JPH0955174A - Image forming device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform atmospheric pressure resistant support which is superior in exhaust conductance and has less possibility of electrification. SOLUTION: An envelope 88 is constituted of a rear plate 81, a support frame 82, and a face plate 86. A surface conductive electron emission element 74 is arranged on the rear plate 81 and an image formation member 87 whose image is formed by irradiation of the emitted electron is provided. At least, a pair of magnets 126 is arranged in a part where the rear plate 81 and the face plate 86 are opposed to each other, in such a way as to exert a repulsive force on each other so that the envelope 88 can be supported in an atmospheric pressure resistant state by the magnetic force without providing a spacer, etc.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which forms an image by emitting electrons from an electron emitting element arranged in an airtight container.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Heretofore, two types of electron-emitting devices have been known, which are roughly classified into a thermoelectron-emitting device and a cold cathode electron-emitting device. Cold cathode electron emission devices include field emission type (hereinafter referred to as “FE type”), metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter referred to as “MIM type”), surface conduction type electron emission devices, and the like. As an example of FE type, WP Dyke & WWD
olan, "Field emission", Advance in Electron Physi
cs, 8, 89 (1956) or CASpindt, "PHYSICAL Prop
erties of thin-film field emission cathodeswith mo
Lybdenium cones ", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976) and the like are known.

As an example of the MIM type, CAMead, "Opera
tion of Tunnel-Emission Devices ", J.Apply.Phys., 3
The one disclosed in 2, 646 (1961) and the like is known.

Examples of the surface conduction electron-emitting device type include:
MIElinson, Radio Eng. ElectronPys., 10, 1290 (196
5) etc.

[0005] The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which an electron is emitted when a current flows in a small-area thin film formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface. The surface conduction electron-emitting device uses the SnO ₂ (Sb) thin film developed by Elinson et al.
With Au thin film [G.Dittmer: "Thin Solid Films",
9, 317 (1972)], by In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ [M.
Hartwell and CGFonstad: "IEEE Trans. ED Conf.",
519 (1975)], by carbon thin film [Hiraki Araki and others:
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. FIG. 32 shows the Hartwell device configuration. In the figure, 1001 is a substrate. 1004 is a conductive thin film, and both ends of the device electrode 100
2, 1003 is made of a metal oxide thin film or the like formed by sputtering in an H-shaped pattern, and the electron emitting portion 1005 is formed by an energization process called energization forming described later. In addition, the space | interval L1 of the element electrodes 1002 and 1003 in a figure is set to 0.5-1 mm, and W is set to 0.1 mm.

Conventionally, in these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, the electron-emitting portion 1005 has been generally formed by conducting a current-carrying process called current-flow forming on the conductive thin film 1004 before the electron emission. That is, 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 1004 to energize, and the electroconductive thin film 1004 is locally destroyed, deformed or altered, That is, the electron emitting portion 1005 is formed in an electrically high resistance state. In the electron emitting portion 1005, a crack is generated in a part of the conductive thin film 1004, and electrons are emitted from the vicinity of the crack. The surface conduction electron-emitting device that has been subjected to the energization forming process is one in which a voltage is applied to the conductive thin film 1004 and a current is passed through the device so that electrons are emitted from the electron-emitting portion 1005.

Of the conventional image forming apparatus for forming an image by applying an electron-emitting device, an image forming apparatus filed as a prior application by the present applicant will be described with reference to FIG. No. 6-93268). FIG.
FIG. 9 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a conventional image forming apparatus using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron-emitting device.

As shown in FIG. 33, an image forming apparatus generally includes a back plate 1081 provided with an electron source substrate 1074 in which a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged in a matrix.
The front plate 1086 is provided so as to face the rear plate 1081 with the support frame 1082 interposed therebetween, and the front plate 1086 is provided with an image forming member 1087 on which an image is formed by electron irradiation from the electron-emitting devices. Inside the image forming apparatus, that is, the rear plate 1081
Since the space between the front plate 1086 and the front plate 1086 is evacuated to vacuum, a structure capable of withstanding the external atmospheric pressure at this time is required. Particularly large-area back plate 1081 and front plate 108
In the image forming apparatus using No. 6, the spacer 1125 is arranged as a support for supporting the atmospheric pressure applied perpendicularly to the back plate 1081 and the front plate 1086.

Further, since an acceleration voltage (anode voltage) of several hundreds of volts to several tens of kV is applied between the image forming member 1087 and the electron source substrate 1074, electrical insulation is required between them. And the spacer 112
Also for 5, an insulating material such as glass is used.
Further, the electron-emitting device is generally sensitive to the influence of a vacuum atmosphere, and in order to obtain stable electron-emitting characteristics, the space between the back plate 1081 and the front plate 1086 is often set to a high vacuum.

[0010]

However, in the conventional image forming apparatus as described above, the spacers are arranged inside the supporting frame, so that the image forming apparatus is excellent in terms of the atmospheric pressure resistant structure. It was difficult to evacuate and maintain the inside of the apparatus at a high vacuum because the exhaust conductance when evacuating the inside of the apparatus was poor and the surface area of the portion to be evacuated was increased. When an insulator such as glass is used as the spacer, charged particles may be charged on the surface of the spacer (charge-up), and the potential of the charged particles may bend the flight direction of electrons. Therefore, with the conventional structure, it is difficult to manufacture an image forming apparatus with stable brightness and a displayed image.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus having a new support for atmospheric pressure, which has excellent exhaust conductance and is less likely to be charged.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above object, an image forming apparatus of the present invention is an image forming apparatus in which an electron-emitting device is arranged in an airtight container and an electron is emitted from the electron-emitting device to form an image. In the device, in the airtight container,
It is characterized in that a magnetic field generating means for holding a pressure difference between the pressure inside the airtight container and the external environment by a repulsive force due to a magnetic force is arranged.

Further, the airtight container is arranged so as to face the back plate on which the electron-emitting device is arranged and the back plate through a support frame, and is irradiated with electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device. It may be composed of a front plate provided with an image forming member on which an image is formed,
The magnetic field generating means may be at least one pair of magnets arranged so as to exert a repulsive force on opposite portions of the back plate and the front plate.

Further, the electron-emitting device may be a surface conduction electron-emitting device. In particular, when the magnetic field generating means is a magnet and the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, the magnet has a magnetic field generated by the magnet near the positive electrode of the surface-conduction electron-emitting device. The element current may be arranged to exert a Lorentz force in the direction in which the image forming member exists, or the magnetic field generated by the magnet may be the element of the emission electron beam of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. It may be arranged to correct the spread in the long direction.

[0015]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 are schematic sectional views of an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is used as the electron-emitting device. Surface-conduction electronic device 7
4 is mounted on a back plate (rear plate) 81.
A front plate (face plate) 86 provided with an image forming member 87 is opposed to the rear plate 81 via a support frame 82, and the inside of the rear plate 81, the support frame 82, and the front plate 86 is vacuumed. An airtight container (envelope) 88 maintained at Inside the airtight container 88, the back plate 81
The front plate 86 has at least one pair of magnets 12
6 are arranged so as to oppose each other with the same polarity so as to exert a repulsive force on each other in the opposing direction of the back plate 81 and the front plate 86. In FIG. 1, the magnet 126 is oriented such that the magnetization direction is parallel to the opposing direction of the back plate 81 and the front plate 86.

Since the space between the back plate 81 and the front plate 86 is a vacuum, the back plate 81 and the front plate 86 receive a force that reduces the distance between them due to atmospheric pressure. However, since the magnets 126 are arranged as described above, a force against the atmospheric pressure acts on the back plate 81 and the front plate 86 by the repulsive force acting between the magnets 126, and the back plate 81 and the front plate 86 are supported. Is helping. Thus, the repulsive force of the magnet 126 and the support frame 82
Although it is most desirable to obtain an atmospheric pressure resistant structure only by itself, the present invention shows a sufficient effect even if it is combined with a conventional spacer structure if the number of spacers and the surface area can be reduced. The image forming member 87 will be described later, but is composed of a glass plate, a black member called a black matrix, a phosphor, a metal back, and the like.

In FIG. 2, the orientation of the magnet 136 is different from that in FIG. That is, the magnet 136 is arranged in a direction in which the magnetization direction is perpendicular to the opposing direction of the back plate 81 and the front plate 86. Further, in FIG. 3, a Spindt-type FE type electron-emitting device 274 is used as the electron-emitting device, and the magnet 1
36 is arranged similarly to FIG. The FE type electron-emitting device 274 includes an emitter cone 274a and a gate electrode 274b.
And a voltage is applied between the two, field emission occurs from the tip of the emitter cone 274a. Also in the structure as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the repulsive force of the magnet 136 can be used to obtain an atmospheric pressure resistant structure.

The magnets 126, 136 are not limited in kind as long as they can generate a magnetic force of sufficient strength, and Fe, Ni, Co and their alloys, carbon steel, permalloy, alnico series, Ba ferrite. Magnetic materials such as In particular, a hard magnetic material having a large coercive force H _C is desirable as the magnetic material. In addition, the current is regarded as a magnet in a broad sense, and the magnetic field forming members 146 that form magnetic fields by the currents flowing through the rear plate 81 and the front plate 86, respectively, as shown in FIG. It is also possible to dispose them facing each other and utilize the repulsive force generated by the magnetic field, or to use an electromagnetic magnet (electromagnetic coil), a superconducting magnet, or the like.

The magnetic force of the magnet is related to the distance between the back plate 81 and the front plate 86, the distance between the magnets, the number of magnets, the positional relationship between the electron-emitting devices and the magnets, the anode voltage, the driving voltage, etc.
It is set appropriately. As a method of installing the magnets on the back plate 81 and the front plate 86, there are a method of fixing a permanent magnet with frit glass or the like, and a method of forming a magnetic film by sputtering, vapor deposition, plating or the like and then magnetizing it.

The number, shape, arrangement, etc. of the magnets used in the image forming apparatus of the present invention are not particularly limited,
The size of the screen, the pixel arrangement, the structure of the image forming member, and the like are taken into consideration when designing. However, as for the positional relationship between the magnet and the electron-emitting device, it is desirable that it works dominantly with respect to the electron beam obtained from the electron-emitting device, as described below.

The preferred arrangement of magnets for the electron beam is
In addition to supporting the atmospheric pressure, the magnetic field formed by the magnet acts on the orbit of the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device, and means an array that causes secondary effects such as convergence and deflection of the electron beam.

For example, when an ordinary FE type electron emitting device is used, as shown in FIG. 5, the FE type electron emitting device 27 is used.
4 and the image forming member 87, a quadrupole lens 238 is formed by a magnetic field, or as shown in FIG. 6, a magnetic field H is generated in a direction parallel to the electron beam with the FE type electron-emitting device 274 and the image forming member 87 interposed therebetween. By making, it is possible to improve the convergence of the electron beam.

A magnetic field effective when a surface conduction electron-emitting device, which will be described later in detail, is used as the electron-emitting device will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8. In the case of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74, the velocity of electrons immediately after the emission has a large component parallel to the direction in which the device current flows (the direction of + x in the figure), and the electron-emitting portion 5 moves in the y-direction. It is present in a linear form and has the characteristic that the distribution of potential is asymmetric in the x direction with respect to the emission point. It is desirable that the magnetic field exerted by the magnet has a dominant effect on these characteristics.

For example, as shown in FIG. 7, when a magnetic field Hy in the y direction exists near the positive electrode, the Lorentz force F causes the orbits of the emitted electrons having the same velocity as the device current (x direction) to be directed to the anode. Since it can be changed to the (z direction), a part of the emitted electrons can be pulled up to the anode, which is advantageous for improving the brightness. In order to generate such a magnetic field, for example, FIG. 9, FIG. 10 or FIG.
1, the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 and the magnet 1
The arrangement with 26a, 136 is conceivable. All of these lead to higher brightness of the display image.

In addition, if there is a magnetic field Hx in the x direction as shown in FIG. 8, the Lorentz force F acts on the velocity component of the emitted electrons in the z direction and originally spreads in the element length direction (y direction). The electron beam can be focused on the central part of the device. In order to generate such a magnetic field, for example, an arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 and the magnet 136 as shown in FIG. 12 can be considered. This leads to higher definition of the displayed image.

Although any electron-emitting device can be used in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, it has a simple structure and
The surface conduction electron-emitting device 74, which is easy to manufacture, is suitable for increasing the area and reducing the manufacturing cost. The surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 will be described in detail below.

The basic structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is roughly classified into a planar type and a vertical type.

First, a planar type surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIG. 13 is a schematic plan view and a sectional view showing the structure of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied. In FIG. 13, 1 is a substrate, 2 and 3 are device electrodes, 4 is a conductive thin film, and 5 is an electron emitting portion.

[0031] As the substrate 1, quartz glass, ceramics and Si substrate such as a glass substrate and an alumina or the like where the SiO ₂ is laminated formed by impurity content a reduced glass, blue plate glass, a sputtering method or the like soda lime glass such as Na Etc. can be used.

The materials of the opposing device electrodes 2 and 3 are as follows.
General conductor materials can be used. This is, for example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al,
Cu, Pd and other metals or alloys, and Pd, Ag,
A printed conductor composed of a metal such as Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-Ag or a metal oxide and glass, In ₂ O ₃ / S
It can be appropriately selected from a transparent conductor such as nO ₂ and a semiconductor conductor material such as polysilicon.

The element electrode interval L, the element electrode length W, the shape of the conductive thin film 4, etc. are designed in consideration of the applied form. The element electrode spacing L can be preferably in the range of several thousand angstroms to several hundreds of micrometers, and more preferably several micrometers to several tens of micrometers in consideration of the voltage applied between the element electrodes. It can be a range.

The device electrode length W can be set in the range of several micrometers to several hundred micrometers in consideration of the resistance value of the electrodes and the electron emission characteristics. Device electrodes 2, 3
The film thickness d can be in the range of several hundred angstroms to several micrometers.

In addition to the structure shown in FIG. 13, the conductive thin film 4 and the opposing device electrodes 2 and 3 may be laminated in this order on the substrate 1.

For the conductive thin film 4, it is preferable to use a fine particle film composed of fine particles in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics. The film thickness is appropriately set in consideration of the step coverage to the element electrodes 2 and 3, the resistance value between the element electrodes 2 and 3, and the forming conditions described later, but normally, it is from several angstroms to several thousand angstroms. It is preferably in the range, and more preferably in the range of 10 Å to 500 Å. The resistance value is such that Rs is 10 ² to 10 ⁷ Ω / □. Note that Rs appears when the resistance R of a thin film having a thickness of t, a width of w, and a length of 1 is R = Rs (l / w). In the specification of the present application, the forming process will be described by taking an energization process as an example, but the forming process is not limited to these, and includes a process of causing a crack in a film to form a high resistance state. Is.

The materials forming the conductive thin film 4 are Pd and P.
t, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, F
metals such as e, Zn, Sn, Ta, W, Pb, PdO, S
oxides such as nO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ ,
HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ , YB ₄ , G
borides such as dB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC, TaC,
It is appropriately selected from carbides such as SiC and WC, nitrides such as TiN, ZrN, and HfN, 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 has a state in which fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, or a state in which fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other (some fine particles are It also includes the case where they are aggregated to form an island structure as a whole). The particle size of the fine particles is in the range of several angstroms to several thousand angstroms, preferably in the range of 10 angstroms to 200 angstroms.

In the present specification, the term “fine particles” is frequently used, and its meaning will be described.

Small particles are called "fine particles", and smaller ones are called "ultra fine particles". It is widely practiced to call a “cluster” smaller than “ultrafine particles” and having a few hundred atoms or less.

However, each boundary is not strict, and changes depending on what kind of property is focused on for classification. Further, “fine particles” and “ultrafine particles” may be collectively referred to as “fine particles”, and the description in this specification is in line with this.

"Experimental Physics Course 14 Surface / Particles"
(Koroshio Kinoshita, Kyoritsu Shuppan, published September 1, 1986)
Then, it is described as follows. "When we say fine particles in this paper, the diameter is about 2-3 μm to 10n.
The particle size is up to about m
It means from about nm to about 2 to 3 nm. It is not exactly strict because both are collectively written as fine particles, but it is a rough guide. When the number of atoms constituting a particle is from 2 to several tens to several hundreds, it is called a cluster. (Page 195, lines 22-26) In addition, the definition of “ultrafine particles” in the “Hayashi / Ultrafine particle project” of the New Technology Development Corporation has a smaller lower limit of the particle size. there were.

In the "Ultrafine particle project" (1981-1986) of the Creative Science Promotion System, particles having a size (diameter) in the range of about 1 to 100 nm are called "ultra fine particles". Then, one ultrafine particle is an aggregate of about 100 to 108 atoms. From the atomic scale, the ultrafine particles are large to huge particles. ”(" Ultrafine particle-creation " Science and Technology- "Kayashi Hayashi, Ryoji Ueda, Akira Tasaki, edited by Mita Publishing 19
1988, page 2, lines 1 to 4) "A particle smaller than an ultrafine particle, that is, 1 composed of several to several hundred atoms.
Individual particles are usually called clusters "(ibid., Page 2, lines 12 to 13). In the present specification," fine particles "are aggregates of a large number of atoms and molecules, based on the above general terminology. The lower limit of the particle size is about several angstroms to about 10 angstroms, and the upper limit is about several μm.

The electron emitting portion 5 is composed of a crack having a high resistance 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 and a method such as energization forming described later. It will be what you did. There may be conductive fine particles having a particle size in the range of several angstroms to several hundred angstroms inside the electron emission portion 5. 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 can also contain carbon and a carbon compound.

Next, a vertical type surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing the structure of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

In FIG. 14, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 13 are designated by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. 21 is a step forming part. Substrate 1, device electrode 2,
3, the conductive thin film 4, and the electron emitting portion 5 can be made of the same material as that of the above-mentioned flat surface conduction electron-emitting device. The step forming portion 21 can be made of an insulating material such as SiO ₂ formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. The film thickness of the step forming portion 21 corresponds to the device electrode interval L of the flat surface conduction electron-emitting device described above, and can be set in the range of several thousand angstroms to several tens of micrometers. This film thickness is set in consideration of the manufacturing method of the step forming portion 21 and the voltage applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3, but is preferably in the range of several hundred angstroms to several micrometers.

The conductive thin film 4 is laminated on the device electrodes 2 and 3 after the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the step forming portion 21 are formed. The electron emitting portion 5 is the step forming portion 2 in FIG.
However, the shape and position are not limited to this, depending on the manufacturing conditions, forming conditions, and the like.

There are various methods for manufacturing the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, one example of which is shown in FIG.

An example of the manufacturing method will be described below with reference to FIGS. 13 and 15. In FIG.
The same parts as those shown in FIG. 13 are designated by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG.

1) The substrate 1 is thoroughly washed with a detergent, pure water, an organic solvent, etc., and after the element electrode material is deposited by the vacuum deposition method, the sputtering method, etc., the substrate 1 is deposited on the substrate 1 by, for example, the photolithography technique. The device electrodes 2 and 3 are formed (FIG. 15A).

2) On the substrate 1 provided with the device electrodes 2 and 3,
An organometallic solution is applied to form an organometallic thin film. As the organic metal solution, a solution of an organic metal compound containing a metal of the material of the conductive thin film 4 as a main element can be used.
The organometallic thin film is heat-fired and patterned by lift-off, etching or the like to form the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 15B). Although the method of applying the organic metal solution has been described here, the method of forming the conductive thin film 4 is not limited to this, and a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, a dispersion coating method, a dipping method. The spinner method or the like can also be used.

3) Subsequently, a forming process is performed.
As an example of a method of the forming step, a method by an energization process will be described. When electric power is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 by using a power source (not shown), the electron-emitting portion 5 having a changed structure is formed at the site of the conductive thin film 4 (FIG. 15).
(C)). According to the energization forming, a portion where the structure such as destruction, deformation or alteration is locally formed in the conductive thin film 4 is formed. This portion constitutes the electron emitting portion 5. FIG. 16 shows an example of the voltage waveform of energization forming.

The voltage waveform is preferably a pulse waveform. This is achieved by the method shown in FIG. 16 (a) in which a pulse whose peak value is a constant voltage is continuously applied and the method shown in FIG. 16 (b) in which a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value. is there.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 16A are
It is the pulse width and pulse interval of the voltage waveform. Usually T1 is 1
Microsecond to 10 milliseconds, T2 is 10 microseconds to 10
It is set in the range of 0 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. Under such conditions, for example, a voltage is applied for several seconds to several tens minutes. The pulse waveform is not limited to a triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave can be adopted.

T1 and T2 in FIG. 16B are
It can be similar to that shown in FIG. The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during energization forming) is
For example, it can be increased in steps of about 0.1 V.

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 element current flowing by applying a voltage of about 0.1 V is measured, the resistance value is obtained, and when the resistance is 1 MΩ or more, the energization forming is terminated.

4) It is preferable to perform a process called an activation process on the element which has finished forming. The activation step is a step in which the element current If and the emission current Ie are significantly changed by this step.

The activation step can be carried out, for example, by repeating the application of the pulse in the atmosphere containing the gas of the organic substance, similarly to the energization forming. This atmosphere can be formed by using an organic gas remaining in the atmosphere when the inside of the vacuum vessel is evacuated using, for example, an oil diffusion pump or a rotary pump, or is sufficiently evacuated once by an ion pump or the like. It can also be obtained by introducing a gas of an appropriate organic substance into a vacuum. The preferable gas pressure of the organic substance at this time is different depending on the above-mentioned application form, the shape of the vacuum container, the type of the organic substance, and the like, and is appropriately set depending on 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 acid and the like, and specifically, methane, ethane, propane and the like, and saturated hydrocarbons represented by C _n H _{2n + 2} , ethylene, Unsaturated hydrocarbons represented by a composition formula such as C _n H _2n such as propylene, benzene, toluene, methanol, ethanol, formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetone, methyl ethyl ketone, methylamine, ethylamine, phenol, formic acid, acetic acid, propionic acid, etc. Can be used. By this treatment, carbon or a carbon compound is deposited on the device from the organic substance existing in the atmosphere, and the device current If and the emission current Ie are significantly changed.

The termination of the activation process is appropriately determined while measuring the device current If and the emission current Ie. The pulse width, pulse interval, pulse peak value, etc. are set appropriately.

Carbon and carbon compounds include, for example, graphite (so-called HOPG, PG (, GC). HOPG is an almost perfect graphite crystal structure, P.
G is a crystal grain with a crystal grain of about 200 angstroms and the crystal structure is somewhat disordered, and GC is a crystal grain with a crystal grain of about 20 angstroms and the crystal structure is further disordered, amorphous carbon (amorphous carbon, and It refers to a mixture of amorphous carbon and fine crystals of graphite), and its film thickness is preferably in the range of 500 angstroms or less, and more preferably in the range of 300 angstroms or less.

5) It is preferable that the electron-emitting device obtained through these steps is subjected to a stabilizing step. This step is a step of exhausting the organic substance in the vacuum container. The pressure in the vacuum vessel is preferably 1 to 3 × 10 ⁻⁷ Torr or less, and more 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 evacuating the inside of the vacuum vessel, it is preferable to heat the entire vacuum vessel to facilitate evacuating the organic substance molecules adsorbed on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel and the electron-emitting device. The heating conditions at this time are 80 to 200 ° C. and 5
It is preferably longer than or equal to time, but not limited to this condition, and the condition is appropriately selected depending on various conditions such as the size and shape of the vacuum container and the configuration of the electron-emitting device.

It is preferable to maintain the atmosphere at the end of the above-described stabilization process as the atmosphere during driving after performing the stabilizing step, but the present invention is not limited to this, and if the organic substance is sufficiently removed. Even if the degree of vacuum itself is lowered to some extent, it is possible to maintain sufficiently stable characteristics.

By adopting such a vacuum atmosphere, the deposition of new carbon or carbon compound can be suppressed,
As a result, the device current If and the emission current Ie are stabilized.

The basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device to which the present invention is applicable obtained through the above steps will be described with reference to FIGS. 17 and 18.

FIG. 17 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a vacuum processing apparatus, and this vacuum processing apparatus also has a function as a measurement / evaluation apparatus. Also in FIG. 17, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 13 are designated by the same reference numerals as those shown in FIG. In FIG. 17, 55 is a vacuum container, and 56 is an exhaust pump. An electron-emitting device is provided in the vacuum vessel 55. That is, 1 is a substrate which is a base constituting an electron-emitting device, 2 and 3 are device electrodes,
Reference numeral 4 is a conductive thin film, and 5 is an electron emitting portion. 51 is a power supply for applying a device voltage Vf to the electron-emitting device, and 50 is a device current If flowing through the conductive thin film 4 between the device electrodes 2 and 3.
Is an ammeter for measuring the
This is an anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie emitted more. Reference numeral 53 denotes a high-voltage power supply for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 54, and reference numeral 52 denotes an ammeter for measuring an emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission section 5 of the device. As an example, the voltage of the anode electrode 54 is set in the range of 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode 54 and the electron-emitting device is set.
Can be measured in the range of 2 mm to 8 mm.

The vacuum vessel 55 is provided with equipment necessary for measurement in a vacuum atmosphere, such as a vacuum gauge (not shown).
The measurement and evaluation can be performed in a desired vacuum atmosphere. The exhaust pump 56 is composed of a normal high vacuum device system including a turbo pump and a rotary pump, and an ultra-high vacuum device system including an ion pump. The entire vacuum processing apparatus equipped with the electron source substrate shown here is
It can be heated up to 200 ° C. by a heater (not shown). Therefore, by using this vacuum processing apparatus, the steps after the above-described energization forming can be performed.

FIG. 18 is a diagram schematically showing the relationship between the emission current Ie, the device current If, and the device voltage Vf measured by using the vacuum processing apparatus shown in FIG. In FIG. 18, since the emission current Ie is significantly smaller than the device current If, it is shown in arbitrary units. The vertical and horizontal axes are linear scales.

As is clear from FIG. 18, the surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied has three characteristic characteristics regarding the emission current Ie.

That is, (i) in this device, when a device voltage Vf higher than a certain voltage (called threshold voltage, Vth in FIG. 18) is applied, the emission current Ie rapidly increases, while
At the threshold voltage Vth or lower, the emission current Ie is hardly detected. That is, it is a nonlinear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

(Ii) Since the emission current Ie monotonically increases with the element voltage Vf, the emission current Ie can be controlled by the element voltage Vf.

(Iii) The emission charge captured by the anode electrode 54 depends on the time for which the device voltage Vf is applied.
That is, the amount of charge captured by the anode electrode 54 can be controlled by the time during which the device voltage Vf is applied.

As understood from the above description, the surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied can easily control the electron emission characteristics according to the input signal.
By utilizing this property, it is possible to apply to various fields such as an electron source and an image forming apparatus having a plurality of electron-emitting devices.

In FIG. 17, an example in which the element current If monotonically increases with respect to the element voltage Vf (hereinafter referred to as “MI characteristic”) is shown by a solid line. The element current If may exhibit a voltage-controlled negative resistance characteristic (hereinafter, referred to as “VCNR characteristic”) with respect to the element voltage Vf (not shown). These characteristics can be controlled by controlling the above process.

Next, an electron source or an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged on a substrate will be described.

Various arrangements of electron-emitting devices can be adopted.

As an example, a large number of electron-emitting devices arranged in parallel are connected to each other at both ends thereof, and a large number of rows of electron-emitting devices are arranged (referred to as a row direction). (Referred to as "), a control electrode (also referred to as a grid) arranged above the electron-emitting device controls the electrons from the electron-emitting device to be ladder-shaped. 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. Such a thing is what is called a simple matrix arrangement. First, the simple matrix arrangement will be described in detail below.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied is as described above in (i) to (iii).
There is a characteristic of. That is, the emitted electrons from the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be controlled by the peak value and width of the pulse voltage applied between the opposing device electrodes at the threshold voltage or less. On the other hand, below the threshold voltage, almost no electrons are emitted. According to this characteristic, even when a large number of electron-emitting devices are arranged, if a pulsed voltage is appropriately applied to each device, the surface conduction electron-emitting device is selected according to the input signal, The amount of release can be controlled.

Based on this principle, an electron source substrate obtained by arranging a plurality of electron-emitting devices to which the present invention can be applied will be described below with reference to FIG. In FIG. 19, 71
The electron source substrate 72 is an X-direction wiring, and 73 is a Y-direction wiring. 74 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and 75 is a connection. The surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 may be either the flat type or the vertical type described above.

The m X-directional wirings 72 are Dx1, Dx
2, ..., Dxm, and can be made of a conductive metal or the like formed by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. The wiring material, film thickness, and width are appropriately designed. The Y-direction wiring 73 includes Dy1, Dy2, ..., Dy.
It is composed of n wirings and is formed in the same manner as the X-directional wiring 72. An interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided between the m X-direction wirings 72 and the n Y-direction wirings 73 to electrically isolate the two (m and n are both Positive integer).

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is made of SiO ₂ or the like formed by using a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. For example, it is formed in a desired shape on the entire surface or a part of the electron source substrate 71 on which the X-direction wiring 72 is formed, and particularly, in order to withstand the potential difference at the intersection of the X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73, the film thickness , Material, and manufacturing method are appropriately set. The X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73 are respectively drawn out as external terminals.

A pair of electrodes (not shown) constituting the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is electrically connected by m X-direction wirings 72, n Y-direction wirings 73, and a connection 75 made of a conductive metal or the like. It is connected to the.

The material forming the X-direction wiring 72 and the Y-direction wiring 73, the material forming the connecting wire 75, and the material forming the pair of element electrodes may be the same or some of the constituent elements may be the same. Each may be different. These materials are. For example, it is appropriately selected from the above-mentioned material of the device electrode. 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.

A scanning signal applying means (not shown) for applying a scanning signal for selecting a row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the X direction is connected to the X-direction wiring 72. On the other hand, in the Y-direction wiring 73, each column of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 arranged in the Y-direction is connected to
A modulation signal generating means (not shown) for performing modulation is connected. The drive voltage applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is supplied as a difference voltage between the scanning signal and the modulation signal applied to the device.

In the above configuration, individual elements can be selected and driven independently using a simple matrix wiring.

An image forming apparatus constructed by using an electron source having such a simple matrix arrangement is shown in FIGS.
And it demonstrates using FIG. 20 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a display panel of an image forming apparatus provided with an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement, and FIG. 21 is a schematic diagram of a fluorescent film used in the image forming apparatus of FIG. FIG. 22 shows N
It is a block diagram showing an example of a drive circuit for displaying based on a television signal of a TSC system.

In FIG. 20, 71 is an electron source substrate on which a plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged, and 81 is an electron source substrate 7.
1 is a rear plate on which 1 is fixed, and 86 is a face plate in which a fluorescent film 84, a metal back 85 and the like are formed on the inner surface of a glass substrate 83. Reference numeral 82 denotes a support frame, and the support frame 8
A rear plate 81 and a face plate 86 are connected to the second unit 2 using frit glass or the like. Reference numeral 88 is an envelope, for example, 400 ° C. to 5 ° C. in the atmosphere or nitrogen.
It is formed by sealing by firing at a temperature range of 00 ° C. for 10 minutes or more.

Reference numeral 74 corresponds to a surface conduction electron-emitting device including the device electrodes 2 and 3 and the electron-emitting portion 5 shown in FIG. Reference numerals 72 and 73 denote 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 mainly provided for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the electron source substrate 71, if the electron source substrate 71 itself has a sufficient strength, the separate rear plate 81 can be unnecessary. That is, the support frame 82 may be directly sealed to the electron source substrate 71, and the face plate 86, the support frame 82, and the electron source substrate 71 may constitute the envelope 88.

On the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81, magnets 126 having polarities (that is, the same polarities) exerting repulsive force on each other are installed to face each other, and the repulsive force acting between the magnets 126 supports the atmospheric pressure. I am assisting. In addition, the face plate 86 and the rear plate 8
It is also possible to further support the atmospheric pressure by installing a support member (not shown) called a spacer between the support member 1 and the spacer 1.

In the case of monochrome, the fluorescent film 84 can be composed of only the fluorescent material. In the case of a color fluorescent film, as shown in FIG. 21, it can be composed of a black conductive material 91 called a black stripe or a black matrix depending on the arrangement of fluorescent materials and a fluorescent material 92. The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the mixed portions inconspicuous by making the painted portions between the phosphors 92 of the necessary three primary color phosphors black in the case of color display, An object of the present invention is to suppress a decrease in contrast due to light reflection. As the material of the black stripe, in addition to a commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, a material having conductivity and having little light transmission and reflection can be used.

As a method of applying the phosphor 92 to the glass substrate 93, a precipitation method, a printing method or the like can be adopted regardless of monochrome or color. Usually, a metal back 85 is provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 84. The purpose of providing the metal back 85 is to improve the brightness by specularly reflecting the light toward the inner surface side of the light emission of the phosphor 92 to the face plate 86 side, and to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage. That is, the phosphor 92 is protected from damage due to the collision of negative ions generated in the envelope 88. The metal back 85 is produced by forming the fluorescent film 84, smoothing the inner surface of the fluorescent film 84 (usually called “filming”), and then depositing Al using vacuum deposition or the like. Can be made.

On the face plate 86, a transparent electrode (not shown) may be provided on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 84 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 84.

When performing the above-mentioned sealing, in the case of color, it is necessary to associate each color phosphor with the electron-emitting device.
Sufficient alignment is essential.

The image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
It is manufactured as follows. The envelope 88 has the above-mentioned stability.
In the same way as in the oxidization process, heat the ion pump and
For pumping pumps and other exhaust systems that do not use oil
Exhaust through an exhaust pipe (not shown)^-7Torr
After vacuuming the atmosphere to a level sufficiently low in organic matter,
A stop is made. Maintaining the degree of vacuum after sealing the envelope 88
Therefore, a getter process can be performed. This is outside
Immediately before or after sealing the enclosure 88, resistance heating
Alternatively, by heating using high-frequency heating or the like, the envelope 88
Add a getter material placed at a predetermined position (not shown)
This is a process of heating to form a vapor deposition film. Getters are usually
Ba is the main component, and due to the adsorption action of the deposited film,
For example, 10 ^-FiveOr 10^-7Maintains a vacuum level of about Torr
Is what you do. Here, the surface conduction electron-emitting device
The steps after the warming process can be set appropriately.

Next, with reference to the block diagram of FIG. 22, a configuration example of a drive circuit for performing television display based on a television signal of the NTSC system on a display panel constructed by using an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement will be described. Explain. In FIG. 22, 101 is a display panel, 102 is a scanning circuit, 103 is a control circuit, 104 is a shift register, and 10
5 is a line memory, 106 is a sync signal separation circuit, 107
Is a modulation signal generator, and Vx and Va are DC voltage sources.

The display panel 101 has terminals Dx1 through Dx1.
xm, Dy1 to Dyn, and high-voltage terminal Hv
Connected to an external electric circuit via An electron source provided in the display panel 101, that is, a group of surface conduction electron-emitting devices arranged in matrix in a matrix of m rows and n columns, is sequentially driven to the terminals Dx1 to Dxm row by row (n elements). A scanning signal for moving is applied.

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

The scanning circuit 102 will be described. The circuit is provided with m switching elements (schematically shown by S1 to Sm in the figure) inside. Each switching element selects either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0V (ground level) and is electrically connected to the terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 101. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm operates based on the control signal T _SCAN output from the control circuit 103, and can be configured by combining switching elements such as FETs.

In the case of this example, the DC voltage source Vx is based on the characteristics (electron emission threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the driving voltage applied to the non-scanned device is the electron emission threshold. It is set to output a constant voltage that is equal to or lower than the value 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 control circuit 103 generates control signals T _SCAN, T _SFT, and T _MRY for each unit based on the synchronization signal T _SYNC sent from the synchronization signal separation circuit 106.

The synchronizing signal separating circuit 106 is a circuit for separating a synchronizing signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC television signal input from the outside, and uses a general frequency separating (filter) circuit or the like. Can be configured. The sync signal separated by the sync signal separation circuit 106 is composed of a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal, but is shown here as a T _SYNC signal for convenience of description. The luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is represented as a DATA signal for convenience. The DATA signal is input to the shift register 104.

The shift register 104 is for converting the DATA signals serially input in time series into serial / parallel conversion for each line of the image, and outputs the control signal T _SFT sent from the control circuit 103. It can be said that the control signal T _SFT is the shift clock of the shift register 104. The serial / parallel converted image data for one line (corresponding to driving data for n surface conduction electron-emitting devices) is output from the shift register 104 as n parallel signals Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 105 is a storage device for storing data for one line of the image for a required time, and stores the contents of Id1 to Idn as appropriate in accordance with the control signal T _MRY sent from the control circuit 103. . The stored contents are output as I′d1 to I′dn and input to the modulation signal generator 107.

The modulation signal generator 107 is a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices according to each of the image data I'd1 to I'dn, and its output signal. Is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the display panel 101 through the terminals Dy1 to Dyn.

As described above, the electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied has the following basic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie. That is, the electron emission has a clear threshold voltage Vth, and the electron emission occurs only when a voltage higher than Vth is applied. For a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold value, the emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the device. From this, when a pulse-like voltage is applied to the element, for example, when a voltage lower than the electron emission threshold is applied, electron emission does not occur, but when a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold is applied. Outputs an electron beam. that time,
It is possible to control the intensity of the output electron beam by changing the peak value Vm of the pulse. In addition, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the output electron beam by changing the pulse width Pw.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the electron-emitting device according to the input signal, a voltage modulation method, a pulse width modulation method or the like can be adopted. When implementing the voltage modulation method, a circuit of a voltage modulation method that generates a voltage pulse of a fixed length and modulates the peak value of the pulse appropriately according to input data is used as the modulation signal generator 107. be able to.

To implement the pulse width modulation method,
As the modulation signal generator 107, it is possible to use a circuit of a pulse width modulation system that generates a voltage pulse having a constant crest value and appropriately modulates the width of the voltage pulse according to input data.

The shift register 104 and the line memory 10
The digital signal type 5 and the analog signal type 5 can be adopted. This is because the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 106 into a digital signal. For this, an A / D converter is provided at the output section of the sync signal separation circuit 106. Just do it. In this connection, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator 107 is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the line memory 105 is a digital signal or an analog signal. That is, in the case of the voltage modulation method using a digital signal, for example, a D / A conversion circuit is used for the modulation signal generator 107, and an amplification circuit or the like is added if necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 107 compares the output value of the line memory 105 with the output value of the counter (counter) and the counter for counting the number of waves output from the oscillator, for example. A circuit that combines comparators is used. If necessary, an amplifier for amplifying the voltage of the pulse width modulated signal output from the comparator to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be added.

In the case of the voltage modulation method using an analog signal, the modulation signal generator 107 may be an amplifier circuit using, for example, an operational amplifier, 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 voltage controlled oscillation circuit (VCO) can be adopted, and an amplifier for voltage amplification up to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device can be added if necessary.

In the image forming apparatus of the present invention having such a structure, each surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is provided with
Electrons are emitted by applying a voltage through the terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn. A high voltage is applied to the metal back 85 or the transparent electrode via the high voltage terminal H _v to accelerate the electron beam. The accelerated electrons collide with the fluorescent film 84 and emit light to form an image.

The configuration of the image forming apparatus described here is an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention, and various modifications can be made based on the technical idea of the present invention. For the input signal,
Although the NTSC system is mentioned, the input signal is not limited to this, and in addition to the PAL, SECAM system, etc., a TV signal (for example, a high-definition TV such as the MUSE system) consisting of many scanning lines is also adopted it can.

Next, a ladder type electron source and an image forming apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 23 and 24.
Here, since the main purpose is to describe the general configuration of the ladder-type electron source and the image forming apparatus, the description of the above-mentioned magnet will be omitted, but when applying the present invention,
The magnets are arranged in the same manner as in the simple matrix arrangement described above.

FIG. 23 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a ladder-type electron source. In FIG. 23, 110 is an electron source substrate, and 111 is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 112
(D1 to D10) are common wirings for connecting the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 111. A plurality of surface conduction electron-emitting devices 111 are arranged in parallel in the X direction on the electron source substrate 110 (this is called a device row). A plurality of the element rows are arranged to constitute an electron source. 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 is applied to an element row that wants to emit an electron beam, and a voltage equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold is applied to an element row that does not emit an electron beam. Common wiring D2 between each element row
For D9, for example, D2 and D3 can be the same wiring.

FIG. 24 is a schematic view showing an example of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus provided with a ladder-type electron source. 120 is a grid electrode, 121 is a hole through which electrons pass, and 122 is a terminal outside the container made of D1, D2, ..., Dm. 123 is the grid electrode 12
, Gn connected to 0 are terminals outside the grid container, and 110 is a common wiring 112 between each element row.
Is an electron source substrate having the same wiring. In FIG. 24, the same parts as those shown in FIGS. 20 and 23 are designated by the same reference numerals as those shown in these figures. The major difference between the image forming apparatus shown in FIG. 24 and the image forming apparatus having the simple matrix arrangement shown in FIG.
It is whether or not the grid electrode 120 is provided between 0 and the face plate 86.

In FIG. 24, a grid electrode 120 is provided between the electron source substrate 110 and the face plate 86. The grid electrode 120 is for modulating the electron beam emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device 111, and allows the electron beam to pass through a stripe-shaped electrode provided orthogonal to the ladder-shaped element rows. Therefore, one circular hole 121 is provided for each element row. The shape and installation position of the grid electrode 120 are not limited to those shown in FIG. For example, a large number of through holes may be provided in the form of mesh as the holes 121, and the grid electrode 120 may be provided around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device 111.

The external terminal 122 and the grid external terminal 123 are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown).

In the image forming apparatus of this example, the modulation signals for one image line are simultaneously applied to the grid electrode columns in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one by one. This makes it possible to control the irradiation of the phosphor with each electron beam and display the image line by line.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention can be used not only as a display apparatus for television broadcasting, a display apparatus such as a TV conference system or a computer, but also as an image forming apparatus as an optical printer constituted by using a photosensitive drum or the like. Can be used.

[0121]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) In this embodiment, an image forming apparatus constructed based on the construction shown in FIG. 1 will be described. The basic configuration is as shown in FIG. 20, and is provided with the above-mentioned electron source having the simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 25 shows the arrangement of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 and the magnet on the rear plate 81 of FIG. 20 (wiring and the like are omitted in this figure). As shown in FIG. 25, a magnet 126 having a width A of 0.2 mm, a length B of 40 mm, and a thickness of 0.7 mm is provided on the rear plate 81 by 40 mm between the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74. Are arranged at intervals C. Commercially available Ba as the magnet 126
A ferrite magnet is used, and its magnetization direction is perpendicular to the rear plate 81 as shown in FIG. Also, magnet 1
The magnetic flux density of 26 is 0.2T. On the other hand, a magnet 126 similar to the magnet 126 on the rear plate 81 is also arranged on the face plate 86 at a position facing the magnet 126 on the rear plate 81 with the same polarity.

The inside of the envelope 88 is in a vacuum, and the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81 receive the atmospheric pressure which is the external environment. However, since the magnet 126 is arranged as described above, the face plate The repulsive force between the magnet 126 arranged at 86 and the magnet 126 arranged at the rear plate 81 assists in supporting the atmospheric pressure.
In this embodiment, the distance between the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81 is 3 mm.

The manufacturing process of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment will be described below. First, the manufacturing of the rear plate 81 will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 26 is a plan view of the main parts of the rear plate 81. 27 is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. 26, and FIGS. 28 and 29 show the manufacturing procedure. 26 to 29
The same reference numerals indicate the same items. Here, 71 is an electron source substrate, 72 is Dx1 to Dxm in FIG.
1 corresponds to the X direction wiring (also referred to as lower wiring), and 73 is shown in FIG.
Y direction wiring corresponding to Dy1 to Dyn of 9 (also referred to as upper wiring), 4 is a conductive thin film, 2 and 3 are element electrodes, 151 is an interlayer insulating layer, 151 is an electrical connection between the element electrode 2 and the lower wiring 72. This is a contact hole for connection.

Next, the manufacturing method will be specifically described in the order of steps with reference to FIGS. 28 and 29. Note that the following steps-a to h are the same as those in (a) to (d) of FIG. 28 and FIG.
9 corresponds to (e) to (h).

Step-a On an electron source substrate 71 in which a 0.5 μm thick silicon oxide film is formed on a cleaned soda-lime glass by a sputtering method, Cr having a thickness of 50 Å and a thickness of 60 are formed by vacuum evaporation.
After sequentially stacking Au of 00 angstrom, a photoresist (AZ1370, manufactured by Hoechst) is spin-coated by a spinner and baked, and then a photomask image is exposed and developed to form a resist pattern of the lower wiring 72.
The / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the lower wiring 72 having a desired shape.

Step-b Next, an interlayer insulating layer 151 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm is deposited by the RF sputtering method.

Step-c A photoresist pattern for forming a contact hole 152 is formed in the silicon oxide film deposited in Step-b,
Using this as a mask, the interlayer insulating layer 151 is etched to form a contact hole 152. Etching is CF
RIE (Reactive Io) using ₄ and H ₂ gas
n Etching) method.

Step-d After that, a pattern to form the device electrode 2 and the gap G between the device electrodes is formed with a photoresist (RD-2000N-41 manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.), and Ti having a thickness of 50 Å is formed by a vacuum deposition method. 1000 Å thick Ni was sequentially deposited. The photoresist pattern is dissolved in an organic solvent, the Ni / Ti deposition film is lifted off, and the device electrode interval L (see FIG. 13) is 3 μm, and the device electrode width W (see FIG. 1).
Element electrodes 2 and 3 having a thickness of 300 μm) are formed.

Step-e After the photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 73 is formed on the device electrodes 2 and 3, Ti having a thickness of 50 Å and Au having a thickness of 6000 Å are sequentially deposited by vacuum vapor deposition, and unnecessary by lift-off. By removing the portion, the upper wiring 73 having a desired shape was formed.

Step-f Next, a Cr film 153 having a film thickness of 100 nm is deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and organic Pd is formed on the Cr film 153.
(Ccp4230 manufactured by Okuno Seiyaku Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated with a spinner and heated and baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes. The conductive thin film 4 made of fine particles of Pd as a main element thus formed had a film thickness of about 100 Å and a sheet resistance value of 5 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □. The fine particle film described here is, as described above, a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and as its fine structure, not only a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other. A film in a state (including an island shape) is referred to, and the particle size refers to a diameter of a fine particle whose particle shape can be recognized in the state.

Step-g The Cr film 153 and the conductive thin film 4 after firing were etched with an acid etchant to form a desired pattern.

Step-h A pattern was formed such that a resist was applied to portions other than the contact hole 151, and Ti having a thickness of 50 Å and Au having a thickness of 5000 Å were sequentially laminated by vacuum deposition. Contact holes 151 were filled by removing unnecessary portions by lift-off.

Through the above steps, the lower wiring 72, the interlayer insulating layer 151, the upper wiring 73, the element electrodes 2 and 3, the conductive thin film 4 and the like were formed on the electron source substrate 71.

Next, the assembly process of this image forming apparatus will be described.

Frit glass is applied to a predetermined position on the rear plate 81, on which a large number of plane type surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 are manufactured as described above, by using a printing technique.
It was calcined. Here, frit glass having a softening temperature of 490 ° C. was calcinated by heating and holding at 480 ° C. for about 10 minutes. Next, the magnet 126 (Ba ferrite magnet) was positioned and fixed to the pre-baked frit glass with the magnetization direction facing upward, heated and held at 550 ° C. for about 10 minutes, and finally baked and fixedly bonded. Similarly, the same magnet 126 is reversed (after assembly) at a predetermined position on the face plate 86 (formed by forming the fluorescent film 84 and the metal back 85 on the inner surface of the glass substrate 83) on which the image forming member is formed. , And the magnet 126 on the rear plate 81 in a direction in which a repulsive force is exerted on each other. At this time, the support frame 82
Was fixed to the face plate 86 at the same time.

A face plate 86 to which the support frame 82 is fixed is arranged 5 mm above the rear plate 81, and the softening temperature is 410 at the joint between the rear plate 81 and the support frame 82.
A frit glass at a temperature of ℃ was applied and baked by baking at 450 ℃ for 10 minutes or more for sealing (see FIG. 20).

In the case of monochrome, the fluorescent film 84 is composed of only the fluorescent material, but in this embodiment, the fluorescent material has a stripe shape, a black stripe is first formed, and the fluorescent material of each color is applied to the gap portion, The fluorescent film 84 was produced. As a material for the black stripe, a material which is commonly used and whose main component is graphite was used. A slurry method was used to apply the phosphor onto the glass substrate 83.

Further, the metal back 85 was produced by subjecting the fluorescent film 84 to smoothing treatment (usually called filming) to the inner surface of the fluorescent film 84, and then vacuum depositing Al. The face plate 86 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface of the fluorescent film 84 in order to further increase the conductivity of the fluorescent film 84. However, in this embodiment, only the metal back 85 is sufficient. Since conductivity was obtained, it was omitted.

After the assembly was completed, the atmosphere inside the envelope 88 was evacuated by a vacuum pump to a vacuum degree of about 10 ^-5 Torr through an exhaust pipe (not shown). During the vacuum evacuation, the above vacuum degree could be reached in a relatively short time.

After reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminal Dx
A voltage was applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 through 1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn, and the electroconductive thin film 5 was subjected to a forming process to manufacture the electron emitting portion 5. The voltage waveform of the forming process is the same as that of FIG. In this embodiment, FIG.
In (b), T1 was set to 1 millisecond and T2 was set to 10 milliseconds. In the electron-emitting portion 5 thus manufactured, fine particles containing palladium as a main component were dispersed and arranged, and the average particle diameter of the fine particles was 30 Å.

After the forming process, a voltage is applied between the device electrodes 2 and 3 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 through the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn,
The activation process was performed. At this time, acetone was introduced into the envelope 88 as an organic substance, and the partial pressure was 2 × 10 ⁻⁴ Torr.
The vacuum atmosphere of is maintained and a voltage pulse of 16V is applied,
The treatment was carried out for 30 minutes. The pulse width of the applied voltage pulse was set to 1 ms and the repetition frequency was set to 100 Hz.

Next, as a stabilizing treatment, the envelope 88 is baked, evacuated to a vacuum degree of about 10 ⁻⁷ Torr, and an exhaust pipe (not shown) is heated by a gas burner to be welded to seal the envelope 88. I stopped. At this time, it was possible to reach the above vacuum degree in a relatively short time.

Finally, in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing, a getter process was performed by a high frequency heating method.

In the image display device of the present embodiment completed as described above, a scanning signal and a modulation signal are applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 through the terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn outside the container. As a result, electrons are emitted and a high voltage of several kV or more is applied to the metal back 85 through the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam and collide with the fluorescent film 84. Thereby, the fluorescent film 8
The phosphor of No. 4 was excited and emitted to display an image.

The image forming apparatus of this embodiment maintains the distance between the face plate 86 and the rear plate 81 constant against the atmospheric pressure only by the repulsive force acting between the magnets 126 and the support frame 82. No support structure such as a spacer is required inside the envelope 88. As a result, the deviation in the flight direction of the electron beam due to the charging of the surface of the support structure is eliminated,
An image forming apparatus with stable brightness and displayed image was obtained. Furthermore, since the exhaust conductance is excellent and the surface area inside the envelope 88 hardly increases, the envelope 8
8 was able to be easily evacuated, and the degree of vacuum could be maintained well.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, FIG.
As shown in FIG. 5, the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 and the magnet 136 are arranged on the rear plate 81, and the magnet 136 is arranged on the face plate 86 corresponding to the magnet 136 on the rear plate 81 (in this figure, , Each wiring is omitted). Other configurations are the same as in the first embodiment. The arrangement pitch D of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 74 and the magnets 136 is 0.3 mm, and the size of the magnets 136 is 0.1 mm.
× 0.2 mm. The magnetization direction of the magnet 136 was parallel to the rear plate 81. The magnets 136 are arranged on the face plate 86 so that the same polarities as the magnets 136 on the rear plate 81 face each other, and the magnets 136 work between the magnets 136 on the rear plate 81 and the face plate 86. Repulsive force helps support atmospheric pressure.

By arranging the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 and the magnet 136 in this way, the direction of the magnetic field in the vicinity of the positive electrode of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 74 is the same as the device current due to the Lorentz force (x direction). The direction of emitted electrons having a velocity of is changed to the direction of the anode (z direction). Thereby, a part of the emitted electrons near the positive electrode can be pulled up to the anode, and the brightness is improved.

The manufacturing method of the image forming apparatus of this embodiment is the magnet 1
Except for the installation method of 36, it is basically the same as that of the first embodiment.

In this example, first, a Ni thin film having a thickness of 1 μm was formed as a magnet 136 on the rear plate 81 and the face plate 86 by a EB vapor deposition method at a desired position. Next, a surface conduction electron-emitting device 74, wiring, etc. were formed on the rear plate 81, and a fluorescent film etc. were formed on the face plate 86 by the same method as in the first embodiment.

Next, the magnet 136 on the rear plate 81 and the face plate 86 was magnetized in a desired direction as shown in FIG. After that, the face plate 86 is arranged 5 mm above the rear plate 81 via the support frame, and a frit glass having a softening temperature of 410 ° C. is applied to the joint portion of the face plate 86, the support frame and the rear plate 81.
It was sealed by baking at 0 ° C. for 10 minutes or more. After sealing
In the same manner as in Example 1, forming, activation, stabilization, and sealing steps were performed to manufacture an image forming apparatus.

The image forming apparatus of this embodiment has the same effect as that of the first embodiment, and the brightness is further improved.

Example 3 In this example, an FE type electron emitting device was used as the electron emitting device. That is,
As shown in FIG. 3, the FE type electron-emitting device 274 was formed on the rear plate 81, and thereafter, an image forming apparatus was manufactured with the same configuration and manufacturing method as in Example 2.

The method of manufacturing the FE type electron-emitting device used in this embodiment will be described below with reference to FIG.

(A) After surface oxidation of the n-type Si substrate 201,
The SiO ₂ film 202 is etched into a circular pattern having a diameter of about 1.5 μm by using Bafford hydrofluoric acid.

(B) The substrate 201 is etched using a KOH aqueous solution to form a conical emitter base. This emitter substrate corresponds to the emitter cone 274a shown in FIG.
Is the part corresponding to. At this time, the etching is Si
Stop just before the O ₂ film 202 falls.

(C) The surface is thermally oxidized by about 0.4 μm to form the insulating layer 204.

(D) Using the EB vapor deposition apparatus, while rotating the substrate 201, the Mo film 203 was 0.3 μm in an oblique direction.
The film is formed with a film thickness of m. The vapor deposition incident angle was 60 degrees. The Mo film 203 formed here becomes the gate electrode 274b shown in FIG.

(E) With Bafford hydrofluoric acid, unnecessary portions of SiO ₂ at the tip of the emitter substrate are removed to expose the emitter tip 205, whereby the FE type electron-emitting device 2
74 is completed.

The Si substrate, on which a large number of FE type electron-emitting devices 274 have been manufactured as described above, is fixed at a predetermined position on the rear plate 81 with frit glass, and then the second embodiment is performed.
The same assembling process was performed. At this time, the magnet 136
It was arranged on the gate electrode 274b as shown in FIG. The magnetization direction is parallel to the rear plate 81.

After the assembly was completed, the atmosphere inside the envelope was evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and the degree of vacuum reached about 10 ^-7 Torr in a relatively short time.
Finally, the exhaust pipe was sealed.

Also in the image forming apparatus of this embodiment, the same effect as in Embodiment 2 was obtained.

(Fourth Embodiment) FIG. 31 is an image display device configured to display image information provided from various image information sources such as television broadcasting on the image forming device of the present invention. It is a figure for showing an example.
It should be noted that when the display device receives a signal including both video information and audio information, such as a television signal, it naturally reproduces audio at the same time as displaying video. A description of circuits, speakers, etc. relating to reception, separation, reproduction, processing, storage, etc. of audio information not directly related to the above will be omitted.

Each section will be described below along the flow of the image signal.

First, the TV signal receiving circuit 513 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wireless transmission system such as radio waves or spatial optical communication. The system of the TV signal to be received is not particularly limited, and various systems such as NTSC system, PAL system and SECAM system may be used. In addition, a TV signal (for example, a so-called high-definition TV such as the MUSE method) including a larger number of scanning lines than these is used in a display panel using the image forming apparatus of the present invention, which is suitable for a large area and a large number of pixels. Fifty
It is a suitable signal source for taking advantage of 0. The TV signal received by the TV signal receiving circuit 513 is the decoder 504.
Is output to

The image TV signal receiving circuit 512 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wire transmission system such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber. Similar to the TV signal receiving circuit 513, the system of the TV signal to be received is not particularly limited, and the TV signal received by this circuit is also output to the decoder 504.

The image input interface circuit 511 is
For example, a circuit for capturing an image signal supplied from an image input device such as a TV camera or an image reading scanner,
The captured image signal is output to the decoder 504.

Image memory interface circuit 510
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal stored in a video tape recorder (hereinafter abbreviated as TVR), and the captured image signal is output to the decoder 504.

Image memory interface circuit 509
Is a circuit for taking in the image signal stored in the video disc.
4 is output.

Image memory interface circuit 508
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal from a device that stores still image data, such as a so-called still image disc, and the captured still image data is output to the decoder 504.

The input / output interface circuit 505 is a circuit for connecting the present display device to an output device such as an external computer, computer network or printer. It is of course possible to input and output image data and character / graphic information, and in some cases, input and output control signals and numerical data between the CPU 506 of the display device and the outside.

The image generation circuit 507 displays image data based on image data or character / graphic information input from the outside via the input / output interface circuit 505, or image data or character / graphic information output from the CPU 506. Is a circuit for generating. Inside this circuit, for example, a rewritable memory for accumulating image data and character / graphic information, a read-only memory that stores image patterns corresponding to character codes, a processor for performing image processing, etc. The circuit necessary for image generation is built in.

The display image data generated by the image generation circuit 507 is output to the decoder 504, but in some cases, it may be output to an external computer network or printer via the input / output interface circuit 505. .

The CPU 506 mainly performs operations relating to operation control of the display device and generation, selection, and editing of a display image.

For example, a control signal is output to the multiplexer 503 to appropriately select or combine the image signals to be displayed on the display panel. At that time, a control signal is generated to the display panel controller 502 in accordance with the image signal to be displayed, and the image display frequency, the scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced), the number of scanning lines in one screen, etc. are displayed. The operation of the device is controlled appropriately.

Image data or character / graphic information is directly output to the image generation circuit 507, or an external computer or memory is accessed via the input / output interface circuit 505 to generate image data or character / graphic information. Enter.

It should be noted that the CPU 506 may of course be involved in work for purposes other than this. For example, it may be directly related to a function of generating and processing information, such as a personal computer or a word processor. Alternatively, as described above, the computer may be brought into contact with an external computer network through the input / output interface circuit 505, and work such as numerical calculation may be performed in cooperation with an external device.

The input unit 514 is used by the user to input commands, programs, data, etc. to the CPU 506. For example, various inputs such as a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a bar code reader, a voice recognition device, etc. It is possible to use equipment.

The decoder 504 is a circuit for inversely converting various image signals input from the image generating circuit 507 or the TV signal receiving circuit 513 into three primary color signals, or a luminance signal and an I signal and a Q signal. Note that it is desirable that the decoder 504 has an image memory therein, as indicated by the dotted line in the figure. This is to handle a television signal that requires an image memory for reverse conversion, such as the MUSE method. In addition, the provision of the image memory makes it easy to display a still image, or cooperates with the image generation circuit 507 and the CPU 506 to facilitate image processing and editing such as image thinning, interpolation, enlargement, reduction, and composition. This is because the advantage of being able to perform

The multiplexer 503 appropriately selects a display image based on a control signal input from the CPU 506. That is, the multiplexer 503 selects a desired image signal from the inversely converted image signals input from the decoder 504 and outputs it to the drive circuit 501. In that case, by switching and selecting image signals within one screen display time, it is possible to divide one screen into a plurality of areas and display different images depending on the areas, as in a so-called multi-screen television. .

Display panel controller 502
Is a circuit for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 501 based on a control signal input from the CPU 506.

As the elements related to the basic operation of the display panel 500, for example, the display panel 500
A signal for controlling the operation sequence of the driving power source (not shown) is output to the driving circuit 501. As a method related to the driving method of the display panel 500, for example, a signal for controlling a screen display frequency and a scanning method (for example, interlace or non-interlace) is output to the drive circuit 501. In some cases, a control signal relating to image quality adjustment such as brightness, contrast, color tone, and sharpness of a display image may be output to the drive circuit 501.

The drive circuit 501 is the display panel 5
00 is a circuit for generating a drive signal to be applied to
It operates based on the image signal input from the multiplexer 503 and the control signal input from the display panel controller 502.

The functions of the respective units have been described above. With the configuration illustrated in FIG. 31, the display panel 5 displays image information input from various image information sources in this display device.
00 can be exemplified. That is, various image signals such as television broadcasts are transmitted to the decoder 50.
After being inversely transformed in 4, the multiplexer 503 appropriately selects and inputs to the drive circuit 501. On the other hand, the display controller 502 generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 501 according to the image signal to be displayed. The drive circuit 501 applies a drive signal to the display panel 500 based on the image signal and the control signal. Accordingly, the display panel 500
Displays an image. These series of operations are C
It is totally controlled by the PU 506.

Further, in the present display device, the decoder 5
The image memory built in 04, the image generation circuit 507, and the CPU 506 are involved, so that not only the selected one of the plurality of image information is displayed, but also the image information to be displayed is enlarged or reduced, for example. Image processing such as rotation, movement, edge enhancement, thinning, interpolation, color conversion, image aspect ratio conversion, and image editing such as composition, deletion, connection, replacement, and fitting are also possible. Is. In the description of the present embodiment,
Although not particularly mentioned, a dedicated circuit for processing and editing voice information may be provided as in the above-mentioned image processing and image editing.

Therefore, the present display device is a display device for television broadcasting, a terminal device for a video conference, an image editing device for handling still images and moving images, a computer terminal device, an office terminal device such as a word processor, and a game. It is possible to combine the functions of a machine with one unit, and has a very wide range of applications for industrial or consumer use.

Incidentally, FIG. 31 shows only an example of the constitution of the display device using the image forming apparatus according to the present invention.
It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this. For example, of the components shown in FIG. 31, circuits relating to functions that are unnecessary for the purpose of use may be omitted. On the contrary, further constituent elements may be added depending on the purpose of use. For example, when the display device is applied as a videophone, a TV camera, a voice microphone, an illuminator,
It is preferable to add a transmitting / receiving circuit including a modem to the components.

In this display device, by using the surface conduction electron-emitting device as the electron source, the display panel can be easily thinned and the depth of the display device can be reduced. In addition, since it is easy to increase the screen size, has high brightness, and has excellent viewing angle characteristics, the present display device can display a highly realistic image with high visibility.

[0190]

As described above, in the image forming apparatus of the present invention, the magnetic field generating means for holding the pressure difference between the pressure inside the airtight container and the external environment by the repulsive force due to the magnetic force is arranged in the airtight container. Therefore, sufficient atmospheric pressure resistant support can be obtained without using a support structure such as a spacer. Moreover, since the above supporting structure is not required, unnecessary charging in the airtight container can be prevented, a stable image can be displayed, and the exhaust conductance of the airtight container can be made excellent. The magnetic field generating means can be easily configured by disposing the magnets so as to oppose each other so as to exert a repulsive force on each other.

Among the electron-emitting devices, the surface-conduction type electron-emitting device has a simple structure and is easy to manufacture. It is easy to reduce the manufacturing cost. In this case, by arranging the magnet so that the magnetic field generated by the magnet exerts a Lorentz force on the device current in the direction in which the image forming member exists, in the vicinity of the positive electrode of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, the brightness of the image can be increased. You can achieve
By arranging the magnet so that the magnetic field generated by the magnet corrects the spread of the emission electron beam of the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the device length direction, high definition of the image can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic sectional view of an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an example of an image forming apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an arrangement example in which a magnetic field for improving the convergence of electron beams is generated when an FE type electron emitting element is used as an electron emitting element.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an arrangement example in which a magnetic field for improving the convergence of electron beams is generated when an FE type electron emitting element is used as the electron emitting element.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a magnetic field for increasing the probability of arrival of an electron beam at an anode when a surface conduction electron-emitting device is used as the electron-emitting device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a magnetic field that enhances convergence of an electron beam in a device length direction when a surface conduction electron-emitting device is used as the electron-emitting device.

9A and 9B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view showing an arrangement example of a surface electron-emitting device and a magnet for generating the magnetic field shown in FIG.

10A and 10B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view showing an arrangement example of a surface electron-emitting device and a magnet for generating the magnetic field shown in FIG.

11A and 11B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view showing an arrangement example of a surface electron-emitting device and a magnet for generating the magnetic field shown in FIG.

12 is a plan view showing an arrangement example of a surface electron-emitting device and a magnet for generating the magnetic field shown in FIG.

13A and 13B are a schematic plan view and a cross-sectional view showing the configuration of a planar surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram showing a configuration of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device to which the present invention can be applied.

15 is a diagram showing an example of a method of manufacturing the flat surface-conduction type electron-emitting device shown in FIG.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a voltage waveform of an energization process used in a forming process.

FIG. 17 is a schematic configuration diagram showing an example of a measurement / evaluation system of basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an emission current-device voltage characteristic (IV characteristic) of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 19 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.

FIG. 20 is a schematic view showing an example of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus provided with an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement.

21 is a diagram showing a fluorescent film in the display panel of FIG. 20. FIG.

22 is a diagram showing an example of a drive circuit for driving the display panel of FIG.

FIG. 23 is a schematic view showing an example of a ladder-type electron source.

FIG. 24 is a schematic view showing an example of a display panel used in an image forming apparatus provided with a ladder-type electron source.

FIG. 25 is a plan view showing the arrangement of surface conduction electron-emitting devices and magnets on the rear plate of the first embodiment.

FIG. 26 is a main-portion plan view showing the surface-conduction electron-emitting device and the wiring on the rear plate of Example 1.

27 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line A-A ′ of FIG.

FIG. 28 is a diagram for explaining an example of a manufacturing process of the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the wiring of FIG. 26.

29 is a diagram for explaining an example of a manufacturing process of the surface conduction electron-emitting device and the wiring of FIG. 26. FIG.

FIG. 30 is a diagram illustrating an example of the method for manufacturing the FE type electron-emitting device.

FIG. 31 is a block diagram of an image display device of Example 4.

FIG. 32 is a plan view of a conventional surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 33 is a schematic configuration diagram of an example of a conventional image forming apparatus using a surface conduction electron-emitting device as an electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 substrate 2, 3 element electrode 4 conductive thin film 5 electron emitting portion 21 stepped portion 71, 110 electron source substrate 72 X-direction wiring (lower wiring) 73 Y-direction wiring (upper wiring) 74, 111 surface conduction electron-emitting device 81 Rear plate (rear plate) 82 Support frame 83 Glass substrate 84 Fluorescent film 85 Metal back 86 Face plate (front plate) 87 Image forming member 88 Envelope (airtight container) 91 Black conductive material 92 Phosphor 101 Display panel 102 Scanning circuit 103 Control Circuit 104 Shift Register 105 Line Memory 106 Synchronous Signal Separation Circuit 107 Modulation Signal Generator 112 Common Wiring 120 Grid Electrode 121 Voids 126, 126a, 136 Magnet 146 Magnetic Field Forming Member 151 Interlayer Insulating Layer 152 Contact Hole 153 Cr Film 201 Substrate 202 SiO ₂ film 20 Mo film 204 insulating layer 205 emitter tip 238 quadrupole lens 274 FE type electron-emitting device 274a emitter cone 274b gate electrode

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An electron-emitting device is arranged in an airtight container,
In an image forming apparatus that forms an image by emitting electrons from the electron-emitting device, a magnetic field is generated in the airtight container by a repulsive force due to a magnetic force to maintain a pressure difference between the pressure in the airtight container and an external environment. An image forming apparatus, characterized in that means are arranged. 2. The airtight container is arranged so as to face a back plate on which the electron-emitting device is arranged and a back plate with a supporting frame interposed therebetween, and is irradiated with electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, comprising a front plate provided with an image forming member on which an image is formed. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the magnetic field generating means is at least one pair of magnets arranged so as to exert repulsive force on opposite portions of the back plate and the front plate. apparatus. 4. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 5. The image forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 6. The magnet is arranged such that a magnetic field produced by the magnet exerts a Lorentz force on a device current in a direction in which the image forming member exists in the vicinity of a positive electrode of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. The image forming apparatus according to claim 5. 7. The image formation according to claim 5, wherein the magnet is arranged so that the magnetic field generated by the magnet corrects the spread of the emission electron beam of the surface conduction electron-emitting device in the device length direction. apparatus.