. In addition, in a more preferred embodiment, the carbon compound is easily evacuated (removed) from the atmosphere of the device after the activation process, and the durability of the electron-emitting device is improved. Can be achieved.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

[0030] First, the manufacturing method of the present invention, in FIG. 1 (a), is described with reference to (b) and (c). FIG.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an element showing the manufacturing method in the order of steps.

The manufacturing method of the present invention, (A) First, the pair of device electrodes arranged conductive film between the substrate and follower - having zooming process performs steps.

1) After sufficiently washing the substrate 1 with a detergent, pure water, and an organic solvent, an electrode material is deposited by a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, or the like, and then, on the substrate 1 by a photography technique. Next, device electrodes 2 and 3 are formed (FIG. 1A).

2) An organometallic solution is applied to the substrate 1 on which the device electrodes 2 and 3 are provided and left to form an organometallic thin film. After that, the organic metal thin film is heated and baked,
Further, the conductive film 4 is formed by patterning by lift-off, etching and the like (FIG. 1B). In addition, here, the description has been given of the method of applying the organometallic solution, but 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. It may be formed.

3) Next, a forming process is performed.

The forming process is a process for forming a portion of the conductive film 4 having a changed structure by locally destroying, deforming or altering the conductive film 4. This is an energization forming process in which an electric power is supplied between the electrodes 2 and 3 by a power supply (not shown) to form an electron-emitting portion 5 having a changed structure at the portion of the conductive film 4 (FIG. 1C). As described above, the conductive film 4 is locally destroyed, deformed or deteriorated by the energization forming, and a portion where the structure is changed is called an electron emission portion.

FIGS. 2A and 2B show examples of the voltage waveform of the energization forming.

The voltage waveform is particularly preferably a pulse waveform. When a pulse with a constant pulse peak value is applied continuously (FIG. 2A), the voltage pulse is increased while increasing the pulse peak value. There is a case where the voltage is applied (FIG. 2B).

First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage (FIG. 2A) will be described.

In FIG. 2A, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, respectively.
Microsecond to 10 milliseconds, T2 is 10 microsecond to 10
The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage at the time of energization forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the electron-emitting device to be formed, and is set to an appropriate degree of vacuum, for example, about 10 ^-5 torr. It is applied for several seconds to several tens minutes in a vacuum atmosphere. The pulse waveform applied between the device electrodes is not limited to a triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave may be used.

Next, a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value (FIG. 2B) will be described.

In FIG. 2B, T1 and T2 are the same as those in FIG. 2A, but the peak value of the triangular wave (the peak voltage during energization forming) is, for example, 0. The voltage is increased in steps of about 1 V and applied under an appropriate vacuum atmosphere.

In this case, the energization forming process is terminated at a voltage that does not locally destroy or deform the conductive film 4 during the pulse interval T2, for example, at a voltage of about 0.1 V. The current is measured and the resistance value is determined, for example, 1M
The energization forming is terminated when a resistance equal to or higher than ohms is indicated.

(B) The method further includes a step of performing an activation process.

4) An activation process is performed on the element subjected to the forming process as described above. The activation process is performed, for example, at a degree of vacuum of about 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-5 torr.
Similar to the energization forming, it refers to a process of repeating the application of a pulse having a peak value as a constant voltage. By such a process, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the above-mentioned element from an organic substance existing in a vacuum. As a result, the element current If and the emission current Ie change significantly. This activation process
For example, when the emission current Ie is saturated, the processing is terminated, and the pulse peak value is preferably an operation drive voltage.

Here, the above-mentioned carbon or carbon compound refers to graphite (including both single crystal and polycrystal) and amorphous carbon (however, based on TEM, Raman, etc.). Including a mixture of carbon and polycrystalline graphite), and the thickness of the deposit is preferably 500 angstroms or less, more preferably 300 angstroms or less.

In the production method of the present invention, this activation treatment is preferably carried out by introducing an appropriately selected carbon compound material into a vacuum atmosphere. In the present invention, more preferably, the element to be subjected to the activation treatment is held in a vacuum atmosphere containing no oil component, and thereafter, the carbon compound is introduced.

That is, the preferred carbon compound material particularly selected in the present invention is a material having a vapor pressure of 5000 hPa or less at the ambient temperature during the activation treatment step.

The ambient temperature during the activation process is preferably room temperature in terms of introduction of the carbon compound material, temperature control of the device, and the like. Therefore, the carbon compound material used in the activation process is preferably used. Is more preferably 20 ° C.
Is a material having a vapor pressure of 5000 hPa or less, for example, alkanes, alkenes, aliphatic hydrocarbons of alkynes, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes,
Among organic acids such as ketones, amines, phenol, carboxylic acid and sulfonic acid, and derivatives of these carbon compound organic materials, a carbon compound material suitable for the above-mentioned conditions of vapor pressure is appropriately selected.

Of the carbon compound materials having a vapor pressure of not more than 5000 hPa at 20 ° C., particularly preferred materials in the present invention are listed below. Butadiene, n-hexane, 1-hexene, n-octane, n-decane , N
-Dodecane, benzene, nitrobenzene, toluene, o
-Xylene, benzonitrile, chloroethylene, trichloroethylene, methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, ethylene glycol, glycerin, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propanal, acetone, ethyl methyl ketone, diethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, ethylenediamine, phenol, formic acid, Acetic acid, propionic acid and the like can be mentioned.

The fact that the vapor pressure of the carbon compound material used in the production method of the present invention is 5000 hPa or less facilitates the deposition of carbon or a carbon compound on the element surface and shortens the activation processing time of the electron emission element. can do.

Further, the carbon compound material particularly selected in the present invention has a vapor pressure of 0.2 hPa to 5000 h at an ambient temperature, preferably 20 ° C., during the above-mentioned activation treatment step.
Pa, more preferably 10 hPa to 5000 hPa.

The vapor pressure at 20 ° C. is 0.2 hPa to 5
Of the carbon compound materials of 000 hPa, particularly preferred carbon compound materials in the present invention are, butadiene, n-hexane, 1-hexene, benzene, toluene, o-xylene, benzonitrile, chloroethylene, Examples include trichloroethylene, methanol, ethanol, isopropyl alcohol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, propanal, acetone, ethyl methyl ketone, diethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, ethylenediamine, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, and the like.

The vapor pressure of the carbon compound material used in the production method of the present invention is from 0.2 hPa to 5000 h.
Pa makes it easy to deposit carbon or a carbon compound on the element surface, shortens the activation processing time of the electron-emitting device, and further reduces the amount of the activated carbon from the element atmosphere after the activation processing. Easy exhaust (removal) of carbon compounds
Thus, the durability of the electron-emitting device can be further improved.

In the production method of the present invention, the partial pressure of the carbon compound material to be introduced is preferably about 10 ^-2 to 10 ^-7 torr when a general vacuum pumping apparatus is used.

[0055] With respect to the vapor pressure and its introduction partial pressure of the carbon compound material, Pr ₀ vapor pressure of the carbon compound material, when introduced partial pressure and Pr, Pr is such that Pr _o × 10 ^-8 or more It is preferable to set the partial pressure of introduction according to the type of the carbon compound material, particularly from the viewpoint that the activation treatment time can be shortened.

The activation treatment described above depends on the type of the organic material to be introduced into the vacuum atmosphere, the partial pressure of the introduction, the pulse voltage applied to the device, and the like. In addition to the change in the time dependency, the formation state of the carbon or carbon compound film formed in the vicinity of the conductive film deformed and altered by the forming process also changes.

The electron-emitting device manufactured as described above is
Preferably, it is operated and driven in a vacuum atmosphere having a degree of vacuum higher than the degree of vacuum in the energization forming process or the activation process, and more preferably after heating at 80 to 150 ° C. Operated and driven in a vacuum atmosphere. The vacuum atmosphere having a degree of vacuum higher than the degree of vacuum in the energization forming treatment or the activation treatment is, for example, a degree of vacuum of about 10 ^-6 torr or more, and more preferably the carbon and carbon compounds. Is an ultra-high vacuum system in which almost no new material is deposited. In such an ultra-high vacuum system, it is possible to suppress further deposition of carbon and carbon compounds, and therefore, the device current If and the emission current I
e is stable.

Next, basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device manufactured by the above-described manufacturing method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement evaluation apparatus for measuring the electron emission characteristics of the electron-emitting device manufactured by the above-described manufacturing method. In FIG. 3, the same reference numerals as in FIG. 1 denote the same members. 11 is
A power supply for applying a device voltage Vf to the electron-emitting device, 1
0 is an ammeter for measuring a device current If flowing through the conductive film 4 between the device electrodes 2 and 3, and 14 is an anode for capturing an emission current Ie emitted from an electron emission portion of the device. Electrodes 13 are a high voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 14, 12 is an ammeter for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion 5 of the device, 15 is a vacuum device, 16 Is an exhaust pump.

The electron-emitting device and the anode electrode 14
Are installed in a vacuum device 15, and the vacuum device is provided with equipment necessary for a vacuum device such as a vacuum system (not shown) so that measurement and evaluation of the electron-emitting device can be performed under a desired vacuum. It has become. Note that the exhaust pump 16 is
It is composed of a normal high vacuum system including a pump and a rotary pump, and an ultrahigh vacuum system including an ion pump.

As shown in FIG. 4, the vacuum device 15 is connected via a needle valve 21 to a material source 22 such as an ampule or a gas cylinder having a carbon compound material. The compound material can be introduced as a gas, and the introduction amount can be adjusted by the opening and closing amount of the needle valve 21 and the exhaust amount of the exhaust pump 23 while measuring the degree of vacuum with a vacuum gauge. Incidentally, 24 indicates a valve, and 25 indicates a dry pump.

The entire vacuum apparatus and the substrate on which the electron-emitting devices are arranged can be heated to 200 ° C. by a heater (not shown). Therefore, the present measurement and evaluation apparatus can be a manufacturing apparatus capable of performing the steps after the energization forming in the above-described manufacturing method of the present invention.

The voltage of the anode electrode is 1 kV to 10 k.
V, the distance H between the anode electrode and the electron-emitting device is 2 mm or more.
It was measured in a range of 8 mm.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the dependence of the device current If and the emission current Ie on the activation processing time measured by the measurement and evaluation apparatus shown in FIG. 3, and the relationship between the emission current Ie, the device current If and the device voltage Vf. A typical example of the relationship is shown in FIG. FIG. 6 shows the emission current Ie in arbitrary units because the emission current Ie is significantly smaller than the element current If.

As is clear from FIG. 6, the electron-emitting device manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention has three characteristic properties with respect to the emission current Ie.

First, when an element voltage higher than a certain voltage (referred to as a threshold voltage, Vth in FIG. 6) is applied to the present element, the emission current Ie sharply increases. On the other hand, when the element voltage is lower than the threshold voltage Vth, the emission current Ie increases. 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 depends on the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie can be controlled by the device voltage Vf.

Thirdly, the amount of charge emitted by the anode electrode 14 depends on the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied. That is, the amount of charge captured by the anode electrode 14 can be controlled by the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied.

As shown in FIG. 6, the element current If
In both cases, there are a characteristic that monotonically increases with respect to the element voltage Vf (referred to as MI characteristic) (solid line in FIG. 6) and a voltage-controlled negative resistance characteristic (referred to as VCNR characteristic) (dashed line in FIG. 6). However, the characteristics of these device currents depend on the manufacturing method, vacuum atmosphere conditions in a vacuum device, and the like. In the present invention,
A more preferred embodiment is an embodiment exhibiting the MI characteristic.

The electron-emitting device manufactured as described above
Basically, it has a configuration as described below, and is roughly classified into two types: a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device and a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

First, the plane type surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are a schematic plan view and a cross-sectional view, respectively, showing the basic structure of a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device. In FIG. 7, 1 is a substrate, 2 and 3 are device electrodes, 4 is a conductive film, and 5 is an electron emitting portion.

Examples of the substrate 1 include quartz glass, glass with a reduced content of impurities such as Na, blue plate glass, a glass substrate in which blue plate glass is laminated with SiO ₂ formed by sputtering or the like, and ceramics such as alumina. No.

The materials of the opposing element electrodes 5 and 6 are as follows.
A general conductor material is used, for example, Ni, Cr, A
metals or alloys such as u, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, Pd, and Pd, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd
-It is appropriately selected from a printed conductor made of a metal such as Ag or a metal oxide, glass, or the like, a transparent conductor such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO _2, or a semiconductor conductor material such as polysilicon.

The element electrode interval L, the element electrode length W, the shape of the conductive film 4 and the like are appropriately designed depending on the application form of the electron-emitting device, and the element electrode interval L is preferably
The thickness is from several hundreds of angstroms to several hundreds of micrometers, and more preferably from several micrometers to several tens of micrometers depending on the voltage applied between the device electrodes and the electric field strength capable of emitting electrons.

The order of lamination of the conductive film 4 and the device electrodes 2 and 3 is not limited to the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, and the conductive film 4 and the opposing device electrodes 2 and 3 are laminated on the substrate 1 in this order. You may comprise.

The conductive film 4 is particularly preferably a fine particle film composed of fine particles in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics, and the thickness thereof is set to a step coverage on the device electrodes 2 and 3.
And the resistance value between the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the above-described energization forming conditions, etc., and are preferably from several Angstroms to several thousand Angstroms, and particularly preferably from 10 Angstroms to 500 angstroms - a beam, the resistance value, 10 ³ to 10 ⁷ O - n / a
□ are the sheet resistance values.

The material constituting the conductive film 4 is P
d, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, F
e, metal such as Zn, Sn, Ta, W, Pb, PdO, S
oxides such as nO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ ,
HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , YB ₄ , G
borides such as dB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC, TaC,
Carbides such as SiC and WC; nitrides such as TiN, ZrN, and HfN; semiconductors such as Si and Ge; and carbon.

The fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are gathered, and has a fine structure not only in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other ( (Including islands), and the particle size of the fine particles is from several Angstroms to several thousand Angstroms, preferably 10 Angstroms to 200 Angstroms.

The electron-emitting portion 5 is, for example, a high-resistance crack formed in a part of the conductive film 4. The electron-emitting portion 5 has a thickness, a film quality, a material, and a manufacturing method such as the above-described energization forming. Is formed. Further, the conductive fine particles may have a particle diameter of several Å to several hundred Å. The conductive fine particles contain some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive film 4. Further, the electron emitting portion 5 and the conductive film 4 in the vicinity thereof include carbon and a carbon compound.

Next, the vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing the basic structure of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device. Members denoted by the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 7 are the same as those in FIG.

The substrate 1, the device electrodes 2 and 3, the conductive film 4,
The electron-emitting portion 5 is made of the same material as the above-mentioned flat surface-conduction type electron-emitting device, but the step forming portion 31 is formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. The step forming portion 31 is made of an insulating material such as SiO _2, and the film thickness of the step forming portion 31 corresponds to the device electrode interval L of the above-mentioned flat surface conduction electron-emitting device, and is several hundreds Angstroms to tens of micrometers. Torr, which is appropriately set depending on the method of manufacturing the step forming portion, the voltage applied between the device electrodes, and the electric field intensity capable of emitting electrons, preferably from several hundred angstroms to several micrometers. .

The conductive film 4 is formed on the device electrodes 2 and 3 because it is formed after the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the step forming portion 31 are formed. Although the electron-emitting portion 5 is shown in a straight line in the step forming portion 31 in FIG. 8, the shape and position of the electron-emitting portion 5 depend on the forming conditions and the above-described energization forming conditions. It is not limited.

Since the electron-emitting device manufactured by the above-described manufacturing method of the present invention has the above-mentioned three characteristic characteristics, the electron-emitting characteristics of a plurality of electron-emitting devices in accordance with an input signal are increased. It is possible to easily control the arranged electron source, the image forming apparatus, and the like, so that the invention can be applied to various fields.

Next, a basic configuration of an electron source and an image forming apparatus using the electron-emitting devices produced by the manufacturing method of the present invention will be described.

An electron source and an image forming apparatus are constituted by arranging preferably a plurality of electron-emitting devices produced by the production method of the present invention on a substrate. The method of arranging the electron-emitting devices on the substrate is, for example, an electron-emitting device in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel and both ends of each device are connected by wiring as described in the conventional example. Are arrayed (referred to as a row direction), and electrons are controlled and driven by a control electrode (referred to as a grid) provided in a space above the electron source in a direction perpendicular to the wiring (referred to as a column direction). And n Y wires on m X wirings to be described below.
The directional wiring is provided via an interlayer insulating layer, and the X-directional wiring is provided on a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, respectively.
An arrangement method in which Y-direction wirings are connected is exemplified. This is hereinafter referred to as a simple matrix arrangement.

First, the simple matrix will be described in detail.

According to the above-mentioned three basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device according to the present invention, according to the surface-conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a simple matrix, the electrons emitted from the surface-conduction electron-emitting devices are not changed. , Above the threshold voltage,
It is controlled by the peak value and width of the pulse voltage applied between the opposing element electrodes. On the other hand, below the threshold voltage, almost no emission occurs. According to this characteristic, even when a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged, if the pulse-like voltage is appropriately applied to each device, a surface conduction electron-emitting device is selected according to an input signal, The electron emission amount can be controlled.

The configuration of the electron source substrate constructed based on this principle will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 71 denotes a substrate on which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged (hereinafter, referred to as an electron source substrate), 72 denotes an X-direction wiring, 73 denotes a Y-direction wiring, and 74 denotes a surface conduction electron-emitting device. , 75 are connections. The surface conduction electron-emitting device 7
4 may be either the above-mentioned flat type or vertical type. In FIG. 9, the electron source substrate 71 is the above-mentioned glass substrate or the like, and the number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices and the design shape of each device are set according to the application.
It is set appropriately.

The m X-directional wirings 72 are DX1, DX
2,. . , DXm, and a conductive metal formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. Further, the material, the film thickness, and the wiring width are set so that a substantially uniform voltage is supplied to many surface conduction electron-emitting devices. Y direction wiring 7
3 are DY1, DY2,. . , DYn, and a vacuum deposition method, a printing method,
The material, film thickness, wiring width, and the like are set so that a substantially uniform voltage is supplied to a large number of surface conduction elements formed of a conductive metal or the like formed in a desired pattern by sputtering or the like. These m X-direction wires 72 and n Y-direction wires 7
3, an interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided and electrically separated to form a matrix wiring. Note that m and n
Are both positive integers.

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is made of SiO ₂ or the like formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like, and is provided on the entire surface of the substrate 71 on which the X-directional wiring 72 is formed or on a part thereof. In particular, the X-directional wiring 72 and Y
In order to withstand the potential difference at the intersection of the direction wiring 73,
The material and manufacturing method are appropriately set. The X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73 are respectively drawn out as external terminals.

Further, opposing electrodes (not shown) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 are connected to m X-directional wirings 72 and n Y-directional wirings 73 by vacuum evaporation, printing, sputtering, or the like. It is electrically connected to the formed connection 75 made of a conductive metal or the like.

Here, m X-directional wires 72 and n Y wires
The conductive metal of the element electrode facing the directional wiring 73 and the connection 75 may have some or all of the constituent elements of the same or different elements. Is appropriately selected from the above materials.
In addition, when the wiring to these device electrodes is the same as the device electrode and the wiring material, these may be collectively referred to as device electrodes. Further, the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be formed on either the substrate 71 or an interlayer insulating layer (not shown).

As will be described later in detail, a scanning signal for scanning a row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the X direction in accordance with an input signal is applied to the X-direction wiring 72. And a scanning signal applying means (not shown) for performing the operation.

On the other hand, the Y direction wiring 73 is provided with a modulation signal (not shown) for modulating each of the rows of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the Y direction in accordance with an input signal. It is electrically connected to the modulation signal generating means.

Further, a driving voltage applied to each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is supplied as a difference voltage between a scanning signal and a modulation signal applied to the element.

With the above-described configuration, individual electron-emitting devices can be selected and driven independently with only a simple matrix wiring.

Next, an image forming apparatus used for display and the like using the electron sources in the simple matrix arrangement prepared as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 10, 11, and 12. FIG.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a basic configuration of a display panel of an image forming apparatus, FIG. 11 is a view showing a fluorescent film, and FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a driving circuit in which the image forming apparatus displays an image according to an NTSC television signal. FIG.

In FIG. 10, reference numeral 71 denotes an electron source substrate on which the electron-emitting device is manufactured as described above; 81, a rear plate on which the electron source substrate 71 is fixed; 86, a fluorescent film 84 on the inner surface of a glass substrate 83; And a face plate on which a metal back 85 and the like are formed. Reference numeral 82 denotes a support frame. The rear plate 81, the support frame 82, and the face plate 86 are coated with frit glass or the like, and
By baking at 00 to 500 ° C. for 10 minutes or more, sealing is performed to form the envelope 88.

In FIG. 10, 74 corresponds to the electron-emitting device in FIG. 9, and 72 and 73 are X-direction wiring and Y-direction wiring connected to a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. is there.

As described above, the envelope 88 is formed by the face-plate 86, the support frame 82, and the rear plate 81.
Although the rear plate 81 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the substrate 71, if the substrate 71 itself has a sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 81 is unnecessary, and The support frame 82 may be directly sealed, and the envelope 88 may be constituted by the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the substrate 71. Although not shown, a support called a spacer is further provided between the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81 to provide an envelope 88 having sufficient strength against atmospheric pressure. The configuration can also be adopted.

FIG. 11 shows a fluorescent film. The fluorescent film 84 is composed of only a phosphor in the case of a monochrome, but is composed of a black conductive material 91 called a black stripe or a black matrix and a phosphor 92 depending on the arrangement of the phosphor in the case of a color fluorescent film. . The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the color separation between the phosphors 92 of the three primary color phosphors necessary in the case of color display black so that color mixing and the like become inconspicuous. The purpose is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to external light reflection. The material of the black stripe is not limited to the commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, as long as it is conductive and has little light transmission and reflection.

Here, as a method of applying the phosphor on the glass substrate 83, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome or color.

A metal back 85 is usually provided on the inner side of the fluorescent film 84. The purpose of the metal back is to improve the brightness by mirror-reflecting the light emitted from the phosphor toward the inner surface side to the face plate 86 side, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage, This is to protect the phosphor from damage due to collision of negative ions generated in the enclosure. The metal back can be produced by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the phosphor film after producing the phosphor film, and then depositing Al by vacuum deposition or the like.

The face plate 86 is further provided with a fluorescent film 8.
A transparent electrode (not shown) may be provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to increase the conductivity of the phosphor 4.

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

[0109] The envelope 88 is connected to an exhaust pipe (not shown).
The degree of vacuum is set to about 0 ^-7 torr, and sealing is performed. In addition, getter processing may be performed in order to maintain the degree of vacuum of the envelope 88 after sealing. This is because the getter disposed at a predetermined position (not shown) in the envelope 88 is heated by a heating method such as resistance heating or high-frequency heating immediately before or after the envelope 88 is sealed. This is a process for forming a deposited film.

The getter is usually made of Ba or the like as a main component, and for example, 10 ^-5 to 10 ^-7 ton by the adsorption action of the deposited film.
rr is maintained.

Next, referring to the block diagram of FIG. 12, a schematic configuration of a drive circuit for performing a television display based on an NTSC television signal in a display panel constituted by using the above-described electron sources having a simple matrix arrangement will be described. Will be explained.

In FIG. 12, 101 is the display panel, 102 is a scanning circuit, 103 is a control circuit,
104 is a shift register, 105 is a line memory, 10
6 is a synchronization signal separation circuit, 107 is a modulation signal generator, Vx
And Va are DC voltage sources.

Hereinafter, the function of each part will be described. First, the display panel 101 is connected to an external electric circuit via terminals Dox1 to Doxm, terminals Doy1 to Doyn, and a high voltage terminal Hv. Among them, the terminal Dox1
To Doxm, the electron sources provided in the display panel, that is, the group of surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns are sequentially driven one row (N element) at a time. Operation signal is applied. On the other hand, terminal D
oy1 to Doyn are the output electron beams of each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in one row selected by the scanning signal.
A modulation signal for controlling the system is applied. The high voltage terminal Hv is connected to the DC voltage source Va by, for example, 10 kV.
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.

Next, the scanning circuit 102 will be described.

The scanning circuit 102 includes therein M switching elements (schematically indicated by S1 to Sm in the figure), and each switching element includes an output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 V (ground level) is selected, and the terminal Dox1 of the display panel 101 is selected.
~ Doxm. S1 to Sm
Each of the switching elements operates based on the control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 103, but can be easily configured by combining switching elements such as FETs in practice.

In this embodiment, the driving voltage applied to the non-scanning element is controlled by the DC voltage source Vx based on the characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device (threshold voltage of electron emission). Is set so as to output a constant voltage that is equal to or lower than the threshold voltage.

The control circuit 103 has a function of matching the operation of each unit so that an appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside. The control circuit 103 has a synchronization signal separation circuit 106 described below. Sync signal T sent from
Based on sync, for each part, Tscan, Ts
ft and Tmry control signals are generated.

The synchronizing signal separating circuit 106 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) circuit is used. Can be easily configured. As is well known, the synchronization signal separated by the synchronization signal separation circuit 106 is composed of a vertical synchronization signal and a horizontal synchronization signal, but is shown here as a Tsync signal 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.
Although shown as an ATA signal, this signal is input to the shift register 104.

The shift register 104 is for serially / parallel converting the DATA signal input serially in time series for each line of an image, and is based on a control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 103. Works. That is, the control signal Tsft may be rephrased as a shift clock of the shift register 104. The data of one line of the serial / parallel-converted image (corresponding to the driving data of N electron-emitting devices) is as follows.
The shift register 104 outputs as N parallel signals Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 105 appropriately stores Id1 according to the fresh fish signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 103.
ＩIdn is stored. The stored content is I'd
1 to I′dn and input to the modulation signal generator 107.

A modulation signal generator 107 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 I'd1 to I'dn. The signal is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the display panel 101 through the terminals Doy1 to Doyn.

As described above, the electron-emitting device according to the present invention has the following basic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie. That is, as described above, electron emission has a definite threshold voltage Vth, and electron emission occurs only when a voltage equal to or higher than Vth is applied.

For a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold voltage, the emission current changes in accordance with the change in the voltage applied to the element. Note that the value of the threshold voltage Vth of electron emission and the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may be changed by changing the material, configuration, and manufacturing method of the electron-emitting device. I can say that.

That is, when a pulse-like voltage is applied to the present electron-emitting device, for example, when a voltage lower than the electron emission threshold voltage is applied, electron emission does not occur, but a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold voltage is applied. When electrons are applied, electrons are emitted. At that time, first, the intensity of the output electron beam can be controlled by changing the peak value Vm of the pulse. Secondly, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the output electron beam by changing the pulse width Pw.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the electron-emitting device in accordance with the input signal, a voltage modulation method, a pulse width modulation method, and the like can be cited.
As the modulation signal generator 107, a voltage modulation type circuit that generates a voltage pulse of a fixed length but modulates the peak value of the pulse appropriately according to input data is used.

In order to implement the pulse width modulation method,
The modulation signal generator 107 generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value, and uses a pulse width modulation type circuit that appropriately modulates the width of the voltage pulse according to input data. .

Through the series of operations described above, television display can be performed using the display panel 101. Although not particularly described in the above description, the shift register 10
The line memory 105 and the line memory 105 may be of a digital signal type or an analog signal type. In short, the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the synchronization signal separation circuit 106 into a digital signal.
Needless to say, if an A / D converter is provided at the output unit 06, it is easily possible. In connection with this, it goes without saying that the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 107 is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 105 is a digital signal or an analog signal.

That is, in the case of a digital signal, in the voltage modulation method, for example, the modulation signal generator 107
A D / A conversion circuit may be used, and an amplification circuit and the like may be added as necessary. In the pulse width modulation system, the modulation signal generator 107 includes, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter (counter) that counts the number of waves output from the oscillator, furthermore, an output value of the counter and an output of the memory. By using a circuit that combines a comparator that compares values,
A person skilled in the art can easily configure. If necessary, an amplifier may be added to amplify the pulse width modulated signal output from the comparator to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

On the other hand, when the analog signal type is used,
In the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 107 includes:
For example, an amplifier circuit using an operational amplifier or the like may be used, and a level shift circuit or the like may be added as needed. In the pulse width modulation method, for example, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) may be used, and if necessary, an amplifier for amplifying the voltage up to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be added. good.

[0131] In images forming apparatus completed as described above, thus, each electron emitter, vessel terminals Dox
1 to Doxm, Doy 1 to Doyn to emit electrons by applying a voltage, and apply a high voltage to the metal back 85 or a transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam. An image can be displayed by colliding the beam to excite and emit the phosphor.

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for producing an image forming apparatus used for display or the like. For example, detailed portions such as materials of each member are not limited to those described above. Instead, it is appropriately selected so as to be suitable for the use of the image forming apparatus. As an example of an input signal, NTSC
Although the method was mentioned, it is not limited to this, and other PA
Various methods such as L and SECAM may be used. Furthermore, a TV signal composed of a larger number of scanning lines than these, for example, a high-quality TV system such as the MUSE system may be used.

Next, the basic configuration of the electron source and the image forming apparatus having the ladder-type arrangement described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 13, reference numeral 110 denotes an electron source substrate, 1
Reference numeral 11 denotes an electron-emitting device, and 112 denotes a common wiring for wiring the electron-emitting devices Dx1 to Dx10. A plurality of electron-emitting devices 111 are arranged on the substrate 110 in parallel in the X direction (this is called an element row). A plurality of these element rows are arranged to form an electron source.

Such an electron source is provided between common lines (between Dx1 and Dx2, between Dx3 and Dx4, between Dx5 and Dx5) of each element row.
By appropriately applying a drive voltage between x6, between Dx7 and Dx8, and between Dx9 and Dx10, each element row can be driven independently. That is, a voltage equal to or higher than the threshold voltage of electron emission is applied to the element row from which electron beams are to be emitted,
A voltage equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold voltage may be applied to the element rows that do not emit electron beams. In addition, one common wiring is made the same wiring between each element row (for example, Dx2 and Dx3, Dx4 and Dx5, Dx6 and Dx
7, Dx8 and Dx9 are the same wiring).

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display panel structure of an image forming apparatus provided with a ladder type electron source. 1
20 is a grid electrode, 121 is a hole through which electrons pass, 122 is Dox1, Dox2,..., Doxm
The external terminal 123 made of G1, G2,..., Gn connected to the grid electrode 120, and the external terminal 110 made up of the electron source substrate shown in FIG. 13 and 14 indicate the same components.

The display panel of FIG. 14 has a grid electrode 120 between the electron source substrate 110 and the face plate 86, as compared with the image forming apparatus having the simple matrix arrangement (FIG. 10). Is very different.

In FIG. 14, a grid electrode 120 is provided between a substrate 110 and a face plate 86. The grid electrode 120 is provided with an electron beam emitted from a surface conduction electron-emitting device. An electrode capable of modulating a beam, which is provided in a stripe shape orthogonal to each element row of the ladder arrangement, and further, one for each element in order to pass an electron beam. A circular hole 121 is provided. It should be noted that the shape and the installation position of the grid electrode are not necessarily limited to the embodiment shown in FIG. 14, but may be arranged around or near the electron-emitting device. A mode in which a passage port is provided may be used.

Note that the outer container terminal 122 and the outer grid container terminal 123 are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown).

In the image forming apparatus described above, the modulation signals for one line of the image are simultaneously applied to the grid electrode rows in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one column at a time. By controlling the irradiation of the beam to the phosphor, an image can be displayed line by line.

According to the above-described concept of the present invention, an image forming apparatus suitable as a display device for a television conference system or a computer as well as a television broadcast display device is provided. Further, it can be used as an image forming apparatus as an optical printer including a photosensitive drum and the like.

[0142]

The present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to examples.

Reference Example 1 A method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device in this reference example will be described below with reference to FIG.

[0144] First, using a quartz substrate as the substrate 1,
After this was sufficiently washed with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, a resist material RD-2000N was spin-coated on the substrate 1 at 2500 rpm for 40 seconds at 80 ° C.
Prebaked by heating for 25 minutes.

Next, the electrode interval (corresponding to L in FIG. 7) is 2 μm.
m, and a contact length exposure using a mask corresponding to an electrode shape having an electrode length of 500 μm (corresponding to W in FIG. 7) was performed.
The film was developed with a developing solution for 0N, heated at 120 ° C. for 20 minutes, and post-baked.

In the present reference example, nickel metal was used as a material of the element electrode, nickel was deposited at a thickness of 0.3 nm / sec to a film thickness of 100 nm using a resistance heating vapor deposition machine, and then lifted off with acetone. After washing with isopropyl alcohol and then butyl acetate, the substrate was dried to form opposing element electrodes 2 and 3 on the substrate 1 (FIG. 1A).

[0147] Next, chromium is vapor-deposited on the entire surface of the substrate to a thickness of 50 nm, and a resist material AZ1370 is deposited at 2500 rpm and 30 rpm.
After applying a spinner coating for 90 seconds, heating at 90 ° C. for 30 minutes, and pre-baking, exposing using a mask having a pattern for applying a conductive film on which an electron emission portion is formed, and developing with a developing solution MIF312, After heating at 120 ° C. for 30 minutes, post-baking was performed.

Next, (NH ₄ ) Ce (NO ₃ ) ₆ / HC
After immersing in a solution having a composition of 10 ₄ / H ₂ O = 17 g / 5 cc / 100 cc for 30 seconds, etching chromium, ultrasonically stirring in acetone for 10 minutes to remove the resist,
Further, an organic palladium solution (ccp4230, manufactured by Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) is spin-coated at 800 rpm for 30 seconds, baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes, and palladium oxide (Pd
O) A fine particle-like conductive film having fine particles (average particle size: 7 nm) was formed.

Next, the chromium is lifted off to have a width (corresponding to W ′ in FIG. 7) of 300 μm, a film thickness of 10 nm,
A conductive film 4 having a sheet resistance value of 5 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □ and made of fine particles containing Pd as a main element was formed (FIG. 1B). 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 the fine particles whose particle shape can be recognized in the above state.

. Next, the above element was placed in the measurement evaluation apparatus in Fig. 3, and evacuated by a vacuum pump, 2 × 10 ^-8 tor
After the degree of vacuum reached r, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 from a power supply 10 for applying a device voltage Vf to the device, and a current-passing process (forming process) was performed.
The voltage waveform of the forming process is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2B, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, and in this reference example, T1 is 1
The peak value (peak voltage at the time of forming) of the rectangular wave was increased in steps of 0.1 V, and the forming process was performed. During the forming process, a resistance measuring pulse was simultaneously inserted between T2 at a voltage of 0.1 V to measure the resistance. The forming process was terminated when the value measured by the resistance measurement pulse became about 1 MΩ or more, and at the same time, the application of the voltage to the element was terminated. In this reference example, the forming voltage VF of the element
Is 5.1 V, and as described above, the crack-shaped electron-emitting portion 5 was formed in the conductive film 4 (FIG. 1C).

[0152] Acetone (vapor pressure at 233 hPa at 20 ° C.) was applied to the device fabricated as described above.
Under an atmosphere of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ torr introduced for 20 minutes,
The activation process was performed by applying a voltage between the device electrodes.
The voltage waveform of the activation process is shown in FIG.

[0153] In FIG. 15, T3 and T4 is a pulse width and a pulse interval of the voltage waveform, 100 microseconds the T3 in this reference example, the T4 and 10 msec, the peak value of the rectangular wave 1
The test was performed at 4V.

Thereafter, the air was exhausted to about 1 × 10 ^-8 torr.

The introduction of the organic material used for the activation into the vacuum apparatus was adjusted by an introduction system using a needle valve (FIG. 4) so that the pressure in the vacuum apparatus became almost constant.

The characteristics of the device obtained as described above are as follows.
The voltage of the anode electrode was measured at 1 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode and the electron-emitting device was measured at 4 mm. In addition, the degree of vacuum 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 is 2 mA, the emission current is 1 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η
Was 0.05%. In addition, there was no change in the characteristics even after continuous driving for 10 hours.

Further, regarding the manufactured electron-emitting device, the device voltage was 14 V, the repetition period of the voltage pulse was 60 Hz, and the pulse width was 30 μsec, 100 μsec, and 300 μsec.
Table 1 shows the pulse width dependence of the device current If and the emission current Ie for each of c.

Reference Example 2 In this reference example, the activation was carried out using n-dodecane (vapor pressure at 20 ° C. 0.1 hPa) instead of acetone used in the activation treatment of reference example 1. Other than going
Performed in the same manner as in Reference Example 1.

[0160] The obtained element, in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 I
When f and Ie were measured, when the device voltage was 14 V, the device current was 2.2 mA and the emission current was 1 μA.
The electron emission efficiency η was 0.045%. In addition, there was no change in the characteristics even after continuous driving for 10 hours.

Reference Example 3 In this reference example, instead of acetone used in the activation treatment of Reference Example 1, formaldehyde (20 ° C.) was used.
The procedure was performed in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 except that activation was performed for 2 hours using a vapor pressure of 4370 hPa).

[0162] The obtained element, in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 I
When f and Ie were measured, when the device voltage was 14 V, the device current was 1 mA, the emission current was 0.2 μA,
The electron emission efficiency η was 0.02%. In addition, there was no change in the characteristics even after continuous driving for 10 hours.

Reference Example 4 In this reference example, activation was performed using n-hexane (vapor pressure at 20 ° C., 160 hPa) instead of acetone used in the activation treatment of reference example 1. Hasan
It was carried out in the same manner as considered in Example 1.

The obtained device was subjected to the same method as in Reference Example 1.
When f and Ie were measured, when the device voltage was 14 V, the device current was 1.8 mA, the emission current was 0.8 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η was 0.044%.

Reference Example 5 In this reference example, activation was performed using n-undecane (vapor pressure at 20 ° C. 0.35 hPa) instead of acetone used in the activation treatment of reference example 1. The procedure was performed in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 except for the above.

[0166] The obtained element, in the same manner as in Reference Example 1 I
When f and Ie were measured, when the device voltage was 14 V, the device current was 1.5 mA, the emission current was 0.6 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η was 0.04%.

Further, regarding the electron-emitting devices manufactured in Reference Examples 1, 2, 4, and 5, the device voltage was 14 V, the voltage pulse repetition period was 60 Hz, and the pulse width was 30 μs.
Table 1 shows the pulse width dependence of the device current If and the emission current Ie at c, 100 μsec, and 300 μsec, respectively.

As is clear from the results in Table 1, when the vapor pressure at 20 ° C. of the carbon compound material introduced at the time of activation is in the range of 0.2 hPa to 500 hPa, the pulse of If and Ie is used. An electron-emitting device that hardly generates width dependency was obtained.

[0169]

[Table 1]

[0170] Example 1 In this Example, is prepared by the production method of the present invention, to prepare an image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 14 using the electron source having many electron-emitting devices.

In the same manufacturing method as in Reference Example 1, a large number of elements 111 in which a conductive film was arranged between opposing electrodes were formed in a line on an insulating substrate 110 as shown in FIG.

Next, the insulating substrate (electron source substrate) 11
0 is fixed on the rear plate 81, and then the insulating substrate 11 is fixed.
Modulation electrode 120 having an electron passage hole 121 above
Were arranged in a direction orthogonal to the linear element.

Further, 5 mm above the insulating substrate 110,
A face plate 86 (formed by forming a fluorescent film 84 and a metal back 85 on the inner surface of a glass substrate 83) is disposed via a support frame 82, and a frit is provided at a joint between the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the rear plate 81. Apply glass, 400 ℃ -5 ℃ in air or nitrogen atmosphere
It sealed by baking at 00 degreeC for 10 minutes or more. The fixing of the insulating substrate 110 to the rear plate 81 was also performed using frit glass.

The fluorescent film 84 adopts a stripe shape (FIG. 11A). First, a black stripe is formed, and each color phosphor is applied to a gap between the black stripes.
Was prepared. As the material for the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used. In addition, a slurry method was used as a method of applying the phosphor on the glass substrate 83.

Further, a metal back 85 is provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84. The metal back was manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film after the fluorescent film was manufactured, and then vacuum-depositing Al.

The face plate 86 is further provided with a fluorescent film 8.
In some cases, a transparent electrode (not shown) is provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to increase the conductivity of the phosphor film 4. However, in the present embodiment, a sufficient conductivity is obtained only with the metal back, so that the description is omitted. did.

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

The atmosphere in the glass container completed as described above is exhausted by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminal Dox1 is reached.
Through Doxm, a voltage was applied between the electrodes, forming was performed under the same conditions as in the above-described Reference Example 1, and the device 111
An electron emitting portion was formed on the conductive film of No. 1.

Next, acetone was placed in a glass container at 1 × 10
^-4 torr was introduced, and a voltage was applied between the electrodes through the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm, and the element 111 was activated under the same conditions as in Reference Example 1 described above.

Thereafter, the acetone was exhausted, and an electron source having a large number of electron-emitting devices arranged on the substrate 110 was manufactured.

Finally, at a degree of vacuum of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ torr, the exhaust pipe (not shown) is welded by heating with a gas burner to seal the envelope. In order to maintain the value, gettering was performed by a high-frequency heating method.

In the image forming apparatus of the present embodiment completed as described above, each electron-emitting device has an external terminal Dox.
Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage through 1 to Doxm, and the emitted electrons pass through the electron passage hole 121 of the modulation electrode 120, and then, through a high voltage terminal 87, a high voltage of several kV or more applied to the metal back 85. Accelerated by
The light collides with the fluorescent film 84 to excite and emit light. At that time, a voltage corresponding to the information signal is applied to the modulation electrode 120 by the external terminals G1 to G1.
By applying through Gn, the electron beam passing through the electron passage hole 121 can be controlled and an image can be displayed. In this embodiment, however, the insulating substrate 110 has a thickness of 10 μm through the insulating layer SiO 2 (not shown). By disposing a modulation electrode 120 having an electron passage hole 121 having a diameter of 50 μm above, when an acceleration voltage of 6 kV is applied, on / off of the electron beam can be controlled by a modulation voltage within 50 V, and an image can be displayed. Was.

[0183] In Example 2 This example is manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention, to prepare an image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 10 using the electron source having many electron-emitting devices.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing the basic configuration of an image forming apparatus according to this embodiment, and FIG. 11 shows the fluorescent film.

FIG. 16 is a plan view of a part of the electron source. FIG. 17 shows a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in the figure. However, FIG.
6, FIG. 17, FIG. 18, and FIG. 19, the same symbols indicate the same components. Here, 1 is a substrate, 72 is an X-direction wiring (also referred to as a lower wiring) corresponding to Dxm in FIG.
Is a Y-direction wiring (also referred to as an upper wiring) corresponding to Dyn in FIG. 9, 4 is a conductive film including an electron emitting portion, 5 and 6 are device electrodes, 141 is an interlayer insulating layer, and 142 is a device electrode 5 and a lower portion. This is a contact hole for electrical connection with the wiring 72.

First, a method for manufacturing an element substrate of an electron source according to this embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIGS.

Step-a On a substrate 1 in which a 0.5 μm thick silicon oxide film was formed on a cleaned blue plate glass by a sputtering method, Cr having a thickness of 50 A and a thickness of 6000 Å were formed by vacuum evaporation.
After Au is sequentially laminated, the photoresist (AZ137)
0, manufactured by Hoechst Co., Ltd.), spin-coated with a spinner and baked.
Then, the Au / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the lower wiring 72 having a desired shape (FIG. 18A).

Step-b Next, an interlayer insulating layer 141 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm is deposited by RF sputtering (FIG. 18).
(B)).

Step-c The contact hole 1 was formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step b.
A photoresist pattern for forming 42 is formed, and using this as a mask, the interlayer insulating layer 141 is etched to form a contact hole 142. Etching is CF ₄
And using the H ₂ gas RIE (Reactive Ion
Etching method (FIG. 18 (c)).

Step-d Thereafter, a pattern (RD-2000N-41 manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) is formed to form a gap G between the device electrode 5 and the device electrode, and a 50 Å thick Ti film is formed by vacuum evaporation. And a 1000 angstrom thick Ni layer. The photoresist pattern was dissolved with an organic solvent, and the Ni / Ti deposited film was lifted off to form device electrodes 5 and 6 having a device electrode interval G of 3 μm and a device electrode width of 300 μm (FIG. d)).

Step-e After forming a photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 73 on the device electrodes 5 and 6, Ti having a thickness of 50 angstroms and Au having a thickness of 5000 angstroms are sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation. Unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off, and upper wires 73 of a desired shape were formed (FIG. 19E).

Step-f A Cr film 151 having a thickness of 1000 angstroms is formed by using a mask having an electrode gap between elements and an opening in the vicinity thereof.
Was deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and an organic Pd solution (ccp4230, manufactured by Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated thereon with a spinner and heated and baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes (FIG. 19 (f)). . The conductive film 2 made of fine particles of Pd as the main element thus formed has a thickness of 100 Å and a sheet resistance of 5 Å.
× 10 ⁴ Ω / □. The fine particle film described here is, as described above, a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and as its fine structure, not only a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other. A film in a state (including an island shape) is referred to, and the particle size refers to a diameter of a fine particle whose particle shape can be recognized in the state.

Step-g The Cr film 151 and the baked conductive film 2 were etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern (FIG. 19 (g)).

Step-h A pattern was formed such that a resist was applied to portions other than the contact hole 142, and 50 angstrom thick Ti and 5000 angstrom thick Au were sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation. Unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to fill the contact holes 142.

By the above steps, lower wiring 72, interlayer insulating layer 141, upper wiring 73, element electrode 5,
6. The conductive film 2 and the like were formed (FIG. 19H).

Next, an example in which a display device is configured using the element substrate of the electron source prepared as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

As shown in FIG. 10, the electron source substrate 71 on which a number of elements are formed and arranged as described above is fixed on a rear plate 81, and a face plate 86 (glass substrate 83) is placed 5 mm above the substrate 71. Fluorescent film 84 on the inner surface of
And a metal back 85 are formed via a support frame 82, and a face plate 86 and a support frame 8 are formed.
2. A frit glass is applied to the joint of the rear plate 81, and the temperature is 400 ° C. to 50 ° C. in the air or in a nitrogen atmosphere.
It sealed by baking at 0 degreeC for 10 minutes or more. The fixing of the substrate 71 to the rear plate 81 was also performed using frit glass. In FIG. 10, reference numerals 72 and 73 denote wirings in the X and Y directions, respectively.

The fluorescent film 84 is composed of only a phosphor in the case of monochrome, but in the present embodiment, the phosphor has a stripe shape (FIG. 11A), a black stripe is formed first, and the gap is formed. The phosphors of the respective colors were applied to the portions to form a phosphor film 84. As the material for the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is generally used, was used.
In addition, a slurry method was used as a method of applying the phosphor on the glass substrate 83.

A metal back 85 is usually provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84. The metal back was manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film after the fluorescent film was manufactured, and then vacuum-depositing Al.

The face plate 86 is further provided with a fluorescent film 8.
In some cases, a transparent electrode (not shown) is provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to increase the conductivity of the phosphor film 4. However, in the present embodiment, a sufficient conductivity is obtained only with the metal back, so that the description is omitted. did.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of color, since the phosphors of each color must correspond to the element, sufficient alignment is performed.

The atmosphere in the glass container completed as described above was evacuated to 1 × 10 ^-6 torr by a vacuum pump not using oil through an exhaust pipe (not shown).

Thereafter, a voltage is applied between the electrodes 5 and 6 of the device shown in FIG. 17 through the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, and the conductive film is subjected to an energizing treatment (formation).
The conductive film 4 including the electron-emitting portion was formed by performing a ming process.

FIG. 2B shows the voltage waveform of the forming process.
Shown in

The electron-emitting portion thus formed was in a state in which fine particles containing palladium as a main component were dispersed and arranged, and the fine particles had an average particle diameter of 30 angstroms.

Next, acetone was placed in a glass container at 1 × 10
^-3 torr, and terminals Dox1 to Doxm and D
A voltage was applied between the electrodes of the electron-emitting device 74 through oy1 to Doyn, and activation was performed under the same conditions as in Reference Example 1. Thereafter, the acetone was exhausted to produce an electron source.

Next, at a degree of vacuum of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ torr,
After baking at 120 ° C. for 10 hours, an exhaust pipe (not shown) was welded by heating with a gas burner to seal the envelope.

Finally, in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing,
Getter processing was performed. In this method, a getter disposed at a predetermined position (not shown) in the image forming apparatus was heated by a heating method such as high-frequency heating or the like just before sealing to form a deposited film. The getter was mainly composed of Ba or the like.

In the image display device of this embodiment completed as described above, each of the electron-emitting devices is provided with an outer terminal Dox.
1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, respectively, apply a scanning signal and a modulation signal from a signal generation unit (not shown) to emit electrons.
An image was displayed by applying a high voltage of several kV or more to the metal back 85, accelerating the electron beam, colliding with the fluorescent film 84, exciting and emitting light.

Embodiment 3 FIG. 20 shows a display panel using the above-described surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron source, for example, images provided from various image information sources such as television broadcasting. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display device configured to display information.

In FIG. 20, reference numeral 200 denotes a display panel;
201 is a display panel driving circuit, 202 is a display controller, 203 is a multiplexer, 204
Is a decoder, 205 is an input / output interface circuit, 2
06 is a CPU, 207 is an image generation circuit, and 208 and 2
09 and 210 are image memory interface circuits, 211 is an image input interface circuit, 212 and 213 are TV signal receiving circuits, and 214 is an input unit. When the present display device receives a signal including both video information and audio information, such as a television signal, it naturally reproduces audio simultaneously with the display of video. A description of circuits, speakers, and the like related to reception, separation, reproduction, processing, storage, and the like of audio information that is not directly related to features will be omitted.

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

First, the TV signal receiving circuit 213 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wireless transmission system such as radio waves or spatial optical communication.

[0214] The format of the received TV signal is not particularly limited. For example, the NTSC system, the PAL system,
Various systems such as the SECAM system may be used. Also, a TV signal (for example, MUSE) composed of more scanning lines than these.
A so-called high-definition TV including a system is a signal source suitable for taking advantage of the display panel suitable for a large area and a large number of pixels.

[0215] The TV signal received by the TV signal receiving circuit 213
The signal is output to the decoder 204.

The TV signal receiving circuit 212 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wired transmission system such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber. Similarly to the above, the format of the received TV signal is not particularly limited, and the TV signal received by the present circuit is also output to the decoder 204.

Further, the image input interface circuit 21
Reference numeral 1 denotes a circuit for capturing an image signal supplied from an image input device such as a TV camera or an image reading scanner. The captured image signal is output to the decoder 204.

The image memory interface circuit 210 is a circuit for taking in an image signal stored in a video tape recorder (hereinafter abbreviated as VTR). The taken image signal is output to the decoder 204.

An image memory interface circuit 209 is a circuit for taking in an image signal stored in a video disk, and the taken-in image signal is output to the decoder 204.

The image memory interface circuit 208 is a circuit for taking in an image signal from a device storing still image data, such as a so-called still image disk.
Is input to

The input / output interface circuit 205
Is a circuit for connecting the display device to an external computer or a computer network or an output device such as a printer, and performs not only input / output of image data and character / graphic information, but also in some cases. It is also possible to input and output control signals and numerical data between the CPU 206 provided in the display device and the outside.

The image generation circuit 207 receives image data and character / graphic information input from the outside via the input / output interface circuit 205 or the CPU 2.
This is a circuit for generating display image data based on the image data and character / graphic information output from the controller 06. Within this circuit, for example, a rewritable memory for storing image data and character / graphic information, a read-only memory for storing image patterns corresponding to character codes, and a processor for performing image processing And other necessary circuits for generating an image.

The display image data generated by this circuit is output to the decoder 204, but may be output to an external computer network or printer via the input / output interface circuit 205 in some cases.

The CPU 206 mainly controls the operation of the display device and performs operations related to generation, selection, and editing of a display image. Select and combine signals as appropriate.

At this time, a control signal is generated for the display panel controller 202 in accordance with the image signal to be displayed, and the screen display frequency and the scanning method (for example, interface or non-interface) are selected. ) And the number of scanning lines on one screen, and the like, and the operation of the display device is appropriately controlled.

Further, image data and character / graphic information are directly output to the image generation circuit 207, or an external computer or memory is accessed via the input / output interface circuit 205 to access the image data or character / graphic information. Enter graphic information.

The CPU 206 may, of course, be involved in work for other purposes, such as a personal computer or a word processor.
It may be directly related to the function of generating and processing information.
Alternatively, as described above, the computer may be connected to an external computer network via the input / output interface circuit 205 to perform operations such as numerical calculations in cooperation with external devices.

The input unit 214 is provided with the CPU 206.
The user inputs commands, programs, data, etc., for example, in addition to a keyboard and a mouse, a joystick, a bar code reader, a voice recognition device, etc. It is possible to use an input device.

The decoder 204 is a circuit for inversely converting various image signals input from the above 207 to 213 into three primary color signals or a luminance signal, an I signal, and a Q signal. As shown by the dotted line in FIG.
4 preferably has an image memory therein, for example, in order to handle a television signal that requires an image memory at the time of inverse conversion such as the MUSE method.

Further, the provision of the image memory facilitates the display of a still image, or the image generation circuit 2
07 and the CPU 206 in conjunction with image thinning, interpolation,
This is because there is an advantage that image processing and editing including enlargement, reduction, and composition can be easily performed.

The multiplexer 203 is connected to the CP
A display image is appropriately selected based on a control signal input from U206. That is, the multiplexer 203
Selects a desired image signal from the inversely converted image signals input from the decoder 204 and selects a driving circuit 201
Output to In that case, by switching and selecting an image signal within one screen display time, it is possible to divide one screen into a plurality of areas and display different images depending on the areas, as in a so-called multi-screen television. .

Also, the display panel controller 2
Reference numeral 02 denotes a circuit for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 201 based on a control signal input from the CPU 206. First, a signal for controlling the operation sequence of a drive power supply (not shown) for the display panel is output to the drive circuit 201 as one related to the basic operation of the display panel.

[0233] As for the driving method of the display panel, for example, the screen display frequency and the scanning method (for example, interlace or non-interlace) are used.
Is output to the drive circuit 201.

In some cases, a control signal relating to image quality adjustment such as brightness, contrast, color tone, and sharpness of a displayed image may be output to the drive circuit 201.

The drive circuit 201 is a circuit for generating a drive signal to be applied to the display panel 200. The drive circuit 201 controls the image signal input from the multiplexer 203 and the control signal input from the display panel controller 202. It operates based on a signal.

The function of each unit has been described above. With the configuration illustrated in FIG. 20, in the present display device, image information input from various image information sources can be displayed on the display panel 200.

That is, various image signals such as television broadcasts are inversely converted by the decoder 204, selected appropriately by the multiplexer 203, and input to the drive circuit 201. On the other hand, the display controller 202 controls the driving circuit 20 in accordance with an image signal to be displayed.
1 to generate a control signal for controlling the operation.

The driving circuit 201 applies a driving signal to the display panel 200 based on the image signal and the control signal. Thereby, an image is displayed on the display panel 200.

A series of these operations are controlled by the CPU 206 as a whole.

In the present display device, the deco
In addition to displaying the image memory and image generation circuit 207 built in the printer 204 and the information selected from the information, the image information to be displayed can be enlarged, reduced, rotated,
It is also possible to perform image processing such as movement, edge enhancement, thinning, interpolation, color conversion, image aspect ratio conversion, and image editing such as synthesis, deletion, connection, replacement, and insertion.

Although not particularly described in the description of this embodiment, a dedicated circuit for processing and editing audio information may be provided as in the above-described image processing and image editing.

Therefore, the present display device is a television broadcast display device, a video conference terminal device, an image editing device that handles still images and moving images, a computer terminal device, and a computer.
It can have the functions of office terminal equipment, game machines, etc. including a single processor, and has a very wide range of applications for industrial or consumer use.

FIG. 20 shows only an example of the configuration of a display device using a display panel using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron source, and it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this. No. For example, among the components in FIG. 20, circuits relating to functions that are not necessary for the intended use may be omitted. On the contrary, depending on the purpose of use, components may be further added depending on the purpose of use.

For example, when the present display device is applied as a video telephone, it is preferable to add a transmission / reception circuit including a television camera, an audio microphone, a lighting device, and a modem to the components.

In the present display device, in particular, it is easy to make the display panel thin using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron source, so that the depth of the display device can be reduced.

In addition, a display panel using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron source is easy to enlarge the screen, has high luminance, and has excellent viewing angle characteristics. Therefore, the present display device is full of a sense of reality and powerful. Images can be displayed with good visibility.

[0247]

As described above, according to the present invention,
An electron-emitting device having a simple manufacturing process and high efficiency can be provided, and can be applied to a large-area substrate having a large number of devices. Further, a high-quality image forming apparatus having good gradation can be provided. effective.

That is, an organic material, which is more easily adsorbed and desorbed than oil, is introduced into a vacuum apparatus in a vacuum atmosphere having a very low oil pressure rather than activated in an oil atmosphere having a low vapor pressure. After that, by exhausting the organic material, an electron-emitting device having a carbon compound (or carbon) in the electron-emitting portion can be formed quickly and easily.
This is effective in terms of durability of the electron-emitting device.

In addition, there is an effect that an element having excellent operation stability such that the pulse width dependency does not easily occur can be obtained.

In particular, even in a display panel in which elements are held in a narrow space (for example, a space between glass substrates), an appropriate amount of organic material used for activation can be introduced into the panel. effective. In addition, since the device is easily removed after being introduced once, the device after activation is excellent in operation stability such that the pulse width dependency does not easily occur, and an element suitable for gradation display can be obtained.

As described above, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus such as an image display apparatus having a plurality of elements, which is excellent in durability, has high operation stability, and is suitable for gradation display.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an applied voltage waveform for energization forming and activation according to the manufacturing method of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of an apparatus for measuring and evaluating a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of an apparatus for measuring and evaluating a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of an activation processing time dependence of an element current If and an emission current Ie of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a basic characteristic diagram of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic plan view (a) and a cross-sectional view (b) of a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic sectional view showing another embodiment of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an electron source in a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram of a display panel of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 11 illustrates a fluorescent film used for a display panel.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a drive circuit showing an example in which an image forming apparatus performs drive display in accordance with an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 13 is a view showing an electron source in a ladder arrangement.

FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram illustrating another mode of the display panel of the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing an applied voltage waveform for activation in the example.

FIG. 16 is a plan view of an electron source in the embodiment.

FIG. 17 is a partial cross-sectional view of the electron source in the embodiment.

FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the method of manufacturing the electron source in the example.

FIG. 19 is a cross-sectional view for explaining the method of manufacturing the electron source in the example.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an image forming apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 21 is a schematic plan view showing a conventional electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1,221 substrate 2,3,222 device electrode 4,224 conductive film 5,223 electron emission section 11,13 power supply 10,12 ammeter 14 anode electrode 15 vacuum device 16,23 exhaust pump 21 needle valve 22 carbon compound Material source 24 Valve 25 Dry pump 31 Step forming part 71,110 Electron source substrate 72 X direction wiring 73 Y direction wiring 74,111 Electron emission device 75 Connection 81 Rear plate 82 Support frame 83 Glass substrate 84 Fluorescent film 85 Metal back 86 Fe -Splate 87 High voltage terminal 88 Envelope 91 Black conductive material 92 Phosphor 101 Display panel 102 Scanning circuit 103 Control circuit 104 Shift register 105 Line memory 106 Synchronous signal separation circuit 107 Modulation signal generator 112 Common wiring 120 Modulation (grid) ) Electrode 121 Vessel terminals 141 interlayer insulating layer 142 contact holes of vessel terminals 123 modulation electrode child apertures 122 element wiring - Le

────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-1-309242 (JP, A) JP-A-7-235255 (JP, A) BLESSING et al. , "THE ELECTROFOR MING PROCESS IN MIM DIODES", Thin Solid Films, 1981, No. 83, p.p. 119-128 M.P. BISCHOFF, "Carbon-nanoslit model for the electroforming process in MI-M structures", INT. J. ELECTRONICS, 1991, Vol. 70, No. 3, pp. 491-498 (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 9/02

Claims (8)

(57) [Claims] 1. A method for manufacturing an electron source including a plurality of electron-emitting devices having a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion between opposing electrodes, wherein the conductive film including an electron-emitting portion is formed between the electrodes. The electrodes in an atmosphere of a carbon compound
A first step of depositing carbon or a carbon compound by applying a voltage therebetween, and the first step of depositing the carbon or carbon compound is performed in such a manner that the vapor pressure under the temperature atmosphere in the step is 5000 hPa The first step is carried out using a carbon compound that is
Method of manufacturing an electron source, characterized in that it comprises a second step you exhaust carbon compound. 2. The method for manufacturing an electron source according to claim 1, wherein the carbon compound is a carbon compound having a vapor pressure at 20 ° C. of 5000 hPa or less. Wherein the carbon compound, method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 1 vapor pressure at an ambient temperature in the step of depositing the carbon or carbon compound is a carbon compound of 0.2HPa～5000hPa. Wherein said carbon compound, method of manufacturing an electron source according to claim 3 is a vapor pressure of carbon compounds 0.2hPa~5000hPa at 20 ° C.. Atmosphere wherein said carbon compound, partial pressure of the carbon compound is a Pr0 × 10 ^-8 or more atmosphere (however,
Pr0 the method of manufacturing an electron source according to a vapor pressure of) claim 1 of the carbon compound. 6. A plurality of rows of electron-emitting devices in which both ends of each of the plurality of electron-emitting devices are connected by wiring, and modulation means for modulating an electron beam emitted from the electron-emitting device. in the method <br/> an electron source for emitting electrons in response to an input signal, electrons wherein the electron source is characterized and Turkey produced by the production method according to any one of claims 1 to 5 Source made
Construction method . 7. A plurality of electron emitting elements connected and arranged to m X-directional wirings and n Y-directional wirings electrically insulated from each other, and emit electrons according to an input signal. the manufacturing method of the electron source, method of manufacturing an electron source characterized by a manufactured benzalkonium the electron source in the manufacturing method according to any one of claims 1-5. 8. A method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus having an electron source and an image forming member for forming an image based on an input signal, wherein the electron source is any one of claims 1 to 7 . manufactured according to
The image forming apparatus characterized by being manufactured by granulation process
Manufacturing method .