JPH08138554A - Manufacture of flat panel image display device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To eliminate ill influence of solvent or binder on an electron emitting element in the drying and provisional baking processes, simplify the processes, and enhance the assembly precision by provisionally baking a low melting point glass for fixing a spacer in advance on the joint part on one side or both sides of the spacer. CONSTITUTION: Float glass is machined and polished and therewith a front plate 1, back plate 2, and supporting frame 3 are fabricated, while a blue sheet glass is polished so that the thickness is several hundreds of microns and thereby a spacer 5 is provided. Frit at the front is of crystalline while a frit of LS-7105 is used at the rear, and these are mixed with solution prepared by dissolving acrylic resin in α-turbineol, and thus frit paste is produced. The paste is applied to the two joining surface of a spacer 204, followed by drying and provisional baking, and thus frit 206 is formed. The frit with a spacer is located on the front plate and fixed, followed by baking, and one side is adhered. A combination of a supporting frame 209 and a back plate 202 is placed on the front plate 201, followed by pressurization and another baking as regular process. After completion of assembly, an air exhaust pipe is sealed, and an image display device is achieved.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

2. Description of the Related Art 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 type electron emitting devices and the like.

As an example of the FE type, W. P. Dyke
& W. W. Dolan, “Field Emissi”
on ”, Advance in Electron F
hysics, 8, 89 (1956) or C.I. A.
spindt, "Physical Property"
es of thin-film field emi
session cats with with mollyb
denium "J. Appl. Phys., 47 52.
48 (1976) and the like are known.

An example of the MIM type is C.I. A. Mea
d, "The tunnel-emission am
plier ", J. Appl. Phys., 32,
646 (1961) and the like are known.

As an example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, M.
I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electr
on Phys. , 10, 1290 (1965) and the like. The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which a thin film having a small area formed on a substrate causes electron emission by causing a current to flow in parallel with the thin film.

As this surface conduction electron-emitting device, a device using the SnO ₂ thin film by Erinson et al.
Thin film [G. Dittmer: "Thin S
old Films ", 9, 317 (1972)],
In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hart
well and C.I. G. Fonstad: “IEE
E Trans. ED conf. ", 519, (19
75)], by a carbon thin film [Hiraki Araki: vacuum,
Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)] and the like are reported.

As a typical device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the above-mentioned M. A conventional Hartwell device structure is shown in FIG. In the figure, 1 is a substrate. Reference numeral 4 denotes a conductive thin film, which is composed of a metal oxide thin film or the like formed by sputtering on an H-shaped pattern, and the electron emission portion 5 is formed by an energization process called energization forming described later. The distance L1 between the device electrodes in the figure is 0.5 to 1 mm, W
Is set to 0.1 mm. Since the position and shape of the electron emitting portion 5 are unknown, they are shown as a schematic diagram.

Conventionally, in these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the electron-emitting portion 5 is subjected to an energization process called energization forming in advance on the conductive thin film 4 before the electron emission.
Was commonly formed. That is, the energization forming means that a direct current voltage or a very slow rising voltage, for example, about IV / minute is applied to both ends of the conductive thin film 4, and the conductive thin film is locally destroyed, deformed or altered.
This is to form the electron emitting portion 5 in an electrically high resistance state. In the electron emitting portion 5, a crack is generated in a part of the conductive thin film 4, and electrons are emitted from the vicinity of the crack.

In the surface conduction electron-emitting device that has been subjected to the energization forming treatment, a voltage is applied to the conductive thin film 4,
Electrons are emitted from the electron emitting portion 5 by passing a current through the element.

Since the surface conduction electron-emitting device described above has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture, it has an advantage that many devices can be arrayed over a large area. Therefore, various applications that can make full use of this feature are being researched. Examples thereof include a charged beam source and a display device such as an image display.

The above-mentioned electron-emitting device is 10-6 Torr.
Since the device is operated in a vacuum of a certain level or higher, an atmospheric pressure resistant structure is required when forming an image display device using the electron-emitting device. In particular, in the case of a flat panel image display device that uses a large-area back plate and front plate to support atmospheric pressure resistance, the plate thickness of each plate becomes extremely thick, which makes it feasible in terms of weight and cost. Becomes scarce. In order to avoid this problem, spacers are arranged between the front plate and the back plate as columns to form an atmospheric pressure resistant structure, and the weight of the image display device is reduced. When arranging the spacers in the image display device, one of the methods is to assemble them by fixing them to the front plate or the rear plate with an adhesive in advance.

[0012]

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION The inventors of the present invention have earnestly studied a method of fixing a front plate, a rear plate, a support frame and a spacer by using a frit. It has been found that the following problems occur when frit paste is applied on the front plate and the back plate. 1) The drying and calcination process of the frit paste is performed on the back plate having the electron-emitting device, so that the solvent and the binder may adversely affect the electron-emitting device characteristics during the drying and calcination. The element characteristics may be deteriorated by heat because it undergoes two firing steps of temporary firing and main firing. 2) When applying the frit paste on the front plate and the back plate, it is necessary to repeat coating several times with a drying process in between in order to obtain a desired frit thickness. Remove the coated members (front plate and back plate) that are aligned with high precision on the stage,
Since it is necessary to set again at the time of the next overcoating, the work process becomes complicated and it takes time and labor. 3) The image display device is required to have high precision in assembling the front plate, the rear plate and the spacers. However, when the conventional method is used, the frit is similarly highly accurately placed on the front plate and the rear plate. Since it is necessary to apply the coating, it is troublesome, and the coating error may directly lead to the assembly error due to the limitation of the coating device.

[0013]

According to the present invention, when a spacer is arranged and fixed to a front plate and a rear plate in an image display device,
Frit as an adhesive is applied on one side or both sides of the spacer in advance and pre-baked, or after the spacer is fixed to the front plate by frit in some way, the other side of all the spacers An object of the present invention is to provide a method for manufacturing an image display device, which can solve the above-mentioned problems by directly applying a frit paste on the joint portion and calcining it, and which can be relatively easily performed even on a large screen.

[0014]

According to the manufacturing method of the present invention: 1) Since the steps of drying and calcination of the frit paste on the back plate having the electron-emitting device are omitted, the electron-emitting device using the solvent and the binder at the time of drying and calcination. The possibility of adversely affecting the characteristics can be eliminated, and the firing process is the same as the main firing.
Since the number of heat treatment steps is reduced, the deterioration of element characteristics due to heat is reduced. 2) Frit paste application process on the back plate and the front plate, that is, several times when frit paste is repeatedly applied,
Since high-precision alignment of the member to be coated on the stage of the frit coating device, high-precision frit coating, and a drying process are reduced or unnecessary, the process can be simplified. 3) By assembling the frit on the spacer,
This eliminates the need for the conventional high-precision frit coating on the front plate and the rear plate, reducing the labor and improving the assembling accuracy.

The above-mentioned effects are brought about.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described.

FIG. 1 is a method of manufacturing an image display device showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, 101 is a front plate on which an image forming member is mounted (not shown), and 102 is a rear plate on which an electron-emitting device group is mounted (not shown). Front plate 101
The back plate 102 and the frit 105 are attached via the support frame 103.
To form an airtight container. Further, as an atmospheric pressure resistant support member between the front plate 101 and the rear plate 102,
A spacer 104 having the same height as the support frame 103 is inserted, and the front plate 101, the rear plate 102, and the frit 10 are inserted.
It joins by 6 (FIG.1 (f)).

Front plate 101, rear plate 102, support frame 10
3 and the spacer 104 are made of glass or have the same coefficient of thermal expansion as glass. Further, the shape, number, arrangement, etc. of the spacers are not particularly limited.

To bond the spacer 104 to the front plate 101 and the rear plate 102, frit paste is applied to one side and both bonding surfaces of the spacer in advance and pre-baked, and the spacer having the frit is fixed to a spacer fixing jig. First, the front plate 101 is fired at a required sealing temperature, and then the back plate 102 is joined (FIGS. 1 (a)-(b)-(e)-).
(F)).

Alternatively, after the spacer 104 and the front plate 101 are fixed by firing with a frit, frit paste is applied to the other joint surface of the spacer fixed on the front plate and pre-baked, and this is positioned and fixed to the rear plate 102. However, they are joined by firing at the required sealing temperature. In this case, the method of joining the spacer 104 and the front plate 101 is not particularly limited (FIGS. 1 (c)-(d)-(e)-(f)).

The coating method of the frit 106 on the spacer 104 is 1) direct coating by a dispenser robot 2) dipping method 3) thick film transfer method using a wire bar and an applicator 4) printing, etc. In the case of -3081, calcination is performed at a temperature of 380 to 390 ° C. The main firing is performed at 410 ° C.

Further, the cold cathode electron source used in the present invention is preferably a surface conduction electron-emitting device which has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture.

There are basically two types of surface conduction electron-emitting devices that can be used in the present invention: a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device and a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view and a sectional view showing the structure of a basic surface conduction electron-emitting device.

In FIG. 5, 1 is a substrate, 2 and 3 are device electrodes, 4 is a conductive thin film, and 5 is an electron emitting portion.

As the substrate 1, quartz glass, glass containing a small amount 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 are used.

A general conductor is used as a material for the electron electrodes 2 and 3, for example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, P.
Metals or alloys such as t, Ti, Al, Cu, Pd and P
A printed conductor of a metal such as d, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-Ag or a metal oxide and glass, In ₂
It is appropriately selected from transparent conductors such as O ₃ —SnO ₂ and semiconductor materials such as polysilicon.

The device electrode spacing L is preferably several hundreds of angstroms to several hundreds of micrometers. Further, it is desirable that the voltage applied between the device electrodes is low, and since it is required to produce it with good reproducibility, the preferred device electrode interval is several micrometers to several tens of micrometers.

The device electrode length W is preferably several micrometers to several hundreds of micrometers in view of the electrode resistance and electron emission characteristics, and the film thickness of the device electrodes 2 and 3 is preferably several micrometers to several micrometers.

In addition to the structure shown in FIG. 5, the conductive thin film 4 and the device electrodes 2 and 3 may be formed on the substrate 1 in this order.

The conductive thin film 4 is particularly preferably a fine particle film composed of fine particles in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics, and the film thickness is the step coverage to the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the resistance between the device electrodes 2 and 3. Although it is appropriately set depending on the value and the energization forming condition described later, it is preferably several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, particularly preferably 10 angstroms to 500 angstroms. The sheet resistance value is 10 3 to 10 7 ohm / □.

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, Pb, Pd
Oxides such as O, SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ , HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , and YB
₄ , boride such as GdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC,
Carbides such as TaC, SiC, WC, TiN, ZrN, H
Examples include nitrides such as fN, semiconductors such as Si and Ge, and carbon.

The fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and its fine structure is not only in a state where the fine particles are dispersed and arranged but also in a state where the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other (island). The particle size of the fine particles is from several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, preferably from 10 angstroms to 200 angstroms.

The electron emitting portion 5 is a high resistance crack formed in a part of the conductive thin film 4, and is formed by energization forming or the like. Further, the cracks may have conductive fine particles having a particle diameter of several angstroms to several hundred angstroms. The conductive fine particles contain at least a part of the elements forming the conductive thin film 4.

The electron emitting portion 5 and the conductive thin film 4 in the vicinity thereof may contain carbon and carbon compounds.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view showing the structure of a basic vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

In FIG. 6, the same members as those in FIG. 5 are designated by the same reference numerals. Reference numeral 21 is a step forming portion.

Substrate 1, device electrodes 2 and 3, conductive thin film 4,
The electron emitting portion 5 can be made of the same material as that of the above-mentioned planar surface conduction electron-emitting device, the step forming portion 21 is made of an insulating material, and the film thickness of the step forming portion 21 is described above. It corresponds to the device electrode distance L of the planar surface conduction electron-emitting device. The spacing is tens of micrometers rather than hundreds of angstroms. The distance can be controlled by the manufacturing method of the step forming portion and the voltage applied between the device electrodes, but it is preferably several hundred angstroms to several micrometers.

Since the conductive thin film 4 is formed after the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the step forming portion 21 are formed, it is laminated on the device electrodes 2 and 3. Although the electron emitting portion 5 is shown as being linearly formed in the step forming portion 21 in FIG. 6,
The shape and position are not limited to these, depending on the preparation conditions, the energization forming conditions, and the like.

Hereinafter, a method of manufacturing the electron source substrate will be described with reference to FIGS. The same members as those in FIG. 1 are designated by the same reference numerals. 1) After thoroughly washing the substrate with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, a device electrode material is deposited by a vacuum vapor deposition method, a sputtering method or the like. After that, the device electrodes 2 and 3 are formed on the substrate by the photolithography technique (FIG. 7A). 2) An organometallic solution is applied to the substrate 1 provided with the device electrodes 2 and 3 and left to stand to form an organometallic thin film.
The organometallic solution referred to here is a solution of an organometallic compound containing a metal forming the conductive film 4 as a main element. After that, the organic metal thin film is heated and baked, and patterned by lift-off, etching or the like to form the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 7B). Although the organic metal solution coating method has been described here, the present invention is not limited to this and may be formed by a vacuum vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, a dispersion coating method, a dipping method, a spinner method, or the like. There is also. 3) Subsequently, an energization process called energization forming is performed. The energization forming energizes between the device electrodes 2 and 3 from a power source (not shown) to locally destroy, deform or alter the conductive thin film 4 to form a portion having a changed structure. The site where the structure is locally changed is called an electron emitting portion 5 (FIG. 7C). FIG. 8 shows an example of the voltage waveform of energization forming.

A pulse waveform is particularly preferable as the voltage waveform, and a voltage pulse having a constant pulse peak value is continuously applied (FIG. 8a) and a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value (FIG. 8b). There is. First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage (FIG. 8A) will be described.

In FIG. 8a, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform, where T1 is 1 microsecond to 1
0 milliseconds, T2 is 10 microseconds to 100 milliseconds,
The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage at the time of energization forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and for several seconds in an appropriate vacuum degree, for example, in a vacuum atmosphere of about 10 −5 torr. Apply 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. 8b are the same as those in FIG. 8a, and 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 at a voltage that does not locally destroy or deform the conductive thin film 2 during the pulse interval T2, for example, a voltage of about 0.1 V, and the resistance is measured. The value is obtained, and when the resistance is 1 M ohm or more, the energization forming is completed. 4) Next, it is desirable to perform a process called an activation process on the element for which energization forming has been completed. The activation step is, for example, a process of repeatedly applying a voltage pulse having a constant pulse peak value at a vacuum degree of about −10 −5 to −10 −5 torr, similarly to the energization forming. Is a process of depositing carbon and a carbon compound derived from the organic substance existing in the above on the conductive thin film to remarkably change the device 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, carbon and carbon compounds are graphite (indicating both single and polycrystalline) and amorphous carbon (indicating a mixture of amorphous carbon and polycrystalline graphite).
The film thickness is preferably 500 angstroms or less, and more preferably 300 angstroms or less. 5) It is preferable to place the electron-emitting device thus prepared in an atmosphere having a higher vacuum degree than the vacuum degree used in the forming step and the activation step to drive the electron-emitting element. In addition, it is desirable to operate after heating at 80 ° C. to 150 ° C. in an atmosphere of a higher degree of vacuum.

The degree of vacuum higher than the degree of vacuum formed by the forming step and activation is, for example, a degree of vacuum of about 10 −6 or higher, more preferably an ultra-high vacuum system, and newly added carbon and carbon. The degree of vacuum is such that the compound is hardly deposited on the conductive thin film. By doing so, the device current If,
It becomes possible to stabilize the emission current Ie.

Various methods are conceivable as a method for manufacturing the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, one example of which is shown in FIG.

Next, the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described.

The electron source substrate used in the image forming apparatus is formed by arranging a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices on the substrate.

In the arrangement method of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel, and both ends of the individual devices are connected by wiring in a ladder arrangement (hereinafter referred to as a ladder arrangement electron source substrate). ) Or a simple matrix arrangement (hereinafter referred to as a matrix-type arrangement electron source substrate) in which a pair of element electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device are respectively connected with X-direction wiring and Y-direction wiring. An image forming apparatus having a ladder type electron source substrate requires a control electrode (grid electrode) which is an electrode for controlling the flight of electrons from the electron-emitting device.

The configuration of the electron source constructed based on this principle will be described below with reference to FIG. 871 is an electron source substrate, 872 is an X-direction wiring, 873 is a Y-direction wiring, 8
74 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 875 is a wire connection.
The surface conduction electron-emitting device 874 may be either the flat type or the vertical type described above.

In the figure, the substrate used as the electron source substrate 871 is the above-mentioned glass substrate or the like, and its shape is appropriately set according to the application.

The m X-direction wirings 872 are DX1 and DX.
2, ... DXm, and the Y-direction wiring 873 is DY1, D
It consists of n wirings Y2 ... DYn.

Further, the material, the film thickness and the wiring width are appropriately set so that a substantially uniform voltage is supplied to many surface conduction type elements. The m X-direction wirings 872 and the n Y-direction wirings 873 are electrically separated by an interlayer insulating layer (not shown) to form a matrix wiring (m and n are both positive integers).

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is formed in a desired region on a part of the entire surface of the substrate 871 on which the X-direction wiring 872 is formed. The X-direction wiring 872 and the Y-direction wiring 873 are drawn out as external terminals.

Further, the device electrodes (not shown) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 874 are electrically connected to the m X-direction wirings 872 and the n Y-direction wirings 873 by the connection wires 875.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device may be formed either on the substrate or on an interlayer insulating layer (not shown).

The X-direction wiring 8 will be described later in detail.
72 is electrically connected to a scanning signal generating means (not shown) for applying a scanning signal for scanning a row of surface conduction electron-emitting devices 874 arranged in the X direction according to an input signal.

On the other hand, a modulation signal (not shown) for applying a modulation signal for modulating each row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 874 arranged in the Y direction according to the input signal to the Y-direction wiring 873. It is electrically connected to the generating means.

Further, the drive voltage applied to each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is supplied as a difference voltage between the scanning signal applied to the element and the modulation signal.

In the above structure, individual elements can be selected and driven independently by using only simple matrix wiring.

Next, an image forming apparatus using the electron source having the simple matrix arrangement created as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 9, 11 and 12. FIG. 9 is a basic configuration diagram of the image forming apparatus, FIG. 11 is a fluorescent film, and FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a drive circuit for displaying in accordance with an NTSC system television signal. Image formation including the drive circuit is shown. Represents a device.

In FIG. 9, 971 is an electron source substrate having an electron-emitting device formed on the substrate, 981 is a rear plate to which the electron source substrate 971 is fixed, and 986 is a glass substrate 983 having a fluorescent film 984 and a metal back 985 on its inner surface. The formed face plate, 982 is a support frame, and 981 is a rear plate, and these members constitute the envelope 988.

Reference numeral 974 in FIG. 9 corresponds to the electron emitting portion in FIG. Reference numerals 972 and 973 are an X-direction wiring and a Y-direction wiring connected to a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

The envelope 988 comprises the face plate 986, the support frame 982, and the rear plate 981 as described above, but the rear plate 981 is mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the electron source substrate 971. Because it is provided,
When the electron source substrate 971 itself has a sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 981 is not necessary. The electron source substrate 971 is directly provided with the support frame 982, and the face plate 986, the support frame 982, and the electron source substrate 971 are used. The envelope 988 may be configured.

Reference numeral 1092 in FIG. 11 is a phosphor. In the case of monochrome, the phosphor 1092 is composed of only the phosphor, but in the case of a color phosphor film, it is composed of a black conductive material 1091 called a black stripe or a black matrix depending on the arrangement of the phosphor and a phosphor 1092. In the case of a color display, the purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the mixed portions between the phosphors 1092 of the three primary color phosphors black so as to make the color mixture inconspicuous and the external light in the phosphor film 984. This is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to reflection.
The material of the black stripe is not limited to the commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, but is not limited to this as long as it is a material having conductivity and little light transmission and reflection.

As a method for applying the phosphor to the glass substrate 983, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome or color.

A metal back 985 (FIG. 9) is usually provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 984 (FIG. 9). The purpose of the metal back is to improve the brightness by specularly reflecting the light to the inner surface side of the light emission of the phosphor to the face plate 986 side, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage, This is to protect the phosphor from the damage caused by the collision of negative ions generated inside the container. For the metal back, after the fluorescent film is manufactured, the inner surface of the fluorescent film is smoothed (usually called filming), and then Al
Can be manufactured by depositing by vacuum evaporation or the like.

The face plate 986 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 984 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 984.

The envelope 988 is provided through an exhaust pipe (not shown) to
The degree of vacuum is set to about 0 ^-7 torr and sealing is performed. In addition, a getter process may be performed to maintain the degree of vacuum after the envelope 988 is sealed. This is the envelope 98
A process for heating a getter arranged at a predetermined position (not shown) in the envelope 988 by a heating method such as resistance heating or high frequency heating immediately before or after the sealing of No. 8 to form a vapor deposition film. Is. The getter usually has Ba as a main component, and due to the adsorption action of the deposited film, for example, 1 × 10 ⁻⁵
The degree of vacuum of torr or 1 × 10 ⁻⁷ torr is maintained. The steps after forming the surface conduction electron-emitting device are appropriately set.

Next, FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a drive circuit for performing television display on an image forming apparatus configured by using an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement type substrate based on an NTSC system television signal. Will be explained. 1101 is the display panel, 1102 is a scanning circuit, 1103 is a control circuit, 1104 is a shift register, 1105 is a line memory, 1106 is a sync signal separation circuit, 1107 is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources. Is.

The functions of the respective parts will be described below. First, the display panel 1101 is connected to an external electric circuit via the terminals Dox1 to Doxm, the terminals Doyl to Doyn and the high voltage terminal Hv. Among them, the terminals Doxl to Doxm sequentially drive the electron sources provided in the display panel, that is, the surface conduction electron-emitting device groups arranged in a matrix of M rows and N columns matrix by row (N elements). A scanning signal for application is applied.

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 Dyl to Dyn. Further, from the DC voltage source Va to the high voltage terminal Hv,
For example, a DC voltage of 10 K [V] is supplied, which is an accelerating voltage for giving enough energy to excite the phosphor to the electron beam output from the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

Next, the scanning circuit 1102 will be described.
The circuit includes M switching elements inside (indicated by S1 to Sm in the figure), and each switching element is an output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or O.
One of [V] (ground level) is selected and electrically connected to the terminals Dxl to Dxm of the display panel 1101. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm has a control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 1103.
However, in practice, it can be constructed by combining switching elements such as FETs.

The DC voltage source Vx is such that the drive voltage applied to an unscanned element is equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold voltage based on the characteristics (electron emission threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting element. It is set to output a constant voltage such that

The control circuit 1103 has a function of matching the operation of each part so that an appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside. The sync signal Tsy sent from the sync signal separation circuit 1106 described below
Based on nc, Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry control signals are generated for each unit.

The sync signal separation circuit 1106 is a circuit for separating a sync signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC television signal input from the outside, and can be constructed by using a frequency separation (filter) circuit. . As is well known, the sync signal separated by the sync signal separation circuit 1106 includes a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal.
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 referred to as a DATA signal for convenience, but the signal is input to the shift register 1104.

The shift register 1104 is for serially / parallel converting the DATA signal serially input in time series for each line of the image, and operates based on the control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 1103. (That is, the control signal Tsft may be restated as the shift clock of the shift register 1104.) The serial / parallel converted image data for one line (corresponding to drive data for N electron emission elements) is output from the shift register 1104 as N parallel signals Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 1105 is a storage device for storing data for one line of an 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 1103.
The stored contents are output as Id1 to Idn and input to the modulation signal generator 1107.

The modulation signal generator 1107 is a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices according to each of the image data Idl to Idn, and its output signal is displayed through the terminals Doy1 to Doyn. It is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the panel 1101.

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, electron emission has a clear threshold voltage Vth, and electron emission occurs only when a voltage equal to or higher than Vth is applied. Further, for a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold value, the emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the device. The value of the electron emission threshold voltage Vth and the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may be changed by changing the material, configuration, and manufacturing method of the electron emitting element. I can say things.

That is, when a pulsed voltage is applied to this element, for example, when a voltage below the electron emission threshold is applied but a voltage above the electron emission threshold is applied, an electron beam is output. At that time, first, it is possible to control the intensity of the output electron beam 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 in accordance with the input signal, there are a voltage modulation method, a panel width modulation method and the like. To implement the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 1107 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 1107 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 a television using the display panel 1101. Although not particularly described in the above description, the shift register 1104 and the line memory 1105 may be digital signal type or analog signal type, and the point is that serial / parallel conversion and storage of image signals are performed at a predetermined speed. It should be done.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 1106 into a digital signal, which can be achieved by providing an A / D converter at the output section of 1106. Further, in connection with this, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 1107 is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 1105 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 1107 has
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 1107 includes, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter that counts the number of waves output by the oscillator, and a comparator that compares the output value of the counter with the output value of the memory. It can be configured by using a circuit in which (comparators) 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, the modulation signal generator 1107 has
For example, a well-known amplifier circuit using an 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 oscillation circuit (VCO) may be used, and an amplifier for amplifying the voltage to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be added if necessary. May be.

In the image display device completed as described above, each electron-emitting device is thus provided with the terminal Dox1 outside the container.
To Doxm and Doy1 to Doyn, electrons are emitted by applying a voltage, and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 985 or the transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam and accelerate the fluorescent film 98.
An image can be displayed by colliding with 4 to excite and emit light.

The configuration described above is a schematic configuration necessary for producing 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 those described above. , 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, SEC
Various schemes such as an AM scheme may be used, and a TV signal (for example, a high-definition TV such as a MUSE scheme) including a number of scanning lines may be used.

Next, the above-mentioned ladder type electron source substrate and the image display device using the same will be described with reference to FIGS.

In FIG. 13, 1210 is an electron source substrate,
Reference numeral 1211 denotes an electron-emitting device, and 1212 Dx1 to Dx10.
Is a common wiring connected to the electron-emitting device. A plurality of electron-emitting devices 1211 are arranged on the substrate 1210 in parallel in the X direction. (This is called an element row). A plurality of this element row is arranged on the substrate to form a ladder type electron source substrate. By appropriately applying a drive voltage between the common wirings of each element row, each element row can be independently driven. That is, a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold may be applied to the element row that emits the electron beam, and a voltage lower than the electron emission threshold may be applied to the element row that does not emit the electron beam. In addition, the common wirings Dx2 to Dx9 between the respective element rows are, for example, D
Alternatively, x2 and Dx3 may have the same wiring.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the structure of an image forming apparatus provided with a ladder-type electron source. 1320 is a grid electrode, 1321 is a hole through which electrons pass, 1
322 is an outer terminal of the container made of Dox1, Dox2 ... Doxm, 1323 is an outer terminal of the container made of G1, G2, ... Gn connected to the grid electrode 1320, and 1324 is the common wiring between the element rows as described above. And the electron source substrate. The difference from the image forming apparatus having the simple matrix arrangement (FIG. 9) described above is that the grid electrode 1320 is provided between the electron source substrate 1324 and the face plate 986.

A grid electrode 1320 is provided between the substrate 1324 and the face plate 986. The grid electrode 1320 is capable of modulating the electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and passes the electron beam through a striped electrode provided orthogonal to the ladder-shaped element rows. A circular opening 1321 is provided for each element. The shape and installation position of the grid are not necessarily as shown in FIG. 14, and a large number of passage openings may be provided in the form of a mesh as openings. Further, for example, they may be provided around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Good.

The outside-container terminal 1322 and the grid outside-container terminal 1323 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.
The irradiation of each electron beam to the phosphor can be controlled to display an image 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.
Further, not only the surface conduction electron-emitting devices but also cold cathode electron sources such as MIM-type electron-emitting devices and field emission-type electron-emitting devices can be applied as the electron-emitting devices. Further, it can be applied to an image display device using a thermoelectron source.

[0099]

The present invention will be described in detail with reference to the following examples. Example 1 A method for manufacturing the image display device shown in FIG. 1 will be described. This image display device has the same configuration as that described in the embodiment. In this embodiment, the front plate 1, the rear plate 2,
The support frame 3 is made of float glass (blue sheet glass) manufactured by Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd., which is cut and polished, and the spacer 4 is formed by polishing and processing blue sheet glass into a flat plate shape with a thickness of several hundred μm. I am using one. As the electron-emitting device, a surface conduction electron-emitting device was manufactured on the back plate.

A method of assembling the image display device in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

The frit is a crystalline frit on the front plate side, LS-7105 manufactured by Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd.
(Sealing temperature 450 ℃) on the back plate side
-3081 was used, and these were mixed with an acrylic resin (ervasite) dissolved in α-terpineol by about 5% to prepare and use a frit paste.

Spacers 204 are prepared, and a paste containing LS-7105 is placed on the front plate side and a paste containing LS-3081 is placed on the back plate side by a dispenser frit applicator 207 at both joints in advance. The frit 206 was formed by applying, drying and pre-baking, respectively. Drying at 120 ℃, holding for 20 minutes, calcination maximum temperature 3
Hold at 80 ° C for 10 minutes, frit 206 after pre-baking
Had a thickness of about 100 μm (FIG. 2 (a)).

Next, the spacers having the frit which has been calcined at both joints are positioned and fixed on the front plate by a spacer fixing jig (not shown), and the maximum temperature is 410 ° C.
One side was joined by firing for 0 minutes (Fig. 2
(B)).

Next, the front plate 2 to which the spacers 204 are joined
01, the support frame 209 and the back plate 202 were sequentially positioned and combined, and a main firing was performed by heating and holding at 410 ° C. for 10 minutes while applying a load from above. For fixing the support frame 209, the same frit as when the spacer was bonded was used. In this way, an image display device having an atmospheric pressure resistant support structure was formed (FIGS. 2C and 2D).

After the assembly is completed, in order to make the inside of the container manufactured in the above step a vacuum state, the inside of the container is evacuated through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and then the exhaust pipe is sealed. The image display device shown in 4 was completed.

By forming the frit on both joints of the spacers in advance, it is possible to omit the high-precision frit application of the frit paste on the front plate and the rear plate, and to dry the frit paste on the rear plate having the electron-emitting device. Since there is no calcination process that is a process and a binder removal process, it is possible to prevent the deterioration of device characteristics due to the influence of the solvent and the binder. Also, since there is only one heating process, deterioration of device characteristics due to heat should be reduced. I was able to. In this embodiment, the dispenser robot method is used as the method for applying the frit paste onto the spacer, but other methods such as dipping and transfer may be used. <Embodiment 2> This embodiment is similar to Embodiment 1 in the configuration of members and the like, but the order of frit formation on the spacer bonding surface is different.

A method of assembling the image display device in this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

A spacer frit 306 was formed. The drying, calcination and coating conditions of the frit paste are the same as in Example 1 (FIG. 3 (a)).

Regarding the frit, the same type of frit as in Example 1 was used as a frit paste by the same method.

Next, the spacer 304 having the frit 306 that has been calcined on one side of the joint surface is positioned and fixed on the front plate 301 using a spacer fixing jig (not shown), and the maximum temperature is 10 ° C. at 10 ° C. One side was joined by firing for one minute (FIG. 3 (b)).

Next, the spacer 3 fixed on the front plate 301
On the other joint surface of No. 04, a thick film frit paste produced by an applicator was pressed to transfer the frit paste onto all spacer joint surfaces. After that, drying and calcination were performed to form a frit. Maximum drying temperature is 12
Hold at 0 ℃ for 20 minutes, pre-baking at maximum temperature of 380 ℃ for 10
The frit thickness after temporary baking is 150 to 20
It was 0 μm (FIG. 3 (c)).

Finally, as in the first embodiment, the spacer 304
The support frame 309 and the back plate 3 on the front plate 301 to which the
While sequentially positioning No. 02, the main firing was performed at 410 ° C. for 10 minutes while applying a load from above (see FIG. 3).
(D), (e)), vacuuming, and exhaust pipe sealing are performed, and then, as shown in FIG.
The image display device shown in FIG.

By forming the frit on the spacer joint portion in this manner, high-precision frit application of the frit paste on the front plate and the rear plate can be omitted, and
Since there is no drying process on the back plate having electron-emitting devices and a calcination process for removing the binder, deterioration of device characteristics due to the influence of the solvent and binder can be prevented, and the heating process is only once. Therefore, deterioration of element characteristics due to heat could be reduced.

[0114]

As described above, according to the present invention, when fixing the spacer to the front plate and the rear plate, the frit is formed by coating and calcination on one side or both joints of the spacer in advance. After fixing to the front plate with a frit, applying the frit to the other joint part of the spacer and calcination, 1) Drying and calcination of the frit paste on the back plate having electron-emitting devices Since the process is omitted, it is possible to eliminate the adverse effects on the electron emission device characteristics due to the solvent and binder during drying and pre-baking, and the firing process is reduced to one time of the main firing, which reduces the heat process. Deterioration reduced. 2) Frit paste application process on the back plate and the front plate, that is, several times when frit paste is repeatedly applied,
The high-precision alignment of the member to be coated, the high-precision frit coating, and the drying process on the stage of the frit coating device are reduced or eliminated, and the process can be simplified. 3) The frit paste application process on the back plate and the front plate, that is, the high-precision alignment on the frit application device and the high-precision frit application by the dispenser robot are unnecessary or reduced, so that the spacer position is fixed. Only the jig accuracy of the tool reduces the labor required, and the assembly accuracy is improved. As a result, the image display device can be manufactured easily and highly accurately, and the yield is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 (a), (b), (c), (d),
(E), (f) is sectional drawing which shows the process of the manufacturing method of the image display apparatus of this invention.

2 (a), (b), (c), and (d) are assembly process diagrams of the image display device according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 (a), (b), (c), (d), (e)
2A and 2B are assembly process diagrams of an image display device showing Embodiment 2 of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an image display device shown in an embodiment of the present invention.

5 (a) and 5 (b) are a schematic plan view and a sectional view showing the structure of a basic surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a basic vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing an example of a method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention.

8A and 8B are diagrams showing an example of voltage waveforms of energization forming in the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an image display device.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.

11 (a) and 11 (b) are diagrams showing the structure of a fluorescent film.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a drive circuit for performing display according to an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an electron source arranged in a ladder.

FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration perspective view showing another example of the image display device.

FIG. 15 is a plan view showing a conventional surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 71 Electron Source Substrate 72 X Direction Wiring 73 Y Direction Wiring 74 Surface Conduction Electron Emission Element 75 Connection 81 Rear Plate 82 Support Frame 83 Glass Substrate 84 Fluorescent Film 85 Metal Back 86 Face Plate 87 High Voltage Terminal 88 Envelope 89 Spacer 101, 201,301 Front plate 102,202,302 Back plate 103,203,209,303,309 Support frame 104,204,304 Spacer 106,206,306 Frit 207,307 Dispenser

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A back plate on which an electron-emitting device is mounted, and an image-forming member which is arranged so as to face the back plate and which forms an image by irradiation of an electron beam emitted from the electron-emitting device. A front plate, a support frame between the back plate and the front plate, which surrounds the back plate and the peripheral edges of the front plate, and a spacer which holds the back plate and the front plate against atmospheric pressure, have a low melting point. In a method of manufacturing a flat panel image display device joined by using glass, a low melting point glass for fixing the spacer is preliminarily fired on a joint portion on one side or both sides of the spacer in advance. Image display device manufacturing method. 2. The method of manufacturing a flat panel image display device according to claim 1, wherein after the spacer is baked and fixed to the front plate with low melting glass, the spacer is fixed to the front plate on the other side bonding surface on the spacer. A method for manufacturing a flat panel image display device, which comprises pre-baking low-melting glass.