JPH08111171A - Electron emitting element, electron source board, electron source, image forming device and manufacture of these - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To inexpensively manufacture an element in a small number of processes by forming at least a part of an element electrode material on a board by cutting work by using a diamond tool in electrode pairs of a surface transmission type electron emitting element. CONSTITUTION: An element electrode material 12 of a conductive body is formed as a film on a board 1 composed of various glass ceramics by a sputtering method or the like, and element electrodes 2 and 3 are formed by a diamond cutting method. In this case, a metal mask is used, and a film is formed only in an electrode forming area, and since only a part between the electrodes 2 and 3 requiring accuracy are cut, it is worked in a short time. For example, a conductive thin film 4 is formed on the board 1 by patterning after an organic palladium solution is applied and baked. Afterwards, an electron emitting part 5 formed by current-carrying forming is operated and driven after being heated in a higher vacuum after processing of an activation process, and an emitting element is manufactured. Plural emitting elements and wirings are formed on the board, and an electron source board is formed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

[Industrial applications]

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron emitters, a thermoelectron source and a cold cathode electron source, are known. The cold cathode electron source is a field emission type (hereinafter referred to as FE type), metal / insulating layer /
There are a metal type (hereinafter referred to as MIM type), a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the like.

An example of the FE type is reported by Dyke et al. (W.
P. Dyke and WW Dolan, "Field emission", Advance
in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956)), S
Report of pindt (CA Spindt, "Physical Properties of
thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdeniu
m cones ", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976)) and the like are known.

As an example of the MIM type, a report by Mead (C.
A. Mead, "The tunnel-emission amplifier", J. Appl.
Phys., 32, 646 (1961)) and the like are known.

As an example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, a report by Elinson (MI Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron
Phys., 10 (1965)).

The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon that electron emission occurs when a current is passed through a thin film of a small area formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface. As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, one using the SnO ₂ thin film and the one using the Au thin film described in the above-mentioned Erinson's report (G. Dittmer, Thin Solid Films, 9, 317 (197)
2)), In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film (M. Hartwell
and CG Fonstad, IEEE Trans. ED Conf., 519 (197
5)), by carbon thin film (Araki et al., Vacuum, No. 26)
Vol. 1, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)), Pd fine particle film (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-260361), and the like.

The above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device has an advantage that a large number of devices can be arrayed and formed in a large area because it has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture. Therefore, various applications are being researched that can make full use of the characteristics. For example,
Display devices such as a charged beam source and an image display device may be used.

A conventional method of manufacturing the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the element electrode material 12 is deposited on the substrate 1 by a vacuum vapor deposition method, a sputtering method or the like (FIG. 10).
(A)). Next, the device electrodes 2 and 3 are formed on the substrate 1 by using a photolithography technique. More specifically, first, a photoresist is formed on the substrate 1 on which the device electrode material 12 is deposited by using a spinner or the like. 100 is applied (FIG. 10B), and then exposure is performed using an exposure device, followed by development to pattern the resist (FIG. 10C), and finally etching is performed to form the device electrode. Two
And 3 are formed (FIG. 10D), and the resist is peeled off (FIG. 10E). The reason for using the photolithography technique in forming the device electrodes is that the device electrode interval L needs to be formed with high precision.

Next, in this way, the device electrodes 2 and 3 are formed.
The organometallic thin film is formed by applying the organometallic solution to the substrate 1 provided with and leaving it to stand. The organometallic solution referred to here is a solution of an organometallic compound containing a metal forming the conductive thin film 4 as a main element. After that, the organic metal thin film is heated and baked, and is patterned by lift-off, etching or the like to form the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 1).
0 (f)).

Finally, the electron emitting portion 5 is formed by an energization process called energization forming (FIG. 10).
(G)). The energization forming is performed by applying a direct current voltage or a very slow rising voltage, for example, about 1 V / min to both ends of the conductive thin film 4 to locally break, deform or deteriorate the conductive thin film, and electrically. That is, the electron emitting portion 5 is formed in a high resistance state.

[0012]

However, in the above prior art, since the photolithography technique is used to form the element electrode, the steps are (1) resist coating, (2) exposure / development, and (3) ) There is a drawback that the cost increases as the number of etching increases. Furthermore, the use of a large amount of consumables such as resists and developers also leads to high costs. Further, when forming an electron-emitting device over a large area, there is a problem that an exposure apparatus for a large area becomes technically difficult and an expensive apparatus is possible even if possible.

Therefore, the present invention has an object to solve the above-mentioned problems. Specifically, an electron-emitting device is manufactured by a small number of steps at a low cost and an electron source substrate is manufactured by a large area. It is to provide a method for obtaining an excellent image forming apparatus.

[0014]

According to the present invention, a step of forming a pair of electrodes facing each other on a substrate at a predetermined interval, a step of forming a conductive thin film at the electrode interval, and the conductivity. In a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device including a step of forming an electron-emitting portion in a part of a thin film, the electrode pair is formed by cutting at least a part of a device electrode material on a substrate using a diamond tool. A method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device is provided.

Further, according to the present invention, a pair of electrodes are opposed to each other at a predetermined distance from each other on a substrate, and a conductive thin film having an electron emitting portion made of a fine particle film is formed in the electrode interval. In another aspect, there is provided an electron-emitting device characterized in that the pair of electrodes is formed by cutting at least a part of the device electrode material on the substrate by diamond cutting.

[0016]

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

(Embodiment 1) A first embodiment of the present invention will be described first with reference to FIG.

First, As the substrate 1, soda lime glass was used. In addition to this, as the substrate, quartz glass, glass with a low content of impurities such as Na, soda lime glass, a glass substrate having SiO ₂ formed on its surface, and a ceramic substrate such as alumina can be used.

Then, Au having a thickness of 800 Å was formed as the element electrode material 12 on the substrate 1 by the sputtering method (FIG. 1A). As a film forming method of the device electrode material, a vacuum deposition method, a CVD method, a printing method, or the like can be used in addition to the sputtering method. As the material, a general conductive material is used, and for example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W,
Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, metal or alloy such as Pd, and _{Pd, Ag, Au, RuO 2} , Pd-Ag or the like metal or metal oxide and printed conductor composed of glass or the like, an In ₂ O ₃ - A transparent conductor such as SnO ₂ and a semiconductor material such as polysilicon can be used.

The film formation was performed using a metal mask, so that the element electrode material 12 was formed only in the element electrode formation region as shown in FIG. Therefore, in the next element electrode forming step, only the element electrode interval L that requires accuracy is required, and processing can be performed in a shorter time.

Next, the device electrodes 2 and 3 were formed by a diamond cutting method (FIG. 1 (b)). That is, in this case, since the film was formed using the metal mask as described above, only the element electrode interval L was used by the diamond cutting method. However, performing the diamond cutting in the method of the present invention is not limited to only the element electrode spacing, other parts of the element electrode, for example, diamond cutting also to the shape formation of the peripheral portion other than the element electrode spacing. It is also possible to use.

In this embodiment, the element electrode spacing L is 1
It was set to 0 μm. However, the present invention is not limited thereto, and can be selected from the range of several hundred Å to several hundred μm. However, it is desirable that the voltage applied between the device electrodes is low, and it is required to produce the film with good reproducibility. Therefore, the preferred device electrode interval is several μm to several tens μm.

Here, the diamond cutting device used for forming the element electrode will be described with reference to a schematic view.

In FIG. 2, 21 is an XY table capable of highly precise control, and 22 is a diamond tool. Two
An actuator 5 precisely controls the vertical load applied to the diamond tool, and the vertical load can be adjusted at the level of 10 mg. The entire device is installed on a vibration isolation table 27. In this embodiment, the processing of the device electrode is 2.0 g.
While pressing the diamond tool to which the vertical load of (1) was applied to the substrate 1, the substrate fixed on the stage was moved at a processing speed of 10 mm / sec. The vertical load value during processing is such that the metal film does not remain on the substrate, and it causes brittle fracture such as cracking or chipping in the area where the plastic deformation occurs from the area where the glass elastically deforms due to the pressing pressure. It is necessary to set the value within the range that does not cause.

Next, the substrate 1 provided with the device electrodes 2 and 3
, An organic palladium solution is applied by a spinner method,
An organic palladium thin film is formed by leaving it to stand. Then, the organic palladium thin film was heat-baked and patterned to form the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 1C).

In this embodiment, the conductive thin film is formed by the organic palladium coating method, but other than that, the vacuum vapor deposition method, the sputtering method, the chemical vapor deposition method, and the dispersion coating method are used. It can also be formed by a dipping method or the like.

The material forming the conductive thin film 4 is P
d, Pt, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu, C
Metals such as r, Fe, Zn, Sn, Ta, W and Pb, Pd
O, SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , oxides such as PbO and Sb ₂ O ₃ , HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , YB ₄ , G
Borides such as dB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC, TaC,
Examples thereof include carbides such as SiC and WC, nitrides such as TiN, ZrN and HfN, semiconductors such as Si and Ge, and carbon.

Next, the electron-emitting portion 5 was formed by performing an energization process called energization forming.

The energization forming will now be described.

The energization forming is to energize between the device electrodes 2 and 3 by a power source (not shown) to locally break, deform or alter the conductive thin film 4 to form a site having a changed structure. is there. The site where the structure is locally changed is called an electron emitting portion 5 (FIG. 1 (d)). FIG. 3 shows an example of the voltage waveform of energization forming.

The voltage waveform is preferably a pulse shape, and the voltage pulse having a constant pulse peak value is continuously applied (FIG. 3A) and the voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value (FIG. 3 (a)). 3 (b)). First,
A case where the pulse crest value is a constant voltage (FIG. 3A) will be described.

In FIG. 3A, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, and T1 is 1 μsec to 10 μs.
Millisecond, T2 is set to 10 μsec to 100 msec, the peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during energization forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and a suitable vacuum degree, for example, 1 × 10. ^In a vacuum atmosphere of about ^-5 Torr,
Apply for several seconds to several tens of minutes. The waveform applied between the electrodes of the element is not limited to the triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave may be used.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 3 (b) are shown in FIG.
Similar to the case of (a), the peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during energization forming) is increased by, for example, about 0.1 V step and applied in an appropriate vacuum atmosphere.

In the energization forming process in this case, the element current is measured during the pulse interval T2 at a voltage that does not locally break or deform the conductive thin film 4, for example, a voltage of about 0.1V, The resistance value is obtained, and when the resistance is 1 MΩ or more, the energization forming is completed.

Next, the element for which the energization forming has been completed was subjected to a treatment called an activation step.

The activation step is, for example, 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-5.
Similar to energization forming, this is a process in which a voltage pulse with a constant pulse peak value is repeatedly applied at a degree of vacuum, and carbon and carbon compounds derived from organic substances present in a vacuum are deposited on a conductive thin film. This is a process of remarkably changing the current If and the emission current Ie. The activation process is completed, for example, when the emission current Ie is saturated while measuring the device current If and the emission current Ie. Further, it is preferable that the applied voltage pulse is an operation drive voltage.

Here, the carbon and the carbon compound are as follows.
Graphite (refers to both single crystal and polycrystal) amorphous carbon (refers to a mixture of amorphous carbon and polycrystal graphite), and its film thickness is preferably 500 Å or less, more preferably 300 Å or less.

The electron-emitting device thus manufactured was driven to operate after heating at 80 ° C. to 150 ° C. in an atmosphere having a vacuum degree higher than the vacuum degree in the energization forming step and the activation step.

The degree of vacuum higher than the degree of vacuum obtained by the energization forming step and activation treatment is, for example, a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁶ or more, more preferably an ultra-high vacuum system, and newly added carbon and carbon compounds. Is the degree of vacuum that hardly deposits on the conductive thin film. By doing so, the device current I
It is possible to stabilize f and the emission current Ie.

When a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the above-described steps and a voltage was applied to the device, better electron emission was observed from the above-mentioned electron-emitting portion. A schematic configuration of a measurement / evaluation apparatus for measuring electron emission characteristics is shown in FIG. 4, where 40 is an ammeter for measuring a device current If flowing through the conductive thin film 4 between the device electrodes 2 and 3, and 41 is an electronic device. A power source for applying a device voltage V to the emitting device, 42 an ammeter for measuring the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emitting portion 5 of the device, and 43 an anode electrode 4
4 is a high voltage power source for applying a voltage, 44 is an anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion of the device, 45 is a vacuum device, and 46 is an exhaust pump.

(Embodiment 2) A second embodiment of the present invention is a method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an electron source substrate having wiring, an electron source, and an image forming apparatus.

A description will be given below with reference to the schematic diagram of FIG.

First, as the substrate 1, a soda-lime glass substrate was used. Then, Au was deposited as a device electrode material on the substrate 1 by the sputtering method. At the time of film formation, a metal mask was used to form a film only in the element electrode formation region as shown in FIG.

Next, using the diamond cutting method, 10
A device electrode was obtained by forming a device electrode interval L of μm (FIG. 5).
(B)).

Next, an X-direction wiring 56, an interlayer insulating film 57, and a Y-direction wiring 58 are formed in the order shown in FIGS. 5C to 5E, and a pair of elements of the electron emission matrix are formed. An X-direction wiring 56 and a Y-direction wiring 58 are connected to the electrodes, respectively, to form a simple matrix arrangement. At this time, the wiring was patterned by forming a Cu film by a vacuum evaporation method in both the X and Y directions. The interlayer insulating film is SiO formed by the sputtering method.
₂ was used for patterning.

Next, an organopalladium solution was applied to the above-mentioned substrate by a spinner method and left standing to form an organopalladium thin film. After that, heat baking treatment is performed,
The conductive thin film 4 was formed by patterning.

Finally, energization forming was performed to form an electron emitting portion, which was used as an electron source substrate.

An electron source substrate of a type in which the electron-emitting devices and wirings are arranged in a simple matrix as in this embodiment will be referred to as a matrix-type arranged electron source substrate hereinafter.

A driving circuit is connected to the matrix-type arrangement electron source substrate having the surface conduction electron-emitting device thus obtained to produce an electron source, and the electron source is used as shown in FIG. An image forming apparatus was produced.

In FIG. 6, 111 is an electron source substrate having electron-emitting devices formed on the substrate, 61 is a rear plate to which the electron source substrate 111 is fixed, 56 is a fluorescent film 64 and a metal back 65 on the inner surface of a glass substrate 63. The face plate 66 having the seal formed thereon is sealed with frit glass or the like, and the envelope 68 is formed.
Is configured. In addition, terminals outside the container Dox1 to Doxm and D
oy1 to Doyn are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown).

By using the above-described manufacturing method, it is possible to provide not only a display device for television broadcasting but also a display device such as a video conference system and a computer as an image forming device. Furthermore, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus as an optical printer including a photosensitive drum and the like.

Next, regarding the image forming apparatus constituted by using the electron source having the simple matrix arrangement type substrate, the NTS
A schematic configuration of a drive circuit for performing television display based on the C system television signal will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 71 is the display panel, 72 is a scanning circuit, 73 is a control circuit, 74 is a shift register, 75 is a line memory, 76 is a sync signal separation circuit, 77 is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources. Is.

The function of each unit will be described below.

First, the display panel 71 has terminals Dox1 to Dox.
m, terminals Doy1 to Doyn, and a high-voltage terminal Hv to connect to an external electric circuit. Of these, terminals Dox1
In Doxm, an electron source provided in the display panel, that is, a group of surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in a matrix of m rows and n columns is sequentially driven row by row (n elements). A scanning signal for

On the other hand, a modulation signal for controlling the output electron beam of each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices of one row selected by the scanning signal is applied to the terminals Dy1 to Dyn. A DC voltage source Va supplies a DC voltage of, for example, 10 kV to the high-voltage terminal Hv, which supplies sufficient energy to excite the phosphor into the electron beam output from the surface conduction electron-emitting device. It is an acceleration voltage for applying.

Next, the scanning circuit 72 will be described. The circuit has m switching elements inside (indicated by S1 to Sm in the figure), and each switching element is either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 (V) (ground level). Select either one and display panel 71
The terminals Dx1 to Dxm are electrically connected. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm operates based on the control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 73, but can actually be configured by combining switching elements such as FETs.

It should be noted that the DC voltage source Vx is a constant voltage such that the drive voltage applied to an unscanned element based on the characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device (electron emission threshold voltage) is below the electron emission threshold. Is set to output.

Further, the control circuit 73 has a function of matching the operations of the respective parts so that an appropriate display is performed based on the image signal inputted from the outside. Based on a synchronization signal Tsync sent from a synchronization signal separation circuit 76, which will be described next, control signals Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry are generated for each unit.

The synchronizing signal separation circuit 76 is a circuit for separating the synchronizing signal component and the luminance signal component from the NTSC system television signal inputted from the outside, and can be constructed by using a frequency separating (filter) circuit. The sync signal separated by the sync signal separation circuit 76 is composed of a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal, as is well known, but here, for convenience of explanation, it is shown as a Tsync signal. on the other hand,
The luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is represented as a DATA signal for convenience sake, but this signal is the shift register 7
4 is input.

The shift register 74 is for serially / parallel converting the DATA signals serially input in time series for each line of the image, and operates based on the control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 73. (That is, the control signal Tsft may be rephrased as the shift clock of the shift register 74).

The serial / parallel converted image data for one line (corresponding to driving data for n electron-emitting devices) is output from the shift register 74 as n parallel signals Id1 to Idn. .

The line memory 75 is a storage device for storing data for one line of the image for a required time, and stores the contents of Id1 to Idn as appropriate in accordance with the control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 73. The stored contents are output as Id1 to Idn and input to the modulation signal generator 77.

The modulation signal generator 77 outputs the image data I
A signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices according to each of d1 to Idn, and an output signal thereof is applied to the surface conduction electron emission devices in the display panel 71 through terminals Doy1 to Doyn. To be done.

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

Further, for a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold value, the emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the element. The electron emission threshold voltage Vth or the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may be changed by changing the material, the configuration, or the manufacturing method of the electron emitting element.
In any case, the following can be said.

That is, when the pulsed voltage of the present element is applied, for example, no electron emission occurs even if a voltage below the electron emission threshold is applied, but an electron beam is output when a voltage above the electron emission threshold is applied. To be done. At that time, firstly, the intensity of the output electron beam can be controlled by changing the peak value Vm of the pulse. Second, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the electron beam output by changing the pulse width Pw.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the electron-emitting device according to the input signal, a voltage modulation method, a pulse width modulation method or the like can be mentioned. To implement the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 77 is fixed. A circuit of a voltage modulation system is used that generates a voltage pulse of a length but appropriately modulates the peak value of the pulse according to the input data.

In order to implement the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 77 generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value, but a pulse for appropriately modulating the width of the voltage pulse according to the input data. A width modulation type circuit is used.

Through the series of operations described above, the image display device of the present invention can display television using the display panel 71. Although not particularly described in the above description, the shift register 74 and the line memory 75 may be either digital signal type or analog signal type, and the important point is that serial / parallel conversion and recording of image signals are performed. It may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 76 into a digital signal, which is possible if the output section of 76 is equipped with an A / D converter. . Further, in connection with this, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 77 is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 75 is a digital signal or an analog signal.

First, the case of digital signals will be described. In the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 77 is
For example, a well-known D / A conversion circuit may be used, and an amplification circuit or the like may be added if necessary.

In the case of the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 77, for example, outputs a high-speed oscillator and a counter for counting the number of waves output from the oscillator and the output value of the counter and the output value of the memory. It can be configured by using a circuit in which comparators for comparison are combined. If necessary, an amplifier for voltage-amplifying the pulse-width-modulated modulation signal output from the comparator up to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be added.

Next, the case of analog signals will be described. In the voltage modulation method, for the modulation signal generator 77, for example, an amplifier circuit using a well-known operational amplifier may be used, and a level shift circuit or the like may be added if necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, for example, a well-known voltage controlled oscillator (VCO)
May be used, and an amplifier for voltage amplification up to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be added if necessary.

In the image display device completed as described above, each of the electron-emitting devices thus has terminals outside the container Dox1.
Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage through Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 65 of FIG. 6 or a transparent electrode (not shown) through a high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam and cause fluorescence. An image can be displayed by colliding with the film 64 and exciting and emitting light.

The structure described above is a schematic structure necessary for manufacturing a suitable image forming apparatus used for display and the like, and the detailed parts such as the material of each member are not limited to the above contents. Instead, it is appropriately selected to suit the application of the image forming apparatus. Also, although the NTSC system is given as an example of the input signal, the input signal is not limited to this, and PAL,
Various systems such as the SECAM system may be used, or a TV signal (for example, a high-definition TV such as the MUSE system) that includes a larger number of scanning lines may be used.

(Embodiment 3) In the third embodiment of the present invention,
Manufacturing examples of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an electron source substrate having wiring, an electron source, and an image forming apparatus will be shown. In contrast to the matrix type arrangement electron source substrate described in the second embodiment, a type called a ladder type arrangement electron source substrate will be described in this example.

First, the production of the electron source substrate will be described with reference to FIG.

The steps up to the formation and formation of the device electrodes were the same as in Example 2. Next, as shown in FIG. 6C, the wiring 86 was formed by forming a Cu film by vacuum evaporation and patterning. At this time, the electron-emitting devices are arranged in a ladder-type arrangement in which the electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel and both ends of each device are connected by wiring.

On the substrate on which the element electrodes 2 and 3 and the wiring 6 are formed as described above, an organic palladium solution is applied, baked and patterned in the same manner as in Example 1 to form the conductive thin film 4. Finally, energization forming was performed to form the electron emitting portion 5, and the electron source substrate was obtained.

The electron source substrate of the type in which the electron-emitting devices and the wirings are in the ladder type arrangement as in this embodiment is hereinafter referred to as a ladder type electron source substrate.

A driving circuit is connected to the ladder-type arrangement electron source substrate having the surface conduction electron-emitting device thus obtained to produce an electron source, and this electron source is used to produce the electron source shown in FIG.
An image forming apparatus as shown in was prepared.

In FIG. 9, 121 is an electron source substrate, 13
Reference numeral 0 is an electron-emitting device, 92 is a terminal outside the container connected to a common wiring connected to the electron-emitting device, 90 is a grid electrode, and 91 is a hole through which electrons pass. It is provided as an electrode for controlling the flight of electrons from the element. 93 is the grid electrode 9
It is an external terminal connected to 0.

The above-mentioned components are the terminals 92, 9 outside the container.
The third embodiment is the same as the image forming apparatus according to the second embodiment in that it is installed in the envelope including the rear plate, the support frame, and the face plate except for the third embodiment, and is different from the image forming apparatus having the simple matrix arrangement. That is, the grid electrode 90 is provided between the electron source substrate 121 and the face plate 66. The terminals 92 and 93 of the container are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown).

In this image forming apparatus, the modulation signals for one line of the image are simultaneously applied to the grid electrode columns in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one column at a time, whereby each electron beam Control the irradiation to the phosphor and display the image 1
Can be displayed line by line.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus suitable for not only a display device for television broadcasting but also a display device such as a video conference system and a computer. Further, it can be used as an image forming apparatus as an optical printer including a photosensitive drum or the like.

[0086]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By performing a cutting process using a diamond tool when forming the device electrode, it is possible to manufacture the electron-emitting device with a small number of steps and at low cost. Further, it becomes easy to manufacture a large-area electron source substrate. Therefore, a large-area image forming apparatus can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a process chart showing a procedure of manufacturing an electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a diamond cutting device.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing an example of a voltage waveform of energization forming in the method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a measurement / evaluation apparatus for measuring electron emission characteristics.

5A to 5C are process drawings showing a procedure of manufacturing an electron source substrate of Example 2.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an outline of an image forming apparatus manufactured in Example 2.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a drive circuit in an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, which is a drive circuit for performing display in accordance with an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 8 is a process drawing showing the procedure for manufacturing the electron source substrate of Example 3;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing an outline of an image forming apparatus manufactured in Example 3.

FIG. 10 is a process drawing showing a conventional manufacturing procedure of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Substrate 2, 3 Element Electrode 4 Conductive Positive Thin Film 5 Electron Emitting Section 12 Element Electrode Material 21 Stage 22 Diamond Tool 25 Actuator 27 Vibration Isolator 40 Ammeter 41 Power Supply 42 Ammeter 43 High Voltage Power Supply 44 Anode Electrode 45 Vacuum Device 46 Exhaust Pump 56 X-direction wiring 57 Inter-layer insulation film 58 Y-direction wiring 61 Rear plate 62 Support frame 63 Glass substrate 64 Fluorescent film 65 Metal back 66 Face plate 67 High voltage terminal 68 Envelope 71 Display panel 72 Scanning circuit 73 Control circuit 74 Shift register 75 Line memory 76 Synchronous signal separation circuit 77 Modulation signal generator 86 Wiring 90 Grid electrode 91 Holes 92 Outer container terminal 93 Outer container terminal 100 Resist 111 Electron source substrate (matrix type) 121 Electron source substrate (ladder type) 130 Electron emission element

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. A step of forming a pair of electrodes facing each other on a substrate at a predetermined interval, a step of forming a conductive thin film at the electrode interval, and an electron emitting portion in a part of the conductive thin film. In the method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device, which comprises the step of forming the electrode, the electrode pair is formed by cutting at least a part of the device electrode material on the substrate with a diamond tool. Method of manufacturing electron-emitting device. 2. The manufacturing method according to claim 1, wherein the central portion of the device electrode material formed on the substrate is cut to form device electrode intervals. 3. A method of manufacturing an electron source substrate, comprising forming a plurality of electron-emitting devices on a substrate by the method according to claim 1 or 2, and connecting wirings. 4. A method of manufacturing an electron source, which comprises forming an electron source substrate by the method of claim 3 and connecting a driving device to the electron source substrate. 5. An electron source is manufactured by the method according to claim 4,
A method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus, in which a rear plate including at least the electron source and a face plate having a fluorescent film are bonded to each other via a support frame so that the plates face each other to form an image forming apparatus. . 6. An electron-emitting device comprising a pair of electrodes facing each other on a substrate at a predetermined distance from each other, and a conductive thin film having an electron-emitting portion made of a fine particle film is formed between the electrodes. An electron-emitting device characterized in that the pair of electrodes is formed by cutting at least a part of a device electrode material on a substrate by diamond cutting. 7. The electron-emitting device according to claim 6, wherein the device electrode interval is formed by cutting the central part of the device electrode material formed on the substrate. 8. An electron source substrate comprising a plurality of electron-emitting devices according to claim 6 or 7 formed on a substrate and wirings connected to the devices. 9. An electron source in which a driving device is connected to the electron source substrate according to claim 8. 10. An image forming apparatus in which a rear plate having the electron source according to claim 9 and a face plate having a fluorescent film are joined via a support frame so that the two plates face each other.