JPH1040837A - Field emission type display and its manufacture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent such trouble with spacer members for a field emission type display that the spacer members are often scattered onto electron-emitting elements when glass beads are used, because the scattering positions of the spacer members are hard to control accurately, and if a fluorescent substrate overlaps on a FEA(field emitter array) substrate in such a state, some of the electron-emitting elements are destroyed to cause black points in a display. SOLUTION: An electron-emitting element array substrate 4 on which field emission type electron-emitting elements are arranged in an arrayed state face opposite a fluorescent substrate 8 to emit fluorescence with the injection of electrons, emitted from the electron-emitting elements to form this display. In this case, in order not to put both substrates in mutual contact, spacer members 9A, 9B formed by an overlapping and embedding method are provided on the electron-emitting element array substrate 4 or on the fluorescent substrate 8.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a field emission display which is a flat panel display type image display device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A field emission type electron emitting element array (FE) in which field emission type electron emitting elements which are a kind of micro electron source are arranged in an array.
A)) A field emission display (FieldEmission Displ) combining a substrate and a fluorescent substrate
ay (FED)) is expected as a flat panel display because of its advantages of high luminance, high definition, and low power consumption, and monochrome and full-color flat panel displays have already been prototyped (IEDM.
91-197 etc.).

[0003] Such light emission of the FED is generated as a result of electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device exciting a phosphor arranged in a layer on an anode electrode of a fluorescent substrate.

In this case, the brightness of the light emitted from the phosphor depends on the product of the irradiation electron current density, the voltage between the anode electrode and the emitter electrode, and the luminous efficiency of the phosphor.

Therefore, in order to realize a practical level of luminance, a voltage of several hundreds to several thousand volts is usually applied between the anode electrode and the emitter electrode.

On the other hand, the voltage applied between the gate electrode and the emitter electrode to emit electrons from the emitter electrode of the electron-emitting device is usually several tens to one hundred and several tens volts.

As a result, a voltage of several hundred to several thousand volts is applied between the gate electrode of the FEA substrate and the anode electrode of the fluorescent substrate.

Therefore, in order to prevent a discharge from occurring between the anode electrode and the gate electrode even when such a high voltage is applied, a cell is formed by sealing the periphery of the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate. It is necessary to make the inside a vacuum and keep the distance between the substrates constant.

By the way, the FE of the field emission display is
When the space between the A substrate and the fluorescent substrate is evacuated as described above, a pressure of 1 kg per 1 cm ² is applied to the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate by the atmospheric pressure. In order to withstand such a large pressure, two methods are conceivable.

One is to make the glass substrates of the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate thicker. Another is to provide a spacer between both substrates.

However, when the thickness of the glass substrate is increased, it is difficult to reduce the weight and thickness of the field emission display.

In order to reduce the thickness of the glass substrate between the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate to about 1 mm, it is necessary to provide a spacer between the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate.

By the way, conventionally, various spacers have been used between the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate. For example, there are a glass bead, a spacer formed by a screen printing method, and the like.

Here, as a method of arranging a spacer member made of glass beads between the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate, a method in which glass beads having a diameter of about 200 μm are mechanically and uniformly dispersed on the FEA substrate or the fluorescent substrate. In this case, both substrates are superposed.

In the screen printing method, a spacer is formed by applying a glass paste by a screen printing method before or after forming the phosphor surface on the fluorescent substrate.

[0016]

However, when glass beads are used, it is difficult to accurately control the position where the spacer members are scattered, so that the spacer members are often scattered on the electron-emitting devices. When the fluorescent substrate is superimposed on the FEA substrate in that state, some electron-emitting devices themselves are destroyed, and as a result, there is a problem that a black spot is generated on the display.

Further, when pixels of a field emission display are made to have high definition, the distance between the fluorescent substrate and the FEA substrate must be reduced in order not to lower the image quality.

However, since it is practically impossible to control the position of glass beads having a diameter of 200 μm or less, the fluorescent substrate and the F
It is difficult to reduce the distance from the EA substrate to 200 μm or less, and the size of the glass beads becomes larger than that of the pixel, so that the shadow of the glass beads becomes visible.

When the spacer is formed by a screen printing method using a glass paste, it is possible to control the arrangement position of the spacer member and the height of the spacer.
The width is limited to about 50 μm, and further miniaturization is difficult, and a manufacturing method capable of further miniaturization is desired.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and it is an object of the present invention to develop a spacer which can cope with high definition of a pixel of a field emission display and can be miniaturized.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a field emission display having such a spacer and a method of manufacturing the same.

[0022]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, first, in claim 1, an electron emitting element array substrate on which field emission type electron emitting elements are arranged in an array; In a field emission display, in which a fluorescent substrate that emits fluorescent light when electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device are incident on an electron-emitting device array substrate or a fluorescent substrate, in order to prevent the two substrates from contacting each other. And a spacer member formed by an overlap filling method.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided the field emission display according to the first aspect, wherein the spacer member has a columnar shape or a wall-like shape.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided the field emission display according to the first or second aspect, wherein the spacer member is made of a conductive material or an insulating material.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the conductive material is Ni, Cu, Cr, Fe, Co, Au, Ag, P
4. A compound selected from t, Rh, Pd or an alloy thereof.
A field emission display according to the present invention.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the field emission display according to the third aspect, wherein the insulating material is made of glass.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the spacer member has a height of 20 μm to 500 μm and a width of 5 μm.
The field emission type display according to any one of claims 1 to 5, which has a thickness of from 50 to 50 µm.

[0028] Still further, according to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a field emission display in which an electron-emitting device array substrate and a fluorescent substrate are opposed to each other without contacting each other. A field emission display characterized by forming a spacer member on a phosphor substrate by an overlap filling method, and assembling the phosphor substrate on which the spacer member is formed and an electron-emitting device array substrate to produce a field emission display. This is a method of manufacturing.

According to the present invention, a spacer member is formed by forming a pattern in a resist layer by photolithography and filling a conductive material or an insulating material in the pattern.

However, when a fine pattern is simply formed on a thick resist layer, the pattern becomes tapered.
Therefore, when forming a fine pattern, the resist layer was made thinner, and the process of forming the resist pattern → filling the hole of the spacer member was repeated (overlapping method).

As a result, it has been found that a fine spacer member having a width of 10 μm or less can be formed, and the present invention has been completed.

That is, the present invention relates to a field emission display which is provided so as to be opposed to each other via a spacer member for preventing the FEA substrate and the fluorescent substrate from contacting each other. Provided is a field emission display provided with a member.

In the present invention, the spacer member has a columnar or wall-like shape, and a conductive material or an insulating material can be used as a material of the spacer member.
Particularly, in the case of a conductive material, Ni, Cu, Cr, Fe, C
It is preferable to use a conductive material that can be plated, such as o, Au, Ag, Pt, Rh, Pd, or an alloy thereof.

Further, according to the present invention, a field emission type display is produced by forming a spacer member on a fluorescent substrate by an overlap filling method, and assembling the fluorescent substrate with the spacer member formed thereon and an FEA substrate (cell assembly). A method for manufacturing a field emission display is provided.

[0035]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, a field emission display according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 are cross-sectional views of the field emission display of the present invention. These displays are FE
An emitter 3 having a gate electrode 2 around it on an A substrate 1
And a fluorescent substrate 8 having an anode electrode 6 and a phosphor layer 7 formed on a transparent substrate 5 are opposed to each other with a spacer member 9 interposed therebetween. It has a sealed structure.

The spacer member 9 is formed on the FEA substrate 1 or the fluorescent substrate 8 by an overlapping method.

Specifically, the operation is performed as follows. First, a resist layer is formed on the fluorescent substrate 8. Next, an exposure and development operation is performed on the resist layer to form a resist pattern layer. Next, a spacer member 9A is formed by embedding an insulating material or a conductive material in the resist pattern. Next, a resist layer is formed on the resist pattern layer in which an insulating material or a conductive material is embedded,
A resist pattern layer similar to that described above is formed by a developing operation. The spacer member 9 is placed on the spacer member 9A formed by
Form B. The process is repeated to form the spacer member 9. Finally, the resist pattern layer is removed by an ordinary method. When the pattern becomes finer, it is preferable to increase the number of repetitions in order to eliminate the influence of the taper of the pattern.

Thereafter, the field emission display shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is obtained by combining with the FEA substrate 1 and sealing the periphery with a sealing member 10.

The order of the application of the phosphor and the formation of the spacer may be either order. However, when a printing method is used as the application method of the phosphor, the application of the phosphor must be performed first. When the electrodeposition method is used as the phosphor coating method, any method is possible.

Further, the spacer member can be formed on the FEA substrate.

The shape of the spacer member 9 is preferably a column-like shape such as a circular column or a square column, or a wall-like shape such as a rectangular or curved wall having an elongated bottom, or a combination of a plurality of walls.

Normally, one display is provided with a large number of spacer members 9, but they do not all need to have the same shape, and the shape can be changed as appropriate according to the position to be provided. .

As a material for forming the spacer member 9,
Insulating and conductive materials can be used.

As the insulating material, glass or the like can be used.

As the conductive material, various conductive materials,
For example, a metal material, a semiconductor material, an organic conductive material, or the like can be used. Among them, a metal material is used because it exhibits good mechanical strength and can be easily formed by an electroforming method. Is preferred.

Considering that a temperature raising process such as sealing is performed after the formation of the spacer during the production of the display, such a metal material is preferably a high melting point metal having good heat resistance, such as Ni, Cu, or the like. Cr, Fe, Co, A
u, Ag, Pt, Rh, Pd or alloys thereof.

[0048]

The present invention will be described below in more detail with reference to examples. In each of the embodiments, the electron-emitting device is an obtuse edge type emitter (Japanese Patent Application No. 7-72 of the same applicant).
No. 121) was used.

As shown in FIG. 5A (top view) and FIG. 5B (cross-sectional view), the obtuse edge type
1, an emitter wiring layer 22, an emitter base layer 23, and an emitter 25 are formed, and an insulating layer 24 and a gate 26 are formed around the emitter base layer 23 and the emitter 25 so as not to come into contact with them. Having an upper surface 25a and a side surface 25a,
b is an obtuse angle greater than 90 degrees.

As a result, the distribution ratio of electron emission is improved.

Example 1 The field emission display of the present invention shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured as described below (see FIG. 3).

First, an anode electrode 6 was formed on a transparent substrate 5 to obtain a fluorescent substrate 8 (FIG. 3A).

Next, on the fluorescent substrate 8, a thickness of 30 μm
The plating resist pattern layer 12aA was formed (FIG. 3B).

Next, the plating resist pattern layer 12a
Exposure / development operation is performed on A at a predetermined position of the spacer member 9 so as to have an opening 12A having a width of 10 μm,
A resist pattern layer 12bA of μm was formed (FIG.
(C)).

Next, a spacer member 9A was formed in the opening 12A of the resist pattern layer 12bA.
(D)).

In this case, as a method for forming the spacer member 9A, the glass powder is mixed with a solvent to prepare a glass paste, which is then applied to the opening 12A.

Next, a plating resist pattern layer 12 having a thickness of 30 μm is further formed on the surface of the resist pattern layer 12bA.
aB is formed (FIG. 3 (e)), and exposure and development operations are performed on the resist pattern layer 1 having a thickness of 30 μm and having an opening 12B having a width of 10 μm on the spacer member 9A.
2bB was formed (FIG. 4F).

Next, a spacer member 9B was formed by applying a glass paste to the opening 12B.
(G)).

Next, after the spacer member 9 is solidified by low-temperature baking, the resist pattern layer 12 is removed by a conventional method (FIG. 3H).

Thereafter, the phosphor layer 7 is formed on the anode electrode 6.
Is formed by an electrodeposition method. Then, the field emission display shown in FIG. 3I is obtained by combining with the FEA substrate 4 on which the gate electrode 2 and the emitter 3 are formed and sealing the periphery with the sealing member 10.

The steps of FIGS. 3E to 3G can be repeated several times.

When the width of the spacer member is reduced, it is preferable to increase the number of repetitions in order to eliminate the taper of the resist pattern layer.

Example 2 The field emission display of the present invention shown in FIG. 2 was manufactured as described below (see FIG. 4).

In this embodiment, an electroforming method was used as a method for forming the spacer member.

First, a transparent substrate 5 made of glass with ITO was prepared for producing a fluorescent substrate, and a pattern of an anode electrode 6 was formed by photolithography and wet etching (FIG. 4A).

Next, a resist pattern having an opening at a portion corresponding to the spacer wiring is formed,
A film of μm and Ni was formed by vacuum evaporation of 1 μm, and a spacer wiring 11 was formed by lift-off (FIG. 4B).

Next, a plating resist pattern layer 12aA having a thickness of 30 μm was formed (FIG. 4C).

Next, an exposure / development operation is performed on the plating resist layer 12aA to form a 30 μm-thick opening 12A having a width of 10 μm at a predetermined position on the spacer wiring 11.
The resist pattern layer 12bA of FIG.
(D)).

Next, 30 μm of Ni was deposited in the opening 12A by electroforming to form a spacer member 9A (FIG. 4E).

Next, the plating resist pattern layer 12 having a thickness of 30 μm is further formed on the surface of the resist pattern layer 12bA.
aB is formed (FIG. 4 (f)), exposure and development operations are performed thereon, and a resist pattern layer 1 having a thickness of 30 μm and having an opening 12B having a width of 10 μm on the spacer member 9A.
2bB was formed (FIG. 4 (g)).

Next, 30 μm of Ni was deposited in the opening 12B by electroforming to form a spacer member 9B (FIG. 4 (h)).

Next, the resist pattern layer 12 is formed by an ordinary method.
bA and 12bB were removed (FIG. 4 (i)).

Next, a phosphor layer 7 was formed at a predetermined position on the anode electrode 6 by electrodeposition (FIG. 4 (j)).

The thus prepared fluorescent substrate 8 is aligned with the FEA substrate 4, and the sealing member 1 made of low-melting glass is used.
4 (k) was manufactured by forming a panel by using the panel No. 0.

The steps shown in FIGS. 4F to 4H can be repeated several times.

When the width of the spacer is reduced, it is preferable to increase the number of repetitions in order to eliminate the taper of the resist pattern layer.

That is, the shape of the opening of the resist pattern layer 12 tends to have an upper diameter larger than a lower diameter.

Therefore, when the spacer member 9 is formed so as to be buried in the hole by electroforming or the like, the spacer member 9 tends to be tapered as shown in FIG.

In order to reduce such a change in the diameter of the spacer member 9, it is preferable to form the spacer member by lowering the height once and increasing the number of times.

In the case of the metal spacer, the potential of the spacer member can be controlled by using the spacer wiring.

Thus, the incidence of electrons on the spacer member can be prevented.

Even when electrons are incident on the spacers, the charge is dispersed in each of the spacer members due to being electrically conductive, so that local charge-up can be suppressed.

In the present invention, the same components as those of the conventional field emission type display can be used for components other than the spacer member 9.

[0084]

According to the present invention, since a spacer having a width of 10 μm or less can be formed, a field emission display having high-definition pixels can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a field emission display according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the field emission display of the present invention.

FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (i) are views illustrating a manufacturing process of the field emission display of Example 1. FIGS.

4 (a) to 4 (k) are diagrams illustrating a manufacturing process of the field emission display of Example 2. FIG.

5A and 5B are explanatory views of an electron-emitting device having an obtuse angle emitter, wherein FIG. 5A is a top view and FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a cross-sectional shape of a spacer member.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 FEA substrate 2 Gate electrode 3 Emitter 4 FEA substrate 5 Transparent substrate 6 Anode electrode 7 Phosphor layer 8 Fluorescent substrate 9 Spacer member 10 Seal member 11 spacer wiring 12 resist pattern layer 21 FEA substrate 22 emitter wiring layer 23 emitter base layer 24 insulating layer 25 emitter 26 gate

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Teruhiko Kai 1-5-1, Taito, Taito-ku, Tokyo Letterpress Printing Co., Ltd.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. An electron-emitting device array substrate in which field-emission electron-emitting devices are arranged in an array, and a fluorescent substrate that emits fluorescence when electrons emitted from the electron-emitting devices are incident face each other. In the field emission display, a spacer member formed by an overfilling method is provided on an electron-emitting device array substrate or a fluorescent substrate so that the two substrates do not contact each other. . 2. The field emission display according to claim 1, wherein the spacer member has a pillar-like shape or a wall-like shape. 3. The field emission display according to claim 1, wherein the member of the spacer is a conductive material or an insulating material. 4. The conductive material is Ni, Cu, Cr, Fe,
4. The field emission display according to claim 3, wherein the field emission display is selected from Co, Au, Ag, Pt, Rh, Pd or an alloy thereof. 5. The field emission display according to claim 3, wherein the insulating material is made of glass. 6. A spacer member having a height of 20 μm to 500 μm.
m and a width of 5 m to 50 m.
6. The field emission display according to any one of 5. 7. A method for manufacturing a field emission display in which an electron-emitting device array substrate and a fluorescent substrate are opposed to each other without being in contact with each other. A method for manufacturing a field emission display, comprising: forming a spacer member by a method; and assembling a fluorescent substrate on which the spacer member is formed and an electron emission element array substrate to produce a field emission display.