JPH06295659A - Electron source and image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce irregularity in emitted electron quantity, and reduce irregularity in brightness by disposing resistors between one of a pair of electrodes and electron emission elements in such a way that voltages applied to the electron emission elements become similar to each other. CONSTITUTION:When a voltage 17V is applied to both ends of a positive side and a negative side electrodes 6, 7, in the case where a resistor 5 is not provided, a voltage about 17V is applied to electron emission elements D1 and D1000 at both ends, and a voltage of about 13.4V is applied to electron emission elements D500 and D501 at a center part. For correcting a differential voltage of 3.6V between them, and setting the applied voltage on each element to be constant at 14V, the resistors R1, R1000 are set at about 110OMEGA, and the resistors R1, R1000 at the center part to be 50OMEGA by setting and disposing the resistors 5 to be gradually smaller by about 0.12OMEGA in order, so the voltage of an almost similar degree is applied to all the elements. By setting a value of the resistor 5 at 0.01-1 times that of an element resistor Rd, and setting the applied voltage to provide a necessary emission current as an image forming device, the uniform emission current having smaller fluctuation can be provided.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron source having a large number of electron-emitting devices, especially surface conduction electron-emitting devices,
Specifically, the present invention relates to an electron source applicable to a flat panel display, a fluorescent display tube and the like, and an image forming apparatus using the electron source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a device which can emit electrons with a simple structure, for example, MI Elinson (M.
I. A cold cathode device announced by Elinson et al. Is known [Radio Engineering Electron Physics (Radio Eng.
ron Phys. ) Volume 10, 1290-1296
P. 1965]. This utilizes a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted by flowing a current in parallel with a thin film having a small area formed on a substrate, and is generally called a surface conduction electron-emitting device. As this surface conduction electron-emitting device, SnO ₂ developed by Elinson et al.
(Sb) using thin film, using Au thin film [Gee Ditmer "Sin Solid Films" (GD
ittmer: "Thin Solid Film"
s ") 9, p. 317, 1972), by ITO thin film [M Hartwell and CG Fonstad" IEEE TRANS "ET Conference (M. Hartwellland CG.
Fonstad; “IEEE Trans.ED Con
f. ") Page 519, 1983], etc. are reported.

FIG. 6 shows a typical device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices. In the figure, 22 and 23 are element electrodes for obtaining electrical connection, 25 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion formed of a conductive material, 21 is an insulating substrate,
Reference numeral 24 represents an electron emitting portion. Conventionally, in these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, an electron-emitting portion is previously formed by an energization process called forming before electron emission. That is, by applying a voltage between the electrode 22 and the electrode 23, the thin film 25 is energized.
Is locally destroyed, deformed or altered to form an electron emitting portion 24 in an electrically high resistance state, thereby obtaining an electron emitting function. Conventionally, in the surface conduction electron-emitting device, a voltage is applied to the high resistance film by the device electrodes 22 and 23, and a current is caused to flow on the device surface, so that electrons are emitted from the electron emitting portion.

The inventors of the present invention have also disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-2005.
No. 32 and JP-A-2-56822,
We have disclosed the technology of a novel surface conduction electron-emitting device in which fine particles for emitting electrons are dispersedly arranged between electrodes. This electron-emitting device has (1) high electron emission efficiency. (2)
Since the structure is simple, it is easy to manufacture. (3) A large number of elements can be arrayed and formed on the same substrate. It is an element having advantages such as. A typical device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices is shown in FIG. In FIG. 7, 22 and 2
3 is an element electrode for obtaining electrical connection, 26 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion in which fine particles for emitting electrons are dispersed and arranged,
Reference numeral 21 is an insulating substrate.

In recent years, attempts have been made to use the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device in an image forming apparatus. An example thereof is shown in FIG. The figure shows an image forming apparatus in which a large number of the electron-emitting devices described above are arranged. Here, 39 and 40 are wiring electrodes, 34 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion, and 35
Is a grit electrode, 36 is an electron passage hole, and 37 is an image forming member. The image forming member is made of, for example, a phosphor, a resist material, or the like that emits light, changes color, is charged, or changes quality by being hit by electrons. Further, in this image forming apparatus, a linear electron source in which a thin film 34 including a plurality of electron emitting portions is linearly arranged between the wiring electrodes 39 and 40, and a grid electrode 35.
Is a device for performing image formation by driving the XY matrix and causing electrons to collide with the image forming member 37 according to the information signal.

The inventors of the present invention have also disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-2479.
No. 36 and JP-A-2-247937, an electron source and an image forming apparatus each including a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a resistance element between electrodes, and an electron source in which at least one of the electrodes includes a thin film resistor, An image forming apparatus has been disclosed. These electron sources can improve the fluctuation of the emission current amount. In addition, these image forming apparatuses have advantages such as display flicker and variations among pixels can be reduced. A typical image forming apparatus using these electron sources is shown in FIGS. 9 and 10. Here, 32 and 33 are device electrodes, 34 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion, 31 is an insulating substrate,
38 is a thin film resistor, 39 and 40 are wiring electrodes, 35 is a grit electrode, 36 is an electron passage hole, and 37 is an image forming member having a phosphor 41.

In addition to the above electron-emitting devices, many promising electron-emitting devices such as a thin film thermal cathode and MIM type emission devices have been reported.

With the rapid progress of film forming technology and photolithography technology, it is becoming possible to form a large number of devices on a substrate, and various devices such as a fluorescent display tube and a flat panel display can be used as a multi-electron beam source. It is expected to be applied to image forming apparatuses.

[0009]

However, when these elements are applied to an image forming apparatus, in general,
A large number of elements were arranged on the substrate, and each element was electrically wired with thin or thick film electrodes and used as a multi-electron beam source, but it was applied to each element due to the voltage drop caused by wiring resistance. There is a phenomenon that the applied voltage varies. As a result, the amount of current of the electron beam emitted from each emitting element varies, which causes a problem that density unevenness occurs in the formed image.

11 and 12 are views for explaining this problem in more detail. In both figures, (a) is an equivalent circuit diagram including an electron-emitting device, wiring resistance and a power source, and (b) is each electron-emitting device. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the potentials of the positive electrode and the negative electrode of the element, and (c) is a diagram showing the voltage applied between the positive and negative electrodes of each element.

FIG. 11A shows a circuit in which _N electron-emitting devices D _{1 to} D _N connected in parallel and a power supply V _E are connected. The positive electrode of the power supply and the positive electrode of the device D ₁ are connected to each other. In addition, the negative electrode of the power source and the negative electrode of the element D _N are connected. Also,
The common wiring connecting the respective elements in parallel has a resistance component of r between the adjacent elements as shown in the figure. (In the image forming apparatus, pixels that are targets of electron beams are usually arranged at equal pitches. Therefore, the electron-emitting devices are also spatially arranged at equal intervals, and the wiring connecting them is wide or thick. Have the same resistance value as long as they do not vary in manufacturing.) Further, the electron-emitting devices D _{1 to} D _N have substantially the same resistance value R.
d respectively.

In the circuit diagram of FIG. 11A, the potentials of the positive and negative electrodes of each element are shown in FIG. 11B. The horizontal axis of the figure shows the element numbers D _{1 to DN} , and the vertical axis shows the potential. The ● mark represents the positive electrode potential of each element, and the black square mark represents the negative electrode potential. For convenience, the ● mark (black square mark) is connected by a solid line to make it easier to see the tendency of the potential distribution.

[0013] As from this diagram is clear, the voltage drop due to the wiring resistance r is not necessarily occur uniformly in the case of the positive electrode side is a steep closer to element D _1, element D _N in the negative electrode side in the opposite The closer to, the steeper it is. This is on the positive side
This is because the closer the current is to D ₁ , the larger the current flowing through the wiring resistance r, and on the negative electrode side, the closer to D _N , the larger the current flows.

The voltage applied between the positive and negative electrodes of each element is shown in FIG. 11 (c).

The vertical axis represents the applied voltage. For the sake of convenience, the same tendency as in FIG.

[0016]

[Outer 1] Are connected by a solid line.

As is apparent from this figure, FIG.
In the case of such a circuit, the elements at both ends (D ₁ and D _N )
The closer the voltage is to, the larger the voltage is applied, and the lower the voltage is applied to the elements near the center. Therefore, the electron beam emitted from each electron-emitting device has a larger emission current toward the elements at both ends, which is extremely inconvenient when applied to an image forming apparatus. (For example, the density of the image near both ends is high, and the density near the center is light.)

On the other hand, FIG. 12 shows the case where the positive and negative electrodes of the power supply are connected to one side (the side of the element D _{1 in} this figure) of the element rows connected in parallel. In the case of such a circuit, it becomes as shown in FIG.

Therefore, the voltage applied to each element increases as it approaches D ₁ as shown in FIG. 2C, which is extremely inconvenient for application as an image forming apparatus.

The degree of variation in the applied voltage for each element as shown in the above two examples is determined by the total number N of elements connected in parallel.
Or the ratio of the element resistance Rd to the wiring resistance r (= Rd / r),
Or, it depends on the connection position of the power source, but in general, the larger N is and the smaller Rd / r is, the more remarkable the variation is.
Further, the variation in the voltage applied to the element is larger in the connection method of FIG. 12 than in FIG. 11.

For example, in the connection method of FIG. 11, element resistance Rd =
In the case of 1 kΩ and r = 10 mΩ, if N = 100, comparing the element with the largest applied voltage with the element with the smallest applied voltage, V _max : V _min = 102: 100, but N
= 1000, V _max : V _min = 472: 100
Then, the rate of variation increases.

Further, N = 1000, Rd = 1 kΩ, r =
In the case of 1 mΩ, V _max : V _min = 127: 100, but in the case of the wiring resistance of r = 10 mΩ, V _max : V _min = 127: 100.
_The degree of variation becomes large, such as _max : V _min = 472: 100.

As described above, when a plurality of electron-emitting devices having the same characteristics are connected in parallel, the voltage effectively generated in each device varies due to the voltage drop caused by the wiring resistance. Therefore, the emission amount of the electron beam becomes non-uniform, which is inconvenient when applied as an image forming apparatus.

In particular, when trying to realize a large-capacity display device having a large number of pixels (that is, a large N), the ratio of the above-mentioned variation becomes remarkable, and the uneven density of the image becomes a serious problem.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an electron source in which variations in the amount of electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device, which are mainly caused by the voltage drop due to the above-mentioned wiring resistance, are reduced. A further object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus such as a flat panel display which uses the above-mentioned electron source and has reduced luminance variations.

[0026]

The present invention for achieving the above object provides an electron source having an element array in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are electrically connected in parallel between a positive electrode and a negative electrode. In, the resistor is disposed between at least one electrode of the pair of electrodes and the electron-emitting device so that the voltages applied to the respective electron-emitting devices are substantially the same. Is an electron source.

Further, the present invention comprises the above electron source, a modulation means for modulating the electron beam emitted from the electron source according to an information signal, and an image forming member for forming an image by irradiation of the electron beam. The image forming apparatus having the above.

As shown in FIG. 13, the electron emission characteristic of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is such that the electron emission starts when the device applied voltage Vf becomes about 8 V and the emission current Ie rapidly increases in proportion to Vf. To increase.

Therefore, when the voltage applied to each element varies due to the voltage drop, the variation causes a large variation in the emission current. Therefore, by providing the resistor as described above and making the voltage substantially applied to each element constant, the emission current from each element can be made substantially uniform. Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment will be described in detail. As shown in FIG. 1, when the positive electrode side and the negative electrode side extraction terminals of the electron-emitting device array connected in parallel are arranged on the positive electrode side electrode and the negative electrode side electrode at the same end of the device array, respectively, the resistor R ₁ becomes lower as the resistance value of the to R _N is the distance from the take-out electrode. That is, the resistance value of the resistor R ₁ to R _N is 2
_{R 1, 2R 2 = 2R 1} - (N-1) 4r, 2R 3 = 2R
_2- (N-2) 4r, ..., 2R _n = 2R _n-1- {N-
By providing (n-1)} 4r become so, the voltage substantially applied to each element D ₁ to D _N is constant. Also, if the resistor on both sides of each of the electron-emitting devices D ₁ to D _N in the above example is but R ₁ to R _N is arranged, provided with only one of the resistor, the resistor R ₁ to R The resistance value of _N is R ₁ , R ₂ = R ₁ − (N−1) 2r, R ₃ = R ₂ −
(N-2) 2r, ...... , R n = R n-1 - {N- (n-
1)} 2r.

Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the positive electrode side take-out terminal of the electron-emitting device row connected in parallel is arranged at one end of the positive electrode side electrode of the element row, and the negative electrode side take-out terminal is other than the negative electrode side electrode of the element row. If it is placed at one end of the resistor R
₁ the resistance value of the to R _N is lower than both ends element array central portion.
That is, the resistance value of the resistor R ₁ to R _N is 2R _1, 2R ₂
= 2R _1- (N-2) 2r, 2R ₃ = 2R _2- (N-
_{4) 2r, ......, 2R n} = 2R n-1 -2 {N-2 (n-
1)} r, the voltage applied to each of the elements D _{1 to DN} becomes substantially constant. In the above example, resistors R are provided on both sides of each electron-emitting device D ₁ -D _N.
1 When it to R _N is arranged, provided with only one of the resistor, the resistance value of the resistor R ₁ to R _N is, R _1, R
_{2 = R 1 - (N-} 2) r, R 3 = R 2 - (N-4) r,
_{R n = R n-1 -} {N-2 (n-1)} may be provided so as to be r.

As described above, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the resistance value of the resistor at the portion where the voltage drop is maximized is minimized, and the resistance value of the resistor at the portion where the voltage drop is minimized is maximized. By providing the same, the same amount of electron emission can be obtained from all the elements.

The resistance value of the resistor may be equal to or higher than the resistance value of the wiring electrodes (the positive electrode side electrode and the negative electrode side electrode), that is, the resistance value capable of correcting the voltage drop. In the double range, the fluctuation of the emission current amount is reduced without reducing the emission current. Any resistor material may be used as long as it has the above resistance value. For example, Nichrome alloy, tin oxide, Ta ₂ N, C
Typical examples include cermet materials such as _r- S-O.

Further, the resistor according to the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned mode in which it is provided separately for the electron-emitting device,
The element electrodes indicated by 22 and 23 in FIGS. 6 and 7 may be used as the resistor.

As described above, according to the present invention, the variation in the applied voltage of each electron-emitting device caused by the voltage drop due to the wiring electrode is corrected by the voltage drop of the resistor so that each electron-emitting device is effectively the same. By applying a voltage, an electron source in which the influence of the voltage drop due to the wiring resistance can be ignored can be obtained.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. In particular, the resistor need not be arranged for all of the plurality of electron-emitting devices, but may be arranged for only some of the electron-emitting devices. In this case, as described above, the voltage applied to each electron-emitting device may be set to be substantially the same. Here, the above-mentioned “substantially the same degree” is preferably such that each luminance variation is within 5%, as described later.

[0036]

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

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 5 shows an image forming apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 3A is a top view of electron-emitting devices, in which electron sources used in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 5 are connected in parallel. In FIGS. 5 and 3A, reference numerals 2 and 3 denote device electrodes,
Reference numeral 4 is a thin film including an electron emitting portion, 5 is a resistor, and 6 and 7 are wiring electrodes, that is, the above-mentioned positive electrode side electrode and negative electrode side electrode.
Reference numerals 11 and 12 are lead terminals used when a voltage is applied to the wiring electrodes 6 and 7.

First, before actually manufacturing the electron-emitting device, 1 based on the characteristics of a typical surface conduction electron-emitting device.
When the voltage drop due to the wiring resistance when 000 elements were connected in parallel was estimated, the wiring resistance r = 1 mΩ, the element resistance Rd was 1000Ω, and the voltage applied to the actual element was the maximum Vf _{max at} both ends and the central portion. Minimum Vf _min
Then, the ratio becomes Vf _max : Vf _min to 127: 100.

This is because when a driving voltage of 17 V is applied to both ends (between A and C) of both the positive electrode side and the negative electrode side, no electron-emitting device (D ₁ and D
It is shown that about 17 V is applied to ₁₀₀₀ and a voltage of about 13.4 V is applied to the electron-emitting devices D ₅₀₀ and D ₅₀₁ in the central portion. In order to correct this applied voltage difference of 3.6 V and make the voltage applied to each electron-emitting device constant at 14 V, the resistors (R ₁ , R ₁ ,
R ₁₀₀₀ ) is set to about 110Ω, and the resistor 5 of the electron-emitting device in the center portion is set to about 50Ω (R ₅₀₀ , R ₅₀₁ ). , About the same voltage will be applied.

Further, the resistance value of the resistor 5 is set to about 0.01 to 1 times the element resistance Rd, and the applied voltage is set so that the emission current Ie necessary for the image forming apparatus is set. Thus, an emission current with small fluctuation can be obtained.

FIG. 3B is a plot of the relationship between the resistors (R _{1 to} R ₁₀₀₀ ) of each electron-emitting device and the resistance values thereof, based on the above estimation.

According to FIG. 3B, the electron source of this embodiment,
FIG. 3A was created as follows. A quartz substrate was used as the insulative substrate 1, and after thoroughly washing it with an organic solvent, element electrodes 2 and 3 were formed on the surface of the substrate 1. Ni metal was used as the material of the device electrode.
The element electrode spacing was 2 μm, the element electrode width was 300 μm, and the thickness was 1000 Å. Next, NiCr (60:40 wt%, p = about 1 × 10 ⁻⁶ Ωm) is used for the resistor 5, and the resistors 5 of R ₁ and R ₁₀₀₀ have a width of 300 μm, a length of 5.5 μm, and a thickness of 1000Å. value of about 110 ohm, resistor 5 width 300μm of R _500, length 2.5 [mu] m, the resistance value of about 50Ω at a thickness 1000 Å, resistor 5 from R ₁ to R ₁₀₀₀ sequentially about 0 R ₁ to R ₅₀₀ The resistors were formed on both sides of the element electrodes 2 and 3 by changing the length of the resistor so as to decrease by 12 Ω and increase from R ₅₀₁ to R ₁₀₀₀ by about 0.12 Ω. Next, Al (P = about 3 × 10 ⁻⁸ Ω is applied to the wiring electrodes 6 and 7).
m) was used to form a film having a width of 600 μm and a thickness of 50 μm. The wiring resistance r at this time was about 1 mΩ. Next, an organic solvent containing an organopalladium compound (CCP-4230 manufactured by Okuno Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated on the entire surface, and then heat-treated in air at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes to obtain palladium oxide (PdO) fine particles. Was formed. After that, a voltage is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3, and the thin film is subjected to an energization process (forming process) to form a thin film 4 including an electron emitting portion. The voltage waveform of the forming process is shown in FIG.

In FIG. 14, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. In the present embodiment, T1 is 1 ms and T2 is 10 ms, and the peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during forming). Was 5 V, and the forming treatment was performed for 60 seconds in a vacuum atmosphere of about 10 −6 torr. In the electron-emitting portion thus produced, fine particles containing palladium element as a main component were dispersed and arranged, and the average particle diameter of the fine particles was 30 Å. Next, as shown in FIG. 5, a glass spacer 10 having a thickness of 5 mm is provided on the electron source prepared as described above, and a phosphor substrate 9 and a transparent substrate 9 in which a phosphor (not shown) is uniformly applied on the spacer. After installing the electrode (not shown), the whole area is 1 × 10
^An image forming apparatus was prepared by sealing at a vacuum degree of about ^-6 Torr. An electron emission experiment was performed on the transparent electrode at an accelerating voltage of 1 KV. As shown in Fig. 3 (a), the power connection method is as follows.
The D ₁ side A of the element electrode 2 is the power source positive electrode, and the D _{1000 of the} element electrode 3 is D _1000.
When the side C was grounded and a drive voltage of 17 V was applied to operate, bright spots corresponding to each emitting portion were observed, and the brightness of each bright spot was visually almost uniform. Moreover, when the variation in each luminance was measured using a spot luminance meter, the variation was within 5%.

[Embodiment 2] The electron source of this embodiment is the same as Embodiment 1 except that the resistor 5 is provided only at one end of the electron-emitting device.
Created in the same way. As the resistor 5 of FIG. 3 (b) (resistance between A-B), R ₁ is the width 300μm length 16μ
m, thickness 100Å, resistance value about 320Ω, R ₁₀₀₀ width 30
0μm, length 5μm, thickness 1000Å, resistance value about 100
The resistance value was gradually changed from R ₁ to R ₁₀₀₀ by sequentially changing the length of the resistor to reduce the resistance value by about 0.22 Ω.

The electron source of the present embodiment is used in the image forming apparatus of FIG. 5 as in the first embodiment, and the driving voltage 1 is applied between A and B.
When 7 V was applied and operated, the same results as in Example 1 were obtained.

[Embodiment 3] In the electron source of this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
It was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 except that it was used as. HfB ₂ (P = 11 × 10 ⁻⁸ Ω · m) is used for the resistor 5 of this embodiment, and the length of R ₁ and R ₁₀₀₀ is 110 μm, the width is 300 μm, the thickness is 1000 Å, the resistance value is about 200 Ω, and the length of R 500 is R 500. 5
A resistance value of 0 μm was set to about 90Ω and resistance values of R ₁ to R ₁₀₀₀ were sequentially changed in the same manner as in Example 1.

As in the first embodiment, the electron source of the present embodiment is used with the image forming apparatus of FIG.
When V was applied and operated, the same results as in Example 1 were obtained.

Example 4 The electron source of this example was made in the same manner as in Example 3 except that only one of the device electrodes of the electron-emitting device was used as the resistor 5. The resistor 5 is made of the same material as in Example 3, and R ₁ has a width of 300 μm and a length of 220 μm.
m, thickness 1000Å, resistance value about 400Ω, R ₁₀₀₀ width 3
The resistance values of R ₁ to R ₁₀₀₀ were sequentially changed in the same manner as in Example 2 to form a film having a thickness of 00 μm, a length of 100 μm, a thickness of 1000 Å and a resistance value of about 180Ω.

In the same manner as in the first embodiment, the electron source of the present embodiment is used with the image forming apparatus of FIG.
When V was applied and operated, the same results as in Example 1 were obtained.

[0050]

As described above, according to the electron source of the present invention, the resistance value of the resistor is arbitrarily controlled according to the voltage drop caused by the wiring resistance, and the positive electrode of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, By investigating a configuration in which the resistor is provided on at least one of the negative electrode, it is possible to suppress the variation in the current emitted from each electron-emitting device, and moreover, an image using such an electron source. The forming device is a device with reduced luminance variation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing (a) equivalent circuit, (b) potential, (c) resistor resistance value, and (d) applied voltage of an electron source of the present invention.

FIG. 2 (a) equivalent circuit of another electron source of the present invention, (b)
The figure which shows an electric potential, (c) resistor resistance value, and (d) applied voltage.

FIG. 3A is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an electron source of the present invention, and FIG. 3B is a diagram showing a resistance value of a resistor.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram showing another embodiment example of the electron source of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an embodiment of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a surface conduction electron-emitting device of another embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

FIG. 10 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a conventional image forming apparatus.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing (a) equivalent circuit, (b) potential, and (c) applied voltage of a conventional electron source.

FIG. 12 (a) equivalent circuit of another conventional electron source,
The figure which shows (b) electric potential and (c) applied voltage.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing electron emission characteristics of a typical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing waveforms of voltage pulses at the time of forming processing, which is performed in the manufacturing process of the electron-emitting device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 21, 31 Insulating substrate 2, 3, 22, 23, 32, 33 Element electrode 4, 25, 26, 34 Thin film including electron-emitting portion 5, 38 Resistor 6, 7, 39, 40 Wiring electrode 8, 35 grid electrode 9, 37 image forming member 10 spacer 24 electron emission part 36 electron passage hole 41 phosphor

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Ichiro Nomura 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Kazuhiro Michi 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hidetoshi Haru, 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An electron source having an element array in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are electrically connected in parallel between a positive electrode and a negative electrode, wherein at least one electrode of the pair of electrodes and the electrode An electron source, wherein a resistor is arranged between the electron-emitting device and the electron-emitting device so that the voltages applied to the respective electron-emitting devices are substantially the same. 2. The electron source according to claim 1, wherein two or more kinds of resistors having different resistance values are arranged. 3. The lead-out terminals provided on each of the positive electrode side and the negative electrode side electrodes are arranged at different side ends of the element row, and the resistance values of the plurality of resistors are at both ends of the element row. The electron source according to claim 2, wherein the electron source is set to be lower from the element array toward the center of the element array. 4. The lead terminals provided on each of the positive electrode side and the negative electrode side are arranged at the same side end of the element row, and the resistance values of the plurality of resistors are the lead terminals of the element row. The electron source according to claim 2, wherein the electron source is set to be lower from the arrangement end toward the other end. 5. The electron source according to claim 1, wherein the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 6. The electron source according to claim 1, further comprising a modulation means for modulating an electron beam emitted from the electron-emitting device according to an information signal. 7. The electron source according to claim 1, a modulation means for modulating an electron beam emitted from the electron source according to an information signal, and an image is formed by irradiating the electron beam. An image forming apparatus having an image forming member to be formed.