JP3320215B2 - Electron emitting element, electron source and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron source and an image forming apparatus such as a display device as an application thereof, and more particularly to a surface conduction electron-emitting device having a novel structure, an electron source and a display device as an application thereof. And the like.

[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 source includes 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 (hereinafter abbreviated as SCE).

[0003] Examples of the FE type include WP Dyke &
WW Dolan, "Fielddemissio
n ", Advance in Electron Ph
ysics, Vol. 8, p. 89 (1956) and C.
A. Spindt, "Physical property
ties of thin-film field e
mission cathodes with mol
ybdenum cones ", J. Appl. Phys.
, 47, 5248 (1976) and the like.

[0004] Examples of the MIM type include CA Mea.
d, "The tunnel-emission am
plier ", J. Appl. Phys., No. 32
Vol., P. 646 (1961) and the like.

As an example of the SCE type, MI Elin
son, "Radio Eng. Electron P
ys. ", 10, (1965), etc. The SCE type utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission occurs when a current flows through a small-area thin film formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface. There are thin film materials used here, such as SnO ₂ thin film and Au thin film [G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid F” by MI Elinson and the like.
ilms ", Volume 9, 317 (1972)], I
n ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell an
d C. G. Fonstad: "IEEE Trans.
ED Conf. ", 519 (1975)], carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1, 2,
2 (1983)].

As a typical example of these SCEs, FIG. 15 shows the device configuration of the aforementioned M. Hartwell. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an insulating substrate. Reference numeral 2 denotes a thin film for forming an electron-emitting portion, which is formed of a metal oxide thin film or the like formed by sputtering in an H-shaped pattern. The electron-emitting portion 3 is formed by an energization process called forming, which will be described later. Incidentally, L ₁ in the figure 0.5 to 1 mm, W ₁ is set to 0.1 mm.

[0007] Forming means applying a DC voltage or a very slowly increasing voltage, for example, about 1 V / minute, to both ends of the thin film 2 for forming an electron emitting portion and energizing the thin film 2 for forming an electron emitting portion locally. To form the electron-emitting portion 3 which is destructed, deformed or deteriorated, and is in an electrically high-resistance state.

Therefore, the electron-emitting portion 3 refers to a portion where a crack is generated in a part of the thin film 2 for forming an electron-emitting portion and an electron can be emitted from the vicinity of the crack. Hereinafter, an electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 including an electron emitting portion 3 formed by forming.
Is called a thin film 4 including an electron-emitting portion.

The SCE subjected to the forming process is
A voltage is applied to the thin film 4 including the above-mentioned electron-emitting portion, and a current is caused to flow through the element, whereby electrons are emitted from the above-mentioned electron-emitting portion 3. Such an SCE has an advantage that a large number of elements can be arrayed over a large area since the structure is simple and the manufacture is easy. As an example in which such a large number of SCEs are arranged and formed, there is an electron source in which SCEs are arranged in parallel, and rows in which both ends of each element are connected by wiring are arranged in many rows (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 1-031332). Gazette).

As a specific application of such an electron source in which a large number of SCEs are arranged, there is a display device.
Here, a trend regarding the display device will be described. In recent years, although a flat panel display device using a liquid crystal has become widespread instead of a CRT, it is not a self-luminous type, and therefore it is necessary to have a backlight or the like. Therefore, development of a self-luminous display device capable of obtaining a high-quality display image has been desired.

In response to such a demand, an image forming apparatus, which is a display device using an electron source having a large number of SCEs as described above and a phosphor that emits visible light by electrons emitted from the electron source, has been proposed. It can be said that a self-luminous display device which can be manufactured relatively easily even with a large screen device and has excellent display quality (for example, US Pat. No. 5,066,883).

Conventionally, in a display device composed of a large number of SCEs, an element that emits light is selected by a wiring (referred to as a row-direction wiring) in which a large number of the SCEs are connected in one direction, and a row wiring. And a control electrode (referred to as a grid) disposed in a space between the SCE and the phosphor disposed in a non-contact manner on the SCE and a column direction wiring connected in a direction (referred to as a column direction) orthogonal to the above. Such a driving signal is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-283749.

[0013]

In putting SCE to practical use, it is needless to say that stable and controlled electron emission characteristics and improvement of its efficiency are required. Here, the efficiency refers to a current flowing when a voltage is applied to a pair of opposing element electrodes of the SCE (hereinafter referred to as an element current _If ).
And the current ratio of the current emitted into a vacuum (hereinafter referred to as the electron emission current _Ie ). That is, it is desirable that the device current be as small as possible and the electron emission current be as large as possible.

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

In order to produce an SCE having stable and efficient electron emission characteristics, it is necessary that the device current _If and the electron emission current _Ie during driving be stable. The properties depend on the structure of the electron-emitting portion, and in particular, electrical resistance is required so that the structure does not change due to device current.

In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a novel structure and manufacturing method of an SCE having excellent electrical resistance during driving and, as a result, excellent stability and electron emission efficiency, and an electron source and an image forming apparatus using the same. Is provided.

[0017]

That is, the present invention relates to a surface conduction electron-emitting device comprising a pair of opposing device electrodes formed on a substrate and a thin film having an electron-emitting portion. An electron-emitting device wherein the thin film contains conductive fine particles and graphite and / or amorphous carbon.

Further, according to the present invention, a pair of opposing element electrodes formed on a substrate , conductive fine particles and graphite or the like are provided.
With others including / and amorphous carbon, a method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device comprising a thin film having an electron emitting portion, provided at least a step of forming a pair of device electrodes, an electron emitting portion thin film Forming, and forming step of forming an electron-emitting portion in the thin film
Forming a thin film provided with the electron emission portion
However, by firing the polymer compound, amorphous
It includes a process of carbonizing or graphitizing.
This is a method for manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

Further, the present invention is an electron source which emits electrons in response to an input signal, wherein the electron source comprises a plurality of the above-mentioned electron-emitting devices arranged on a substrate. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for forming an image based on an input signal, comprising at least an image forming member and the above-mentioned electron source.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail. The electron-emitting device of the present invention is a surface conduction electron-emitting device including a pair of opposing device electrodes formed on a substrate and a thin film having an electron-emitting portion, wherein the thin film having the electron-emitting portion is
An electron-emitting device comprising conductive fine particles and graphite or amorphous carbon or a mixture thereof.

Further, the method for producing the electron-emitting device is a method for producing an electron-emitting device comprising at least a step of forming a thin film on which an electron-emitting portion is provided, a step of forming a pair of element electrodes, and a forming step. The step of forming a thin film provided with the electron-emitting portion includes forming a thin film made of a polymer compound in which a metal, a metal oxide, or an organometallic compound is dispersed, and then forming the thin film at 600 to 3000 ° C.
It is baked for about a minute to three hours.

An electron source which emits electrons in response to an input signal is characterized in that a plurality of the above-mentioned electron-emitting devices are arranged on a substrate. The devices are arranged in parallel, and a plurality of electron-emitting device groups in which both ends of each device are connected to wiring are provided.
An arrangement method having a modulation means for each element, or a plurality of X-direction wirings electrically insulated from each other on a base;
A plurality of Y-direction wirings installed in a direction intersecting with these are installed, an electron-emitting device is arranged at each intersection of each X-direction wiring and each Y-direction wiring, and one of a pair of element electrodes of each element is connected. An electron source is connected to the X-direction wiring and the other is connected to the Y-direction wiring.

An image forming apparatus for forming an image based on an input signal is characterized by comprising at least an image forming member made of a phosphor or the like and the electron source. Device.

Next, a basic configuration of the SCE according to the present invention and a method for producing the SCE will be described. FIG. 1 (a),
(B) is the top view and sectional drawing which show the structure of the basic SCE which concerns on this invention, respectively. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a method of manufacturing the SCE.

Hereinafter, the basic structure of an electron-emitting device according to the present invention and a method of manufacturing the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, 1 is an insulating substrate, 2 is a thin film for forming an electron emitting portion, 3 is an electron emitting portion, 4 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion, and 5 and 6 are device electrodes.

As the insulating substrate 1, quartz glass, Na
Glass having a reduced impurity content such as glass, blue plate glass, a glass substrate laminated with SiO ₂ formed by a sputtering method or the like on blue plate glass, and ceramics such as alumina. In the element making process, a heat treatment at 600 to 3000 ° C. is required, so that a substrate material having excellent heat resistance must be used. From such a viewpoint, it is particularly preferable to use quartz, silicon, alumina or the like.

After sufficiently washing the substrate 1 with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, a thin film 2 for forming an electron-emitting portion is formed on the substrate 1 (see FIG. 2A). For example, Pd, Ru, A
g, Au, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, S
After forming a thin film made of a polymer compound in which metals such as n, Ta, W, and Pb are mixed, the thin film is fired at 600 ° C. or more, and the above metal or its oxide and amorphous carbon or graphite or a mixture thereof are mixed. And forming a thin film containing the same. If necessary, the thin film is patterned by using the photolithography technique to form the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film 2.

Pd, Ru, Ag, Au, T
i, In, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, Ta, W,
Metal such as Pb, PdO, SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , Pb
Amorphous carbon or graphite containing a metal oxide such as O or Sb ₂ O ₃ or a mixture thereof. The above metal or metal oxide may be in the form of fine particles. That is, the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film 2 is made of amorphous carbon or graphite containing the above-mentioned fine-particle metal or metal oxide. The particle size of such fine particles is several to several thousand, preferably 10 to 200. Among these metals or metal oxides, in particular, P
Use of d or PdO ₂ is preferable from the viewpoint of electron emission characteristics.

The amorphous carbon or graphite used here is a polymer compound of 600-300.
It is obtained by firing at 0 ° C. Therefore, first,
A mixture of the above-mentioned metal or metal oxide and a polymer compound is deposited on the substrate 1 in advance. The deposition method is
Conventional methods such as a spin coating method, a dip method, and a printing method, as well as a Langmuir-Blodgett (hereinafter, referred to as LB) method may be used, and the present invention is not limited to the method. In particular, the use of the LB method is preferred in terms of excellent film uniformity. Details of the LB method will be described later.

Next, the film is heated at the above-mentioned temperature (600 to 300).
By firing at 0 ° C.), the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film 2 made of amorphous carbon, graphite, or a mixture thereof containing the fine-particle metal or metal oxide of the present invention can be formed. In this case, as a material to be mixed with the polymer compound, an organic metal compound (complex) containing the above-mentioned metal can be used in addition to the above-mentioned metal alone or oxide. This is because the organic sites contained in the organometallic compound are desorbed and sublimated during the firing step, so that the metal or metal oxide (when fired in an oxygen atmosphere, the metal is oxidized to form a metal oxide. Is sometimes left). Hereinafter, a high molecular compound obtained by mixing a simple metal, a metal oxide, or an organic metal compound is referred to as a high molecular compound containing a metal.

It is needless to say that it is important to form the electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 as uniformly as possible in terms of device characteristics. That is, it is important that the metals (simple metal or metal oxide) and the amorphous carbon or graphite do not take an extremely agglomerated state (macrophase separation), but are uniformly dispersed. In order to achieve such a requirement, in a metal compound containing a metal, it is desirable that a specific substituent (carboxyl group, hydroxyl group, amino group, ester group, etc.) in the polymer compound be coordinated to the metal. . However, it is not good that a crosslinking reaction occurs.

Further, the polymer compound melts during the firing step,
Needless to say, it is desirable not to desorb or sublime, and in particular from the viewpoint of the latter, specifically, for example, use of polyimide is particularly preferable.

However, since the polyimide material is generally insoluble in an organic solvent, it is difficult to form a film directly on a substrate. Therefore, usually, a polyimide film is obtained by forming a film of the corresponding precursor polyamic acid and then dehydrating and cyclizing (imidizing) chemically or thermally. As a method for obtaining a polyimide film having a metal or metal oxide dispersed therein usable in the present invention, a desired metal or organometallic compound is mixed with polyamic acid, and the mixture is formed on a desired substrate. And then imidizing.

However, such methods are often not practically available. The reason is that when the above-mentioned metals are mixed with the polyamic acid, the coordination force of the carboxyl group in the polyamic acid to the metal is strong, so a cross-linking reaction occurs between the molecules and between the molecules, resulting in gelation. It is. It has to be said that it is extremely difficult to form a film of a polymer compound once gelled. The present inventors have reported a method of overcoming the above problems and uniformly forming a film in which a metal, particularly palladium and / or palladium oxide, is dispersed in polyimide. (August 11, 1994 Japanese Patent Application No. 2742007, Name of Invention:
Method for forming low-resistance polyimide film containing metal and / or metal oxide, and liquid crystal device using this polyimide film as liquid crystal alignment film, applicant Canon Inc.) The method described here can be used in the present invention. .

Of course, without being limited to these,
Here, when the content is touched, using a polyamic acid ester as a precursor of the intended polyimide, a mixture of the polyamic acid ester and a metal palladium or organic palladium compound, preferably between palladium and the ester site of the polyamic acid ester This is achieved by depositing a material comprising a complex compound having weak interaction on a substrate, and subsequently chemically and / or thermally imidizing the polyamic acid ester. The structure of the polyamic acid ester is represented by the following formula (1).

[0036]

Embedded image

(In the formula (1), R ₃ is an alkyl group having 1 or more carbon atoms, and hydrogen-substituted R ₃ is a polyamic acid. Therefore, R ₁ and R ₂ are conventionally known. Of course, those having the same structure as the above polyamic acid can be used, and other than these may be used.

Specific examples of R ₁ and R ₂ are shown in the following Chemical Formula 2.

[0039]

Embedded image

Incidentally, a copolymer composed of two or more polyamic acid esters may be used. Polyamic acid ester can be easily synthesized by a conventionally known method,
For example, it can be obtained by reacting the corresponding polyamic acid as a starting material with an alcohol or alkoxide having a desired alkyl group (in this case, R ₃ ).

The upper limit of the number of carbon atoms of R ₃ is not particularly limited. However, since it is necessary to eliminate at the time of imidization, extremely large ones are not preferable. More preferably, it is 1 or more and 22 or less. The polyamic acid ester is usually soluble in polar solvents such as N, N-dimethylacetamide (hereinafter referred to as DMAc), 2-N-methylpyrrolidone (hereinafter referred to as NMP), γ-butyllactone, or a mixed solvent containing these. It is soluble.

Next, metallic palladium or an organic palladium compound is mixed with the polyamic acid ester solution dissolved in the above-mentioned solvent to prepare a mixture (hereinafter, referred to as a polyamic acid ester-Pd mixture) solution. Here, it is preferable to use an organic palladium compound rather than metal palladium because it is relatively easily dissolved in an organic solvent.
As described above, the structure of the organic palladium compound is particularly preferably a compound capable of forming a weak complex with the ester portion of the polyamic acid ester.

That is, a preferred organopalladium compound has two ligands, or has four ligands, at least two of which are easily removable. . Specific structural examples are represented by general formulas (2) to (4).
Shown in

[0044]

Embedded image Pd ²⁺ [R ₄ COO ⁻ ] ₂ (2) Pd [R ₅ R ₆ R ₇ N] ₂ (3) Pd ²⁺ [R ₄ COO ⁻ ] ₂ [R ₅ R ₆ R ₇ N] ₂ (4)

In the formulas (2) to (4), R ₄ , R ₅ , R ₆ ,
R ₇ represents a hydrocarbon chain having 1 to 30 carbon atoms.
Examples of the hydrocarbon chain include a methyl group, a decyl group, and an octadecyl group. Of these, R ₄ may be hydrogen. As for R ₅ , R ₆ and R ₇ , one or two of them may be hydrogen. That is, the alkylamine coordinated to palladium is primary, secondary, tertiary or tertiary.
Any class of amine may be used. Further, the above R ₄ , R ₅ , R
_6, a portion or all of the hydrogen constituting the R ₇ may be substituted with fluorine.

The polyamic acid ester-Pd complex prepared as described above is deposited on a desired substrate by an appropriate method to obtain a polyamic acid ester-Pd complex film. Here, since the polyamic acid ester-Pd complex is not gelled, the method of depositing it on a substrate includes a spin coating method, a dip method, and a Langmuir-
Conventionally known various thin film deposition methods such as a blow jet (hereinafter abbreviated as LB) method can be used. Of these, the simplest method is the spin coating method or the dipping method, but it is not always easy to form a uniform film over a wide area on the substrate. In addition, the controllability of the film thickness is not very good. On the other hand, according to the LB method, a uniform film can be obtained relatively easily with good reproducibility.

Hereinafter, the chemical structure of a material that can be used when a polyamic acid ester-Pd complex film is deposited on a substrate by the LB method will be described. It is important that the polyamic acid ester-Pd complex suitable for use in the LB method is balanced in hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity so that a monomolecular film is formed when the complex is developed on the water surface. An alkyl chain having 8 to 30 carbon atoms, more preferably 10 to 22 carbon atoms, is added in an amount of 0.5 to 0.5 per monomer unit.
It is desirable to have the above ratio.

As an example of such a polyamic acid ester-Pd, with respect to the structure of the polyamic acid ester portion (general formula (1)), for example, R ₃ having 8 to 30 carbon atoms, more preferably It has 10 to 22 carbon atoms.

In this case, the structure of the organic palladium compound to be mixed with the polyamic acid ester is not particularly limited. For example, when a compound represented by the formulas (2) to (4) is used, R _{4, R 5, R 6,} R 7
Need not be so large, and the formula (5),
(6) can be used.

[0050]

Embedded image Pd ²⁺ [CH ₃ COO ⁻ ] ₂ (5) Pd ²⁺ [CH ₃ COO ⁻ ] ₂ [(C ₃ H ₇ ) ₂ NCH ₃ ] ₂ (6)

Conversely, even if the number of carbon atoms of R ₃ in the polyamic acid ester is small, for example, it is 1, the organic palladium compound to be mixed with R ₃ has 8 to 30 carbon atoms, preferably 10 to 22 carbon atoms. If it has one or more alkyl groups, a monomolecular film of the polyamic acid ester-Pd complex can be formed. Fewer carbon numbers are acceptable. Accordingly, as the organic palladium compound usable in this case, for example, the following formulas (7) to (7)
It is like (9).

[0052]

Embedded image Pd [(C ₁₀ H ₂₁ ) ₂ NH] ₂ (7) Pd [(C ₁₈ H ₃₇ ) ₂ NH] ₂ (8) Pd ²⁺ [C ₁₇ H ₃₅ COO ⁻ ] ₂ (9)

The materials described above are not limited to the LB method, and may be used in other thin film forming methods, that is, a spin coating method or a dip method. Of course L
When a film formation method other than the method B is used, it goes without saying that a polyamic acid ester-Pd complex having an alkyl group having a smaller number of carbon atoms can be used in addition to the above-described materials.

After the polyamic acid-Pd complex is deposited on the substrate by any of the above-described methods, imidization is performed. Examples of the imidation method include a method in which a sample is immersed in a solution containing pyridine and acetic anhydride (hereinafter referred to as an imidization solution) and chemically performed, and a method in which the sample is thermally performed.
In the former case, the palladium or organic palladium compound may be redissolved in the imidization solution, so the latter method is preferred.

By the imidation treatment, the R ₃ O— group of the polyamic acid ester is eliminated and imide cyclization is performed, so that a polyimide represented by the following formula (10) is formed.

[0056]

Embedded image

When the imidization is carried out by heat treatment, the treatment temperature is generally from 250 ° C. to 400 ° C., although it depends somewhat on the structure of the polyamic acid ester used. When such a heat treatment is performed on the polyamic acid ester-Pd complex described above, particularly when the polyamic acid ester-Pd complex contains an organic palladium compound, the ligand in the organic palladium compound is eliminated and palladium remains. .

At this time, if the heating temperature is 300 ° C. or more and oxygen is present, palladium is oxidized to form palladium oxide. In this way, a polyimide film containing palladium and / or palladium oxide that can be used in the present invention is formed. Here, the polyimide and the palladium are not coordinated, but the palladium and / or palladium oxide is uniformly dispersed in the polyimide. Prior to the imidization step, the film may be heated at a low temperature (for example, 150 ° C.) or left under reduced pressure for the purpose of removing a solvent contained in the film.

The above is a description of a specific example in which palladium is dispersed in polyimide. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and other metals and polymer compounds such as polymethacrylic acids and polyesters may be used. Good.

In any case, after a layer made of a polymer compound containing a metal is deposited on the substrate 1, the polymer compound is converted into an amorphous carbon or a graphite.
Subsequently, a firing step is performed. In such a firing step,
At least a part, preferably all, of the polymer compound may be carbonized, and the calcination temperature is 600 to 3000.
° C. As can be easily predicted, in the above firing temperature range, amorphous carbon is obtained at low temperature,
The higher the temperature, the easier it is to graphitize. Specifically, 1
By firing at a high temperature of 800 ° C. or more, graphitization (crystallization) starts to occur.

In this case, the higher the temperature, the more graphite with few defects can be obtained.
When calcined, it is already almost completely graphitized,
It does not make much sense to fire at a temperature higher than this. In the present invention, graphite is not particularly necessary,
Therefore, it is needless to say that it is preferable to treat at a temperature as low as possible from the viewpoint that the restriction on the heat resistance of the member to be used (such as the substrate 1) can be relaxed from the viewpoint of device fabrication.

Further, depending on the type of metal used, if the treatment is performed at an excessively high temperature, there is a risk of evaporation, and it is needless to say that the treatment must be performed at a temperature lower than the evaporation temperature. From the above points, the firing temperature is preferably 1500 ° C. or lower, more preferably 1000 ° C. or lower.
However, if the temperature is lowered too much, amorphous carbon cannot be obtained.
The above firing is necessary.

The firing step is desirably performed under a condition in which oxygen is diluted, such as under a vacuum or a nitrogen atmosphere. In the case where polyimide is used as the polymer compound, it is conventionally known that amorphous carbon or graphite is formed by baking the polyimide (for example, a paper by B. Nysten et al. (Physical R).
view B, vol. 48, pages 12527-12538 (cf. 1993).

As described above, the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film 2 made of amorphous carbon, graphite, or a mixture thereof containing metal or metal oxide is formed on the substrate 1. The thickness of the thin film 2 for forming the electron-emitting portion is preferably from several to several thousand, more preferably 10 to 1,000.
The resistance is appropriately set depending on the resistance value between the electron-emitting portion 3 and the device electrodes 5 and 6, the particle size of the conductive fine particles of the electron-emitting portion 3, the energization processing conditions, and the like, which will be described later. The sheet resistance is 10 ³ to 10 ⁷ Ω / cm ² .

The electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 needs to be patterned as necessary, and this can be done by using a conventionally known photolithography technique, specifically, by an etching method or a lift-off method. Law is available. In the case of a lift-off method using a photoresist as a release layer,
Since the heat resistance of ordinary photoresist is not higher than the heating temperature required in the baking step of the present invention, the patterning is performed before the baking step, that is, at the time when a film made of a polymer material containing metal is deposited on the substrate 1. Need to be done. When the etching method is used, it may be performed before or after the firing step. In particular, when polyimide is used as the polymer material, patterning may be performed in the state of its precursor.

Subsequently, a part of the substrate 1
Are all deposited on the surface of the thin film 2 for forming the electron-emitting portion.
A pair of device electrodes 5 and 6 are formed as shown in FIG.
See). The material of the device electrodes 5 and 6 has conductivity
Anything can be used, but an example
For example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al,
Metals or alloys such as Cu and Pd, and Pd, Ag, Au,
RuO_Two Or glass and metal or metal oxide such as Pd-Ag
Printed conductor composed of_Two O_Three -SnO _Two Etc.
Transparent conductors and semiconductor conductor materials such as polysilicon
No.

The deposition method may be based on a conventionally known method, for example, a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method or the like. The above materials are deposited in a desired shape, or after the deposition, patterning is performed by a photolithography technique such as a lift-off method or an etching method so as to obtain a desired shape.
Is formed.

The element electrode interval L ₁ is several hundreds to several hundred μm, and is based on photolithography technology, which is the basis of the element electrode manufacturing method, that is, the performance and etching method of the exposure machine, and the voltage applied between the element electrodes. Is set by the electric field strength capable of emitting electrons, but is preferably from several μm to several tens μm.
It is. Further, the electrode length W ₁ and the film thickness d of the device electrodes 5 and 6 are set.
Is appropriately designed based on the resistance of the electrodes, the connection with the X and Y wirings described above, and the arrangement of a large number of electron sources. Usually, the element electrode length W ₁ is several μm to several hundred μm. Yes,
The film thickness d of the device electrodes 5 and 6 is from several hundred degrees to several μm.

In forming the device, the device electrodes 5 and 6 are first formed on the substrate 1 and then the thin film 2 for forming the electron emission portion is formed.
May be formed, but in this case, a baking step is performed after the device electrode is formed, so that the device electrode is required to have heat resistance.

Subsequently, an energization process called forming is performed. That is, when a pulse-like voltage or a rising voltage is applied between the element electrodes 5 and 6 by a power supply (not shown), the thin film 2 for forming an electron emission portion is locally broken, deformed or deteriorated.
Such a structure change portion is referred to as an electron emission portion 3 (see FIG. 2C). Further, the thin film 2 for forming an electron emitting portion after the electron emitting portion 3 is formed is referred to as a thin film 4 including an electron emitting portion.

The electron-emitting portion 3 preferably contains a large number of conductive fine particles having a particle size of several hundreds to several hundreds, particularly preferably 10 to 500 °. It depends on the manufacturing method such as the film thickness and the energization processing conditions described later, and is set as appropriate. The material forming the electron-emitting portion 3 is the same as a part or all of the elements of the material forming the thin film 4 including the electron-emitting portion.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the electron emitting portion is formed in a part between the opposing device electrodes 5 and 6, but depending on the manufacturing method, the entire portion between the opposing device electrodes 5 and 6 functions as an electron emitting portion. In some cases.

The above-described forming process and subsequent electrical processes are performed in the measurement and evaluation apparatus shown in FIG. The measurement evaluation device will be described below. FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement evaluation device for measuring the electron emission characteristics of the device having the configuration shown in FIG. In FIG. 3, 1 is a substrate, 5 and 6 are device electrodes, 4 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion, and 3 is an electron emitting portion. Reference _numeral 31 denotes a power supply for applying a device voltage _Vf to the device, reference numeral 30 denotes an ammeter for measuring a device current _If flowing through the thin film 4 including an electron emission portion between the device electrodes 5 and 6, and reference numeral 34 denotes an electron. An anode electrode for capturing the electron emission current _Ie emitted from the emission unit 3, 33 is a high-voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 34, and 32 is an ammeter for measuring the electron emission current _Ie. It is.

In measuring the device current _If and the electron emission current _Ie of the electron-emitting device, a power source 31 and an ammeter 30 are connected to the device electrodes 5 and 6, and a power source 33 is provided above the electron-emitting device. An anode electrode 34 connected to an ammeter 32 is arranged. The present electron-emitting device and the anode electrode 34 are installed in a vacuum device, and the vacuum device is provided with equipment necessary for a vacuum device such as an exhaust pump (not shown) and a vacuum gauge. The device can be measured and evaluated.

The exhaust pump is composed of a normal high vacuum system including a turbo pump and a rotary pump, and an ultrahigh vacuum system including an ion pump. The entire vacuum device and the electron-emitting device can be heated up to 200 ° C. by a heater (not shown). The voltage of the anode 34 was measured in the range of 1 to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode and the electron-emitting device was measured in the range of 2 to 8 mm.

The forming process is performed in a vacuum atmosphere of about 10 ^-5 torr. There are a case where a voltage pulse having a constant peak value is applied and a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the peak value. First, FIG. 4A shows a voltage waveform when a voltage pulse having a constant peak value is applied.

In FIG. 4 (a), T ₁ and T ₂ are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, and T ₁ is ₁ μsec to 10 μs.
msec, the T ₂ and 10μsec~100msec,
The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during forming) was appropriately selected. FIG. 4B shows a voltage waveform when a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the peak value.

In FIG. 4B, T ₁ and T ₂ are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, and T ₁ is ₁ μsec to 10 μs.
msec, the T ₂ and 10μsec~100msec,
The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage at the time of forming) was increased by, for example, 0.1 V.

The forming process is terminated when the electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 is locally broken during the pulse interval T ₂ .
The element current was measured at a voltage that was not deformed, for example, a voltage of about 0.1 V, and the resistance value was obtained. When the resistance showed, for example, 1 MΩ or more, the forming process was terminated. Will be the voltage at this time is referred to as a forming voltage V _F.

In the above-described forming processing, a triangular wave pulse is used. However, the pulse waveform is not limited to a triangular wave, and a waveform such as a rectangular wave may be used, and its peak value, pulse width, pulse interval, etc. Is not limited to the above value, and an appropriate value may be selected in accordance with the resistance value of the electron-emitting device and the like so that the electron-emitting portion is formed favorably.

The electron-emitting device thus produced is driven in a higher vacuum atmosphere. The vacuum atmosphere having a higher degree of vacuum means a vacuum atmosphere having a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁶ or more, and is more preferably an ultrahigh vacuum system.

The basic characteristics of the SCE according to the present invention created by the above-described element configuration and manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 5 shows a typical example of the relationship between the electron emission current _Ie and the device current _If measured by the measurement and evaluation device shown in FIG. 3, and the device voltage _Vf . In FIG. 5, since the electron emission current _Ie is significantly smaller than the device current _If , it is shown in arbitrary units.

As is clear from FIG. 5, the electron-emitting device has three characteristics with respect to the electron emission current _Ie . First of all, the device has a certain voltage (called the threshold voltage, FIG. 5).
When an element voltage equal to or higher than _Vth is applied, the electron emission current _Ie sharply increases. However, when the element voltage is equal to or lower than the threshold voltage _Vth , the electron emission current _Ie is hardly detected. That is, it is a non-linear element having a clear threshold voltage V _th with respect to the electron emission current I _e .

Second, the electron emission current _Ie is equal to the device voltage _Vf.
, The electron emission current _Ie can be controlled by the device voltage _Vf .

Thirdly, the amount of the emitted charges captured by the anode electrode 34 depends on the time during which the device voltage _Vf is applied. That is, the amount of charges captured by the anode electrode 34 can be controlled by the time during which the device voltage _Vf is applied.

On the other hand, the element current _If shows a characteristic (referred to as MI characteristic, solid line in FIG. 5) that monotonically increases with respect to the element voltage _Vf , and the voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (referred to as VCNR characteristic). 5 (dashed line in FIG. 5), the characteristics of such device current depend on the device creation method.

The basic configuration and manufacturing method of the SCE have been described above. However, the configuration is not limited to the above-described configuration and the like as long as it has the three characteristics relating to the above-described electron emission current _Ie. The present invention can be applied to an image forming apparatus such as an electron source and a display device.

Next, the electron source and the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described. According to the characteristics of the three basic characteristics of the SCE according to the present invention described above, the electrons emitted from the SCE cannot be supplied with the pulse-like voltage applied between the opposing device electrodes above the threshold voltage _Vth . Controlled by crest value and width. On the other hand, emitted electrons are hardly emitted below the threshold voltage _Vth . Therefore, by arranging a large number of SCEs and appropriately applying the pulse-like voltage to each element, it becomes possible to control the amount of electron emission of a specific SCE. That is, S of the present invention
If a plurality of CEs are arranged on a substrate, an electron source or an image forming apparatus can be configured.

The arrangement method and the driving method of the SCEs on the substrate include, for example, a plurality of SCEs in which a large number of SCEs are arranged in parallel and both ends of each element are connected to wiring as described in the conventional example. An arrangement method for controlling and driving the amount of electrons emitted by a control electrode (referred to as a grid) provided in a space above the SCE; a plurality of X-direction wirings electrically insulated from each other on a base; A plurality of Y-direction wirings installed in a direction intersecting with these are installed via an interlayer insulating layer, and SCE is provided at each intersection of each X-direction wiring and each Y-direction wiring.
And an arrangement method in which one of a pair of element electrodes of each element is connected to the X-directional wiring and the other is connected to the Y-directional wiring. The latter arrangement method is called a simple matrix arrangement.

Hereinafter, the configuration of an electron source configured by a simple matrix arrangement will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 6, reference numeral 61 denotes an SCE including an electron emitting portion.
Wirings 62 and 63 are connected to a pair of element electrodes of the SCE 61, and are classified into an X-directional wiring 62 and a Y-directional wiring 63 based on a difference in their installation directions. The geometrical arrangement of the X-directional wiring 62 and the Y-directional wiring 63 does not necessarily have to be orthogonal as shown in FIG. 6, but is usually orthogonal. In addition, the X-direction wiring 62 and the Y-direction wiring 63 themselves may also be used (integrally formed) as the device electrodes of each SCE.

Hereinafter, an example of a method for producing an electron source substrate constituted by a simple matrix arrangement as shown in FIG. 6 will be described. On the insulating substrate 1, a thin film for forming an electron-emitting portion comprising the conductive fine particles of the present invention and graphite or amorphous carbon or a mixture thereof is deposited in a desired pattern. The method is the same as that described in the method of creating the SCE.

Next, Dx1, Dx2,..., Dx
m x-direction wirings 62 consisting of m and m are formed on the substrate 1 having the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film by a vacuum evaporation method, a printing method,
It is formed by a sputtering method or the like. Further, after an interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided, Dy1 and Dy1
.., Dyn are formed. Note that both m and n are positive integers. In addition, the patterning form and the pattern of the X and Y direction wirings are designed so that the patterned thin film for forming an electron emitting portion is electrically contacted or connected with the X direction wiring and the Y direction wiring, respectively. In addition, the material, film thickness, and wiring width of the X and Y direction wirings are set so that a substantially uniform voltage can be applied to each of the patterned electron emitting portion forming thin films.

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is formed by a vacuum evaporation method,
A SiO ₂ film or the like formed by a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like, which is formed in a desired shape on the entire surface or a part of the substrate 1 including the X-directional wiring 62 and the patterned thin film for forming an electron emission portion; Particularly, the film thickness, material, and manufacturing method are appropriately set so as to withstand the potential difference at the intersection of the X-direction wiring 62 and the Y-direction wiring 63 during driving. Thereafter, a forming process is performed on each of the patterned electron emitting portion forming thin films to form the SCE 61, which will be described in detail later.

The X direction wiring 62 and the Y direction wiring 63
The X-direction wiring 62 is drawn out as an external terminal, and will be described in detail later.
61 are electrically connected to a scanning signal applying unit (not shown) for applying a scanning signal to each row. On the other hand, the Y-direction wiring 63 is electrically connected to a modulation signal generating means (not shown) for applying a modulation signal to each column of the SCEs 61 arranged in the Y direction. The driving voltage applied to each element of the SCE 61 is supplied as a difference voltage between the scanning signal and the modulation signal applied to the element.

Next, an image forming apparatus using the electron source created as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a basic configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus.
Is a fluorescent film.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 9 denotes an electron source substrate formed in a matrix arrangement as described above. The substrate 1, the SCE 61, the X-direction wiring 62, and the Y-direction wiring 63
Consists of Reference numeral 71 denotes a rear plate to which the electron source substrate 9 is fixed, 76 denotes a face plate on which a fluorescent film 74 and a metal back 75 are formed on a surface of the glass substrate 73 facing the electron source substrate 9, 72 denotes a support frame, Rear plate 7
1. A frit glass or the like is applied to the support frame 72 and the face plate 76, and 400 to 5 in air or nitrogen atmosphere.
The container is sealed by baking at 00 ° C. for 10 minutes or more.
Is configured.

Here, since the rear plate 71 included in the envelope 78 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the electron source substrate 9, if the electron source substrate 9 itself has a sufficient strength, it is separately provided. The rear plate 71 is unnecessary, and the support frame 72 is directly sealed to the electron source substrate 9, and the face plate 76,
The envelope 78 may be constituted by the support frame 72 and the electron source substrate 9. The X-direction wiring 62 and the Y-direction wiring 63 are connected to the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn.

FIG. 8 shows details of the fluorescent film 74. The fluorescent film 74 is composed of only a phosphor in the case of monochrome display, but is black stripe in the case of color display (FIG. 8).
a) or a black conductive material 81 called a black matrix (FIG. 8B) and a phosphor 82. The reason why the black stripe or the black matrix is provided is that the color separation between the phosphors 82 of the three primary color phosphors required for color display is made black so that color mixing and the like become inconspicuous. This is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to external light reflection.

The material of the black stripe or the black matrix is not limited to a commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, but may be any material having conductivity and low light transmission and reflection. It is not limited. As a method of applying the phosphor 82 to the glass substrate 73, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome display or color display.

Further, the inner side of the fluorescent film 74 (the electron source substrate 9
A metal back 75 is usually provided on the surface facing the metal back). The purpose of the metal back is to improve the brightness by mirror-reflecting light toward the inner surface side of the phosphor emission toward the face plate 76, and to use it as an electrode for applying an acceleration voltage to the emitted electrons. , Envelope 7
For example, the damage of the phosphor 82 due to the collision of the negative ions generated in the inside 8 is reduced. The metal back 75 can be manufactured by performing a smoothing process (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 74 after the fluorescent film 74 is formed, and then depositing aluminum by vacuum evaporation or the like.
In order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 74, a transparent electrode (not shown) is
May be provided.

When performing the above-described sealing, in the case of color display, each color phosphor and SCE must be associated with each other, so that it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment between them.

Subsequently, the inside of the envelope 78 is ^moved to 10 ⁻⁶ ton through an exhaust pipe (not shown) by using an ordinary vacuum exhaust system constituted by, for example, a rotary pump or a turbo pump.
After the degree of vacuum is about rr, the outer terminals Dox1 to Dox
A voltage is applied to the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film patterned through xm and Doy1 to Doyn, and forming is performed to form the SCE 61.

Thereafter, baking is performed at 80 to 150 ° C. for 3 times.
While performing for ~ 15 hours, the evacuation system is switched to an ultra-high evacuation system, for example, a pump system such as an ion pump.
The switching to the ultrahigh vacuum evacuation system and the baking are performed to satisfy the monotonically increasing characteristics (MI characteristics) of the device current _{If of the} SCE and the electron emission current _Ie described above.
The method and conditions are not limited to these.

After such a process, the envelope 78 is sealed, but a getter process may be performed in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after the sealing. This is because a getter placed at a predetermined position (not shown) in the envelope 78 by a heating method such as resistance heating or high-frequency heating immediately before or immediately after the envelope 78 is sealed. Is a process of forming a vapor-deposited film by heating.
A getter typically contains Ba as a principal component, the adsorption effect of the vapor deposition film, for example, ^{1 × 10 -5 ~1 × 10 -7} torr
Is maintained.

In the image display device of the present invention completed as described above, the external terminals Dox1 to Dox1
Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage through Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, and a high voltage of several kV or more is applied to a metal back 75 or a transparent electrode (not shown) formed on the fluorescent film 74 through a high voltage terminal Hv. Then, the emitted electrons (electron beams) are accelerated to collide with the fluorescent film 74, and the phosphor 8
An image can be displayed by exciting and emitting 2.

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for manufacturing 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. Appropriate selection is made to suit the use of the device.

[0107]

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

Embodiment 1 The basic structure of an SCE according to this embodiment is substantially the same as the plan view and the cross-sectional view of FIGS. 1A and 1B, and the manufacturing method is basically shown in FIG. The same as

Hereinafter, the SCE manufacturing method will be described step by step with reference to FIG. Step-a DM of polyamic acid methyl ester represented by formula (11)
An Ac solution (concentration in terms of monomer: 2 mmol / l) and a chloroform solution of palladium acetate represented by the formula (5) (concentration: 40 mmol / l) were mixed at 20: 1 (v / v) (prepared in this manner). The mixture is hereinafter referred to as mixture I).

[0110]

Embedded image

The mixture I was formed on the cleaned quartz substrate 1 by a spin coating method. Spin coating condition is 1000
rpm, 30 seconds.

Next, the sample was heated at 150 ° C. for 30 minutes in an infrared heating furnace under a nitrogen flow, and subsequently at 300 ° C. for 30 minutes to obtain a polyimide (formula (10)).
A film composed of and palladium oxide was formed. Subsequently, the resultant was baked at 700 ° C. for 20 minutes to obtain a film 2 for forming an electron-emitting portion composed of amorphous carbon and palladium oxide. The film thickness is 100 ° and the sheet resistance is 2 ×
It was 10 ⁴ Ω / cm ² .

The electron emitting portion forming method thin film 2 was dry-etched using CF ₄ gas to obtain a desired pattern.
According to the substrate 1 having an electron emitting portion formation thin film 2, a pair of device electrodes 5 and 6 facing, the element electrode interval L ₁ 3.mu.
m, the width W ₁ of the device electrodes were formed by using a lift-off method so that 300 [mu] m. That is, the photoresist (RD
-2000N-41, manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.), and then a Ti film having a thickness of 50 ° is formed by a vacuum evaporation method.
After sequentially depositing a Ni film having a thickness of 1000 °, the photoresist pattern is dissolved with an organic solvent, a part of the Ni / Ti deposited film is lifted off, and device electrodes 5 and 6 made of Ni / Ti having a desired shape are formed. Obtained.

Step-b Next, the above-mentioned element is set in the measurement and evaluation apparatus shown in FIG. 3, evacuated by a vacuum pump, and after reaching a degree of vacuum of 2 × 10 ^-5 torr, an element voltage is applied to the element. A voltage was applied between the device electrodes 5 and 6 using a power supply 31 for the purpose, and an energization process (forming process) was performed. The voltage waveform of the forming process is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 4B, T ₁ and T ₂ are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, and in this embodiment, T ₁ is ₁ msec.
c, T _{2 is set} to 10 msec, and the peak value of the rectangular wave (the peak voltage at the time of forming) is boosted in 0.1 V steps,
A forming process was performed.

At this time, at the same time, a resistance measuring pulse was inserted between T ₂ at a voltage of 0.1 V to measure the resistance. When the value measured by the resistance measurement pulse became about 1 MΩ or more, the forming process was terminated. The forming voltage V _F of each element was 5.1V.

Thus, the electron emitting portion 3 was formed. The prepared electron emission unit 3 is scanned with a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Observation with a scanning electron microscope (TEM) revealed that fine particles containing palladium as a main component were dispersed in amorphous carbon, and the average particle size of the fine particles was 30 °.

The electron emission characteristics of the SCE prepared as described above were measured by using the above-described measurement and evaluation apparatus shown in FIG. Note that the distance between the anode electrode and the electron-emitting device is 4 m.
m, the potential of the anode electrode was 1 kV, and the degree of vacuum in the vacuum apparatus at the time of measuring the electron emission characteristics was 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ torr. Definitive a triangular wave element when performing the voltage application at a sweep rate of about 0.005 Hz, 9 the relationship between the device voltage V _f and the element current I _f and electron emission current I _e.

The device current _If monotonically increased with the increase of the device voltage _Vf , and exhibited a voltage-controlled negative resistance at _Vf = 5 V or more. When V _f = 10 V or more, the device current _If was about 1 mA, which is a fraction of the maximum value of the device current. When a device voltage of 14 V was applied between the electrodes 5 and 6 of both devices, stable device current _If and electron emission current _Ie were observed from the beginning. Specifically, the device current _If was 2.0 mA, The electron emission current _Ie was 1.0 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η = _Ie / _If was 0.05%.

Example 2 An SCE was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the material and the preparation method of the thin film 2 for forming an electron emission portion in Example 1 were changed as described below. A DMAc solution of octadecyl polyamic acid ester represented by the formula (12) (concentration in terms of monomer: 2 mmol) and a chloroform solution of palladium acetate represented by the formula (5) (concentration: 40 mmol) are 20: 1 (v / v). (The mixture thus prepared is hereinafter referred to as mixture II).

[0121]

Embedded image

The mixture II was formed on the quartz substrate 1 by the LB method. Hereinafter, the details of the LB method will be described.

Mixture II of DMAc-chloroform (2
0: 1) After developing the mixed solution on pure water at 20 ° C., the surface pressure was increased to 20 mN / m, and a monomolecular film of the mixture II was formed on the pure water. While maintaining the surface pressure, the quartz substrate 1 previously exposed to a hexamethyldisilazane atmosphere to make the surface hydrophobic was gently immersed at a speed of 6 mm / min in a direction crossing the monomolecular film, and then continuously immersed. This was pulled up at a speed, and a two-layer LB film of the mixture II was laminated on the quartz substrate 1. The immersion and lifting operations were repeated to form a 50-layer LB film made of the mixture II.

Next, the sample was heated at 300 ° C. for 30 minutes under reduced pressure using an electric furnace, and then returned to normal pressure (air replacement) and heated at 350 ° C. for 15 minutes.
Subsequently, the resultant was baked at 700 ° C. for 20 minutes in a nitrogen atmosphere to obtain a thin film 2 for forming an electron-emitting portion composed of amorphous carbon and palladium oxide. The film thickness is 100
And the sheet resistance was 2 × 10 ⁴ Ω / cm ² .

The electron emitting portion forming method thin film 2 was dry-etched using CF ₄ gas to obtain a desired pattern.
The device electrodes 5 and 6 similar to those in Example 1 were formed on the substrate 1 having the electron emission portion forming thin film 2 by the same method.

Next, a forming process was performed in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 to create an SCE. Such SCE
When the electron emission part 3 of was observed by SEM or TEM,
Fine particles containing palladium as a main component were dispersed in amorphous carbon, and the average particle size of the fine particles was 30 °.

When the electron emission characteristics of the SCE were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, a stable device current I was obtained from the beginning.
_f and electron emission current _Ie were observed. Specifically, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current _If is 2.0 mA, the electron emission current _Ie is 1.4 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η = I
_e / _If was 0.07%.

Example 3 An SCE was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the material and the preparation method of the electron-emitting-portion-forming thin film 2 in Example 1 were changed as described below. A DMAc solution of polyamic acid methyl ester shown in the formula (11) (concentration in terms of monomer: 2 mmol) and a chloroform solution of a bis (dodecylamine) palladium complex shown in the formula (7) (concentration:
40 mmol) and 20: 1 (v / v) (the mixture thus prepared is hereinafter referred to as mixture III).
The mixture III was formed on the quartz substrate 1 by the LB method.

The details of the LB method will be described below. After developing a mixed solution of the mixture III in DMAc-chloroform (20: 1) on pure water at 20 ° C., the surface pressure was increased to 20 mN /
m, and a monomolecular film of the mixture III was formed on the pure water. While maintaining the surface pressure, the quartz substrate 1 whose surface has been subjected to hydrophobic treatment with hexamethyldisilazane in advance is gently immersed at a speed of 10 mm / min in a direction crossing the monomolecular film, and subsequently pulled up at the same speed. Thus, a two-layer LB film of the mixture III was laminated on the quartz substrate 1. By repeating the immersion and lifting operations, a 70-layer LB film made of the mixture III was formed.

Next, the sample was heated at 300 ° C. for 30 minutes under reduced pressure using an electric furnace, and then returned to normal pressure (air replacement) and heated at 350 ° C. for 15 minutes.
Subsequently, the resultant was baked at 700 ° C. for 20 minutes in a nitrogen atmosphere to obtain a film 2 for forming an electron-emitting portion composed of amorphous carbon and palladium oxide. Its film thickness is 100Å
And the sheet resistance was 2 × 10 ⁴ Ω / cm ² .

The electron emitting portion forming method thin film 2 was dry-etched using CF ₄ gas to obtain a desired pattern.
The device electrodes 5 and 6 similar to those in Example 1 were formed on the substrate 1 having the electron emission portion forming thin film 2 by the same method.

Next, a forming process was performed in exactly the same manner as in Example 1 to form an SCE. Such SCE
When the electron emission part 3 of was observed by SEM or TEM,
Fine particles containing palladium as a main component were dispersed in amorphous carbon, and the average particle size of the fine particles was 30 °.

When the electron emission characteristics of the SCE were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, a stable device current I was obtained from the beginning.
_f and electron emission current _Ie were observed. Specifically, when the device voltage is 14 V, the device current _If is 2.0 mA, the electron emission current _Ie is 1.4 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η = I
_e / _If was 0.07%.

Example 4 A mixture II was formed on the sapphire substrate by the LB method (50 layers) in the same manner as in Example 2 except that sapphire was used instead of quartz.

Next, the sample was heated at 300 ° C. for 30 minutes under reduced pressure using an electric furnace, and then returned to normal pressure (air displacement) and heated at 350 ° C. for 15 minutes.

Further, under an argon atmosphere, 1
It was baked at 800 ° C. for 20 minutes to obtain an electron-emitting portion-forming thin film 2 composed of partially graphitized carbon and palladium oxide.

The film thickness was 100 ° and the sheet resistance was 1 × 10 ⁴ Ω / cm ² . Partial graphite formation was confirmed using TEM and STM.

In the following, according to the method described in Example 2, SC
E was created.

When the electron emission characteristics of the SCE were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, a stable device current I was obtained from the beginning.
f and electron emission current Ie were observed.

Specifically, when the device voltage was 14 V, the device current If was 2.2 mA, the electron emission current was 1.8 μA, and the electron emission efficiency η = Ie / If was 0.08%.

Example 5 The sapphire substrate in Example 4 was changed to a magnesium oxide substrate, and heat treatment was performed under an argon atmosphere.
The step of performing the treatment at 00 ° C. for 20 minutes is performed at 2200 ° C. and 2 minutes.
An SCE was prepared in exactly the same manner as in Example 4, except that the time was changed to 0 minutes.

It was confirmed by TEM and ST that the electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 was made of graphite and palladium oxide.
M was used for confirmation.

When the electron emission characteristics of the SCE were measured in the same manner as in Example 1, when the element voltage was 14 V, the element current If was 2.4 mA, the electron emission current was 1.9 μA, and the electron emission rate η = Ie / If was 0.08%.

Embodiment 6 This embodiment is an example of an image forming apparatus in which many SCEs are arranged in a simple matrix. Figure 1 shows a plan view of a part of the electron source.
0 is shown. FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in the figure. However, what is indicated by the same symbol in FIGS. 10 and 11 indicates the same member. Here, 1 is a substrate, 62 is an X-direction wiring (also referred to as a lower wiring) corresponding to Dxm in FIG.
Y-direction wiring corresponding to yn (also referred to as upper wiring), 3 is an electron-emitting portion, 4 is a thin film including an electron-emitting portion, 5 and 6 are device electrodes, 123 is an interlayer insulating layer, and 124 is the device electrode 6 and upper wire. 63 is an opening for electrically connecting the substrate 63 and emitting electrons.

Next, the manufacturing method will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. Step-a Vacuum-depositing a 1000 ° -thick Cr film 121 having an opening on a cleaned quartz substrate 1 through a mask in order to pattern the electron-emitting portion forming thin film 2 into a predetermined shape. (See FIG. 12A).

Step-b The material used in Example 2 and the method (LB)
After depositing 50 layers of the LB film composed of the mixture II using the above method, the mixture was heated at 300 ° C. for 30 minutes under reduced pressure using an electric furnace, and then returned to normal pressure (air replacement), and 350 ° C.
For 15 minutes to form a film 122 composed of palladium oxide and polyimide (see FIG. 12B).

Step-c The Cr film 121 and the film 122 made of palladium oxide and polyimide are etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern.
Baking was performed at 1000 ° C. for 20 minutes to obtain an electron emission portion forming film 2 composed of amorphous carbon and palladium oxide (see FIG. 12C).

Step-d A photoresist (RD-2000N-41, manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) is formed on the device electrodes 5 and 6 so as to have a distance (L ₁ ) between the device electrodes 5 and 6. T
i, Ni having a thickness of 1000 ° was sequentially deposited. 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 L ₁ = 3 μm and a device electrode width W ₁ = 300 μm (FIG. 1).
2 (d)).

Step-e After forming a photoresist pattern of the lower wiring 62, Ti with a thickness of 50 ° and Au with a thickness of 5000 ° are sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions are removed by lift-off to obtain a desired shape. The lower wiring 62 was formed (FIG. 12E).
reference).

Step-f Next, an interlayer insulating layer 123 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm was deposited by RF sputtering (FIG. 13).
(F)).

Step-g An opening 124 was formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step f for electron emission and for electrically connecting an upper wiring 63 to be described later and the electron emission portion forming thin film 2. That is, a photoresist pattern for forming the opening 124 was formed, and the interlayer insulating layer 123 was etched using the photoresist pattern as a mask to form the opening 124. Etching is performed using RIE (Reactive Ion) using CF ₄ and H ₂ gas.
Etching) method (see FIG. 13 (g)).

Step-h After a photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 63 is formed on the device electrodes 5 and 6, Ti having a thickness of 50 ° and a thickness of 5000 ° are formed.
Are sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions are removed by lift-off, thereby forming an upper wiring 63 having a desired shape (see FIG. 13H).

The lower wiring 6 is formed on the quartz substrate 1 by the above steps.
2, interlayer insulating layer 123, upper wiring 63, element electrodes 5, 6,
An electron emitting portion forming thin film 2 was formed. Next, an example in which a display device is configured using the electron source created as described above will be described with reference to FIGS.

After the substrate 1 having undergone the above-described production steps is set on the rear plate 71, a face plate 76 (the fluorescent film 61 and the metal back 75 are formed on the inner surface of the glass substrate 73, 5 mm above the substrate 1) Support frame 7
2, the face plate 76, the support frame 7
2. A frit glass is applied to the joint of the rear plate 71, and 400 to 500 ° C. in the air or a nitrogen atmosphere.
For 10 minutes or more to seal (FIG. 7).

At the same time, using frit glass,
The rear plate 71 and the substrate 1 were also fixed. In FIG. 7, reference numeral 61 denotes an electron-emitting device, and 62 and 63 denote device wirings in the X and Y directions, respectively.

The fluorescent film 74 is made of only a fluorescent material in the case of monochrome, but in this embodiment, the fluorescent material adopts a stripe shape, a black stripe is formed first, and a fluorescent material of each color is applied to the gap. Then, a fluorescent film 74 was manufactured. As a material for the black stripe, a material mainly containing graphite, which is commonly used, was used. Glass substrate 73
The slurry method was used as a method of applying the phosphor on the substrate. Also,
Usually, a metal back 75 is provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 74. 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 76 is further provided with a fluorescent film 7.
In some cases, a transparent electrode (not shown) is provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 74 in order to enhance the conductivity of No. 4, but is omitted in this embodiment because sufficient conductivity was obtained only with the metal back. did. At the time of performing the above-mentioned sealing, in the case of color, it is necessary to make each color phosphor correspond to the electron-emitting device, so that sufficient alignment was performed.

The atmosphere in the glass container completed as described above is evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, external terminals Dox1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn. By applying a voltage between the electrodes 5 and 6 of the electron-emitting device 61 through the process and forming the electron-emitting portion forming thin film 2, the electron-emitting portion 3 was formed.

[0159] Voltage waveform of the forming treatment is the same as Figure 4b, the T ₁ in this embodiment 1 msec, T ₂ 10
The process was performed under a vacuum atmosphere of about 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ torr. Next, the gas was evacuated to a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁶ torr, and 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 by a high-frequency heating method.

In the image display device of the present invention completed as described above, the scanning signal and the modulation signal are applied to the respective electron-emitting devices through the external terminals Dox1 to Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn by the signal generating means (not shown). To emit electrons, and several k are applied to the metal back 75 or a transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv.
An image was displayed by applying a high voltage of V or more to accelerate the electron beam, and colliding the electron beam with the fluorescent film 74 to excite and emit light from the phosphor.

Embodiment 7 FIG. 14 shows image information provided from various image information sources such as television broadcasts on a display panel using the SCE described in Embodiment 6 as an electron beam source. It is a block diagram for showing an example of the display device constituted so that it can be performed.

In the figure, 130 is a display panel, 131
Is a display panel drive circuit, 132 is a display panel controller, 133 is a multiplexer, 13
4 is a decoder, 135 is an input / output interface circuit,
136 is a CPU, 137 is an image generation circuit, 138 and 139 and 140 are image memory interface circuits, 141 is an image input interface circuit, 142 and 143 are TV signal receiving circuits, and 144 is an input unit.

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

Hereinafter, the function of each section will be described along the flow of the image signal. First, the TV signal receiving circuit 143 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wireless transmission system such as radio waves or spatial optical communication.
The type of TV signal to be received is not particularly limited,
For example, various systems such as the NTSC system, the PAL system, and the SECAM system may be used. A TV signal (for example, a so-called high-definition TV such as the MUSE system) composed of a larger number of scanning lines is suitable for taking advantage of the display panel suitable for a large area and a large number of pixels. Signal source.

TV received by TV signal receiving circuit 143
The signal is output to decoder 134. The TV signal receiving circuit 142 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wired transmission system such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber.
As in the case of 43, the format of the received TV signal is not particularly limited. The TV signal received by this circuit is also output to the decoder 134.

The image input interface circuit 141 comprises:
For example, a circuit for taking in an image signal supplied from an image input device such as a TV camera or an image reading scanner, and the taken image signal is output to the decoder 134. The image memory interface circuit 140 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 134.

Image memory interface circuit 139
Is a circuit for taking in an image signal stored in the video disk.
4 is output. Image memory interface circuit 1
Reference numeral 38 denotes a circuit for taking in an image signal from a device that stores still image data, such as a so-called still image disk.
Is input to

The input / output interface circuit 135 is a circuit for connecting the present display device to an external computer, a computer network, or an output device such as a printer. In addition to inputting and outputting image data and character / graphic information, control signals and numerical data can be input and output between the CPU 136 of the display device and the outside in some cases. .

The image generating circuit 137 is based on image data and character / graphic information input from the outside via the input / output interface circuit 135 or image data and character / graphic information output from the CPU 136. This is a circuit for generating display image data.

In this circuit, a rewritable memory for storing, for example, image data and character / graphic information, a read-only memory for storing an image pattern corresponding to a character code, and a memory for performing image processing Circuits necessary for generating images, such as a processor, are incorporated.

The display image data generated by this circuit is output to the decoder 134, but may be output to an external computer network or printer via the input / output interface circuit 135 in some cases.

The CPU 136 mainly performs operations related to operation control of the present display device and selection / editing of a display image. For example, a control signal is output to the multiplexer 133, and an image signal to be displayed on the display panel is appropriately selected or combined. In this case, a control signal is generated for the display panel controller 132 in accordance with the image signal to be displayed, and the display frequency and the scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced) are displayed. The operation of the device is appropriately controlled.

Further, image data and character / graphic information are directly output to the image generating circuit 137, or an external computer or memory is accessed through the input / output interface circuit 135 to access the image data or character.・
Enter graphic information. Note that the CPU 136 may, of course, be involved in work for other purposes. For example, it may directly relate to a function of processing information, such as a personal computer or a word processor. Alternatively, as described above, the input / output interface circuit 135
The computer may be connected to an external computer network via a computer to perform operations such as numerical calculations in cooperation with an external device.

The input section 144 is for the user to input commands, programs, data, and the like to the CPU 136. For example, in addition to a keyboard and a mouse,
Various input devices such as a joystick, a barcode reader, and a voice recognition device can be used.

The decoder 134 comprises the above 137 through 14
This is a circuit for inversely converting various image signals input from 3 into three primary color signals, or luminance signals and I signals and Q signals. As shown by the dotted line in FIG.
It is desirable to provide an image memory inside. this is,
This is because, for example, a television signal that requires an image memory when performing inverse conversion, such as the MUSE method.

The provision of the image memory facilitates the display of a still image, or the image generation circuit 1
This is because there is an advantage that image processing and editing including image thinning, interpolation, enlargement, reduction, and composition can be easily performed in cooperation with the CPU 37 and the CPU 136.

The multiplexer 133 is connected to the CPU 1
A display image is appropriately selected based on a control signal input from the control unit 36. That is, the multiplexer 133
Selects a desired image signal from the inversely converted image signals input from the decoder 134 and
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 TV. .

Display panel controller 132
Is a circuit for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 131 based on a control signal input from the CPU 136. The basic operation includes, for example, outputting a signal for controlling an operation sequence of a display panel driving power supply (not shown) to the driving circuit 131, a screen display frequency and a scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced). The driving circuit 131 outputs a signal for controlling
Or output to In some cases, a control signal related to image quality adjustment, such as brightness, contrast, color tone, and sharpness of a display image, may be output to the drive circuit 131.

The driving circuit 131 is provided for the display panel 1
30 is a circuit for generating a drive signal to be applied to 30.
An image signal input from the multiplexer 133;
It operates based on a control signal input from the display panel controller 132.

The function of each section has been described above. With the configuration illustrated in FIG. 14, in the present display device, image information input from various image information sources can be displayed on the display panel 130. . That is, various image signals including television broadcasting are transmitted to the decoder 13.
After the inverse conversion in step 4, the signal is appropriately selected in the multiplexer 133 and input to the drive circuit 131.

On the other hand, the display controller 132
Generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 131 according to an image signal to be displayed. Drive circuit 131
Applies a drive signal to the display panel 130 based on the image signal and the control signal. Thereby, an image is displayed on the display panel 130. A series of these operations are totally controlled by the CPU 136.

In the present display device, an image memory built in the decoder 134 and an image generation circuit 137 are provided.
In addition to displaying the information selected from among the information, the image information to be displayed can be enlarged, reduced,
It is also possible to perform image processing such as rotation, movement, edge enhancement, thinning, interpolation, color conversion, image aspect ratio conversion, etc., and image editing such as synthesis, deletion, connection, replacement, insertion, etc. is there. Although not specifically mentioned in the description of the present embodiment, a dedicated circuit for processing and editing audio information may be provided as in the above-described image processing and image editing.

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

FIG. 14 shows only an example of the configuration of a display device using a display panel using an SCE as an electron beam source, and it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to only such a configuration. For example, among the components in FIG. 14, circuits relating to functions that are unnecessary for the intended use may be omitted.

On the contrary, depending on the purpose of use, additional components may be added. For example, when the present display device is applied to a videophone, it is preferable to add a television camera, an audio microphone, a lighting device, a transmission / reception circuit including a modem, and the like to the components.

In the present display device, the depth of the display device can be reduced particularly because the display panel using the SCE as the electron beam source can be easily made thin.
In addition to this, the display panel using SCE as the electron beam source is easy to enlarge the screen, has high brightness and excellent viewing angle characteristics, and therefore this display device displays images full of presence and full of power with good visibility. It is possible to do.

[0187]

As described above, according to the present invention, there is provided a surface conduction electron-emitting device comprising a pair of opposing device electrodes formed on a substrate and a thin film having an electron-emitting portion. However, it is made of conductive fine particles such as a metal or a metal oxide, and graphite or amorphous carbon or a mixture thereof, so that an electron-emitting device excellent in stability of electron-emitting characteristics and electron-emitting efficiency can be produced. It became so.

Further, in the case of an electron source that emits electrons in response to an input signal, a plurality of the above-mentioned electron-emitting devices are arranged on a substrate, so that the electron source can be manufactured stably and with high yield. Was. In addition, the power consumption is reduced due to the improvement in the electron emission efficiency, and the burden on peripheral circuits and the like is reduced, so that an inexpensive device can be provided.

In the image forming apparatus, an apparatus for forming an image based on an input signal is provided.
Since the image forming apparatus comprises the image forming member and the electron source, stable and controlled electron emission characteristics and improved electron emission efficiency are achieved. As for the forming apparatus, a bright and high-quality image forming apparatus with low current, for example, a color flat television has been realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 2 is a process chart showing an example of a method for manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 3 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement and evaluation device for measuring electron emission characteristics of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a voltage waveform of a current supply process of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 5 is a basic characteristic diagram of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram showing an electron source configured by a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 7 is a basic configuration diagram illustrating an image forming apparatus.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory view showing a fluorescent film.

FIG. 9 is a basic characteristic diagram of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 10 is a schematic plan view showing an electron source.

FIG. 11 is a sectional view taken along line AA ′ of the electron source of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a partial process diagram showing the first half of the method for manufacturing an electron source.

FIG. 13 is a partial process chart showing the latter half of the method for manufacturing an electron source.

FIG. 14 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a display device.

FIG. 15 is a schematic view showing a configuration of a conventional electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Insulating substrate 2 Thin film for electron emission part formation 3 Electron emission part 4 Thin film including electron emission part 4, 5, 6 Element electrode 9 Electron source substrate 30, 32 Ammeter 31 Power supply 33 High voltage power supply 34 Anode electrode 61 Electron emission part Including SCE 62 X direction wiring (lower wiring) 63 Y direction wiring (upper wiring) 71 rear plate 72 support frame 73 glass substrate 74 fluorescent film 75 metal back 76 face plate 78 envelope 81 black conductive material 82 phosphor 121 Cr film 122 Film made of PdO and polyimide 123 Interlayer insulating layer 124 Opening 130 Display panel 131 Drive circuit 132 Display panel controller 133 Multiplexer 134 Decoder 135 Input / output interface circuit 136 CPU 137 Image generation circuit 138, 139, 140 Image memory Centers face the circuit 141 an image input interface circuit 142, 143 TV signal receiving circuit 144 input unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 1/316 H01J 9/02

Claims (13)

(57) [Claims] 1. A surface conduction electron-emitting device comprising a pair of opposed device electrodes formed on a substrate and a thin film having an electron-emitting portion, wherein the thin film having the electron-emitting portion is made of conductive fine particles and graphite and / or graphite. An electron-emitting device comprising amorphous carbon. 2. The electron-emitting device according to claim 1, wherein said conductive fine particles are a metal or a metal oxide. 3. The electron-emitting device according to claim 1, wherein said conductive fine particles are palladium or palladium oxide. 4. A pair of opposing device electrodes formed on a base , conductive fine particles and graphite and / or aluminum.
Together and a molar amorphous carbon, in the manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device comprising a thin film having an electron emitting portion
And at least a step of forming a pair of device electrodes, a step of forming a thin film provided with an electron emitting portion, and the thin film
And a forming step of forming the electron emitting portion, before
The process of forming a thin film for providing an electron emitting portion is a polymerization process.
Amorphous carbonization by firing compound
Is a surface characterized by including a step of graphitizing
A method for manufacturing a conduction electron-emitting device. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the polymer compound is an amorphous carbohydrate.
Metal or metal oxide
Or high molecular compounds including organometallic compounds
After forming the thin film, the polymer compound contained in the thin film is fired.
Amorphous carbon or graph by forming
5. The method according to claim 4, further comprising the step of
A method for manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device described above. 6. The polymer compound contained in the thin film is
The process of converting to rufus carbon or graphite is
Baking the thin film at 600 ° C. to 3000 ° C.
A method for manufacturing the electron-emitting device according to claim 5 . Wherein said polymer compound is a polyimide 請
A method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device according to any one of claims 4 to 6 . 8. The method according to claim 5 , wherein the metal or metal oxide is palladium or palladium oxide. 9. fired at the 600 ° C. to 3000 ° C.
Is carried out under a vacuum or a nitrogen atmosphere.
A method for manufacturing the electron-emitting device according to the above. 10. An electron source that emits electrons in response to an input signal, wherein the electron source according to claim 1 is arranged on a substrate. 11. A plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel on a substrate, a plurality of rows each comprising an electron-emitting device group in which both ends of each device are connected to wiring, and a modulation means is further provided. The described electron source. 12. An electrically insulated one on a substrate.
At least one X-directional wiring and at least one Y-directional wiring wired in different directions are formed, and one of a pair of element electrodes of the electron-emitting device is connected to the X-directional wiring and the other is connected to the X-directional wiring. 11. The electron source according to claim 10, wherein a plurality of electron-emitting devices connected to the Y-direction wiring are arranged. 13. An apparatus for forming an image based on the input signal, at least, the imaging member as defined in Claim 10
An image forming apparatus, comprising: the electron source according to any one of the preceding claims.