JP4845446B2 - Support structure, manufacturing method thereof, and display device using the same - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a support structure used as an atmospheric pressure resistant means for a vacuum vessel and a manufacturing method thereof in a flat display device using electron-emitting devices, and further relates to a display device using the support structure.

  In general, in a display device in which a first substrate, which is an electron source substrate having a plurality of electron-emitting devices, and a second substrate, which is a display surface, are arranged to face each other with a space therebetween, in order to obtain necessary atmospheric pressure resistance In addition, a support structure (spacer) made of an insulating material is sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate.

  As a method for producing this support structure, a method is known in which a glass base material is heated and stretched and cut into a predetermined length by irradiation with a diamond cutter or laser light (Patent Document 2). Further, it is known that charging of the support structure can be prevented by providing a plurality of grooves on the surface of the support structure. As described above, as a method for manufacturing a support structure having a plurality of grooves on the surface, there is known a method in which a glass base material is heated and stretched and cut into a predetermined length by irradiation with a diamond cutter or laser light. (For example, refer to Patent Document 1). However, there is a problem in that stress concentrates on minute protrusions and chips generated on the cut surface during the cutting process, causing buckling failure of the support structure, and creeping discharge is likely to occur due to electric field concentration on the protrusions and chips. there were.

  Therefore, Patent Document 2 discloses a manufacturing method in which a cut surface is smoothed by subjecting the support structure after cutting to heat treatment or chemical etching to prevent buckling failure and creeping discharge of the support structure. Is also disclosed.

JP 2003-229056 A JP 2000-251705 A

  However, in the case of manufacturing a support structure that is antistatic by forming a groove on the surface, in the manufacturing method disclosed in Patent Document 2, the shape of the groove (depth and angle, the shape of the ridge) is obtained by annealing or chemical etching. ) Will change and the desired antistatic effect cannot be achieved.

  The present invention provides a support structure that solves the above-described problems, has high fracture resistance, and has a desired groove on the surface to prevent charging, without adding a complicated process. It is to constitute a highly reliable display device using the above.

The first of the present invention is
On the surface of the plate-like substrate has a plurality of parallel grooves with respect to the longitudinal direction of the substrate, for supporting the components of the display device in parallel ends to the longitudinal direction of the substrate In the plate-like support structure, the end of the groove is separated from the end parallel to the short direction of the substrate.

The second of the present invention is
A first substrate having an electron-emitting device; a second substrate including a light-emitting member and an electrode that emits light when irradiated with electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device ; has a plurality of parallel grooves with respect to the longitudinal direction of the wood, located between said first substrate the second substrate, for supporting the substrates in parallel ends to the longitudinal plate And an end portion of the groove is separated from an end portion parallel to the short direction of the base material .

The third aspect of the present invention is
A method for producing a plate-like support structure having a plurality of grooves on the surface,
A step of heating and stretching a plate-shaped glass base material having a plurality of grooves on the surface in a direction parallel to the grooves;
A step of cutting the glass substrate by irradiating a laser beam from a direction perpendicular to the surface of the glass substrate having a groove on the glass substrate after stretching,
The step of cutting the glass substrate is performed by pulling one of the glass substrates with the irradiation region as a boundary in a state where the irradiation region of the laser beam of the glass substrate is melted. The glass substrate is cut.

  Since the support structure of the present invention has a groove on the surface, the chargeability is controlled, and further, since the groove does not reach the end, stress concentration due to the unevenness of the groove is reduced, Excellent compressive strength and bending strength.

  Further, since the support structure of the present invention has a groove on the surface, the charging property is controlled, and since the end portion has a curvature portion having a diameter larger than the thickness of the support structure, the curvature portion Works as a reinforcing member of the support structure and is excellent in compressive strength and bending strength.

  Further, according to the manufacturing method of the present invention, it is possible to manufacture a support structure including a groove having a desired shape without adding a complicated process.

  In the display device of the present invention, since the support structure of the present invention is used, charging of the support structure by the emitted electrons is well controlled, and the strength of the support structure itself is excellent. High reliability is achieved with high-quality display.

  Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a support structure that is superior in strength to the conventional one without causing a significant increase in manufacturing cost. In addition, a display device with high image quality and high reliability is provided using the support structure.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the support structure of the present invention, a display device using the support structure, and a method for manufacturing the support structure will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a configuration of a display panel of a preferred embodiment of the display device of the present invention, and is a diagram showing a part of the configuration cut away.

  As shown in FIG. 8, in the display panel of this example, a rear plate 81, which is a first substrate, and a face plate 82, which is a second substrate, are opposed to each other with a space therebetween, and a flat plate shape is interposed therebetween. A support structure (hereinafter also referred to as a spacer) 83 is sandwiched and the periphery is sealed with a side wall 84, and the inside is in a vacuum atmosphere.

  On the rear plate 81, an electron source substrate 89 on which row direction wirings 85, column direction wirings 86, interlayer insulating layers (not shown) and electron emitting elements 88 are formed is fixed.

  The illustrated electron-emitting device 88 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which a conductive film having an electron-emitting portion is connected between a pair of device electrodes. In this example, N × M surface-emitting type electron-emitting devices 88 are arranged, and a multi-electron beam source is formed by matrix wiring with M row-directional wirings 85 and N column-directional wirings 86 formed at equal intervals. It has become. In this example, the row direction wiring 85 is located on the column direction wiring 86 through an interlayer insulating layer (not shown). A scanning signal is applied to the row direction wiring 85 via the extraction terminals Dx1 to Dxm, and a modulation signal (image signal) is applied to the column direction wiring 86 via the extraction terminals Dy1 to Dyn. .

  A fluorescent film 90 is formed as a light emitting member on the lower surface of the face plate 82 (the surface facing the rear plate 81). Further, a metal back (acceleration electrode) 91 which is a conductive member is formed on the surface of the fluorescent film 90. Is provided. The metal back 91 is for accelerating the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device 88, and is applied with a high voltage from the high-voltage terminal Hv and is regulated to a higher potential than the row wiring 85. It has become.

  On the row direction wiring 85, a plate-like spacer 83 is attached in parallel with the row direction wiring 85. The spacer 83 is fixed to the electron source substrate 89 in a state where spacer fixing blocks 92 are attached to both ends and placed on the row direction wiring 85. By fixing the spacer 83 using the spacer fixing block 92, it is possible to reduce the disturbance of the electric field in the vicinity of the electron-emitting device 88, in which the kinetic energy of electrons is small and the electron trajectory is easily affected by the electric field.

  FIG. 9 shows only the spacer of FIG. In FIG. 9, reference numeral 100 denotes an end portion facing the spacer face plate or rear plate, and 101 denotes an end portion not facing the spacer face plate or rear plate. In another expression, 100 is an end parallel to the longitudinal direction of the spacer, and 101 is an end parallel to the short direction of the spacer. Further, 102 is the longitudinal direction of the spacer (X direction in FIG. 8), and 103 is the short direction of the spacer (Z direction in FIG. 8).

  The spacer 83 is sandwiched between the rear plate 81 having the electron source substrate 89 and the face plate 82 provided with the fluorescent film 90 and the metal back 91, and the upper and lower surfaces thereof are in pressure contact with the metal back 91 and the row wiring 85, respectively. Has been. In order to give the display panel resistance to atmospheric pressure, a plurality of spacers 83 are usually provided at regular intervals. Further, a side wall 84 is sandwiched between the peripheral portions of the rear plate 81 and the face plate 82, and the joint between the rear plate 81 and the side wall 84 and the joint between the face plate 82 and the side wall 84 are sealed with frit glass or the like. It has been stopped.

  FIG. 1 shows a preferred embodiment of the first support structure of the present invention, ie the spacer 3 in FIG. 1A is a side view (a view of the spacer viewed from the Y direction in FIG. 8 and an XZ plan view), and FIG. 1B is a top view (the spacer is viewed from the Z direction in FIG. 8). It is a view seen and an XY plan view, which shows an end face that faces and contacts the face plate 82 of the spacer. 2, 3, 4, and 5 described later are also viewed from the same direction as FIG. 1.

As shown in FIG. 1, the support structure of the present invention has a flat plate shape, and has a plurality of grooves 1 parallel to the first and second substrates on the surface, and the grooves 1 extend to the ends. It is a feature of the present invention that it has not been reached. In other words, the end of the groove 1 is away from the end that does not face the rear plate or face plate of the support structure. Thus, since the groove | channel 1 has not reached the edge part, sufficient intensity | strength can be ensured in destruction strength. The length (t) of the region without the groove 1 is preferably equal to or greater than the thickness (T) of the support structure. The reason is that, according to the manufacturing method of the present invention described later, in the cutting step of the stretched glass substrate , the length (t) of the region without the groove 1 and the shape of the end perpendicular to the substrate can be correlated. Because.

As shown in FIG. 1B, it is desirable that the shape of the end portion forms a gentle R shape (R _T1 ) within the range of the thickness (T). In this case, if at least R _T1 is an outwardly convex R shape, the so-called handling when assembling the display panel using the support structure of this example, the end portion is brought into contact with another member. The risk of missing edges is reduced.

On the other hand, depending on the conditions in the cutting process, as shown in FIG. 2, the length (t) of the region without the groove 1 may be less than the thickness (T) of the support structure. A concave R shape (R _T2 ) is formed toward the outside. In the case of such a shape, there is no problem in the fracture strength because the groove 1 does not reach the end, but care must be taken in handling the support structure. Because the end portion has an opposite curvature shape, that is, a sharp shape, the end portion is brought into contact with other members during handling when assembling a display panel using such a support structure. When this occurs, the end portion may be lost, and handling is necessary.

Further, it is desirable that the R shape (R _H1 in FIG. 1 and R _H2 in FIG. 2) existing in the height (H) direction (Z direction in FIG. 8) is as gentle as possible. Comparing R _H1 in FIG. ₁ and R _H2 in FIG. 2, R _H2 when the end shape has a reverse curvature (R _T2 ) as shown in FIG. ₂ is clearly more than R _H1 in FIG. Has a small curvature and a sharp shape. That is, the end of FIG. 2 has a shape that is easily chipped during handling.

FIG. 3 shows a support structure manufactured by cutting a glass substrate stretched by a diamond cutter used in a conventional glass scriber, for example. Thus, the shape of the end portion (cut portion) parallel to the short direction is very sharp, and the ridge line of the groove 1 clearly reaches the ridge line of the cut surface. In addition, such a support structure has a small number of microcracks (chips and scratches) on the ridgeline of the cut surface, which causes stress concentration and is disadvantageous in terms of fracture strength. In addition, chipping is likely to occur during handling.

FIG. 4 shows a preferred embodiment of the second support structure of the present invention. In this example, a curved portion (R _T4 ) having a diameter larger than the thickness (T) of the support structure is formed at the end parallel to the short direction, so that the curved portion is a reinforcing member at the end. As a result, the fracture strength is improved. In the case of this example, the groove 1 may reach the end parallel to the short direction, but when manufactured by the manufacturing method of the present invention described later, the groove 1 is substantially short. Does not reach the end parallel to the direction. Further, in particular, the length (t) of the region without the groove 1 is larger than the thickness (T) of the support structure so that the groove 1 does not intentionally reach the end parallel to the lateral direction. If present, the fracture strength is further improved as compared with the support structure of FIG. Also, the R shape (R _H4 ) in the height (H) direction tends to be larger than the support structure of FIG. 1, which is preferable.

  When the support structure of the present invention is incorporated in a display device as shown in FIG. 8, a region without a groove is fixed by a spacer fixing block 92 and is arranged so as not to affect the display region. .

Next, the manufacturing method of the support structure of this invention is demonstrated. The support structure of the present invention is a glass base material obtained by heating and stretching a glass base material having a plurality of flat plates (the same number as the grooves of the support structure) parallel to the surface in a direction parallel to the grooves. Is cut into a predetermined length. In the production method of the present invention, in the cutting step, the cutting by laser irradiation from the direction perpendicular to the grooves of the glass substrate, pulling one of the glass substrate in a molten state an irradiation region Features. That is, in the manufacturing method of the present invention, the glass substrate is locally heated using a laser having high directivity of light, so that the glass substrate is melted only in the irradiated region to fill the groove, and other than the irradiated region. Can be cut while retaining the shape of the groove. Moreover, by adjusting the irradiation conditions and the conditions for pulling the glass substrate , it is possible to easily form the end (end parallel to the short direction) shape as shown in FIGS. Can do.

The wavelength of the laser beam used in the present invention may be in any range as long as the glass substrate to be cut can efficiently absorb the laser beam. For example, a CO ₂ (carbon dioxide gas) laser with a wavelength of 10.6 μm and a YAG laser with a wavelength of 1.06 μm can be mentioned, and a CO ₂ laser is particularly preferable because of its high absorption rate into glass.

Further, the output and frequency of the laser beam must be selected according to the form (material, thickness, width) of the glass substrate . If the power of the laser beam is too great, the temperature of the irradiated area will rise too fast, causing cracks in the cut part, or causing the glass substrate to burn, evaporate, scatter, etc., and stain the surroundings. If the oscillation frequency is reduced to avoid such an inconvenience, a temporal (intermittent) temperature change in the irradiation region increases, and cracks may occur. Therefore, the frequency of the laser beam is set as high as possible, and the temporal temperature fluctuation is moderated by irradiating in small increments. The power is set within a range where the glass substrate can be cut as will be described later.

As in the present invention, when irradiating a heated and stretched glass substrate with a laser beam, in order to cut without generation of unnecessary melt or dust generation or scattering, in a region as narrow as possible with respect to the stretching direction, In addition, it is necessary to irradiate laser light as uniform as possible in the height (H) direction.

Specifically, a method of condensing laser light in a spot shape of about several μm to several tens of μm and scanning in the height direction, or a method of forming an irradiation region through a mask can be considered. However, in the former case, when the spot light is scanned, the temporal temperature change of the cut portion is large, and the glass base material is often cracked. In order to avoid this, it is conceivable to increase the scanning speed. However, the scanning speed is limited in the system in which the scanning is performed by mechanically shaking the mirror. In the latter case, the wavelength of the CO ₂ or YAG laser light is long, the pattern accuracy for masking is not good (pattern boundaries are blurred), and the mask is heavily worn (the laser light can be reflected or absorbed efficiently). It is difficult to say that it is optimal because there are few mask materials.

The most preferred method is shown in FIG. In the figure, 11 is a stretched glass substrate , and 12 is a laser beam irradiation pattern. As shown in FIG. 5, the laser beam itself is condensed into a long and narrow pattern 12 through a cylindrical lens, and irradiated so that the longitudinal direction (W) of the irradiation pattern 12 is the height (H) direction of the support structure. . Furthermore, it becomes possible to heat more efficiently with respect to the thickness (T) direction of the glass base material 11 by irradiating from both surfaces of the glass base material 11 simultaneously. In this case, sufficient alignment of the irradiation patterns 12 on both sides is necessary.

As shown in FIG. 5, the laser beam is irradiated and the irradiated region of the glass substrate 11 is melted, and the laser beam irradiation pattern 12 is centered (boundary) as shown in FIG. By pulling the other 14, a cut shape as shown in FIG. 7 can be obtained. Then, the fixed one is used as a product, and the other pulled 14 is discarded.

After the glass substrate 11 is melted after the glass substrate 11 is melted, it is desirable that the laser beam be continuously irradiated while the melt is being moved by the other 14 of the glass substrate . If the laser beam irradiation is stopped while the melt is being pulled, the temperature of the melt will suddenly drop (heat dissipation), so it will solidify while being pulled (with the yarn pulled). The 13 ends cannot be finished in the desired shape. The reverse curvature shape shown in FIG. 2 shows the case of cutting in a similar state.

  Moreover, the volume of a fusion | melting part can be increased by setting the irradiation time of a laser beam long and raising melting temperature (a fusion | melting area also spreads with time). As a result, when the other 14 is pulled, the melt remains on the one 13, so that a cut portion having a large radius of curvature as shown in FIG. 4 can be obtained.

Example 1
Glass substrate obtained by heat drawing (material: alkali-free glass, height (H): 1.6 mm, thickness (T): 0.195 mm, groove depth: 8 μm, number of grooves: 40, grooves With respect to the width: 15 μm and the groove pitch: 30 μm, a laser irradiation pattern of longitudinal direction (W): 6 mm and width (L): 1.5 mm was irradiated from both sides for 3 seconds as shown in FIG.

The laser oscillator used was a 10 W output CO ₂ laser (Shinrad: Model 48-1W). A 2 mmφ laser beam was expanded to 6 mmφ with a beam expander, and the optical path was split into two with a beam splitter in order to irradiate both surfaces of the glass substrate , and the optical paths were arranged to face each other with the glass substrate interposed therebetween. Then, by condensing with a cylindrical lens having a focal length of 2.5 inches in front of the glass substrate , the irradiation pattern having the above-mentioned dimensions was irradiated on both surfaces of the glass substrate .

  The laser output conditions were: frequency: 5 kHz, power: 7.0 W (set with pulse duty: 30%). Moreover, as for the conditions regarding the tension, the tension was started 2.0 seconds after the start of laser irradiation, and the tension speed was 7 mm / sec. The pulling distance was 10 mm.

As a result of cutting the glass substrate under these conditions, the cut portion has the shape shown in FIG. 1, the length (t) of the groove-free region is 0.2 mm, and R _T1 has a smooth R shape that protrudes outward. there were.

With respect to the support structure obtained by cutting in this example and the support structure obtained by using the conventional cutting method, 32 buckling tests were performed to verify the fracture resistance. The results are shown in Table 1. “Dicer” in the table is a support structure obtained by cutting a glass substrate by a conventional method of cutting glass, silicon wafer or the like using a tool such as a diamond grindstone. Although the shape of the cut surface of this support structure is close to that shown in FIG. 3, since the entire cut surface is a sliding surface, there are innumerable minute cracks.

  As a buckling test method, a tensile compression tester AGS-20KNG manufactured by Shimadzu Corporation was used, and compression was performed at a speed of 0.05 mm / min. A glass block was used as an indenter for compressing the test piece. In addition, the length of the spacer used for the buckling test was 40 mm.

  As is clear from Table 1, it can be seen that the support structure of the present invention has a buckling strength nearly 1.5 times higher than that of the support structure manufactured by the conventional manufacturing method, and is excellent in fracture resistance.

(Example 2)
The glass substrate was cut in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the power of the laser beam was 5.2 W. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2, the cut portion has a _curved shape of R _T2 in the reverse direction.

(Example 3)
The glass substrate was cut in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the laser beam power was 8.6 W. As a result, the shape of the cut portion was a curvature shape in which the diameter of R _T4 was 0.22 mm and larger than the thickness with respect to the thickness of 0.195 mm.

It is a figure which shows preferable embodiment of the support structure of this invention. It is a figure which shows other embodiment of the support structure of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the conventional support structure. It is a figure which shows other preferable embodiment of the support structure of this invention. It is a figure which shows the irradiation pattern of the laser beam in the manufacturing method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the cutting process in the manufacturing method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the cut part of the glass base material after the cutting | disconnection in the manufacturing method of this invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the display panel of the display apparatus of this invention. It is the elements on larger scale of the support structure (spacer) of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

1 Groove 11 Glass substrate 12 Laser light irradiation pattern 13 One side of glass substrate (fixed side)
14 The other side of the glass substrate (pull side)
81 Rear plate 82 Face plate 83 Spacer (support structure)
84 Side wall 85 Row-direction wiring 86 Column-direction wiring 88 Electron emitting device 89 Electron source substrate 90 Fluorescent film 91 Metal back 92 Spacer fixing block 100 End facing the face plate or rear plate 101 End not facing the face plate or rear plate 102 Longitudinal direction 103 Short direction

Claims (3)

On the surface of the plate-like substrate has a plurality of parallel grooves with respect to the longitudinal direction of the substrate, for supporting the components of the display device in parallel ends to the longitudinal direction of the substrate It is a plate-shaped support structure, Comprising: The edge part of the said groove | channel is separated from the edge part parallel to the transversal direction of the said base material, The support structure characterized by the above-mentioned. A first substrate having an electron-emitting device; a second substrate including a light-emitting member and an electrode that emits light when irradiated with electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device ; has a plurality of parallel grooves with respect to the longitudinal direction of the wood, located between said first substrate the second substrate, for supporting the substrates in parallel ends to the longitudinal plate A display device comprising: a support structure having a shape , wherein an end of the groove is separated from an end parallel to the short direction of the base material . A method for producing a plate-like support structure having a plurality of grooves on the surface,
A step of heating and stretching a plate-shaped glass base material having a plurality of grooves on the surface in a direction parallel to the grooves;
A step of cutting the glass substrate by irradiating a laser beam from a direction perpendicular to the surface of the glass substrate having a groove on the glass substrate after stretching,
The step of cutting the glass substrate is performed by pulling one of the glass substrates with the irradiation region as a boundary in a state where the irradiation region of the laser beam of the glass substrate is melted. A method for producing a support structure, comprising cutting the glass substrate.

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