KR19990086610A - Flat panel display with spacer support - Google Patents

Abstract

A spacer support for a flat panel display for supporting a spacer having a high aspect ratio (the height of the spacer divided by the thickness of the spacer) is provided, the spacer support is fixed to the end of the spacer, and the spacer is in the longitudinal direction. Since the insertion groove is formed to move to, the insertion and fixing of the spacer is not only easy and stable, it is also possible to prevent the breakage of the spacer due to the difference in thermal expansion rate during high temperature treatment. Such spacer supports are used in high voltage field emission displays with a spacing between the front and back plates of 1-5 mm.

Description

Flat panel display with spacer support

[Industrial use]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a flat panel display having a spacer support. More particularly, the present invention relates to a flat panel display in order to prevent the flat panel display from being damaged by a pressure difference between the inside of the flat panel display maintained in a vacuum state and an external atmospheric pressure. A spacer support for supporting a spacer installed between a front plate and a back plate of a device.

[Prior art]

The flat panel display (FPD) has the advantages of being light in weight and small in volume compared to the conventional cathode ray tube, and suitable for being a large display device and having low power consumption. In addition to devices (LCDs), fluorescent display tubes (VFDs), thin or flat CRTs, plasma panel displays, and field emission displays (FEDs) are being actively studied.

Such a flat panel display generally includes a front plate, a rear plate, and side partitions surrounding the plates to form an inner space, and the inner space is vacuumed to facilitate the emission and flow of electrons. It is maintained. The operation of the flat panel display will be described with reference to the field emission display 100 shown in FIG. 1 as an example. The field emission display 100 is composed of a front plate 20, a rear plate 30 and side partitions (not shown) and spacers 50 for surrounding and supporting them, the inside of which is about 1 X 10 ^-7. The torr vacuum is maintained. The front plate 20 is also called an anode plate, and a phosphor pattern 22 for displaying an image is formed on an inner surface thereof. The back plate 30 is also referred to as a cathode plate, and the inner side surface is formed with an insulating layer 34 having a horizontal electrode 32 and holes 36 formed at regular intervals. An emitter 38 is formed in the hole 36 on the horizontal electrode 32 and emits electrons and has a tip (TIP) -shaped end, and the hole 36 is formed on the insulating layer 34. The vertical electrode 40 is formed so as to surround the. In the field emission display 100, when an image signal is applied to the horizontal electrode 32 and the vertical electrode 40 by a driving circuit (not shown), the field emission display 100 is generated between the horizontal and vertical electrodes 32 and 40. A strong electric field is applied to the emitter 38 by the electric field, and the emitter 38 emits electrons 44 by the electric field. The electrons 44 thus emitted move in a space maintained in a vacuum state to excite the phosphor 22, and the excited phosphor 22 generates light to display an image.

As such, since the inside of the field emission display 100 is maintained in a vacuum state and atmospheric pressure is applied to the outside of the field emission display 100, the electroluminescent display 100 may be damaged by the pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the field emission display 100. There is. In general, in the rectangular field emission display 100, when the diagonal length of the screen is 1 inch or more, it is known that such breakage is likely to occur.

In order to prevent such breakage, the front plate 20 and the rear plate 30 are processed into arcs to withstand the applied load, or the front and rear plates 20 and 30 are formed thick to prevent such breakage. In this case, the volume and weight of the field emission display 100 may increase, which is not preferable. Therefore, a method of supporting the front plate 20 and the rear plate 30 by installing a spacer 50 between the front plate 20 and the rear plate 30 has been developed.

For example, US Pat. No. 5,503,582 discloses post-exposure reactive ion etching of a substrate made of a photosensitive material such as photosensitive glass, photosensitive aerosol, or photosensitive zero gel (XEROGEL) using an etch mask. Reactive ion etching (RIE) or a dry etching process such as plasma etching through a plurality of openings 110 and the gas discharge channel 112 is formed around the spacer plate 120 having a partition 114 formed around the Provided. However, since the spacer plate 120 is used when the distance between the front plate and the rear plate is small, it means a high aspect ratio, in which the width or length of the screen is divided by the thickness of the screen. Although it is suitable for low voltage field emission displays where.) Is not required, it is not only difficult to apply to high voltage field emission displays requiring high aspect ratios, but also has a disadvantage in that the manufacturing cost of the spacer plate 120 is high. That is, in high voltage field emission displays, a high voltage is applied between the front plate and the rear plate, so to prevent electrical breakdown that may occur between the plates, the spacing between the plates should usually be kept high in the range of 1-3 mm. In addition, in order to manufacture a display device having a high resolution, the opening 110 should be formed as small and as much as possible, but it is very difficult to process the spacer plate 120 in this manner by an etching process.

Therefore, as a method of manufacturing a spacer for a high voltage field emission display, in US Patent No. 5,486,126, a plurality of strands composed of glass fibers and organic fibers such as nylon and polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) are fixed by an adhesive at regular intervals. After cutting the cylindrical bundle thinly into discs, attaching the disc to the adhesive site of the back plate on which the spacer is to be formed and dissolving and removing the adhesive to form a spacer of glass fiber and organic fiber on the adhesive site. It is starting. The spacer thus formed exhibits a very high aspect ratio (here, the height of the spacer divided by the thickness of the spacer) but does not have sufficient strength to support external atmospheric pressure, and US Pat. No. 5,650,690 discloses a sheet. A pair of protrusion-shaped grippers are formed on the rear plate to fix the spacers in the shape, and the spacers manufactured in the form of a ceramic sheet are fixed to the grippers. In order to form the gripper, the entire rear plate must be processed through an etching process. Therefore, if the etching process is not performed well, the entire rear plate may be discarded, and the projection gripper may be easily damaged. .

Finally, in US Pat. No. 5,589,731, side partitions 210 are formed to support the front and rear plates at the edges of the front plate (not shown) and rear plate 214, as shown in FIG. Afterwards, a method of inserting and fixing a sheet-shaped spacer 220 to an insertion groove 216 formed in the side partition wall 210 is proposed. When the spacer 220 is fixed to the front and rear plates through the above process, the spacer 220 is heated and baked at a high temperature and then vacuum evacuated at a high temperature. In FIG. 3, reference numeral 212 denotes an emitter for emitting electrons. However, when the insertion groove 216 and the spacer 220 is fixedly coupled in this manner, the coefficient of thermal expansion of the front and rear plates (9.0 × 10 ⁻⁶ / ° C.) and the coefficient of thermal expansion of the spacer 220 (8.2 × 10 ⁻⁶ / ° C.) Since different), there is a disadvantage that they are easily broken at high temperature firing. In addition, when the spacer 220 is formed in this manner to separate the internal space of the field emission display 200 into a plurality of small spaces (in FIG. 3, the space is divided into four spaces), the interior of the field emission display 200 is manufactured. There is a disadvantage that it is difficult to make the vacuum by removing the gas. That is, when the exhaust process is performed through one hole (not shown) formed in the partition wall 210 or the rear plate 214, the exhaust process is easily performed, but the hole is formed. There is a disadvantage that the exhaust is not easily made in a space that is not.

Therefore, the present invention is a spacer support used for high-voltage flat panel display having a distance of 1-5 mm between the front plate and the rear plate, and the spacer is damaged due to the difference in thermal expansion coefficient of the spacer and the front and rear plates during the high temperature firing and the high temperature exhaust process. A spacer support is provided that can be prevented.

The present invention also provides a flat panel display having a spacer support for supporting a spacer having a high aspect ratio (here, the height of the spacer divided by the thickness of the spacer).

In addition, the present invention provides a flat panel display having a spacer support having a structure that can easily remove gas from the internal space of the flat panel display.

1 is a cross-sectional view of a general flat panel display.

2 is a perspective view showing an example of a conventional spacer for a flat panel display.

3 is a plan view illustrating a conventional spacer for a flat panel display mounted on a rear plate;

4 is a plan view illustrating a spacer support for a flat panel display device mounted on a rear plate of the present invention;

5 is an exploded perspective view of a spacer support and a spacer for a flat panel display of the present invention.

6A to 6C are plan views showing shapes of insertion grooves formed on the spacer support of the present invention, respectively.

7A to 7B are respectively a perspective view and a sectional view for explaining a manufacturing process of the spacer support of the present invention.

8A to 8D are views each showing a shape of an exhaust groove formed in the spacer support spacer of the present invention.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a flat panel display device comprising a front plate coated with a phosphor that is excited by electrons and emits light, and a rear plate which is disposed opposite to the front plate and has an active region emitting electrons. to provide. At the edges of the front plate and the rear plate, side partition walls are formed to form a closed inner space, and a pair of spacer supports having a plurality of insertion grooves formed between the active area and the side partition walls face each other. The spacer is inserted into the insertion groove to support the front plate and the rear plate. At this time, the distance between the bottom portions of the insertion grooves formed to face each other is formed larger than the length of the spacer, so that the spacer can expand in the longitudinal direction.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a spacer support for a flat panel display device mounted on a rear plate, and FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of the spacer support and the spacer.

As shown in FIG. 4, a plurality of emitters 312 are formed on the back plate 314 to emit electrons, and the front plate (not shown) and the outermost part of the back plate 314 are formed. Side partitions 310 for supporting the back plate 314 are formed in all directions. The side partition walls 310 are formed outside the active area where the plurality of emitters 312 are formed so as not to interfere with the display of the screen. The spacer support 330 of the present invention is formed between the active region where the plurality of emitters 312 are formed and the partition 310. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the spacer support 330 of the present invention includes first and second horizontal support members 332 and 334 positioned on opposite sides of the rear plate 314. And a plurality of first groove forming members 336 are attached to the first horizontal support member 332 at predetermined intervals to form a plurality of insertion grooves 316, and the second horizontal support member 334. Also, a plurality of second groove forming members 338 having the same shape are attached at predetermined intervals, so that the plurality of insertion grooves 316 are opposed to the insertion grooves 316 formed on the first horizontal support member 332. Is formed. As shown in FIG. 4, the distance between the first horizontal support member 332 and the second horizontal support member 334 is longer than the length of the spacer 320 inserted into the insertion groove 316. The shape of the insertion groove 316 depends on the shape of the first and second groove forming members 336 and 338. For example, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 6A, when the cross-sectional shape of the first and second groove forming members 336 and 338 is trapezoidal, the shape of the insertion groove 316 may be a triangular shape with a vertex portion open. It becomes a pillar shape and the spacer 320 is fitted through the open part. In addition, as shown in FIG. 6B, a cylindrical groove 364 having one side open in the groove forming member 362 may be formed. In this case, the support member 360 and the groove forming member 362 may be formed. It can be formed integrally. FIG. 6C illustrates a groove having a rectangular shape, and a plurality of rectangular groove forming members 372 are attached to the support member 370 at predetermined intervals to form a rectangular groove 374. .

The insertion groove 316 serves to fix the plurality of spacers 320 inserted in the spacer support 330 in parallel, and is formed with a margin to allow the spacer 320 to be moved to a certain extent in the longitudinal direction. When the insertion groove 316 is deeply formed as described above, even if the spacer 320 expands at a high temperature, the insertion groove 316 can be moved to a free space of the insertion groove 316, thereby preventing damage to the spacer 320. At this time, if the height of the spacer support 330 is formed smaller than the height of the spacer 320 is preferable because the gas is smoothly discharged during the exhaust process.

The spacer support 330 may be manufactured by laser processing, screen printing, or diamond wheel processing. The manufacturing method of the spacer support 330 by the dual laser processing method will be briefly described. As shown in FIG. 7A, first, a quadrangular ceramic plate 400 is processed by laser to form a plurality of slot-shaped holes 410. The slot-shaped holes are formed to be parallel to each other, so that the slot-shaped holes are formed in a tapered shape as shown in FIG. Next, when the support member 332 is bonded to the ceramic plate 400 so as to be perpendicular to the slot-shaped holes, the ceramic plate portion protruding to the outside of the support member 332 is cut and removed with a laser. The spacer support 330 is completed.

Such spacer support 330 of the present invention can be fixed to the rear plate 314 and the front plate (not shown) using an adhesive or the like. Since the spacer support 330 is mounted outside the active area of the screen, the thickness of the spacer support 330 is not particularly limited, and the spacer support 330 is formed to have a strength that does not collapse by external pressure while reducing the weight of the entire flat panel display.

As shown in FIG. 8A, the spacer 320 may be simply formed in a quadrangular sheet shape, and as shown in FIGS. 4 and 8B to 8D, the spacer 320 may have a predetermined shape on both upper, lower, and upper and lower portions thereof. It is preferable to form an exhaust groove 350 so that the gas is smoothly discharged during the exhaust process. The exhaust groove 350 may be formed in the spacer support 330 to facilitate the exhaust of air and the like existing in the interior of the flat panel display device, and the shape of the exhaust groove 350 is not particularly limited. It is preferable to have a structure in the structure of the spacer 320 and the spacer support 330. Such an exhaust hole 350 can be easily formed using grinding and laser processing methods.

Since the spacer 320 is formed inside the active area in which the emitter 312 is formed, the spacer 320 is small enough so that it cannot be seen on the display. Preferably, the spacer 320 is masked by the black matrix patterned between the phosphors of the front plate. That is, it is preferable to form between the pixels of the active area of the screen.

The spacer 320 should be non-conductive to prevent electrical breakdown caused by high voltage between the front plate and the back plate, and should not interfere with the flow of electrons. Since electrons may accumulate on the surface and cause arc discharge, the spacer is usually made of a material having a volume resistivity of 10 ⁵ -10 ¹⁰ Ω / cm ³ . In addition, the spacer 320 must have stability against electron shock and high temperature, so that the ceramic, glass, glass-ceramic mixture, ceramic tape, ceramic sheet, borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), and spin-on-glass -glass, SPG), ceramic-tempered glass, opaque glass sheets and metals. Sheet-type spacer 320 of the present invention is produced by firing a green tape (alumina-based material, Du Pont brand name) at about 1300 ℃, or by using a slurry method and spin coating method to a thin sheet of ceramic material It can be produced by molding. The spacer support 330 uses a material capable of forming an elaborate pattern, and preferably uses the same materials as the spacer 320.

In order to install the spacer support 330 of the present invention on the flat panel display device, first, an adhesive material is applied to the ends of the first and second horizontal support members 332 and 334, and then, the adhesive is applied to the rear plate 314. It is calcined for about 10 minutes in a furnace maintained at 510 ° C. In this case, as the adhesive material, silica-based material, frit seal, solder glass, cement including silica, and glass frit may be used. Next, an adhesive material such as grass frit is applied only to one of the insertion grooves 316 formed in the spacer support 330, or the spacer sheet 320 is inserted by hand or using a facility without applying the adhesive material. Put the spacer frame. The reason why the adhesive is applied only to one of the insertion grooves 316 into which one spacer 320 is inserted is one end of the spacer 320 even when the thermal expansion coefficients of the spacer 320 and the front and rear plates are different at high temperatures. This is because damage to the spacer 320 can be prevented by freely moving. Finally, an adhesive material such as glass frit, epoxy, etc. is applied to the upper end of the spacer 320, aligned with the front plate, and then fired to manufacture a high voltage flat panel display device.

The spacer support for a high voltage flat panel display of the present invention can stably support a spacer having a width of 25-200 μm and a height of 1-5 mm, that is, having a high aspect ratio, and prevents gas from the internal space of the flat panel display. It has a structure that can be easily removed. In addition, the spacer support of the present invention is easy to insert and fix the spacer is not only stable as a whole, but also has a structure that can prevent the breakage of the spacer due to the difference in thermal expansion during high temperature treatment. The spacer support for a flat panel display of the present invention is a device having a relatively large gap between the front and rear plates, for example, a fluorescent display tube (VFD), a thin or flat CRT, a plasma panel display, and a high voltage field emission display ( FED) and the like can be widely applied.

Claims (9)

A front plate coated with a phosphor which is excited by electrons and emits light; A back plate disposed opposite the front plate and having an active region emitting electrons: Side partitions formed at edges of the front plate and the rear plate to form a sealed inner space; A pair of spacer supports having a plurality of insertion grooves formed at positions opposing each other between the active region and the side partition walls; And A flat panel display fitted in the insertion groove and including one or more spacers for supporting the front plate and the rear plate; And a distance between the bottom portions of the insertion grooves formed to face each other is greater than the length of the spacers. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein a height of the pair of spacer supports is smaller than a height of the spacers. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein the spacer support comprises a plurality of groove forming members attached to the support member and the support member at predetermined intervals to form a plurality of insertion grooves. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein the insertion groove has a circular, rectangular, triangular or rectangular cross section. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein the spacer is fixedly coupled to one of the insertion grooves formed to face each other by an adhesive. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein an exhaust groove is formed in an upper portion and / or a lower portion of the spacer. The flat panel display of claim 1, wherein the spacer support and the back plate are coupled to each other by an adhesive. The method of claim 1, wherein the spacer or the spacer support is ceramic, glass, glass-ceramic mixture, ceramic tape, ceramic sheet, borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG), spin-on-glass (SPG). ), A flat panel display made of a material selected from the group consisting of ceramic-tempered glass, an opaque glass sheet and a metal. The flat panel display of claim 5 or 7, wherein the adhesive is selected from a crowd consisting of silica-based material, frit seal, solder glass, cement including silica and grass frit.