JPH06289813A - Electron source device and image formation device, and their driving method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the power consumption and greatly reduce the cost by providing plural cold cathode-ray elements with a means which applies voltage pulses having a constant step-down voltage rate separately from the driving signals of the cold cathode-ray elements. CONSTITUTION:A driving electron array 107 consists of semiconductor switching elements like FETs and a driving voltage is supplied to the electrodes YEI-YEM of an electron discharge element array 101 according to input signals I''DI-I''DM to the array 107 are 1 or 0. Prior to the start of driving based upon electron discharge element driving data sent from outside, resistance increase pulses having a voltage Vd above 10V are applied to all MXN electron discharge elements 101. Namely, the voltage pulses having the step-down voltage rate above 10V/sec are applied separately from the driving signals of the elements. Consequently, the elements 101 are placed in a high resistance state to reduce ineffective currents flowing to elements in unselected states, thereby reducing the total power consumption of the device at the time of its driving.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron source apparatus having a plurality of cold cathode elements arranged in a matrix, an image forming apparatus having the apparatus, and a driving method thereof.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, research and development have been actively conducted on a plane image forming apparatus using a multi-electron beam generating apparatus having a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in a plane as an electron source, particularly a thin flat display apparatus. There is.

FIG. 15 shows a configuration example of such an image forming apparatus. In this apparatus, a plurality of electron-emitting devices A are arranged in a plane on the substrate 1, and these electron-emitting devices A are wired for each scanning line. A modulation electrode 2 for modulating the electron beam emitted from each electron-emitting device A according to an information signal is provided above the substrate 1 and is orthogonal to the scanning line. The electrodes form an XY matrix. Incidentally, 3 is an opening through which the electron beam passes. Further, 4 is an image forming member that forms an image by irradiation with an electron beam, and when it is a light emitting body, displays an image with 5 bright spot patterns according to the irradiation pattern of the electron beam.

In the image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 15, it is difficult to align the opening 3 of the modulation electrode 2 with the electron-emitting device A, and the electron beam irradiation rate of the image forming member 4 is lowered due to the displacement. Cause Therefore, an attempt has been made for an image forming apparatus using so-called simple matrix wiring in which the modulation electrode 2 is not provided and the scanning wiring electrode 6a and the signal wiring electrode 6b are connected to each electron-emitting device A as shown in FIG. ing.

That is, as shown in FIG. 10, for example, M ×
It is intended to apply a multi-electron-beam generating apparatus simple matrix wiring by the N electron-emitting devices scanning wiring electrodes XE ₁ ~XE _N and the signal wiring electrode YE ₁ ~YE _M to the image forming apparatus. In such a configuration, each electron-emitting device corresponding to one pixel of the formed image is sequentially driven according to a desired image pattern (for example, the pattern shown in FIG. 12). As a driving method at that time, when the image is a luminescent image, dot sequential scanning in which each pixel of the image is sequentially lit to form one screen, or one line of the image (see FIG. 10) is used.
In the above example, two methods of line-sequential scanning are known in which one line is made up of M pixels) to sequentially emit light to form one screen. Of these two methods, the one that is usually adopted is the line-sequential scanning method, which has a long allocation time per pixel and is advantageous in terms of the driving speed of the electron-emitting device and the instantaneous current of the output electron beam. .

[0006]

However, when the above-mentioned multi-electron beam generator using the simple matrix wiring is driven by the dot sequential scanning system or the line sequential scanning system, depending on the type of the electron-emitting device used. However, there is a problem that a large current also flows through the elements other than the selected element, and the power consumption of the entire device increases.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and in particular, an electron source apparatus which has low power consumption and is capable of a large cost reduction, an image forming apparatus using the apparatus, and those devices. It is an object to provide a driving method.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention, which has been made to achieve the above object, firstly provides an electron having a plurality of cold cathode elements connected in a matrix to scan electrodes and signal electrodes. The electron source is provided with a means for applying to the plurality of cold cathode elements a voltage pulse having a voltage lowering rate of 10 [V / sec] or more, separately from the drive signal of the elements. Device, and second,
An image forming apparatus comprising: a plurality of cold cathode elements connected in a matrix to scan electrodes and signal electrodes; and an image forming member that forms an image by irradiation of an electron beam emitted from the cold cathode elements. An image forming apparatus comprising means for applying a voltage pulse having a voltage drop rate of 10 [V / sec] or more to the cold cathode device separately from the drive signal of the device. In the method for driving the first or second device, the voltage pulse applying means applies 10 [V / se to the cold cathode elements.
c] A method for driving an electron source device or an image forming apparatus, characterized in that a voltage pulse having a voltage drop rate of not less than c) is periodically applied. Fourthly, the voltage pulse is a vertical synchronization signal of the drive signal. The third electron source device or the image forming apparatus driving method is characterized in that the voltage is applied to the plurality of cold cathode elements during the period or the horizontal synchronizing signal period.

Here, the drive signal is an electric signal applied to the cold cathode element in order to generate an electron beam output having a desired intensity.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

Conventionally, two types of electron emitters, a thermoelectron source and a cold cathode electron source, are known.

Cold cathode electron sources include field emission type (hereinafter abbreviated as FE), metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter abbreviated as MIM), surface conduction electron emission devices (hereinafter abbreviated as SCE), and the like. As the FE type, W. P. Dyke & W.D. W.
Dolan, "Field Emission", Ad
vance in Electron Physic
s, 8, 89 (1956) or C.I. A. Spind
t, "PHYSICAL Properties of of
thin-film field emission
cathodes with mollybdenum
cones ", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 52.
48 (1976) and the like are known. An example of the MIM type is C.I. A. Mead, "The tunnel-em
issue amplifier, J.I. Appl. P
hys. , 32, 646 (1961) and the like are known. An example of the SCE type is M.I. I. Elinson, R
adio Eng. Electron Phys. 1
0, (1965), etc. SCE utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission is caused by passing a current in parallel to a film surface of a thin film having a small area formed on a substrate. As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, one using the SnO ₂ thin film by Erinson et al., One using the Au thin film [G. Dittmer: "Thin Solid Fi
lms ”, 9, 317 (1972)”, In ₂ O ₃ / Sn
O ₂ thin film [M. Hartwelland
C. G. Fonstad: "IEEE Trans.
ED Conf. , 519 (1975)], by carbon thin film [Hiraki Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1
No., p. 22 (1983)] and the like.

As a typical device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the above-mentioned M. The Hartwell device configuration is shown in FIG. In the figure, 171 is an insulating substrate. Reference numeral 172 denotes an electron emitting portion forming thin film, which is composed of an H-shaped metal oxide thin film formed by sputtering, and the like, and the electron emitting portion 173 is formed by an energization process called forming described later.
Is formed. 174 is called a thin film including an electron emitting portion.

Conventionally, in these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the electron-emitting portion forming thin film 1 is formed before the electron emission.
In general, the electron-emitting portion 173 was formed in advance by performing an energization process called forming on 72. That is,
The forming means that a voltage is applied to both ends of the electron emitting portion forming thin film 172 to locally destroy, deform or alter the electron emitting portion forming thin film, and the electron emitting portion 173 is brought into an electrically high resistance state. Is to form. still,
In some cases, the electron emitting portion 173 may have a crack in a part of the electron emitting portion forming thin film 172, and the electron may be emitted from the vicinity of the crack. Hereinafter, a thin film for forming an electron emitting portion including an electron emitting portion generated by forming will be referred to as a thin film 1 including an electron emitting portion.
Call it 74.

The surface-conduction type electron-emitting device that has undergone the forming process is one in which electrons are emitted from the electron-emitting part 173 by applying a voltage to the thin film 174 including the above-mentioned electron-emitting part and applying a current to the device surface. is there.

Since the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture, it has an advantage that many devices can be arrayed and formed over a large area. Therefore, various applications that can make full use of this feature are being studied. Above all,
It is expected that the image display device in which the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the phosphor that emits visible light are combined can be relatively easily manufactured even in a device with a large screen.

As a result of diligent efforts to improve the surface conduction electron-emitting device, the applicant of the present invention has developed a number of techniques for devices having a novel structure, devices made of materials that have not been used conventionally, and novel manufacturing methods. Has been disclosed. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-56822 by the present applicant is an example of this. This electron-emitting device has (1) a high electron-emitting effect. (2) Since the structure is simple, manufacturing is easy. (3) A large number of elements can be arrayed and formed on the same substrate. It is an element having advantages such as.

The present inventors have arrived at the present invention by paying attention to the current-voltage characteristics of cold cathode devices such as MIM devices and surface conduction electron-emitting devices. The present invention relates to an electron-emitting device having a controlled negative resistance characteristic.

There are various methods for producing an electron-emitting device having a voltage controlled negative resistance characteristic according to the present invention, and one example thereof will be described below with reference to FIG.

FIG. 18 shows the basic structure of a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention. FIG. 18 (a) is a plan view and FIG. 18 (b) is a side view. In the figure,
181 is an insulating substrate, 185 and 186 are device electrodes,
Reference numeral 4 is a thin film conductor containing fine particles, and 183 is an electron emitting portion.

Element electrodes Element electrodes 185 and 186 and a thin film conductor 184 containing fine particles are provided on a substrate 181 as in the conventional case. As a material of the substrate 181, an insulating material such as glass or quartz is used.

Since the device electrodes 185 and 186 are provided so as to face each other, they can be formed by a commonly used method such as a vacuum film forming process and a photolithography process. The material of the device electrodes 185 and 186 is a general conductive material, such as Ni, Al, Cu, Au, Pt, A.
A metal such as g or an oxide such as SnO ₃ or ITO can be used.

The thickness d of the device electrodes 185 and 186 is preferably several hundred liters to several μm. Also, the device electrodes 185,
186 are opposed to each other, the opposed interval L1 is preferably several hundred Å to several tens of μm, and the opposed width W1 is preferably several μm to several hundred μm. However, these ranges are approximate, and may be out of this range depending on the usage conditions of the element.

As the fine particles in the present invention, an ordinary cathode material having a low work function, a high melting point and a low vapor pressure, or an electron emitting portion 18 formed by a conventional forming treatment is used.
Fine particles of a material forming No. 3 or a material having high secondary electron emission efficiency are suitable, and the particle size thereof is preferably several tens of to several μm.

Specifically, for example, LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , Y
Borides such as B ₄ and CdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC and T
Carbides such as aC, SiC, WC, TiN, ZrN, Hf
Nitride such as Nb, Mo, Rh, Hf, Ta, W, R
e, Ir, Pt, Ti, Au, Ag, Cu, Cr, A
metals such as 1, Co, Ni, Fe, Pb, Pd, Cs, I
Metal oxides such as n ₂ O ₃ , SnO ₂ , and Sb ₂ O ₃ , Si, G
Examples thereof include semiconductors such as e and fine particles such as carbon, Ag, and Mg, and these may be one kind or a mixture of two or more kinds.

The thin film conductor 184 containing the fine particles is
The fine particles have a structure of a continuous fine particle film densely distributed,
In addition, the electrical resistance is about 10 ³ to 10 ⁷ Ω / □ (sheet resistance). Further, even if a part of the continuous fine particle film has discontinuity of fine particles, no problem occurs.

If the thin film conductor 184 containing fine particles can be surely attached between the opposing portions of the device electrodes 185 and 186, the device electrode 185 can be provided even after the device electrodes 185 and 186 are attached to the substrate 181. , 186 may be attached prior to the attachment. In FIG. 18, the device electrodes 185 and 186 are attached to the thin film conductor 1 from above.
84 is attached.

The attachment of the thin film conductor 184 can be performed by the following method, for example, in addition to gas deposition or vacuum deposition (state of initial film).

First, fine particles of the above material or a compound containing the above material and, if necessary, additives are added to an organic dispersion medium and stirred to prepare a fine particle dispersion liquid in which fine particles are almost uniformly dispersed. Next, this fine particle dispersion is applied to the substrate 181.
On the surface (before or after attaching the element electrodes 185, 186),
For example, coating is performed by a method such as depping or spin coating, and the dispersion medium can be evaporated and removed. When a compound is used, the compound is baked at a temperature and for a time and time at which it can be decomposed.

As described above, the thin film conductor 184 containing fine particles is provided between the facing portions of the device electrodes 185, 186 (at the interval L1 shown in FIG. 18). The thin film conductor 184 is, for example, a device electrode 185,
When provided after the attachment of 186, as shown in FIG. 18, it tends to be attached on the element electrodes 185, 186 other than between the opposed portions of the element electrodes 185, 186, but the opposed portions of the element electrodes 185, 186 tend to be. No voltage is applied to the thin-film conductor 184 except for the space, so that no trouble occurs.

Any organic dispersion medium can be used as long as it can disperse the fine particles without degrading them. For example, butyl acetate, alcohols, methyl ethyl ketone, cyclohexane and mixtures thereof can be used. It may be selected according to the type.

The above-mentioned additive promotes dispersion of fine particles, and for example, a well-known dispersion aid such as a surface active agent can be used.

The firing temperature and time are usually 200 although they vary depending on the type of organic dispersion medium used, the coating amount and the like.
It is about 0.1 to 1 hour at about 1000 ° C.

The solid content concentration of the fine particle dispersion liquid and the number of times of application (application amount) are adjusted according to the desired characteristics of the thin film conductor 184, and thus the desired characteristics of the electron emitting portion 183. That is,
The solid content concentration and the coating amount of the fine particle dispersion may be determined within a range in which the thin film conductor 184 having an electric resistance of 10 ³ to 10 ⁷ Ω / □ (sheet resistance) can be obtained. If the solid content concentration and the coating amount are too large, the electric resistance of the thin film conductor 184 becomes too low. On the contrary, if the solid content concentration and the coating amount are too small, the electric resistance of the thin film conductor 184 becomes too high. However, it becomes difficult to obtain a good surface conduction electron-emitting device.

The electron-emitting portion 183 in the present invention is a device electrode 18 in which the contained fine particles become islands and are formed into a discontinuous state film by the energization process, that is, the forming process.
5, the thin film conductor 184 between the device electrodes 18
The entire thin film conductor 184 between the electrodes 5 and 186 is the electron emission portion 18
3 or a part thereof may be the electron emitting portion 183.

The energization treatment may be carried out in the atmosphere, but it is preferably carried out under vacuum or under an inert gas in order to prevent element damage. Further, it is preferable that the voltage applied during the energization treatment is adjusted according to the desired characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

The electron-emitting device according to the present invention is not limited to the above manufacturing method, and a part of the above manufacturing method may be modified.

The basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device according to the present invention produced by the above-described device structure and manufacturing method will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 19 is a schematic block diagram of a measurement / evaluation apparatus for measuring electron emission characteristics of an element having the structure shown in FIG. In FIG. 19, 201 is a power source for applying the element voltage Vf to the element, and 200 is the element electrode 18.
5, 186, an ammeter for measuring the device current If flowing through the thin film 184 including the electron emitting portion, 204 is an anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emitting portion of the device, and 203 is an anode A high-voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the electrode 204, 202 is an electron emitting portion 18 of the device.
3 is an ammeter for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the device 3. The device current If and the emission current I of the electron-emitting device
To measure e, the power source 201 and the ammeter 200 are connected to the device electrodes 185 and 186, and the anode electrode 204 that connects the power source 203 and the ammeter 202 is arranged above the electron-emitting device. Further, the electron-emitting device and the anode electrode 204 are installed in a vacuum device, and the vacuum device is provided with equipment necessary for the vacuum device such as an exhaust pump and a vacuum gauge, which are not shown, and is operated under a desired vacuum. The device can be measured and evaluated.

The voltage of the anode electrode is 1 kV to 10 kV.
kV, the distance H between the anode electrode and the electron-emitting device is 3 mm
It was measured in the range of ~ 8 mm.

FIG. 9 shows typical IV characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention, that is, the relationship between the current (If) flowing through the device and the voltage (Vf) applied to the device. It demonstrates using.

In the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention, the current (If) flowing through the device is not always uniquely determined with respect to the voltage (Vf) applied to the device. The characteristics are roughly classified into two types. Of these, the first type has a current (If) flowing through the element.
Shows a temporary increase as the applied voltage (Vf) is increased from 0 [V], but then starts to decrease, and thereafter shows a substantially constant or slightly increasing tendency. On the other hand, in the second type, the current (If) flowing in the element always shows an increasing tendency as the applied voltage (Vf) is increased from 0 [V].

For convenience of explanation, the first mold is referred to as a static characteristic and the second mold is referred to as a dynamic characteristic.

In FIG. 9, the broken line is the static characteristic obtained at a voltage sweep speed of about 1 V / min or less. That is, Vf = 0
In the region from V1 to I (region I), the current (I
f) monotonically increases as the voltage (Vf) increases, and becomes maximum at V1. In the region of Vf = V1 to V2 (region II), the current (If) flowing through the element decreases as the voltage (Vf) increases, that is, a so-called voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (hereinafter, VCN).
R [Voltage controlled negative
(Tive resistance property)). In the region of Vf = V2 to Vd (region III), the current (If) flowing through the element hardly changes with the increase of the voltage (Vf). In addition, V1 is a value at which the current If has a maximum value, and V2 is a Vf axis intercept of the maximum slope tangent line of the tangent lines of the decrease curve of the current If. On the other hand, the emission current (Ie) from the device increases with Ve as the electron emission threshold value as the voltage (Vf) increases.

Further, in the figure, the solid line shows the dynamic characteristic obtained at a voltage sweep speed of about 10 V / sec or more. That is, when the maximum voltage is swept at Vd (see the If (Vd) curve in the figure), the current (If) flowing through the element gradually increases from near Ve and substantially matches the static characteristic If at Vd. When the maximum voltage is swept at V2 (see the If (V2) curve in the figure),
Similarly, If gradually increases and V2 has a static characteristic I.
It almost matches with f. Further, when the maximum voltage is swept with the voltage within the above-mentioned I region, it almost matches the If curve of static characteristics.

Of course, the static characteristics and the dynamic characteristics relating to the IV characteristics are changed by changing the material constituting the element, the element form, etc., but in general, the surface conduction type emission element having good electron emission characteristics is the above. It can be said that it has three regions I to III.

Driving of the electron source apparatus and the image forming apparatus using the electron-emitting device having the IV characteristics as described above is generally performed as follows.

FIG. 11 shows a simple matrix wiring of 6 × 6 surface conduction electron-emitting devices for simplification of description. For the sake of description, in order to distinguish each device,
D (1,1), D (1,2), ..., D (6,6) are represented by (X, Y) coordinates. When this multi-electron beam generator is applied to a flat panel type CRT, in order to obtain the brightness required for display, one element I
If s electron beam output is required, from the characteristics shown in FIG. 9, the element corresponding to the pixel that emits light (hereinafter, referred to as a selection element) is Vd, and the element corresponding to the pixel that does not emit light (hereinafter, It is sufficient to apply a voltage of Ve or lower to the non-selection element).

Therefore, when an image is formed by the line-sequential scanning system, six element rows parallel to the X axis are sequentially scanned to form one screen. For example, in FIG. 11, XE ₁ to
0 in any one column (XE ₁ column) selected from XE ₆
The V, is applied to V _x to another column of the non-selected (XE ₂ ~XE _6). In addition, the desired element (D [1,
1]) to obtain the electron beam output of Is, YE ₁
~ YE ₆ from the wiring (Y
Vd is applied to E ₁ ) and V _x is applied to the other wirings (YE _{2 to} YE ₆ ). As a result, the potential difference of Vd is applied to the selection element D (1,1), the potential difference of 0V is applied to the non-selection element D (2,6,2-6), and the non-selection element D (2,6,1) is applied. Is the potential difference of V _X ,
Potential difference Vd-V _X to the unselected element D (1,2~6) are applied, respectively. Here, V _X and V d−V _X are shown in FIG.
From the characteristics shown in (1), it is selected at Ve or less. One screen is formed by sequentially performing this operation in each column (XE _{2 to} XE ₆ ).

However, in the above driving, D (2,6,1) and D (1,2) among the above non-selected elements are used.
Since a potential difference is applied to (6) to (6), a current (If) flows according to the applied voltage (element voltage) in the non-selected element as is apparent from FIG. 9, and this current (If) is applied to the entire device. Was causing an increase in power consumption. In the simple matrix wiring as described above, it is impossible to set the potential difference of all non-selected elements to 0V.

In the above description, a 6 × 6 matrix is used for simplicity, but the number of pixels in a practical image of the image forming apparatus is, for example, about 1000 × 1000 pixels. Reactive power consumption increases significantly. Furthermore, a power supply, a drive circuit, and a wiring material of such a device must have a large current capacity in consideration of the above-mentioned ineffective component, which results in a very expensive device.

The inventors of the present invention have described the above relationship between the IV characteristics of cold cathode devices such as MIM devices and surface conduction electron-emitting devices, and the increase in power consumption when driving a device in which these devices are arranged in a simple matrix. The present invention has been achieved by focusing on the above and obtaining the following knowledge.

That is, the electron emission device has a voltage drop rate of 1
When a voltage pulse of 0 V / sec or more is applied, the above-mentioned FIG.
Transition to a high resistance state, which is different from the IV static characteristics of the I to III regions. Here, the high resistance state refers to a state in which the element follows a current-voltage characteristic according to the dynamic characteristic for a finite time. For example, immediately after a voltage pulse having a peak value Vd and a voltage drop rate of 10 V / sec or more is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device having the IV characteristic of FIG. 9, the IV characteristic of the element is In FIG. 9, the high resistance state shown by If (Vd) is shown. Even after the transition to the high resistance state as described above, it is possible to obtain the emission current Is by applying Vd to the element, and the solid line I
As is clear from the characteristic indicated by f (Vd), even if a voltage of Ve or less is applied to the element, the current (I
f) is greatly reduced.

The high resistance state of such an element is maintained for a finite period of time after the application of the voltage pulse, but thereafter, it returns to the IV static characteristic shown by the dotted line in FIG. Therefore, when it is necessary to maintain the high resistance state for a desired period, the holding time of the high resistance state is desired by repeatedly applying the voltage pulse while the high resistance state is held. The period can be extended.

According to the present invention, in the multi-electron beam generating element and the image forming apparatus in which the cold cathode element having the IV static characteristic is simply matrix-wired, the voltage pulse (10V / sec or more) of the voltage drop rate is previously set. Hereinafter, by applying a high resistance pulse), the IV of the element is
Change the characteristics to different states. That is, by shifting the element to the high resistance state, the reactive current flowing through the non-selected element can be reduced, and the power consumption of the entire device during driving can be significantly reduced. The upper limit of the voltage drop rate of the high resistance pulse is practically 1
It is 0 ¹⁰ [V / sec].

As the waveform of the high resistance pulse, which mainly characterizes the present invention, for example, a triangular wave, a rectangular wave, a sine wave, or the like can be used. Further, the peak value of this high resistance pulse is the II region (VCN) shown in FIG.
It is desirable that it is V1 or more in the R region), and particularly preferably V2 or more in the III region.

Further, in the multi-electron beam generator as shown in FIG. 10, for example, during the vertical synchronizing signal period of the drive signal or during the horizontal synchronizing signal period,
By periodically applying the high resistance pulse, the electron-emitting device can be constantly maintained in the high resistance state during the display operation, and the power consumption can be significantly reduced. Here, when the time for which the electron-emitting device is kept in the high resistance state by one application of the high resistance pulse is T _HR [sec], and the scanning time for one screen is T _SCAN [sec], continuous When the screen is scanned, the high resistance pulse may be applied once for each P screen as long as the formula (1) is satisfied.

T _HR > P × T _SCAN (P is a positive integer) Equation (1)

[0059]

EXAMPLES Next, examples of the present invention will be described. For convenience of description, first, a method of manufacturing an electron source in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices used in the following examples are two-dimensionally matrix-wired will be described. .

After that, an example in which the high resistance pulse, which is a feature of the present invention, is implemented will be specifically described.

First, a method of producing the electron source used in the following examples will be described.

A plan view of a part of the electron source is shown in FIG. 21 is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in the figure. 22 here
1 is a substrate, 222 is a lower wiring corresponding to the row direction wiring, 22
3 is an upper wiring corresponding to the column direction wiring, 224 is a thin film for forming an electron emitting portion, 225 and 226 are element electrodes, 227 is an interlayer insulating layer, and 228 is a contact hole. Next, the manufacturing method will be specifically described with reference to FIG.

Step- (a) After a Cr substrate having a thickness of 50 Å and an Au layer having a thickness of 6000 Å are sequentially laminated on a substrate 221 made of cleaned soda lime glass by vacuum vapor deposition, a photoresist (made by AZ1370 Hoechst) is spinnered. After spin coating and baking, the photomask image is exposed and developed to form a resist pattern of the lower wiring 222, and the Au / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the lower wiring 222 having a desired shape.

Step- (b) Next, an interlayer insulating layer 227 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 micron is deposited by the RF sputtering method.

Step- (c) A photoresist pattern for forming the contact hole 228 is formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in the step (b), and the interlayer insulating layer 227 is etched by using this as a mask to form the contact hole 228. . The etching is RIE (Reactive I) using CF ₄ and H ₂ gas.
on Etching) method.

Step- (d) After that, a pattern to be a gap between the device electrodes 225 and 226 and the device electrodes is formed with a photoresist (RD-2000N).
(-41 Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) de was formed, and Ti having a thickness of 50 Å and Ni having a thickness of 1000 Å were sequentially deposited by a vacuum evaporation method. Dissolve the photoresist pattern with an organic solvent,
The i / Ti deposited film is lifted off, and the device electrode interval L1 is 3
The device electrodes 225 and 226 having a device electrode width W1 of 300 μm were formed.

Step- (e) After forming a photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 223 on the device electrodes 225 and 226, Ti having a thickness of 50Å and a thickness of 5 are formed.
000 Å Au is sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions are removed by lift-off, and the upper wiring of the desired shape 2
23 was formed.

Step- (f) FIG. 23 shows a part of a plan view of a mask of the electron-emitting portion forming thin film 224 of the electron-emitting device relating to this step. A mask having a gap L1 between the element electrodes and an opening in the vicinity thereof, and the Cr film 229 having a film thickness of 1000Å
Was deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and the fine particle dispersion liquid was applied thereon by spin coating.

As the fine particle dispersion, the following materials were stirred together with glass beads for 24 hours with a paint shaker.

Fine particles SnO ₂ (particle size 1000 Å or less) 1.0 g Organic dispersion medium MEK (methyl ethyl ketone): Cyclohexane = 3: 1 800 cc Next, firing at 250 ° C. for 10 minutes is repeated, and the electron emitting portion containing fine particles is included. A thin film conductor 224, which is a forming thin film, was formed.

The main element thus formed is S
electron emitting portion formation thin film 2 composed of fine particles consisting nO ₂
The film thickness of 24 was 100Å. Note that the fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated as described above, and as the fine structure thereof, not only the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also the fine particles are adjacent to each other, or
The overlapping films (including island-like films) are referred to, and the particle diameter means the diameter of the fine particles whose particle shape can be recognized in the above-mentioned state.

Step- (g) Cr film 229 and thin film 22 for forming electron emission portion after firing
4 was wet-etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern.

Step- (h) A pattern was formed such that a resist was applied on portions other than the contact hole 228, and Ti with a thickness of 50Å and Au with a thickness of 5000Å were sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation. Contact holes 228 were filled by removing unnecessary portions by lift-off.

Through the above steps, the lower wiring 22 is formed on the same substrate.
2, interlayer insulating layer 227, upper wiring 223, element electrode 22
5, 226, the electron emission portion forming thin film 224, etc. are formed,
Created an electron source.

The forming process for forming the electron-emitting portion is performed at a boosting rate of 1 V / 100 seconds to 1 V / min. When the forming process is performed after the electron source is manufactured, the above-mentioned step (h) is performed.
In the case of manufacturing the image forming apparatus described later, after placing the unformed electron source manufactured in the above steps (a) to (h) in a vacuum container, the forming is performed in vacuum. Processed.

Although the above steps are examples using thin film, photolithography, etching, and other techniques, printing, which is a wiring forming technique, or other various techniques may be used.

Further, there is a degree of freedom in the material of each member, and for example, the wiring material may be one normally used as an electrode material, such as Au, Ag, Cu, Al, Ni, W, Ti, Cr. To be In addition to MgO also silicon oxide film interlayer insulating layer _{227, TiO 2, Ta 2 O} 5, Al 2 O 3 and their laminates, such as mixtures thereof. In addition, the element electrode 2
As the wiring materials 25 and 226, conductive materials other than the wiring materials mentioned above may be used.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an electron source which is an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 101 is an electron-emitting device array made of the electron sources produced in the above steps, and 102 is a switching element. An element array, 103 is a control circuit, 104 is a shift register, 105 is a line memory, 106 is an OR gate, 107 is a drive element array, and V _X is a constant voltage power supply.

As described with reference to FIG. 10, the electron-emitting device array 101 is composed of M × N surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a simple matrix, and the scanning wiring electrodes XE _{1 to} XE _N.
In which each drive signal is supplied from the switching element array 102 driving element array 107 via the signal wiring electrode YE ₁ ~YE _M and.

Further, the switching element array 102 is
It incorporates N switching elements S _{1 to SN} , and each switching element operates based on a control signal T _SX transmitted from the control circuit 103.

[0081] Each of the switching elements S ₁ to S _N, with respect to the scanning wiring electrode XE ₁ ~XE _N, or constant-voltage power supply V _X,
The switching element array 102 can be easily miniaturized by using a semiconductor switching element such as an FET (field effect transistor), which has a role of selectively connecting 0 [V] (ground level). Is.
In the present embodiment, V _X outputs a constant voltage of 7 [V].

Further, the control circuit 103, in order to match the operations of the respective parts, including the control signal T _SX to the switching element array 102, T _SFT , T _MRY and T.
Generates control signals such as _RP . The timing of these control signals will be described later with reference to FIG.

The shift register 104 is for converting digital data for driving the electron-emitting device, which is serially sent from the outside, into serial / parallel, and is based on the shift clock signal T _SFT sent from the control circuit 103. It works.

The shift register 104 serially / parallel-converts one line of electron-emitting device drive data I.
_D1 ~I _DM is sent to the line memory 105, a line memory 105 stores the appropriate data based on the memory load timing signal T _MRY sent from the control circuit 103.

The line memory 105 stores the accumulated data for one line from the signal _I'D1 ...
It is output as I ′ _DM and input to the OR gate 106. The control signal T _RP for applying the high resistance pulse is also input from the control circuit 103 to the OR gate 106.

Therefore, when the control signal T _RP is logically 0, the OR gate 106 drives the drive element array 107.
Content of the signal I _"D1 ~I" _DM output to is equal to the output signal I _'D1 ~I' _DM of the line memory 105,
On the other hand, if T _RP is logically 1, OR gate 1
At 06, the contents of the output signals I ″ _{D1 to} I ″ _DM are all 1.

The driving electronic array 107 is, for example, an FET.
Input signal I ″ _{D1 to} I ″ _DM to the drive element array 107.
Or each is 1, depending on whether it is 0, and supplies a driving voltage to the electrode YE ₁ ~YE _M of the electron emission element array 101. That is, of the I ″ _{D1 to} I ″ _DM , the one that is 1 is supplied with the Vd voltage (electron emission voltage) to the corresponding V _{Y1 to} V _YM , and the one that is 0 is supplied. , V
_{The X} voltage (7 [V]) is supplied. In this example, 14 [V] was supplied as the Vd voltage.

The function of each part of the electron source in this embodiment has been described above. Next, the operation procedure as a whole will be described with reference to the time chart of FIG.

FIG. 2A shows an operation procedure when the electron-emitting device driving data is serially sent to the shift register 104 from the outside. As shown in FIG. Sequentially from the first line data, the second line data,
The data of the third line is sent, but in synchronization with this, the shift clock signal T is sent from the control circuit 103 to the shift register 104 as shown in FIG.
_SFT is output.

When the data for one line is accumulated in the shift resist 104, at the timing shown in FIG.
The memory load timing signal T _MRY is output from the control circuit 103 to the line memory 105, and 1 line (1
Drive data for (M elements) are loaded in parallel.
As a result, the output signals I ′ _{D1 to} I ′ of the line memory 105
The content of _DM changes at the timing shown in FIG.

On the other hand, the content of the signal T _SX for controlling the operation of the switching element array 102 is as shown in FIG. That is, until the drive data of the first line is output from the line memory 105, the switching elements S _{1 to SN} in the switching element array 102 are all controlled to select the ground level (0 [V]). After that, in synchronization with the drive data output from the line memory 105, for example, when driving the first line, only the switching element S ₁ is 0 [V], and when driving the second line, The operation is controlled so that only the switching element S ₂ is 0 [V].

On the other hand, from the control circuit 103 to the OR gate 10
Control signal T for applying the high resistance pulse sent to
_As shown in (F) of FIG. 2, _RP is shaded in the figure so that a high resistance pulse can be applied during a period in which all the switching element arrays 102 select 0 [V]. A signal waveform including a pulse as shown by is sent. Therefore,
V _{Y1 to} V _YM output from the drive element array 107 are as shown in FIG.

As a result of the above, in the electron source of FIG. 1, before starting driving based on the electron-emitting-device drive data sent from the outside, for all M × N electron-emitting devices, , Vd voltage (14 in this embodiment)
A high resistance pulse of [V] is applied.

FIG. 3 shows voltage waveforms applied to the respective wiring electrodes when the above-described operation procedure of this embodiment is performed on the 6 × 6 electron-emitting device array of FIG.
This is an example in which the resistance increasing pulse is applied to all the electron-emitting devices every time the pattern shown in FIG. 12 is driven by one screen by line sequential driving.

As described above, in this embodiment,
For an electron source in which M × N electron-emitting devices are wired in a simple matrix, a high resistance pulse is applied to all the electron-emitting devices at the same time, and the electron-emitting devices are transitioned to a high resistance state in advance, and then the The electron beam pattern is output. In addition, in the example of FIG.
The high resistance pulse is applied every time the screen is scanned, but it may be applied once for every several screens as long as the above-mentioned expression (1) is satisfied.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, another mode regarding the method of applying the high resistance pulse to the M × N electron-emitting device array 101 of the embodiment 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described.

The method of applying the high resistance pulse of this embodiment is as follows.
This is a method of dividing the electron-emitting device array 101 into a plurality of groups and applying a high resistance pulse to each group. The method will be described below with reference to two examples with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. For simplification of description, the case of the 6 × 6 matrix of FIG. 11 will be described as the electron-emitting device array as in the first embodiment.

First, FIG. 4 shows the electron-emitting device group D.
Let (X, Y) be the first group (X = 1 to 3, Y = 1 to 6),
It is divided into two groups of a second group (X = 4 to 6, Y = 1 to 6), and in each of the first group and the second group, each wiring when applying the high resistance pulse to each group. 6 is an example of a voltage waveform to be applied and, as a result, a voltage waveform of a high resistance pulse applied to each group of electron-emitting devices.

Further, FIG. 5 shows the electron-emitting device group D
(X, Y) is a first group (X = 1 to 6, Y = 1 to 2), a second group (X = 1 to 6, Y = 3 to 4), a third group (X = 1 to 1).
6, Y = 5 to 6), and an example of a voltage waveform applied to each wiring when the resistance increasing pulse is sequentially applied to each group at different timings.

As described above, it is easy to divide the electron-emitting device group arranged in the XY matrix into rectangular regions parallel to the X-axis or the Y-axis and apply the high resistance pulse to each region. According to this method, since the instantaneous current when applying the high resistance pulse is small, the load on the power supply circuit can be reduced.

In the first and second embodiments described above,
Although a substantially rectangular voltage pulse is used as the high resistance pulse, the voltage waveform of the high resistance pulse is not necessarily limited to the rectangular waveform. For example, in FIG.
It is also possible to use a triangular wave, a trapezoidal wave, or a sine wave as shown in (C). That is, when the triangular wave of (A) or the trapezoidal wave of (B) is used, the peak value V _HRP is the voltage reaching the area II or the area III described in FIG. 9 and the voltage waveform falls. If the section has a voltage drop rate of at least 10 [V / sec] or more, it can be effectively operated as a high resistance pulse. Also in the case of the sine wave (or a waveform similar to this) of (C), the peak value V _HRP is the region II in FIG.
Alternatively, the voltage may reach the region III, and the voltage drop rate is not constant in time in the case of a sine wave, but may be a waveform whose average value is approximately 10 [V / sec] or more. In other words, V _HRP / T _R ≧ 10 [V / s
If it is a sine wave satisfying ec], it can be effectively operated as a high resistance pulse.

(Embodiment 3) In this embodiment, an image forming apparatus which is an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view for explaining the schematic structure of a flat-plate CRT panel using the above-mentioned electron source having a surface conduction electron-emitting device with simple matrix wiring. A part is cut away for ease of illustration.

In FIG. 7, VC is a glass-made vacuum container, and FP which is a part of the container is a face plate on the display surface side. A transparent electrode made of, for example, ITO is formed on the inner surface of the face plate FP, and red (R), green (G), and blue (B) phosphors are applied in a mosaic pattern inside the transparent electrode. In the field of CRT, a metal back treatment known in the art is applied (the transparent electrode, the phosphor, and the metal back are not shown). In addition, the transparent electrode is electrically connected to the outside of the vacuum container through a terminal EV in order to apply an acceleration voltage. Further, S is a glass substrate fixed to the bottom surface of the vacuum container VC, and the electron-emitting devices are arranged on the upper surface thereof in M × N rows. The electron-emitting device group includes wirings XE ₁ , XE ₂ , ... XE _N-1 ,
XE _N and YE _1, YE _2, the _{··· YE M-1, YE M} ( partially omitted to simplify the figure), are simple matrix wiring, the wiring is electrically out of the vacuum chamber Have been taken out. Further, in the figure, an enlarged view in a circle is an example of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, in which a positive electrode (high-potential side electrode) 108 and a negative electrode (low-potential side electrode) 109 are arranged facing each other on a substrate. An electron emitting portion 110 is provided so as to be sandwiched. The positive electrode 108 is a Y-direction wiring electrode (not shown)
Further, the negative electrode 109 is electrically connected to the X-direction wiring electrode.

In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, as an image forming member for forming an image by irradiation of an electron beam, a resist material or the like other than the above-mentioned phosphor is used, and light emission, discoloration, electrification, alteration, etc. due to collision of electrons. The member which does can be used.

Next, referring to FIG. 8, the flat plate type C shown in FIG. 7 is used.
A circuit configuration for driving the RT panel will be described.

FIG. 8 shows a schematic block diagram of the drive circuit. In the figure, 111 is the display panel described in FIG. 7, 112 is a sync separation circuit, and 113 is A / A.
D converter, 114 is a timing control circuit for adjusting the operation timing of each part, 115 is a shift register for performing serial / parallel conversion, 116 is a line memory for storing one line of image data, 117 is M This is a pulse width modulator, 118 is a switching element array, 119 is a high resistance pulse generator, 102 is a switching element array, and V _X and V _H are constant voltage power supplies that output a constant voltage. In this embodiment, V _X is 7 [V],
V _H was set to 10 [kV].

The operation of each of the above parts will be described below step by step.

First, the NTSC signal supplied from the outside is separated by the sync separation circuit 112 into a vertical sync signal VD, a horizontal sync signal HD and a luminance signal.

The timing control circuit 114 generates a clock signal for the shift register 115 and a write timing signal for the line memory 116 based on the vertical synchronizing signal VD and the horizontal synchronizing signal HD. On the other hand, the high resistance pulse generator 119 and the switching element arrays 102 and 11
8, a control signal for controlling the operation is generated appropriately.

The luminance signal separated by the sync separation circuit 112 is digitized by the A / D converter 113 and sequentially fetched in the shift register 115. Then, when the data for one line of the image is serial / parallel converted, the data is written to the line memory 116. The line memory 116 outputs the stored data for one line to the pulse width modulator 117.
Reference numeral 17 generates a voltage pulse having a different length according to the input brightness data.

That is, for example, when displaying an image with 128 gradations, the time width in units of approximately 1/128 of the scanning time of one line is an integer multiple (n = 0 to 1) according to the brightness level.
27) The generated rectangular voltage pulse is generated. As the voltage level of the rectangular pulse, for example, a pulse having an amplitude of 7 [V] is used such that the reference level is 7 [V] and the ON level of the pulse is 14 [V].

Next, the switching element array 118 is
Based on the control signal T _Y generated by the timing control circuit 114, either the output signal of the pulse width modulator 117 or the output signal of the high resistance pulse generator 119 is selectively used for the wiring electrodes of the display panel 111. YE _{1 to} YE _M
Play a role in connecting to. Normally, the output of the pulse width modulator 117 is selected during the display operation. However, as will be described later, when the high resistance pulse is applied to the electron-emitting device of the display panel 111, the high resistance pulse generator is used. The output of 119 is selected.

On the other hand, the wiring electrode XE _{1 of the} display panel 111
Switching element array is connected to the ~XE _N 102
Is a control signal T output from the timing control circuit 114
_Works based on _X.

Normally, during display operation, in synchronization with the pulse signal output from the pulse width modulator 117 described above,
XE ₁ ~XE ground level to the wiring electrodes corresponding to the line to be displayed among the _N (0 [V]), the other electrodes, V _X
Works to be connected. Further, when the resistance increasing pulse is applied to the electron-emitting device of the display panel 111, all the switching devices S _{1 to} S _N simultaneously select the ground level (0 [V]) by the control signal T _X. Operation is controlled.

The operation of each section has been described above individually, but the overall operation will be described again.

In the image forming apparatus of the present invention, when the apparatus power is turned on, the high-resistance pulse generator 119 and the switching element arrays 118 and 102 are previously notified from the timing control circuit 114 before the display operation is started. Then, a control signal is output so that the high resistance pulse is applied to the electron-emitting device of the display panel 111.

That is, this device is characterized in that all the surface conduction electron-emitting devices are transitioned to the high resistance state in advance before the display of the screen is started. At this time, since a pulse having a waveform close to a rectangle is used to apply the high resistance pulse, it takes only 10 μsec or less. Therefore, for example, when used as a TV receiver, in practical use, Does not feel the pain of waiting time.

Further, in the present device, even during the display operation, the high resistance pulse is periodically applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device, but the display image is displayed because the high resistance pulse is applied. Appropriate timing control is performed by the timing control circuit 114 so as not to be lost.

That is, in general, starting with an NTSC signal,
A signal for transmitting image information has a sync signal portion that does not include image data such as brightness and color, but a high resistance pulse is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device by utilizing this period. . For example, in the case of an NTSC signal, a vertical blanking period of about 1.27 msec and a horizontal blanking period of about 10.9 μsec are provided. Either or both of these periods can be used. A high resistance pulse may be applied. Of course, it is not always necessary to apply the high resistance pulse for every blanking period, and for example, the high resistance pulse is controlled to be applied every vertical blanking period for every 20 fields. May be.

An example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention has been described above with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. Next, a method for preventing a reduction in image contrast with respect to the application of the high resistance pulse will be described.

As described above, in order to shift or maintain the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the high resistance state, the peak value is in the II region or III as described in FIG.
It is only necessary to apply a voltage pulse that reaches the area,
At this time, for example, when the display element driving voltage source and the high resistance pulse voltage source are shared, the high resistance pulse voltage exceeds the threshold voltage (V _th ) of the element, so that the high resistance The electron emission element emits electrons due to the application of the activation pulse. When applied to an image forming apparatus, when a fluorescent screen or the like emits light by an electron beam generated by the application of the high resistance pulse, this becomes background brightness, which causes a reduction in contrast of a displayed image.

Therefore, the present inventors have made the following findings as a result of studying a method of reducing the power consumption by the high resistance pulse and not reducing the contrast of the image.

First, there is a method of limiting the amount of electron emission by appropriately selecting the waveform of the high resistance pulse so that the reduction in contrast is not visually perceived.

Specifically, for example, when displaying a TV image with 256 gradations, when the minimum emission brightness (black) is 0 and the maximum emission brightness is 255, the emission by the high resistance pulse is 0 to 1. Within the range, it can be said that there is almost no visual effect. Therefore, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, when the brightness modulation is performed with the pulse width, the high resistance pulse generator 11 is used.
The pulse width generated by the pulse generator 9 may be set to be equal to or smaller than the pulse width corresponding to the brightness 1 generated by the pulse width modulator 117.
Of course, this is an example in which rectangular pulses having the same voltage are used as the pulses generated by the high resistance pulse generator 119 and the pulse width modulator 117. In addition to this, for example, as the high resistance pulse, It is also possible to use a triangular wave or a sine wave to reduce the electric power in the portion above V _{th at which} electron emission occurs.

Next, as a second method, a method of suppressing the emission brightness by reducing the accelerating voltage V _H applied to the phosphor during the period in which electron emission occurs by the resistance increasing pulse may be used.

FIG. 13 shows an embodiment thereof, which is basically the same in construction as the embodiment shown in FIG.
In the case of this figure, the high voltage power source 120 is used as a variable voltage source, and based on the control of the output signal T _H of the timing control circuit 114,
The difference is that the output voltage can be changed. Then, as described above, while the high resistance pulse is applied to the electron-emitting device of the display panel 111, the output of the high voltage power supply 120 is, for example, 1
By setting it to [kV] or less, the emission brightness during this period is
It is possible to reduce the contrast deterioration to a level that does not cause a visual problem.

Next, as a third method, it is effective to provide an electrode for controlling the flight of an electron beam between the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the phosphor.

FIG. 14 is a diagram for explaining an example thereof.
A partial cross section of the display device is shown, and the basic configuration is the same as the device shown in FIG. 7, but in the case of this device,
A mesh electrode 121 having an electron beam transmitting hole is added between the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the phosphor. For example, the distance h ₁ between the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the phosphor is 10 m
m, the distance h ₂ between the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the mesh electrode 121 is 0.5 mm, and the acceleration voltage applied to the phosphor is 10 [kV], a high resistance pulse is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device. By setting the potential of the mesh electrode 121 to 0 [V] during the application, it is possible to prevent the electron beam emitted by the high resistance pulse from reaching the phosphor. On the other hand, when performing a normal image display operation, by setting the potential of the mesh electrode 121 to about 500 [V], it is possible to irradiate the phosphor with an electron beam through the transmission hole of the mesh electrode without any trouble. is there.

[0130]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects.

(1) By applying a high resistance pulse to the cold cathode element to bring it into a high resistance state, the reactive current flowing through the element in the non-selected state can be greatly reduced, and the entire device during driving can be reduced. It is possible to significantly reduce the power consumption.

(2) The electric power of the device, the drive circuit and the electric capacity of the wiring material can be reduced, and the cost can be greatly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a multi-electron beam generator that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a timing chart for explaining the operation of the device of FIG.

3 is an example of a voltage waveform applied to each wiring electrode of the device of FIG.

4 is another example of the voltage waveform applied to each wiring electrode of the device of FIG.

5 is another example of a voltage waveform applied to each wiring electrode of the device of FIG.

FIG. 6 is an example of a voltage waveform of a high resistance pulse according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a partially cutaway perspective view of the image forming apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a drive circuit of the device of FIG.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining the IV characteristics of the cold cathode device according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a plurality of electron-emitting devices that are wired in a simple matrix.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a plurality of electron-emitting devices wired in a simple matrix.

FIG. 12 is an example of a driving pattern of an electron-emitting device array.

13 is a schematic configuration diagram showing another example of the drive circuit of the apparatus of FIG.

FIG. 14 is a partial cross-sectional view of an image display device that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional image display device.

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of a conventional simple matrix wiring type electron-emitting device array.

FIG. 17 is a configuration diagram showing an example of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 18 is a configuration diagram showing another example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 19 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement / evaluation apparatus for measuring electron emission characteristics of an electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a partial plan view of an electron source according to the present invention.

21 is a partial cross-sectional view of the electron source of FIG.

FIG. 22 is a diagram for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source in FIG. 20.

23 is a partial plan view of the mask in the manufacturing process of the electron source in FIG. 20. FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 electron-emitting device array 102 switching device array 103 control circuit 104 shift register 105 line memory 106 OR gate 107 driving device array 108 high-potential side electrode 109 low-potential side electrode 110 electron-emitting portion 111 display panel 112 sync separation circuit 113 A / D Converter 114 Timing control circuit 115 Shift register 116 Line memory 117 Pulse width modulator 118 Switching element array 119 High resistance pulse generator 120 High voltage power supply 121 Mesh electrode

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshiyuki Nagata 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An electron source device having a plurality of cold cathode elements connected to a scan electrode and a signal electrode in a matrix, wherein the plurality of cold cathode elements are provided with a voltage of 10 [V / Sec] or more], and an electron source device comprising means for applying a voltage pulse having a voltage drop rate. 2. An image forming device, comprising: a plurality of cold cathode elements connected in a matrix form to scanning electrodes and signal electrodes; and an image forming member for forming an image by irradiation of electron beams emitted from the cold cathode elements. In the device, 10 [V / se is applied to the plurality of cold cathode devices separately from the drive signal of the devices.
c) An image forming apparatus comprising means for applying a voltage pulse having a voltage lowering rate of the above. 3. The method for driving an apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the voltage pulse applying means applies a voltage pulse having a voltage lowering rate of 10 [V / sec] or more to the plurality of cold cathode elements. A method for driving an electron source device or an image forming apparatus, which is characterized by applying the voltage periodically. 4. The electron source device according to claim 3, wherein the voltage pulse is applied to the plurality of cold cathode elements during a vertical synchronizing signal period or a horizontal synchronizing signal period of a drive signal. Driving method of image forming apparatus.