JPH09213212A - Ink jet droplet giving device, and manufacture of electron source base and image forming device using ink jet droplet giving device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To cope with a slippage automatically and securely, and to form a conductive thin film stably and accurately, by giving the droplet by correcting a conductive minute particle membrane, by detecting the relative positions of an element and a discharge head. SOLUTION: A pair of element electrode positions are read by a detecting optical system assembled to a discharge head unit 6, an image discriminating device 14 calculates a gravity center position by a binarized contrast, and the gravity center position is recognized as the position data on the coordinates in an electron source base 71. This series of data processing is carried out by a control computer 19. The coordinates corrected by making the cross letters on the electrodes as the base is decided, the droplet applied position is corrected, and the application of droplet corrected to a slipped element electrodes is carried out. This position correcting operation is carried out, by applying a correction to the moving position itself of a position correcting control mechanism 17 and an X and Y direction scanning mechanism 15.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron source using a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus using the electron source.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron emitting devices, a thermionic electron source and a cold cathode electron source, are known. The cold cathode electron source includes a field emission type (hereinafter referred to as FE type), a metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter referred to as MIM type), a surface conduction type electron emitting device, and the like. An example of the FE type is "WP Dyke &
W. W. Dolan, "Field Emissio"
n ", Advance in Electron Ph
ysics, 8 89 (1956) "or" C.
A. Spindt, “Physical Proper
ties of thin-film field e
Mission cathodes with mol
ybdenium "J. Appl. Phys., 475.
248 (1976) "and the like are known. An example of the MIM type is “CA Mead,“ The Tunnel ”.
-Emission amplifier ", J. Ap.
pl. Phys. , 32 646 (1961) "and the like.

As an example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device type,
"MI Elinson, Radio Eng. El
electron Phys. , 1290 (1965) ”and the like. The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission occurs when a current is applied to a thin film having 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 by the above-mentioned Erinson, one using the Au thin film (“G. Dittmer:“ Thin SolidFid ”) is used.
lms ”, 9 317 (1972)”), In ₂ O ₃ /
With SnO ₂ thin film (“M. Hartwell a
nd C.I. G. FIG. Fonstad: "IEEETran
s. ED Conf. "519 (1975)"), by a carbon thin film ("Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum, No. 26"
Vol. 1, No. 22, page (1983) ").

As a typical element structure of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the above-mentioned M. The Hartwell device configuration is shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes 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 emitting portion 5 is formed by an energization process called energization forming described later.
The element electrode spacing L in the figure is 0.5 to 1 mm, W '
Is set to 0.1 mm.

Conventionally, in these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the electron-emitting portion 5 is generally formed by subjecting the conductive thin film 4 to an energization process called energization forming in advance before the electron emission. Target. The energization forming means that a direct current voltage or a very slow rising voltage, for example, about 1 V / min is applied to both ends of the electroconductive thin film 4 to energize the electroconductive thin film 4 to locally break, deform, or deteriorate the electroconductive thin film 4, and thus electrically high. This is to form the electron emitting portion 5 in a resistance state. The electron emitting portion 5 is formed of the conductive thin film 4
A crack is generated in a part of the area 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 process, a voltage is applied to the conductive thin film 4 and a current is passed through the device so that electrons are emitted from the electron-emitting portion 5.

[0006]

The surface conduction electron-emitting device described above has an advantage that a large number of devices can be arrayed over a large area because of its simple structure and easy manufacture. Therefore, applied research on charged beam sources, display devices, and the like, which make use of this feature, has been conducted. As an example in which a large number of surface-conduction type electron-emitting devices are formed in an array, as will be described later, surface-conduction type electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel, which is called a ladder arrangement, and both ends of each device are wired (also called common wiring) Then, an electron source in which a large number of connected lines are arranged (for example,
JP-A-64-31332, JP-A-1-28374
No. 9, JP-A-2-257552, etc.). Also,
In particular, in image forming apparatuses such as display devices, in recent years, flat panel display devices using liquid crystal have become popular in place of CRTs, but there is a problem that a backlight is required because they are not self-luminous. Development of a self-luminous display device has been desired. Examples of the self-luminous display device include an image forming device which is a display device in which an electron source in which a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged and a phosphor which emits visible light by electrons emitted from the electron source are combined. (For example, USP 5066883).

However, in the method of manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the above-mentioned conventional example, the vacuum film formation and the photolithography / etching method in the semiconductor process are various, and it is necessary to form the device over a large area. ,
There are disadvantages that the number of steps is large and the production cost of electron source substrate is high.

In view of the above, the present invention uses an ink jet droplet applying device for forming a conductive thin film of an element portion in the manufacture of an electron source substrate having a large area surface conduction electron-emitting device.
To make it possible to form stably with a good yield without depending on the vacuum film forming method and the photolithography / etching method, and thereby to manufacture the image forming apparatus having the electron source substrate at a low cost. To aim.

[0009]

In order to achieve this object, an inkjet droplet applying apparatus of the present invention is a liquid for applying at least one droplet of a solution in a droplet state to a predetermined position on the surface of a member to be treated by an inkjet method. Droplet ejecting means, position detecting means for detecting a relative position between the predetermined position and the droplet ejecting means, and the object for aligning the predetermined position with the droplet ejecting means based on the detection result. It is characterized by comprising a position correction means for correcting the relative position between the processing member and the droplet discharge means.

As the position detecting means, for example, a means for detecting the relative position based on image information near a predetermined position on the surface of the member to be processed can be used. Further, the inkjet method includes a method of generating bubbles in a solution by utilizing thermal energy and discharging the solution based on the generation of the bubbles.

In the method for manufacturing an electron source substrate of the present invention, a droplet of a solution containing a material for a conductive thin film is applied between a plurality of pairs of device electrodes on the substrate to form a conductive thin film, In a method of manufacturing an electron source substrate in which a surface conduction electron-emitting device group is formed on a substrate, when applying liquid droplets between each device electrode, the device electrode to which the liquid droplets are applied and the liquid droplet ejecting means A step of detecting the position, a step of correcting the relative position between the member to be processed and the droplet discharge means for aligning the element electrode with the droplet discharge means based on the detection result, and this correction And then applying at least one droplet of the solution between the device electrodes by an inkjet method. This droplet application can be performed by the inkjet droplet application device.

According to the method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus of the present invention, when manufacturing an image forming apparatus having an electron source substrate and a face plate on which the phosphor is mounted, the face plate being opposed to the electron source substrate. The electron source substrate can be manufactured by the method for manufacturing an electron source substrate described above.

According to the method of manufacturing the electron source substrate by the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention, the formation of the conductive thin film between the device electrodes can be performed simply by applying it in the form of droplets and then firing it. Since it is possible to pattern at the same time, there is no need to use vacuum film formation method or photolithography / etching method,
The production cost can be reduced significantly.

Moreover, in the present invention, since the ink jet droplet applying device having the above-mentioned position detecting means and position correcting means is used, in the electron source substrate forming a large number of elements, the deviation of the element position is automatically performed. Can be corrected, and there is an effect that elements can be formed with high accuracy and high yield.

Further, the image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention can realize a stable one with low cost and little variation due to the above effects.

[0016]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Next, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described.

The basic structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention is a flat type.

7A and 7B are schematic views showing the structure of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 7A is its plan view and FIG. 7B is its cross section. It is a figure. In FIG. 7, 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 having a reduced content of impurities such as Na, soda lime glass, a glass substrate having SiO ₂ deposited on the surface thereof, and a ceramic substrate such as alumina can be used. A general conductive material can be used as the material of the device electrodes 2 and 3, and for example, Ni, Cr, Au,
Metals or alloys such as Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, Pd, Pd, As, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-
A printed conductor composed of a metal such as Ag or a metal oxide and glass, a transparent conductor such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ ,
It is appropriately selected from semiconductor materials such as polysilicon.

The distance L between the device electrodes 2 and 3 is preferably in the range of several thousand angstroms to several hundreds of micrometers, and more preferably 1 μm or more in consideration of the voltage applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3. It is in the range of 100 micrometers. The length W2 of the device electrodes 2 and 3 is several micrometers to several hundreds of micrometers in consideration of the resistance value and electron emission characteristics of the electrodes, and the film thickness d of the device electrodes 2 and 3 is 100 angstroms to 1 It is in the micrometer range. Not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. 7, the conductive thin film 4, the element electrode 2,
A configuration in which three electrodes are sequentially formed may be used.

FIG. 8 shows a method of manufacturing the flat surface conduction electron-emitting device having the structure of FIG.

As the conductive thin film 4, a fine particle film composed of fine particles is particularly preferable in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics, and the film thickness thereof is the step coverage to the device electrodes 2 and 3, and the device electrodes 2 and 3. Although it is appropriately set depending on the resistance value between them and the energization forming conditions described later, it is preferably several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, particularly preferably 10 angstroms to 500 angstroms.
Angstrom. The resistance value is such that R _s is a power of 10 2 to 10 7 ohms. Note that R _s is the resistance R of a thin film having a thickness of t, a width of w and a length of 1, and R = R
_A value that appears when _s (1 / w) is set, and is expressed as R _s = ρ / t, where ρ is the resistivity of the thin film material. Here, the forming process will be described by taking an energization process as an example, but the forming process is not limited to this, and any method may be used as long as it is a method of forming a crack in a film to form a high resistance state.

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
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 , boride such as GdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC, T
carbides such as aC, SiC, WC, TiN, ZrN, Hf
It is appropriately selected from nitrides such as N, 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 the state where the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also when the fine particles are adjacent to each other.
Or they are in an overlapping state (including the case where some fine particles are aggregated to form an island shape as a whole). The particle size of the fine particles is several angstroms to 1
Micrometer, preferably 10 to 200 angstroms.

A method of forming a conductive thin film of a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a droplet applying device used in this manufacturing method, and FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ejection head unit of the droplet applying device of FIG. 1 and 2, 6 is an ejection head unit, 7 is a detection optical diameter, 9 is a droplet, 14 is an image identification device, 71 is an electron source substrate, 15 is an XY direction scanning mechanism, 16 is a position detection mechanism, and 17 is The position correction control mechanism, 19 is a control computer.

As the droplet applying device 6 of the ejection head unit, any mechanism can be used as long as it can eject an arbitrary amount of a fixed amount, and an inkjet type mechanism capable of forming a droplet of several tens of ng is particularly desirable. As an inkjet method, a piezo jet method using a piezoelectric element,
Any method such as a bubble jet method in which bubbles are generated by using heat energy of a heater may be used.

As the material of the droplet 9, the above-mentioned aqueous solution or organic solvent containing the element or compound to be the conductive thin film can be used. For example, if the element or compound that becomes the conductive thin film is a palladium-based example below,
Palladium acetate-ethanolamine complex (PA-M
E), acetic acid palladium-diethanol complex (PA-D
E), palladium acetate-triethanolamine complex (P
A-TE), palladium acetate-butyl ethanolamine complex (PA-BE), palladium acetate-dimethyl ethanolamine complex (PA-DME) and other aqueous solutions containing ethanolamine-based complexes, and palladium-glycine complex (Pd- Gly), an aqueous solution containing an amine acid complex such as a palladium-β-alanine complex (Pd-β-Ala), a palladium-DL-alanine complex (pd-DL-Ala), and further palladium acetate bis di A butyl acetate solution of a propylamine complex may be used.

When the droplet 9 is applied to a desired element electrode portion by the ink jet head 8, the amount of displacement of the element electrode to be applied is detected by the detection optical system 7 and the image identifying apparatus 1.
4, the correction coordinates are generated based on the measurement data, and the electron source substrate 14 and the inkjet head 8 are moved relative to each other according to the correction coordinates, and then the droplet is applied. The detection optical system 7 may be a combination of a CCD camera and a lens, and the image identification device 14 may be a commercially available one that binarizes an image and obtains the position of its center of gravity.

The electron-emitting portion 5 is composed of a high-resistance crack formed in a part of the conductive thin film 4, and depends on the film thickness, film quality, material of the conductive thin film 4, a method such as energization forming described later, and the like. It will be what you did. Inside the electron emitting portion 5, 1
In some cases, conductive fine particles having a particle size of 000 angstroms or less are included. The conductive fine particles contain some or all of the elements of the material constituting the conductive thin film 4. The electron emitting portion 5 and the conductive thin film 4 in the vicinity thereof may contain carbon or a carbon compound.

As an example of the forming treatment method applied to the electroconductive thin film 4, a method by electric conduction treatment will be described. When electricity is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 by using a power source (not shown), an electron emitting portion 5 having a changed structure is formed at the site of the conductive thin film 4. That is, according to the energization forming, a region having a structural change such as destruction, deformation or alteration locally is formed in the conductive thin film 4, and this region becomes the electron emitting portion 5. FIG. 9 shows an example of the voltage waveform of energization forming.

A pulse waveform is particularly preferable as the voltage waveform. When the voltage pulse having a constant pulse peak value is continuously applied (FIG. 9A) and when the voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value. (Fig. 9 (b)). First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage (FIG. 9A) will be described.

In FIG. 9 (a), T1 and T2 are the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. T1 is 1 microsecond to 10 milliseconds, T2 is 10 microseconds to 100 milliseconds, and the peak value of the triangular wave ( The peak voltage during energization forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Under such conditions, for example, the voltage is applied for several seconds to several tens of minutes. The pulse waveform is not limited to the triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave may be used.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 9B are the same as those shown in FIG. 9A, and the peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during energization forming) is, for example, 0.1.
It can be increased in steps of V steps.

The end of the energization forming process can be detected by applying a voltage that does not locally break or deform the conductive thin film 4 during the pulse interval T2 and measure the current. For example, the device current flowing by applying a voltage of about 0.1 V is measured, the resistance value is obtained, and the energization forming is terminated when a resistance of 1 M ohm or more is exhibited.

It is desirable to perform a process called an activation process on the element which has completed the energization forming. By performing the activation process, the device current If and the emission current Ie are significantly changed.

The activation process can be carried out by repeating the application of pulses in the same manner as the energization forming in an atmosphere containing a gas of an organic substance, for example. This atmosphere can be formed by using the organic gas remaining in the atmosphere when the inside of the vacuum container is discarded by using, for example, an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump, and once exhausted sufficiently by an ion pump or the like. It can also be obtained by introducing a gas of a suitable organic substance into a vacuum. The preferable gas pressure of the organic substance at this time varies depending on the above-described application form, the shape of the vacuum vessel, the type of the organic substance, and the like, and is appropriately set according to the case. Suitable organic substances include alkanes, alkenes, alkyne aliphatic hydrocarbons, aromatic hydrocarbons, alcohols, aldehydes, ketones, amines, phenols, carboxylic acids, organic acids such as sulfonic acids, and the like. it can be mentioned, specifically, methane, ethane, C _n H _{2n + 2} represented by saturated hydrocarbons, ethylene, propylene C _n H _2n such unsaturated hydrocarbons represented by the composition formula such as propane , Benzene, toluene, methanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methyl amine, ethyl amine, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid and the like can be used. By this treatment, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the element from the organic substance existing in the atmosphere, and the element current If and the method SHTU current Ie are significantly changed. The termination of the activation process is determined while measuring the device current If and the emission current Ie. The pulse width, pulse interval, pulse crest value, and the like are set as appropriate.

Carbon or a carbon compound means graphite (both single crystal and polycrystal), amorphous carbon (amorphous carbon and carbon containing a mixture of amorphous carbon and fine crystals of the graphite). The film thickness is preferably 500 angstroms or less,
It is more preferably 300 angstroms or less.

The electron-emitting device thus produced is preferably subjected to a stabilizing treatment. This treatment is preferably carried out when the partial pressure of the organic substance in the vacuum container is 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ Torr or less, preferably 1 × 10 ⁻¹⁰ Torr or less. The pressure in the vacuum container is preferably 10 ^−6.5 to 10 ⁻⁷ Torr, and particularly preferably 1 × 10 ⁻⁸ Torr or less. It is preferable to use a vacuum exhaust device that does not use oil so that the oil generated from the device does not affect the characteristics of the element. Specifically, a vacuum evacuation device such as a sorption pump or an ion pump can be used. Further, when the inside of the vacuum container is evacuated, it is preferable that the entire vacuum container is overheated so that organic substance molecules adsorbed on the inner wall of the vacuum container and the electron-emitting device can be easily exhausted. At this time, the vacuum evacuation condition in the heated state is preferably 80 to 200 ° C. for 5 hours or more, but is not particularly limited to this condition, and various conditions such as the size and shape of the vacuum container and the configuration of the electron-emitting device. It changes with. The partial pressure of the organic substance can be determined by measuring the partial pressure of organic molecules having a mass number of 10 to 200 and having carbon and hydrogen as main components, and integrating the partial pressures. After the stabilization process, the atmosphere during driving is preferably maintained at the end of the stabilization process, but the present invention is not limited to this, and if the organic substance is sufficiently removed, the degree of vacuum itself is It is possible to maintain sufficiently stable characteristics even if it is lowered to some extent.
By employing such a vacuum atmosphere, deposition of new carbon or a carbon compound can be suppressed, and as a result, the device current If and the emission current Ie are stabilized.

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

Various arrangements of the electron-emitting devices on the electron source substrate used in the image forming apparatus can be adopted.

First, a large number of electron-emitting devices arranged in parallel are individually connected at both ends, a large number of rows of electron-emitting devices are arranged (referred to as a row direction), and a direction orthogonal to this wiring (referred to as a column direction). ), There is a ladder-like arrangement in which electrons from the electron-emitting device are controlled and driven by a control electrode (also called a grid) arranged in the information of the electron-emitting device. Separately, a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged in a matrix in the X and Y directions, and one of electrodes of the plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in the same row is commonly connected to a wiring in the X-direction. For example, the other of the electrodes of the plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged in the same column is commonly connected to the wiring in the Y direction. Something like this
This is a so-called simple matrix arrangement. First, the simple matrix arrangement will be described in detail below.

An electron source substrate obtained by arranging a plurality of electron-emitting devices of the present invention in a matrix will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 10, 71 is an electron source substrate, 7
Reference numeral 2 is an X-direction wiring, 73 is a Y-direction wiring, 74 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 75 is a connection. m X-direction wires 7
2 is composed of DX1, DX2, ... DXm, and the Y-direction wiring 73 is composed of n wirings of DY1, DY2 ,. 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 elements 74. The m X-direction wirings 72 and the n Y-direction wirings 73 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 the entire surface of the substrate 71 on which the X-direction wiring 72 is formed. The X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73 are drawn out as external terminals. Further, the device electrodes (not shown) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 are electrically connected to the m X-direction wirings 72 and the n Y-direction wirings 73 by the connection wires 75. Material forming wiring 72 and wiring 73, connection 75
The constituent materials of the material and the material of the pair of device electrodes may be the same or different in some or all of the constituent elements. These materials are appropriately selected, for example, from the above-described materials for the device electrodes. When the material forming the element electrode is the same as the wiring material, the wiring connected to the element electrode can also be called an element electrode.

The X-direction wiring 72 is electrically connected to a scanning signal generating means (not shown) for applying a scanning signal for scanning the row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the X direction according to the input signal. It is connected. On the other hand, the Y-direction wiring 73
Is electrically connected to a modulation signal generating means (not shown) for applying a modulation signal for modulating each column of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the Y direction according to an input signal. Further, the driving voltage applied to each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is supplied as a difference voltage between the scanning signal and the modulation signal applied to the element. As a result, individual elements can be selected and driven independently with 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. 11, 12 and 13. FIG. 11 is a basic configuration diagram of the display panel of the image forming apparatus.
Indicates a fluorescent film used for this. FIG. 13 shows a block diagram of a drive circuit for performing display according to an NTSC television signal, and shows an image forming apparatus including the drive circuit.

In FIG. 11, 71 is an electron-emitting device 74.
An electron source substrate produced on a substrate, 81 is an electron source substrate 71
Is a face plate having a fluorescent film 84 and a metal back 85 formed on the inner surface of a glass substrate 83, and 82 is a support frame.
The support frame 82 and the face plate 86 are coated with frit glass or the like, and the amount is 400 to 50 in the atmosphere or nitrogen.
The envelope 88 is formed by sealing by firing at 0 degrees for 10 minutes or more. 74 corresponds to the electron-emitting device in FIG. 7
Reference numerals 2 and 73 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 88 is composed of the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the rear plate 81 as described above.
Since the rear plate 81 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the electron source substrate 71, if the electron source substrate 71 itself has sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 81 is not necessary, and the rear plate 81 is not necessary. The support frame 82 may be directly sealed, and the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the electron source substrate 71 may constitute the envelope 88. Furthermore, by installing an atmospheric pressure resistant support member called a spacer between the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81, the envelope 88 having sufficient strength against atmospheric pressure can be obtained.

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram showing a fluorescent film. In the case of monochrome, the phosphor is composed of only the phosphor, but in the case of a color phosphor film, it is composed of a black conductive material 91 called a black stripe or a black matrix depending on the arrangement of the phosphors. In the case of color display, the purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the mixed portions between the phosphors 92 of the three primary color phosphors black so as to make the color mixture inconspicuous and to prevent the phosphor film 84 from being exposed. This is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to light reflection. As a material of black stripe,
The material is not limited to the commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, but is not limited to this as long as the material is electrically conductive and has little light transmission and reflection.

As a method of applying the phosphor to the glass substrate 83, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome or color. A metal back 85 is usually provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84 (FIG. 7). Metal back 85
Is to improve the brightness by specularly reflecting the light toward the inner surface side of the light emitted from the phosphor to the face plate 86 side, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam accelerating voltage, and in the envelope. It has a role of protecting the phosphor from damage due to collision of the generated negative ions. The metal back 85 can be produced by producing the fluorescent film 84, smoothing the inner surface of the fluorescent film 84 (usually called filming), and then depositing Al by vacuum evaporation or the like.

The face plate 86 is further provided with a fluorescent film 8
A transparent electrode (not shown) may be provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to increase the conductivity of the phosphor film 84.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of color, it is necessary to associate each color phosphor with the electron-emitting device, and it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment.

The image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 11 is manufactured, for example, as follows.

The envelope 88 is similar to the above-mentioned stabilization process,
While appropriately heating, an exhaust device such as an ion pump or a sorption pump that does not use oil is used to exhaust gas through an exhaust pipe (not shown) to create an atmosphere with a vacuum degree of about 10 ⁻⁷ torr and a sufficiently low amount of organic substances, and then sealed. It Envelope 8
In some cases, a getter process is performed to maintain the degree of vacuum after the sealing of No. 8. This is performed by heating the getter placed at a predetermined position (not shown) in the envelope 88 by a heating method such as resistance heating or high frequency heating immediately before or after the envelope 88 is sealed and vapor deposition. This is a process for forming a film. The getter usually has Ba or the like as a main component, and is, for example, 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ torr to 1 × 10 ⁻⁷ t due to the adsorption action of the vapor deposition film.
The vacuum degree of orr is maintained.

Next, the display panel constituted by using the electron source having the simple matrix arrangement type substrate is driven to drive the NT.
A schematic configuration of a drive circuit for performing television display based on an SC television signal will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 13, 101 is an image display panel, 102 is a scanning circuit, 103 is a control circuit, 104 is a shift register,
105 is a line memory, 106 is a sync signal separation circuit, 1
Reference numeral 07 is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources.

The functions of the respective parts will be described below. First, the display panel 101 is connected to an external electric circuit via the terminals Dox1 to Doxm, the terminals Doy1 to Doyn and the high voltage terminal Hv. Among them, the terminals Dox1 to Doxm sequentially drive the electron sources provided in the display panel 101, that is, the surface conduction electron-emitting device groups matrix-wired in a matrix of M rows and N columns row by row (N elements). A scanning signal for application is applied. On the other hand, a modulation signal for controlling an 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 Doy1 to Doyn. Further, the high voltage terminal Hv receives, for example, 10K from the DC voltage source Va.
A DC voltage of [V] is supplied, which is an accelerating voltage for imparting sufficient energy to excite the phosphor to the electron beam output from the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

Next, the scanning circuit 102 will be described. The circuit is provided with M switching elements therein (schematically shown by S1 to Sm in the figure), and each switching element is an output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0.
One of [V] (ground level) is selected and electrically connected to the terminals Dox1 to Doxm of the display panel 101. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm has a control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 103.
However, in practice, it can be configured by combining switching elements such as FETs. It should be noted that 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 of the surface conduction electron-emitting element (electron emission threshold voltage). It is set to output a constant voltage.

The control circuit 103 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 synchronization signal Tsyn sent from the synchronization signal separation circuit 106 described next
Based on c, Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry control signals are generated for each unit.

The sync signal separation circuit 106 is a circuit for separating the sync signal component and the luminance signal component from the NTSC system television signal input from the outside, and can be constructed by using a frequency separation (filter) circuit. Is.
The sync signal separated by the sync signal separation circuit 106 is composed of a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal, as is well known, but it is shown here as a Tsync signal for convenience of description. 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 104.

The shift register 104 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 103. To do. That is, the control signal Tsft corresponds to the shift register 1
In other words, the shift clock may be 04. The data of one line of the serial / parallel-converted image (corresponding to the driving data of N electron-emitting devices) is Id1.
To Idn as N parallel signals, shift register 1
04.

The line memory 105 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 a control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 103. The stored contents are output as Id1 to Idn and input to the modulation signal generator 107.

The modulation signal generator 107 outputs the image data I
It is a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices according to each of d1 to Idn, and its output signal is output to the surface conduction electron-emitting devices in the display panel 101 through terminals Doy1 to Doyn. Is applied.

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 that.

That is, when a pulsed voltage is applied to this element, for example, when a voltage below the electron emission threshold is applied, no electron emission occurs but a voltage above the electron emission threshold is applied. Emits an electron beam. 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 according to the input signal, there are a voltage modulation method, a pulse width modulation method, and the like. In order to implement the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 107 is used as a constant signal. A circuit of a voltage modulation system is used which generates a voltage pulse having a length of, 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 10
7, the voltage pulse with a constant peak value is generated,
A circuit of a pulse width modulation system that appropriately modulates the width of the voltage pulse according to the input data is used.

The shift register 104 and the line memory 10
5 may be a digital signal type or an analog signal type, and the point is that the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When using the digital signal type,
The output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 106 needs to be converted into a digital signal.
It is possible if the output section 6 is provided with an A / D converter. In addition, in relation to this, the modulation signal generator 1 depends on whether the output signal of the line memory 105 is a digital signal or an analog signal.
The circuit used for 07 is slightly different.

First, the case of digital signals will be described.
In the voltage modulation method, for example, a well-known D / A conversion circuit may be used as the modulation signal generator 107, 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 107 compares, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter (counter) that counts the number of waves output by the oscillator, and the output value of the counter with the output value of the line memory 105. 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 an analog signal will be described.
In the voltage modulation method, for the modulation signal generator 107, 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 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 having the above-mentioned structure, each of the electron-emitting devices of the display panel 101 has terminals outside the container Dox1 to Doxm, Doy1 to Doy.
By applying a voltage through n, electrons are emitted, and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 85 or the transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam and collide with the fluorescent film 84 to excite it.・ Images can be displayed by emitting light.

The structure described here is a schematic structure 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 the above contents. Instead, it is appropriately selected to suit the application of the image forming apparatus. Further, although the NTSC system is given as an example of the input signal, the input signal is not limited to this, and PAL, SECA
Various methods such as the M method may be used, or a TV signal (for example, a high-definition TV such as the MUSE method) including a number of scanning lines may be used.

Next, the ladder type electron source substrate and the image display device will be described with reference to FIGS. 14 and 15.

In FIG. 14, 110 is an electron source substrate, 1
Reference numeral 11 is an electron-emitting device, and Dx1 to Dx10 of 112 are common wirings connected to the electron-emitting device 111. A plurality of electron-emitting devices 111 are arranged on the substrate 110 in parallel in the X direction. This is called an element row. A plurality of the element rows are arranged on the substrate to form an electron source substrate. By applying a drive voltage between the common wires of each element row, each element row can be driven independently. That is, a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold value may be applied to the element row where the electron beam is desired to be emitted, and a voltage equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold value may be applied to the element row where the electron beam is not to be emitted. In addition, common wirings Dx2 to Dx9 between the element rows, for example, Dx2 and Dx3.
May be the same wiring.

FIG. 15 shows a panel structure in an image forming apparatus provided with such a ladder-type electron source. 12
0 is a grid electrode, 121 is a hole for passing electrons, 122 is a terminal outside the container made of Dox1, Dox2 ... Doxm, 123 is G1, G2 connected to the grid electrode 120 ,. .... Gn outer terminal, 12
Reference numeral 4 is an electron source substrate in which the common wiring between each element row is the same wiring. The same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 11 and 13 denote the same members. Image forming apparatus having the above-mentioned simple matrix arrangement (FIG. 7)
Is different from the electron source substrate 110 and the face plate 86.
Whether or not the grid electrode 110 is provided between them.

The grid electrode 120 is for modulating the electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and passes the electron beam through a stripe-shaped electrode provided orthogonal to the ladder-shaped element rows. For this reason, one circular opening 121 is provided for each element.
The shape and installation position of the grid are not limited to those shown in FIG. For example, a large number of passage openings may be provided in a mesh shape as openings, and a grid may be provided around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device.

The external terminal 122 and the grid external terminal 123 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 by one. This controls the irradiation of each electron beam on the phosphor, and
Can be displayed line by line. According to this, it can be used not only as a display device for television broadcasting, a video conference system, a display device such as a computer, but also as an image forming device as an optical printer configured by using a photosensitive drum or the like.

[0077]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to examples, but the present invention is not limited to these examples.

[Embodiment 1] FIG. 1 is a view best showing the features of the present invention. In forming a fine particle film of a surface conduction electron-emitting device on an electron source substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. It is the figure which showed the structure of the inkjet type droplet application apparatus used, and the apparatus provided with the means to take in the image information and position information of a substrate surface, and a means to identify.
FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an enlarged ejection head unit of the apparatus of FIG.

The configuration of this device will be described below.

First, in FIG. 1, reference numeral 15 is an XY-direction scanning mechanism, on which an electron source substrate 71 is mounted. The surface conduction electron-emitting device on the electron source substrate has the same structure as that of FIG. 7, and as a single device, it is similar to that shown in FIG.
It comprises a substrate 1, element electrodes 2 and 3, and a conductive thin film (fine particle film) 4. Above the electron source substrate 71, the ejection head unit 6 that applies droplets is located. In this embodiment, the ejection head unit 6 is fixed, and the electron source substrate 71 is moved to an arbitrary position by the XY direction scanning mechanism 15, whereby the relative movement of the ejection head unit 6 and the electron source substrate 71 is realized. Next, referring to FIG. 2, the ejection head unit 6
The configuration of will be described. Reference numeral 7 denotes a detection optical system that captures image information on the electron source substrate 71, and is close to the inkjet head 8 that ejects the droplet 9, and the optical axis 11 and the focus position of the detection optical system 7 and the droplet by the inkjet head 8. 9
Are arranged so as to coincide with the landing positions 10 of. In this case, the positional relationship between the detection optical system 7 and the inkjet head 8 can be precisely adjusted by the head alignment fine movement mechanism 12 and the head alignment control mechanism 13. The detection optical system 7 uses a CCD camera and a lens.

Returning to FIG. 1 again. 14 is the detection optical system 7
This is an image identification device for identifying the image information taken in by, and has a function of binarizing the contrast of the image and calculating the barycentric position of the binarized specific contrast portion. Specifically, VX-4210, a high-precision image recognition device manufactured by Keyence Corporation, can be used. The position detecting mechanism 16 is means for giving position information on the electron source substrate 71 to the image information obtained by this. For this, a length measuring device such as a linear encoder provided in the XY direction scanning mechanism 15 can be used. Further, the position correction control mechanism 17 performs position correction based on the image information and the position information on the electron source substrate 71. By this mechanism, the movement of the XY direction scanning mechanism 15 is corrected. . In addition, the inkjet head control / drive mechanism 18
The inkjet head 8 is driven by the so that the droplets are applied onto the electron source substrate 71. The control mechanisms described above are centrally controlled by the control computer 19.

Next, FIGS. 3 and 4 will be described. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing how droplets are applied to the electrode gap portion, and FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a droplet applying method in this device. In FIG. 3, 22 is an element electrode formed at a position as designed, 23 is an element electrode group in which the pitch between the pair of element electrodes is shortened, 24 is an element electrode group displaced to the left,
Reference numeral 25 is a device electrode group that is gradually displaced to the right, and 26 is a droplet that is displaced. In FIG. 4, 27 is the barycentric position of the element electrode read by image measurement, 28 is the corrected application position of the droplet, and 29 is the droplet that has been position-corrected and applied on the element electrode.

A method of manufacturing the electron source substrate will be sequentially described with reference to FIGS.

First, a soda-lime glass substrate is prepared as an insulating substrate, thoroughly washed with an organic solvent or the like, and then 120
It was dried in a drying oven at ℃. Pt film (film thickness 2
A pair of device electrodes having an electrode width of 500 μm and an electrode gap interval of 20 μm were formed using 000 Å), and an electron source substrate 71 was produced in which wirings were connected to the electrodes. A matrix arrangement is used for this wiring. FIG.
In the electron source substrate 71, the wiring is not shown, but only the element electrode group is shown. Further, as a raw material solution for the droplets, a butyl acetate solution of an organic solvent-based palladium acetate-bis-di-propylamine complex was prepared. As the ink ejection head, a piezo jet type head was prepared.

Next, the electron source substrate 71 is set on the XY-direction scanning mechanism 15 of FIG. 1 and the droplets are applied. At this time, as shown in FIG. 3 (a-1), if the element electrode positions are almost in accordance with the design values and there is a deviation of about several μm, if the coating is performed according to the coordinates of the design values, then as shown in FIG. 3 (a-2). Can be applied to. In order to fabricate the element electrode over a large area, a printing method may be used depending on the size because of the cost advantage. The Pt film (film thickness 2000 Å) of this example was produced by screen printing, and the element electrode position was deviated from the designed value by several tens of μm due to deformation of the screen plate, and the glass substrate was subjected to the heat treatment process after printing. The whole shrinks and the pitch is shortened by several μm, and the position of the entire element electrode may deviate from the designed value by several tens of μm at maximum. FIG. 3 (b-1) shows such a situation. here,
As an example of the deviation from the design value, the element electrode group 23 in which the pitch between the pair of element electrodes has become shorter, the element electrode group 24 in which the position is displaced to the left, and the element electrode group 23 in three rows that are gradually displaced in the right direction In such a situation, FIG.
As shown in -2), when the upper left droplet is applied as the origin according to the design value, the droplet is applied with a large deviation from the gap like the droplet 26, and this does not sufficiently function as an element.

Although the printing method is not always inaccurate, it is sufficiently possible that irregular deviation occurs depending on each printing lot. In that case, for example, such irregular deviation cannot be dealt with at all simply by correcting the pitch of the design value uniformly.

Therefore, the above problems can be solved by using the image measuring and correcting function of this apparatus. This will be described with reference to FIG. First, FIG. 4A shows a device electrode group which is displaced similarly to the previous FIG. 3B-1. This electrode arrangement is formed on the electron source substrate 71 of FIG. Assume At this time, the electron source substrate 7
The electron source substrate 7 is provided by the alignment marker or the like on 1.
The coordinates on the device 1 have been determined. Next, the detection optical system 7 incorporated in the ejection head unit 6 reads the position of the pair of element electrodes, and the image identification device 14 calculates the barycentric position based on the binarized contrast, and the barycentric position is the position detecting mechanism 16 Is recognized as position information on the electron source substrate 71 on the coordinates. The series of data processing is performed by the control computer 19 shown in FIG. A cross 27 on each electrode in FIG. 4A indicates the position of the center of gravity, and the corrected coordinates are determined based on this, and the droplet application position 28 is set as shown in FIG. 4B. Is corrected, and the corrected droplet 29 is applied to the displaced element electrode as shown in FIG. 4C. The position correction operation at this time is performed by the position correction control mechanism 17 and the XY-direction scanning mechanism 15 by correcting the movement position itself of the substrate.

With this apparatus, liquid droplets are sequentially applied to the gap portions of the respective element electrodes four times, and then the element electrode substrate is set to three.
By heating for 20 minutes in a firing furnace at 50 ° C. to remove organic components, a conductive thin film made of palladium oxide (PdO) fine particles was formed on the device electrode portion. After firing, the circular diameter was about 100 μm and the film thickness was 150 °. The element length is about 100 μm.

Further, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 on which the conductive thin film was formed, and the conductive thin film was energized (forming) to form an electron emitting portion. Thus, an electron source substrate having a surface conduction electron-emitting device group was completed. FIG. 5 shows a schematic view of the electron source substrate with the completed matrix arrangement. Reference numeral 30 in FIG. 5 is a conductive thin film formed by firing droplets.

As shown in FIG. 11, an envelope 88 including a face plate 86, a support frame 82, and a rear plate 81 is formed on this electron source substrate and vacuum sealed.
A display panel with matrix wiring was formed. Then, an image forming apparatus having a drive circuit for performing television display based on an NTSC television signal as shown in FIG. 13 was manufactured.

With the image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the method described in Example 1 above, an image equivalent to that obtained by the conventional vacuum film forming / photolithography / etching process was obtained.

[Embodiment 2] A method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus having a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. In this example, a plurality of electrodes were arranged in a matrix as shown in FIG. 14, and the electrodes were connected in a ladder shape by wiring. The method of manufacturing this surface conduction electron-emitting device is exactly the same as in Example 1.

First, a glass substrate was used as an insulating substrate, which was thoroughly washed with an organic solvent or the like and then dried in a drying oven at 120 ° C. A Pt film (thickness 1000
Å), the electrode width is 500 μm, the electrode gap is 20
A device electrode of μm was formed. A ladder-like wiring was connected to this electrode. (Not shown) In addition, a butyl acetate solution of an organic solvent-based palladium acetate-bis-di-propylamine complex was prepared as a droplet raw material solution. An inkjet head of the piezo jet type was prepared.

Also in the example, the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 of the example 1 was used, and similarly, the misaligned element was corrected without any problem and the droplet was applied. Then, again, after the liquid droplets are sequentially applied to the gap portion of each device electrode four times, the device electrode substrate is heated in a baking furnace at 350 ° C. for 20 minutes to remove the organic component, thereby removing the device electrode portion. A conductive thin film made of fine particles of palladium oxide (PdO) was formed thereon. After firing, the conductive thin film has a circular diameter of about 100 μm and a film thickness of 1
The device length was 50Å and the device length was about 100 μm. Further, a voltage is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 on which the conductive thin film is formed, and the conductive thin film is energized (forming process) to form an electron emitting portion, thereby forming a surface conduction electron-emitting device group. The owned electron source substrate is completed. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the completed electron source substrate having a ladder-type arrangement. Reference numeral 30 in FIG. 6 is a conductive thin film formed by firing droplets.

As shown in FIG. 15, an envelope including a face plate 86, a support frame 82, and a rear plate 81 is formed on this electron source substrate, and vacuum sealing is performed to form a display panel using ladder-type wiring. Was formed. Using this, an image forming apparatus having a drive circuit for performing television display based on an NTSC system television signal as shown in FIG. 13 was produced.

In the image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the method shown in the above Example 2, an image equivalent to that obtained by the conventional vacuum film forming / photolithography / etching process was obtained.

[Embodiment 3] In the present embodiment 3, an electron source substrate having a matrix-arranged wiring is used, and the raw material solution of the droplets is an aqueous solution, and an aqueous solution of palladium acetate-ethanol-amine complex is used. The inkjet head used was a bubble jet type.

Using the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 of Example 1, droplets were applied by similarly correcting the misaligned elements without any problem. After applying the droplets to the gap part of each device electrode four times in sequence, the device electrode substrate is heated in a baking furnace at 350 ° C. for 20 minutes to remove water and organic components, and A conductive thin film made of palladium oxide (PdO) fine particles was formed. After firing, the conductive thin film had a circular diameter of about 100 μm, a film thickness of 150 μm, and an element length of about 100 μm. Further, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 on which the conductive thin film was formed, and the conductive thin film was subjected to an energization process (forming process) to form an electron emitting portion. Thus, an electron source substrate having a surface conduction electron-emitting device group was completed. A schematic diagram of the completed electron source substrate with the matrix arrangement is similar to that of FIG. 5 of the first embodiment. FIG.
30 is a conductive thin film formed by firing droplets.

On this electron source substrate, a face plate 86,
An envelope is formed by the support frame 82 and the rear plate 81, and vacuum sealing is performed to form a display panel with matrix-type wiring as shown in FIG. 11. A television based on an NTSC television signal as shown in FIG. An image forming apparatus having a driving circuit for displaying is manufactured.

In the image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the method shown in the above Example 1, an image equivalent to that obtained by the conventional vacuum film forming / photolithography / etching process was obtained.

[Embodiment 4] In this embodiment, an electron source substrate with ladder-arranged wiring is used, and the raw material solution of the liquid droplets is an aqueous solution, and palladium acetate-ethanol-
An aqueous solution of an amine complex was used, and a bubble jet was used for the inkjet head.

Using the apparatus shown in FIG. 1 of Example 1, it was possible to correct the misaligned elements and apply the droplets without any problem. Droplets are sequentially applied to the gaps of each device electrode four times, and then the device electrode substrate is set to three.
By heating for 20 minutes in a firing furnace at 50 ° C. to remove water, organic components, etc., palladium oxide (Pd
O) A conductive thin film composed of fine particles was formed. The circular diameter after firing was about 100 μm, the film thickness was 150Å, and the device length was about 100 μm. Further, a voltage is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 on which the conductive thin film is formed, and the conductive thin film is energized (forming) to form an electron emitting portion,
Thus, an electron source substrate having a surface conduction electron-emitting device group was completed. A schematic diagram of the completed electron source substrate having the ladder-type arrangement is similar to that of the second embodiment shown in FIG. Reference numeral 30 in FIG. 6 is a conductive thin film formed by firing droplets.

On this electron source substrate, a face plate 86,
An envelope is formed by the support frame 82 and the rear plate 81, and vacuum sealing is performed to form a display panel with ladder-type wiring as shown in FIG. 15. A television based on an NTSC television signal as shown in FIG. An image forming apparatus having a driving circuit for displaying is manufactured.

The image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device manufactured by the method shown in the above Example 2 provided an image equivalent to that obtained by the conventional vacuum film forming / photolithography / etching process.

[0105]

According to the present invention, in the formation of the surface conduction electron-emitting device on the electron source substrate, the conductive fine particle film serving as the electron-emitting portion is detected by the rough position of the device and the ejection head. Since the droplets are applied by using the ink jet device having the correction means, when the droplets are applied to the element electrode where the displacement occurs over a large area, the displacement can be automatically and surely dealt with. Therefore, the conductive thin film can be stably and accurately formed, and the yield of manufacturing the electron source substrate can be improved. In addition, especially when forming a large number of devices on a large-area electron source substrate, patterning can be performed simultaneously with film formation without using a photolithography / etching method for producing a conductive thin film. The manufacturing process can be simplified and the manufacturing cost of the electron source substrate can be reduced.

Further, an image forming apparatus using the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present invention can also be realized at a low price and stable with little variation.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a droplet applying device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic configuration diagram of an ejection head unit of the droplet applying device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing how droplets are applied to device electrodes.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a method of applying a droplet to an element electrode by a droplet applying apparatus to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view of a matrix-arranged electron source substrate manufactured by a droplet applying device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view of a ladder arrangement type electron source substrate applicable to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic plan view and a cross-sectional view showing a configuration of a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a method of manufacturing a surface conduction electron-emitting device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram showing an example of voltage waveforms in an energization forming process that can be adopted when manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a matrix arrangement type electron source substrate to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 11 is a schematic view showing an example of a display panel of an image forming apparatus using a matrix arrangement type electron source substrate to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 12 is a schematic view showing a fluorescent film to which the present invention can be applied.

13 is a block diagram of a drive circuit for displaying an image on the display panel of FIG. 12 according to an NTSC television signal in the image forming apparatus.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a ladder arrangement type electron source substrate to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 15 is a schematic diagram showing a display panel of an image forming apparatus using a ladder arrangement type electron source substrate to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 16 is a configuration diagram of a conventional surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1: substrate, 2, 3: element electrode, 4: conductive thin film, 5: electron emission unit, 6: ejection head unit, 7: detection optical system,
8: Inkjet head, 9: Droplet, 10: Droplet landing position, 11: Optical axis, 12: Head alignment fine movement mechanism, 13: Head alignment control mechanism, 14: Image identification device, 15: XY direction scanning mechanism, 16 : Position detection mechanism, 17: Position correction control mechanism, 18: Inkjet head drive / control mechanism, 19: Control computer, 22:
Element electrodes formed at positions according to design values, 23: element electrode group with pitch deviation, 24: element electrode group with left deviation, 25: element electrode group with gradual right deviation, 2
6: misaligned droplet, 27: corrected position of the element electrode read by image measurement, 28: corrected droplet application position, 29: droplet whose position is corrected on the element electrode, 30: droplet A conductive thin film formed by baking the: 71: electron source substrate, 72: X-direction wiring, 73: Y-direction wiring, 74: surface conduction electron-emitting device, 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, 91: black member, 92: phosphor, 101: display panel, 102: scanning circuit, 103:
Control circuit, 104: shift register, 105: line memory, 106: synchronization signal separation circuit, 107: modulation signal generator, Vx, Va: DC voltage source, 110: electron source substrate,
111: electron-emitting devices, 112: Dx1 to Dx10 are common wirings for wiring the electron-emitting devices, 120: grid electrodes, 121: holes, 122: Dox1, Dox
····· Doxm outer terminal 123, a grid outer terminal made of G1, G2, ··· Gn connected to the grid electrode 120.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A droplet discharge means for applying at least one droplet of a solution to a predetermined position on the surface of a member to be processed by an inkjet method, and a relative position between the predetermined position and the drop discharge means is detected. Position detecting means, and position correcting means for correcting the relative position of the member to be processed and the droplet discharging means in order to align the predetermined position with the droplet discharging means based on the detection result. An inkjet droplet applying device, characterized in that: 2. The ink jet droplet applying apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the position detecting means detects the relative position based on image information near a predetermined position on the surface of the member to be processed. . 3. The ink jet method is a method of generating bubbles in a solution using thermal energy and discharging the solution based on the generation of the bubbles. Inkjet droplet applying device. 4. A surface conduction electron-emitting device is formed on the substrate by forming a conductive thin film by applying a droplet of a solution containing a material of the conductive thin film between a plurality of pairs of device electrodes on the substrate. In a method of manufacturing an electron source substrate for forming a group, when applying a droplet between each element electrode, a step of detecting a relative position between the element electrode to which the droplet is applied and the droplet ejecting means, A step of correcting the relative position of the member to be processed and the droplet discharge means in order to align the element electrode with the droplet discharge means based on the result; And a step of applying at least one droplet of the solution between the device electrodes. 5. A method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus, comprising: an electron source substrate; and a face plate, which is disposed so as to face the electron source substrate and has a phosphor mounted thereon, wherein the electron source substrate is defined by claim 4. A method for manufacturing an image forming apparatus, characterized by being manufactured by a method. 6. The ink jet method is a method of generating bubbles in a solution by utilizing thermal energy and discharging the solution based on the generation of the bubbles. Production method.