JP2000251708A - Manufacture of spacer for electron beam device, spacer for electron beam device and electron beam device provided with the spacer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and cheaply manufacture a spacer as atmospheric pressure- resistant structure to which a low resistant film is applied without requiring a vacuumizing device. SOLUTION: A fluorescent film 18 to which a metal back 19 is formed and a substrate 11 on which an electron emitting element is formed are provided on a face plate 17 and a rear plate 15 constituting a vacuum container respectively. A spacer 20 as an atmospheric pressure-resistant structure is installed between the metal back 19 and the substrate 11. The spacer 20 is constituted by forming a low resistant film 25 on a joining portion of an insulation substrate 21, between the metal back 19 and the substrate 11, in which a high resistant film 22 is formed on a surface. A sheet resistance of the low resistant film 25 is lower than that of the insulation substrate 21 and the low resistant film 25 is formed by a printing method.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus having an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel and an electron irradiation member provided with an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. The present invention relates to a spacer installed between an electron source and an electrode as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of a vacuum vessel, and a method of manufacturing the spacer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron emitting devices, a hot cathode device and a cold cathode device, are known. Among these, among the cold cathode devices, for example, a surface conduction type emission device, a field emission type device (hereinafter referred to as FE type), a metal / insulating layer / metal type emission device (hereinafter referred to as MIM type), and the like are known. I have.

[0003] As a surface conduction type emission element, for example, M.
I. Elinson, Radio Eng. ElectronPhys., 10, 1290 (19
65) and other examples described below.

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. As this surface conduction type emission element, Sn described by Elinson et al.
In addition to those using O ₂ thin films, those using Au thin films [G.
Dittmer: "Thin Solid Films", 9, 317 (1972)]
n ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell and C.
G. Fonstad: "IEEE Trans. ED Conf.", 519 (1975)]
Or carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al .: Vacuum, 2nd
6, No. 1, 22 (1983)].

As a typical example of the device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, FIG. 33 shows a plan view of the device by M. Hartwell et al. Described above. In the figure, a conductive thin film 3004 made of a metal oxide is formed on a substrate 3001 by sputtering in an H-shaped planar shape. An electron emission portion 3005 is formed on the conductive thin film 3004 by performing an energization process called energization forming described below. The interval L in the figure is 0.5 to 1 [mm], and the width W is
It is set to 0.1 [mm]. In addition, for convenience of illustration, the electron emitting portion 3005 is shown in a rectangular shape at the center of the conductive thin film 3004, but this is a schematic one, and the position and shape of the actual electron emitting portion are faithfully represented. Not necessarily.

In the above-described surface conduction electron-emitting device including the device by M. Hartwell et al., An electron emission portion 3005 is formed by performing an energization process called energization forming on the conductive thin film 3004 before electron emission. Was common. That is, energization forming is
A constant DC voltage or a DC voltage which is boosted at a very slow rate of, for example, about 1 V / min is applied to both ends of the conductive thin film 3004 to energize the conductive thin film 304.
04 is locally destroyed or deformed or altered,
This is to form the electron-emitting portion 3005 in a state of being electrically high in resistance. Note that a crack is generated in a part of the conductive thin film 3004 that is locally broken, deformed, or altered.
When an appropriate voltage is applied to the conductive thin film 3004 after the energization forming, electrons are emitted in the vicinity of the crack.

As an example of the FE type, for example, WP Dyke
& WW Dolan, "Field emission", Advance in Elect
ron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) or CA Spindt, "P
hysical properties of thin-film field emission cat
hodes with molybdenium cones ", J. Appl. Phys., 47,
5248 (1976) and the like are known.

As a typical example of this FE type device configuration, FIG. 34 shows a cross-sectional view of the device by CA Spindt et al. In the figure, 3010 is a substrate, 3011 is an emitter wiring made of a conductive material, 3012 is an emitter cone, 3013 is an insulating layer, and 3014 is a gate electrode. This device comprises an emitter cone 3012 and a gate electrode 3
By applying an appropriate voltage during 014, field emission is caused from the tip of the emitter cone 3012.

As another element configuration of the FE type, FIG.
There is also an example in which the emitter and the gate electrode are arranged on the substrate almost in parallel with the substrate plane, instead of the laminated structure as shown in FIG.

Examples of the MIM type include, for example, C.I.
A. Mead, "Operation of tunnel-emission Devices",
J. Appl. Phys., 32, 646 (1961) and the like are known.

FIG. 35 shows a typical example of the MIM type element configuration.
Shown in The figure is a sectional view, in which 3020 is a substrate, 3021 is a lower electrode made of metal, 3022 is a thin insulating layer having a thickness of about 100 °, and 3023 is a thickness of 80 to 3
The upper electrode is made of a metal of about 00 °. In the MIM type, electrons are emitted from the surface of the upper electrode 3023 by applying an appropriate voltage between the upper electrode 3023 and the lower electrode 3021.

The above-described cold cathode device can obtain electrons at a lower temperature than the hot cathode device, and therefore does not require a heater for heating. Therefore, the structure is simpler than that of the hot cathode element, and a fine element can be produced. Further, even when a large number of elements are arranged on a substrate at a high density, problems such as thermal melting of the substrate hardly occur. Also, unlike the response speed is slow because the hot cathode element operates by heating the heater,
In the case of a cold cathode device, there is also an advantage that the response speed is high.

For this reason, research for applying the cold cathode device has been actively conducted.

For example, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has the advantage that a large number of devices can be formed over a large area because the structure is particularly simple and the production is easy among the cold cathode devices. Therefore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
As disclosed in JP-A-332-332, a method for arranging and driving a large number of elements has been studied.

As for the application of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, for example, an image forming apparatus such as an image display device and an image recording device, and an electron beam device such as a charged beam source have been studied.

In particular, as an application to an image display apparatus, for example, US Pat. No. 5,066,883, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-257551, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-28137 by the present applicant.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. H10-157, an image display device using a combination of a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a phosphor that emits light by collision of electrons has been studied. An image display device using a combination of a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a phosphor is expected to have better characteristics than other conventional image display devices. For example, compared to a liquid crystal display device that has become widespread in recent years, it is superior in that it is a self-luminous type and does not require a backlight and has a wide viewing angle.

A method of driving a large number of FE types is disclosed in US Pat. No. 4,904,8, filed by the present applicant.
No. 95. As an example of applying the FE type to an image display device, for example, a flat display device reported by R. Mayer et al. Is known [R. Meyer: "Rec".
ent Development on Microtips Display at LETI ", Tec
h. Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Microelectronics Con
f., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)].

An example in which a number of MIM types are arranged and applied to an image display device is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.
No. 5,557,838.

Among the image forming apparatuses using the above-described electron-emitting devices, a flat display device having a small depth has been attracting attention as a substitute for a cathode ray tube display device because it is space-saving and lightweight. .

FIG. 36 is a perspective view showing an example of a display panel portion forming a flat-panel image display device, in which a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure. In the figure, 3
115 is a rear plate, 3116 is a side wall, and 3117 is a face plate.
An envelope (airtight container) for maintaining the inside of the display panel at a vacuum by using 116 and the fuse plate 3117.
Is formed.

A substrate 3111 is fixed to the rear plate 3115. On this substrate 3111, N × M cold cathode elements 3112 are formed in a matrix. (N and M are positive integers of 2 or more, and are appropriately set according to the target number of display pixels.)
As shown in FIG. 36, the cold cathode elements 3112 are wired by M row-directional wirings 3113 and N column-directional wirings 3114. These substrate 3111, cold cathode element 3
112, row direction wiring 3113 and column direction wiring 3114
Is called a multi-electron beam source.
An insulating layer (not shown) is formed between at least the intersections of the row wirings 3113 and the column wirings 3114 to maintain electrical insulation.

On the lower surface of the face plate 3117, a phosphor film 3118 made of a phosphor is formed, and phosphors (not shown) of three primary colors of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) are applied. Divided. A black body (not shown) is provided between the phosphors of the respective colors constituting the fluorescent film 3118, and a metal back 3119 made of Al or the like is formed on the surface of the fluorescent film 3118 on the rear plate 3115 side. ing.

Dx1 to DxM and Dy1 to DyN and Hv
Is a terminal for electric connection of an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting the display panel to an electric circuit (not shown).
Dx1 to DxM are row direction wirings 3113 of the multi electron beam source.
And Dy1 to DyN are the column wirings 31 of the multi-electron beam source.
14 and Hv are electrically connected to the metal back 3119, respectively.

The inside of the airtight container is 10 ^-6 Torr.
r, and as the display area of the image display device increases, means for preventing deformation or destruction of the rear plate 3115 and the face plate 3117 due to a pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the airtight container is required. . Rear plate 3115 and face plate 31
The method of increasing the thickness of 16 increases not only the weight of the image display device but also distortion and parallax of the image when viewed from an oblique direction. On the other hand, in FIG. 36, a structural support (called a spacer or a rib) 312 made of a relatively thin glass plate and supporting the atmospheric pressure is used.
0 is provided. In this way, the distance between the substrate 3111 on which the multi-beam electron source is formed and the face plate 3116 on which the fluorescent film 3118 is formed is usually kept at a sub-millimeter to several millimeters, and the inside of the airtight container is kept at a high vacuum as described above. ing.

In the image display apparatus using the display panel described above, when a voltage is applied to each cold cathode element 3112 through the external terminals Dx1 to DxM and Dy1 to DyN, electrons are emitted from each cold cathode element 3112. At the same time, a high voltage of several hundred [V] to several [kV] is applied to the metal back 3119 through the external terminal Hv to accelerate the emitted electrons and collide with the inner surface of the face plate 3117. As a result, the phosphors of each color forming the fluorescent film 3118 are excited and emit light, and an image is displayed.

[0026]

However, the above-described display panel has the following problems.

First, some of the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting devices near the spacer hit the spacer,
Alternatively, the ions ionized by the action of the emitted electrons may adhere to the spacer, causing the spacer to be charged. Due to the charging of the spacers, the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device bend their trajectories, reach a position different from the normal position on the phosphor provided on the face plate, and the image near the spacer is distorted and displayed. Will be done.

Second, in order to accelerate the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device, a high voltage of several hundred V or more (ie, a high electric field of 1 kV / mm or more) is applied between the electron source substrate and the face plate. Is applied, there is a concern about creeping discharge on the surface of the spacer. In particular, when the spacer is charged as described above, a discharge may be induced.

In order to solve this problem, proposals have been made to remove charging by making a small current flow through the spacer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 57-118355 and 6-78).
1-124031). Here, a minute current flows on the surface of the spacer by forming a high-resistance thin film as an antistatic film on the surface of the insulating spacer.
The antistatic film used here is tin oxide or a mixed crystal thin film of tin oxide and indium oxide or a metal film.

Further, depending on the type of the image, when the duty of electron emission is large, the method of removing the charge by the high and low resistance thin film alone may not sufficiently reduce the distortion of the image. This problem is caused by the spacer on which the high and low resistance thin film is formed and the upper and lower substrates, that is, a face plate (hereinafter, FP)
It is conceivable that electrical connection between the RP and the rear plate (hereinafter, referred to as RP) is insufficient, and charging is concentrated near the connection. As a proposal to solve this point,
As described in JP-A-8-180821, a metal such as platinum or a highly conductive material such as a high-low resistance thin film is formed on the spacer from the bottom surface and the FP side and the RP side to a range of about 100 to 1000 μm from the RP side. Thus, it has been proposed to secure electrical contact with the upper and lower substrates.

As a method of forming these low-resistance films, metallization by a vapor-phase film forming technique such as sputtering film formation and resistance heating vapor deposition has been generally used. These have been used experimentally because the material composition of a uniform mixed thin film can be easily designed. However, such a method requires a vacuum decompression step, and requires a tact time for batch processing, a large equipment cost for film formation, and a low utilization efficiency of raw materials. This is a big problem. Therefore, there has been a demand for a process for easily and inexpensively producing these low-resistance films in large quantities at a time.

The present invention has been made in view of the above conventional example, and an electron source device capable of easily and inexpensively manufacturing a spacer provided with a low resistance film without requiring a vacuum decompression device.
And a method for producing the same.

[0033]

In order to achieve the above object, a method of manufacturing a spacer for an electron beam apparatus according to the present invention comprises: an electron source provided in an empty container and having an electron emitting element; A method for manufacturing a spacer disposed between the electron source and the electrode as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of an electron beam device having an electron irradiation member having an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. Forming a low-resistance film having a lower sheet resistance value than the insulating member on at least one of the end on the electron source side and the end on the electrode side of the insulating member serving as the base of the spacer by a printing method. Printing process.

In the electron beam apparatus in which the electron source and the electron irradiation member are arranged opposite to each other as described above, a spacer is provided between the electron source and the electron irradiation member as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of the vacuum vessel. You. Since a high voltage is applied between the electrode of the electron-irradiated member and the electron source to control the electrons emitted from the electron source, the spacer has an insulating property enough to withstand this high voltage. Therefore, the surface of the spacer is charged with electron emission. Therefore, by providing a low-resistance film having a sheet resistance lower than that of the insulating member on at least one of the end on the electron source side and the end on the electrode side of the insulating member serving as the base of the spacer, The charge generated on the surface is quickly removed, and
The potential distribution on the spacer surface that affects the potential distribution between the electron source and the electron irradiation member is made uniform, and as a result, the electron emission orbit is stabilized.

In the present invention, the formation of the low resistance film is performed by a printing method. By forming a low-resistance film by a printing method, a low-resistance film can be easily and stably formed without the need for a vacuum decompression step, and the utilization efficiency of the raw material of the low-resistance film is high.

The insulating member forming the low resistance film can be processed into a desired shape according to the distance between the electron source and the electrode through a processing step. This processing step may be performed after or before the printing step of forming the low-resistance film. When the processing step is performed after the printing step, the processing of the insulating member can be performed by cutting. This cutting may be performed to form a contact surface fixed to the electron source or the electrode. In this case, after the cutting step, a low-resistance film is further formed on the contact surface formed by cutting. You may. As a method of forming the low-resistance film on the contact surface, an immersion transfer method or a rotational transfer method may be used. On the other hand, when the processing step is performed before the printing step, the insulating member can be processed into a desired shape by the heat stretching method.

Typical printing methods used for forming the low resistance film include a screen printing method and an offset printing method. Further, before the printing step, an edge processing step of processing the contact surface and the side surface adjacent to the contact surface into an obtuse angle or a curved surface may be provided. As a result, since a printing region is formed so as to straddle the contact surface with the side surface of the insulating member, the number of printing steps for forming a low-resistance film on the contact surface can be reduced.

The present invention also provides a spacer used as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of the above-mentioned electron beam apparatus. The spacer of the present invention is an electron beam device including an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel and having an electron emitting element, and an electron irradiation member having an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. A spacer provided between the electron source and the electrode, wherein the spacer is manufactured by any one of the manufacturing methods of the present invention.

As a result, it is possible to obtain a spacer which is inexpensive and hardly affects the trajectory of electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device.

The present invention further provides an electron beam device provided with the spacer of the present invention. That is, the electron beam device of the present invention includes an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel and having an electron emitting element, and an electron irradiation member provided with an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. In the electron beam apparatus, the spacer of the present invention is provided between the electron source and the electrode as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of the vacuum vessel.

As a result, an electron beam device which is inexpensive, has little deviation in the trajectory of electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device, and has a good withstand voltage near the spacer can be obtained.

As the electron-emitting device provided in the electron source, a cold-cathode device, in particular, a pair of device electrodes opposed to each other, and an electron-emitting portion formed between the device electrodes and electrically connected to the device electrodes. And a surface conduction electron-emitting device having a conductive film formed thereon. In addition, by using an image forming member that forms an image by irradiating electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device as the electron irradiation member, the device functions as an image forming apparatus. Further, this image forming member is
By forming a phosphor film containing a phosphor emitted by collision of electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device, the device functions as an image display device.

[0043]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Before describing the embodiments of the present invention, the features of the embodiments of the present invention will be described.

The present embodiment relates to an image forming apparatus such as a display device which is an application of an electron beam apparatus including a vacuum container, and in particular, an electron-emitting device of a spacer installed in the vacuum container as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure. The present invention realizes appropriate electrical bonding and optimal control of electron trajectory between an electron source provided with an electron source and an electron irradiation member provided with an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source.

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

(Configuration of Display Panel and Manufacturing Method)
The configuration and manufacturing method of a display panel of an image display device to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to specific examples.

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of one embodiment of a display panel of an image display device to which the present invention is applied, and a part of the display panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In the figure, 15 is a rear plate, 16 is a side wall,
Reference numeral 17 denotes a face plate.
5. An envelope (airtight container) for maintaining the inside of the display panel at a vacuum by the side wall 16 and the face plate 17
Is formed. In assembling the airtight container, it is necessary to seal the joint of each member to maintain sufficient strength and airtightness. This sealing can be achieved by, for example, applying frit glass to the joint and baking it in the air or in a nitrogen atmosphere at 400 to 500 degrees Celsius for 10 minutes or more. The inside of the airtight container is 1
Since the vacuum is maintained at about 0 ^-6 [Torr], the spacer 20 is provided as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure for the purpose of preventing damage to the airtight container due to deformation due to atmospheric pressure or unexpected impact.

The electron source substrate used in the image forming apparatus of the present invention is formed by arranging a plurality of cold cathode devices on the substrate. The method of arranging cold cathode devices includes
A ladder-type arrangement in which cold-cathode elements are arranged in parallel, and both ends of each element are connected by wiring (hereinafter, referred to as a ladder-type arrangement electron source substrate), or a pair of element electrodes of the cold-cathode element in X-direction wiring, A simple matrix arrangement in which Y-direction wirings are connected (hereinafter, referred to as a matrix-type arrangement electron source substrate) is exemplified. Note that an image forming apparatus having a ladder-type arranged electron source substrate requires a control electrode (grid electrode) which is an electrode for controlling the flight of electrons from the electron-emitting devices.

The outline of the rear plate 15, the face plate 17 and the spacer 20 will be described below.

First, the rear plate 15 will be described.

On the upper surface of the rear plate 15, a substrate 11, which is an electron source substrate, is fixed. On this substrate 11, N × M cold cathode elements 12 are formed in a matrix. Here, these N and M are positive integers of 2 or more,
It is set appropriately according to the target number of display pixels. For example, in a display device for displaying high-definition television, it is desirable to set N = 3000 and M = 1000 or more. These N × M cold cathode elements 12
Are arranged in a simple matrix by M row-directional wirings 13 and N column-directional wirings 14. Here, the portion composed of the substrate 11, the cold cathode element 12 formed on the substrate 11, and the wirings 13 and 14 will be referred to as a multi-electron source. In the multi-electron source of the present embodiment, there is no limitation on the material and shape of the cold-cathode element 12 or the manufacturing method as long as the cold-cathode element 12 is a simple matrix wiring or a ladder-shaped electron source. Therefore, for example, a cold cathode device such as a surface conduction type emission device, an FE type, or an MIM type can be used.

The structure of a multi-electron source in which surface conduction electron-emitting devices (described later) as cold cathode devices 12 are arranged on a substrate and arranged in a simple matrix will be described below.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the multi-electron source used for the display panel of FIG. On the substrate 11, surface-conduction type emission devices similar to those shown in FIG. 16 described later are arranged as cold cathode devices 12, and these devices are arranged in a simple matrix by row-direction wiring 13 and column-direction wiring 14. Have been. An insulating layer (not shown) is formed at least between wirings where the row wirings 13 and the column wirings 14 intersect, thereby maintaining insulation between the wirings.

FIG. 3 shows a section taken along the line BB 'in FIG. The multi-electron source having such a structure includes a row-directional wiring 13, a column-directional wiring 14, an inter-wiring insulating layer (not shown), a device electrode 2 of a surface conduction electron-emitting device on a substrate 11 in advance.
After forming the conductive thin film 3 and the conductive thin film 4, power is supplied to each of the element electrodes 2 and 3 via the row-direction wiring 13 and the column-direction wiring 14 to perform an energization forming process (described later) and an energization activation process (described later). Manufactured by An electron emitting portion 5 and a thin film 6 made of carbon or a carbon compound are formed on the conductive thin film 4 by the energization forming process and the energization activation process. The electron emitting portion 5 and the thin film 6 will be described later in detail.

In this embodiment, the substrate 11 of the multi-electron source is fixed to the rear plate 15 of the airtight container. However, when the substrate 11 of the multi-electron source has a sufficient strength. Alternatively, the substrate 11 of the multi-electron source may be used as the rear plate of the hermetic container.

Next, the face plate 17 will be described.

The face plate 17 forms a wall surface facing the substrate 11 of the hermetic container. A fluorescent film 18 is formed on the lower surface of the face plate 17. Since the present embodiment is a color display device, phosphors of three primary colors of red, green, and blue used in the field of CRT are separately applied to a portion of the fluorescent film 18. The phosphors of each color are separately applied in stripes as shown in FIG. 4, for example, and black conductors 10 are provided between the stripes of the phosphors. The purpose of providing the black conductor 10 is to prevent the display color from being shifted even if the electron irradiation position is slightly shifted, or to prevent the reflection of external light and to prevent the display contrast from lowering. This is for preventing charge-up of the fluorescent film by electrons. Although graphite is used as the main component for the black conductor 10, any other material may be used as long as it is suitable for the above purpose.

FIG. 4 shows how to paint the three primary color phosphors.
It is not limited to the striped arrangement shown in
For example, a delta arrangement as shown in FIG. 5 or a matrix arrangement as shown in FIG. 6 may be used. When a monochrome display panel is formed, a monochromatic phosphor material may be used for the phosphor film 18, and the black conductive material 10 may not necessarily be used.

Further, a metal back 19 known in the field of CRT is provided on the surface of the fluorescent film 18 on the rear plate side. The purpose of providing the metal back 19 is to
In order to improve the light utilization rate by mirror-reflecting a part of the light emitted from the fluorescent light 8, to protect the fluorescent film 18 from the collision of negative ions, to act as an electrode for applying an electron accelerating voltage, This is because the film 18 acts as a conductive path for the excited electrons. The metal back 19 is formed by forming a fluorescent film 18 on the face plate 17 and then smoothing the surface of the fluorescent film, and forming aluminum (Al) on the surface.
Was formed by a vacuum deposition method. The fluorescent film 18
In the case where a low-voltage phosphor material is used, the metal back 19 is not used.

Although not used in the present embodiment, for the purpose of applying an acceleration voltage and improving the conductivity of the fluorescent film, a transparent material made of, for example, ITO is provided between the face plate substrate 17 and the fluorescent film 18. Electrodes may be provided.

The row wiring terminals Dx1 to DxM, the column wiring terminals Dy1 to DyN, and the high voltage terminal Hv are used for electrically connecting an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting this display panel to the above-described circuits and the like. Terminal. The row wiring terminals Dx1 to DxM correspond to the row wiring 13 of the multi-electron source, the column wiring terminals Dy1 to DyN correspond to the column wiring 14 of the multi-electron source, and the high-voltage terminals Hv correspond to the metal back 19 of the face plate 17. Electrically connected.

In order to evacuate the inside of the hermetic container to a vacuum, after assembling the hermetic container, an exhaust pipe (not shown) and a vacuum pump are connected to evacuate the inside of the hermetic container to 10 ^-7 [Torr].
r]. Thereafter, the exhaust pipe is sealed, but a getter film (not shown) is formed at a predetermined position in the airtight container immediately before or after the sealing in order to maintain the degree of vacuum in the airtight container. This getter film is, for example, B
This is a film formed by heating and depositing a getter material containing a as a main component by a heater or high-frequency heating, and the inside of the hermetic container is 1 × 10 ⁻⁵ to 1 × by the adsorbing action of the getter film.
The degree of vacuum is maintained at 10 ^-7 [Torr].

Next, the spacer 20 will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of FIG. 1, and the reference numerals of the respective parts correspond to those of FIG.

The spacer 20 is formed on the surface of the insulating substrate 21 by forming a high-resistance film 22 for the purpose of preventing electrification, and the inside of the face plate 17 (metal back 19 and the like) and the surface of the substrate 11 (row direction wiring 13). Alternatively, the contact surface 23 facing the column direction wiring 14) and the side surface portion 24 adjacent to the contact surface 23
A low-resistance film 25 is formed on the substrate, and is arranged by a necessary number and at a necessary interval to achieve the above-mentioned object;
It is fixed to the inside of the face plate 17 and the surface of the substrate 11 by a bonding material 26. The low resistance film 25 is formed of the spacer 2
The high resistance film 22 has a lower sheet resistance than the sheet resistance of the insulative substrate 21 serving as the base of the low resistance film 25.
Has a higher sheet resistance value than the sheet resistance value. The high-resistance film 22 is formed on at least the surface of the insulating substrate 21 that is exposed to the vacuum in the hermetic container, and the low-resistance film 25 and the bonding material 26 on the spacer 20 are formed.
Are electrically connected to the inside of the face plate 17 (such as the metal back 19) and to the surface of the substrate 11 (the row wiring 13 or the column wiring 14).

In the embodiment described here, the spacer 20 has a thin plate shape, is arranged on the row direction wiring 13 in parallel with the row direction wiring 13, and is electrically connected to the row direction wiring 13. The spacer 20 has an insulating property enough to withstand a high voltage applied between the row-direction wiring 13 and the column-direction wiring 14 on the substrate 11 and the metal back 19 on the inner surface of the face plate 17. It is necessary to have conductivity enough to prevent charging on the surface.

As the insulating substrate 21 of the spacer 20,
For example, quartz glass, glass having a reduced impurity content such as Na, soda lime glass, and ceramic members such as alumina can be used. The insulating base 21 preferably has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of the members forming the airtight container and the substrate 11.

The acceleration voltage Va applied to the face plate 17 (metal back 19 and the like) on the high potential side is applied to the high resistance film 22 of the spacer 20 as an antistatic film.
Is divided by the resistance value Rs. Therefore, the resistance value Rs of the spacer 20 is set to a desirable range from the viewpoint of antistatic and power consumption. The surface resistance is preferably 10 ¹⁴ [Ω / □] or less from the viewpoint of antistatic. Furthermore, in order to obtain a sufficient antistatic effect, 10 ¹³ [Ω /
□] The following are preferred. The lower limit of the surface resistance depends on the shape of the spacer 20 and the voltage applied between the spacers 20, but is preferably 10 ⁷ [Ω / □] or more.

The thickness t of the antistatic film formed on the insulating substrate 21 is preferably in the range of 10 nm to 1 μm. The surface energy of the material of the insulating substrate 21 and the substrate 11
In general, a thin film having a thickness of less than 10 nm is formed in an island shape, has an unstable resistance, and has poor reproducibility, although it varies depending on the adhesion to the substrate and the temperature of the substrate 11. On the other hand, when the film thickness t exceeds 1 μm, the film stress increases and the film is likely to peel off, and the film formation time becomes longer, resulting in poor productivity.

Accordingly, the thickness of the antistatic film is 50 to 500.
nm is desirable. The surface resistance is ρ / t, and the specific resistance ρ of the antistatic film is 10 [Ω · cm] to 10 ^{10 based on} the preferable ranges of the surface resistance and the film thickness t described above.
[Ω · cm] is preferable. Further, in order to realize more preferable ranges of the surface resistance and the film thickness t, ρ is 10 ⁴ to 10
⁸ [Ωcm] is recommended.

As described above, the temperature of the spacer 20 rises when current flows through the antistatic film formed thereon or when the entire display panel generates heat during operation. If the resistance temperature coefficient of the antistatic film is a large negative value, the resistance value decreases when the temperature rises, the current flowing through the spacer 20 increases, and the temperature further rises. And the current continues to increase until the power supply limit is exceeded. The value of the temperature coefficient of resistance at which such a runaway of current occurs is empirically a negative value and the absolute value is 1% or more. That is, the resistance temperature coefficient of the antistatic film is desirably less than -1%.

As a material of the high resistance film 22 having such antistatic properties, for example, a metal oxide can be used. Among metal oxides, oxides of chromium, nickel, and copper are preferred materials. The reason is that these oxides have relatively low secondary electron emission efficiency, and the cold cathode device 12
It is considered that even if the electrons emitted from (see FIG. 1) hit the spacer 20, it is difficult to be charged. In addition to metal oxides, carbon is a preferable material having a low secondary electron emission efficiency. In particular, since amorphous carbon has high resistance, it is easy to control the resistance of the spacer 20 to a desired value.

As other materials of the high resistance film 22 having the antistatic property, nitrides of aluminum and a transition metal alloy and nitrides of germanium and a transition metal alloy can be changed from a good conductor by adjusting the composition of the transition metal. It is a suitable material because its resistance can be controlled over a wide range up to the insulator. Further, it is a stable material with little change in resistance value in a display device manufacturing process described later. And the temperature coefficient of resistance is -1
%, Which is a material that is practically easy to use. Examples of the transition metal element include Ti, Cr, Ta, W and the like.

The alloy nitride film is formed on the insulating member by thin film forming means such as sputtering, reactive sputtering in a nitrogen gas atmosphere, electron beam evaporation, ion plating, and ion assisted evaporation. The metal oxide film can be formed by the same thin film formation method, but in this case, oxygen gas is used instead of nitrogen gas. In addition, a metal oxide film can be formed by a CVD method or an alkoxide coating method. The carbon film is formed by a vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, a CVD method, or a plasma CVD method. In particular, when forming amorphous carbon, make sure that the atmosphere during the film formation contains hydrogen or the film formation gas is used. Use hydrocarbon gas.

The low resistance film 25 constituting the spacer 20 is
This is provided to electrically connect the high resistance film 22 to the high potential side face plate 17 (metal back 19 and the like) and the low potential side substrate 11 (row direction wiring 13 and column direction wiring 14 and the like). In the following, the name of the intermediate electrode layer (low resistance film) is also used.

The intermediate electrode layer (low resistance film) has a plurality of functions listed below.

The high resistance film 22 is electrically connected to the face plate 17 and the substrate 11. As described above, the high resistance film 22 is provided for the purpose of preventing charging on the surface of the spacer 20. The resistive film 22 is connected to the face plate 17 (metal back 19).
Etc.) and substrate 11 (row direction wiring 13, column direction wiring 14)
) Directly or via the bonding material 25, a large contact resistance is generated at the interface of the connection portion, and there is a possibility that the charge generated on the surface of the spacer 20 cannot be quickly removed. Therefore, by providing a low-resistance low-resistance film 25 on the contact surface 23 or the side surface 24 of the spacer 20 that comes into contact with the face plate 17, the substrate 11, and the bonding material 26,
The charge generated on the surface of the spacer 20 can be quickly removed.

Uniform potential distribution of high resistance film 22 Electrons emitted from cold cathode element 12 form electron trajectories in accordance with the potential distribution formed between face plate 17 and substrate 11. In order to prevent the electron orbit from being disturbed near the spacer 20, it is necessary to control the potential distribution of the high resistance film 22 over the entire region. The high-resistance film 22 is formed on the face plate 17 (metal back 19 or the like) and the substrate 1
1 (row direction wiring 13, column direction wiring 14, etc.) directly or via the bonding material 26, the connection state becomes uneven due to the contact resistance at the connection interface, and the potential distribution of the high resistance film 22 is reduced. It may deviate from the desired value. Therefore, the spacer 20 is provided between the face plate 17 and the substrate 11.
End of the spacer (contact surface 23 or side surface 2)
By providing a low-resistance low-resistance film 25 in the entire length region of 4) and applying a desired potential to the low-resistance film 25, the potential of the entire high-resistance film 22 can be controlled.

Control of Orbit of Emitted Electrons Electrons emitted from the cold cathode element 12 form electron orbits in accordance with a potential distribution formed between the face plate 17 and the substrate 11. Regarding the electrons emitted from the cold cathode element 12 near the spacer 20, there are cases where restrictions (such as changes in wiring and element position) due to the installation of the spacer 20 occur. In such a case, in order to form an image without distortion or unevenness, it is necessary to control the trajectory of the emitted electrons to irradiate the desired position on the face plate 17 with the electrons. By providing a low-resistance low-resistance film 25 on the side surface 24 of the surface in contact with the face plate 17 and the substrate 11, the potential distribution in the vicinity of the spacer 20 has desired characteristics, and the trajectory of emitted electrons is controlled. I can do it.

For the low resistance film 25, a material having a sufficiently lower resistance value than that of the high resistance film 22 may be selected.
metals or alloys such as r, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu, Pd, and Pd, Ag, Au, RuO
₂ , a printed conductor composed of a metal such as Ag-PbO or the like and a metal oxide and glass, or conductive fine particles obtained by doping SnO ₂ fine particles with Sb or the like, silica or silicon oxide with alkyl, alkoxy, fluorine Or a conductive fine particle dispersed film dispersed in a binder substituted with
It is appropriately selected from a transparent conductor such as ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ and a semiconductor material such as polysilicon.

The bonding material 26 needs to have conductivity so that the spacer 20 is electrically connected to the row direction wiring 13 and the metal back 19. That is, frit glass to which a conductive adhesive, metal particles, or a conductive filler is added is preferable.

Although the spacer 20 provided with the high-resistance film 22 and the low-resistance film 25 has been described above, when the base of the spacer 20 itself has the same sheet resistance as the high-resistance film 22, the high-resistance film is not necessarily provided. 22 may not be provided.
Further, in the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7, the example in which the low-resistance film 25 is provided at the end on the face plate 17 side and the end on the rear plate 15 side has been described. 3 functions (electrical connection of the high-resistance film 22, uniform potential distribution of the high-resistance film 22, and control of emitted electron trajectories)
If it satisfies the above condition, it is not always necessary to provide at both ends, and it may be provided at only one of the ends.

The image display device using the display panel described above has row wiring terminals Dx1 to DxM and column wiring terminals Dy1 to DyN.
When a voltage is applied to each of the cold cathode devices 12 through the device, electrons are emitted from the cold cathode devices 12. At the same time, a high voltage of several hundred [V] to several [kV] is applied to the metal back 19 through the high voltage terminal Hv, and the emitted electrons are accelerated in the direction of the face plate 17, and the face plate 1
7 to collide with the inner surface. As a result, the phosphor of each color of the fluorescent film 18 is excited to emit light, and an image is displayed. Normal,
When a surface conduction electron-emitting device is used as the cold cathode device 12, the voltage applied to the cold cathode device 12 is about 12 to 16 [V], and the distance d between the metal back 19 and the cold cathode device 12 is 0.1 [mm]. ] To about 8 [mm], metal back 19
And the voltage between the cold cathode element 12 is 0.1 [kV] to 10
[KV].

The basic configuration and manufacturing method of the display panel of the present embodiment and the outline of the image display device have been described above.

Next, a method of manufacturing the spacer 20 used for the display panel of the present embodiment, particularly, a method of forming the low resistance film 25 will be described.

As described above, the spacer 20 controls the trajectory of the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 12 in addition to the function as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure for preventing the rear plate 15 and the face plate 17 from being deformed or damaged. And a function of preventing creeping discharge on the spacer surface (antistatic function). To satisfy these functions,
Various examples are conceivable as the structure of the spacer 20 including the material of the insulating substrate 21 and the electrical characteristics of the surface, and the manufacturing method thereof. In particular, since the low-resistance film 25 has a function of controlling the trajectory of the emitted electrons, it is necessary to form the low-resistance film 25 at the end of the spacer 20 with high precision.

In the present invention, the formation of the low-resistance film 25 is performed by applying the material of the low-resistance film 25 by a printing method and heating and fixing the material.

As a printing method, screen printing or offset printing can be used, thereby improving the processing accuracy of the low-resistance film 25 required for controlling the electric field in the display panel to a desired condition. , Mass productivity can be ensured. The printing apparatus used here is not particularly limited as long as it can form a desired low-resistance film 25, and can control a printing area in a range of about several μm to several hundred μm and uniformly over a large area. What is necessary is just to be able to form the printing surface. The printing plate used for printing has chemical resistance to a high-boiling point solvent such as NMP (normal-methyl-2-pyrrolidone) so that the printing surface does not dry before the baking step. It is preferable to use one that does not cause erosion. Specifically, in screen printing, a metal mesh plate such as stainless steel can be used, and in offset printing, a photosensitive styrene-based rubber plate or the like can be used as a convex offset printing plate, but is not limited thereto. Instead, it is appropriately selected depending on the solvent used, the surface energy of the substrate 11, the process atmosphere, and the like.

The printing solution used to form the low resistance film 25 is not limited to a specific material, but may be an organic solution obtained by dispersing or dissolving a material for obtaining a desired resistance value in water, a solvent or the like. There are a metal compound solution, a solution containing an organometallic complex, and the like. Examples of material types that can be selected include Pd, Pt, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, and C.
u, Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, Ta, W, and Pb, _{etc., PdO, SnO 2, In 2} O 3, PbO, oxides such as _{Sb 2 O 3, HfB 2,} ZrB 2, LaB 6, CeB ₆ , YB
₄ , borides such as GdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC, HfC, Ta
Carbides such as C, SiC, WC, TiN, ZrN, HfN
And the like, semiconductors such as Si and Ge, carbon, and the like.

The film structure of the formed low-resistance film 25 may be any of crystalline, amorphous, polycrystalline and the like, and fine particles may be used to improve low resistance and adhesion to the substrate 11. Can also be used. In addition,
The fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and has a fine structure not only in a state where the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also in a state where the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other (including an island shape). It also refers to a film, and the primary particle size of the fine particles is several to several thousand, preferably 50 to eight.
00 °.

In order to favorably form the low-resistance film 25 by printing, it is preferable to wash the insulating substrate 21 before printing.

Further, the insulating substrate 21 of the spacer 20
The material can be selected from quartz glass, glass having a reduced impurity content such as Na, blue plate glass, a glass substrate having SiO ₂ formed on the surface thereof, and a ceramic substrate such as alumina. In order to prevent the spacer 20 from falling over due to thermal stress during panel assembly, it is preferable to select a material having no large difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the rear plate 15 and the face plate 17. In particular, for the spacer 20, it is conceivable that a shape such as a plate shape, a column shape, and a column shape is selected in the printing method, and various methods such as sheet shaping and fiber shaping can be selected in order to obtain these necessary shapes. .

In order to make the spacer 20 have a desired size, a sheet-like or fiber-like base material is
An insulating base 21 cut into a predetermined size according to the distance between the metal back 1 and the metal back 19 and the area of the substrate 11 is used. At this time, the formation of the low-resistance film 25 may be performed after cutting the base, or may be performed before cutting. That is, as shown in FIG. 8, the base is washed (step 101), and the low-resistance film 25 is printed on a predetermined portion of the washed base by printing.
Is formed (Step 102), the low-resistance film 25 is fixed by heating (Step 103), and thereafter, the substrate is cut into a desired size (Step 104), and as shown in FIG. The substrate is cut into a desired size (step 111), and after being cleaned (step 11).
2) A low-resistance film 25 is formed on a predetermined portion of the cut substrate by printing (step 113).
5 is fixed by heating (step 114).

In order to improve the mass production efficiency, as shown in FIG. 8, a sheet-like substrate is formed before being processed into a spacer shape prescribed for reasons such as the atmospheric pressure resistance structure of the display panel. Performing a printing process, after baking and drying process, after forming the low-resistance film, it is better to divide it into a desired size, it is possible to batch-define the shape of a print pattern of several hundred μm or less with high accuracy, preferable.

Furthermore, by performing a cutting process (grooving) such as a wedge shape or a taper shape on the printing region of the above-mentioned substrate serving as a base of the spacer 20, an effect of wrapping from the side surface to the bottom surface of the printing surface is expected. In that both the bottom and side surfaces can be simultaneously coated, and the continuity of the bottom and side films is improved. It is possible to make better electrical contact with the upper and lower substrates.

The groove is formed on the substrate before the substrate cutting step and the printing step. Of course, if there is a cleaning step, cleaning is performed to remove chips by the groove processing. It is preferably performed before the step. That is,
As shown in FIG. 10, when the low-resistance film 25 is printed (step 123), fixed (step 124), and the base is cut (step 125), the base low-resistance film 25 is cut.
A groove is formed in advance in the print area (step 12).
1) After cleaning the substrate (step 122), the low-resistance film 25 is printed (step 123). FIG.
As shown in (13), after cutting the substrate (step 13)
2) When the cut substrate is washed (step 133), the low-resistance film 25 is printed (step 134) and fixed (step 135), a groove is formed before cutting the substrate (step 131).

Further, after printing the low-resistance film 25 and cutting the substrate to form the spacer 20, the cut surface exposes the insulating substrate 21. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 12, after cutting the substrate (step 144), a low-resistance film having the same electrical characteristics as the low-resistance film 25 is formed on the cut surface corresponding to the contact surface 23. By performing the resistive film coating process (step 145), it is possible to obtain a low-resistance film coating for obtaining better electrical bonding.

The method of coating the cut surface with a low-resistance film is not particularly limited, but a liquid phase forming method that does not require a vacuum depressurizing step is preferable from the viewpoint of production efficiency. Specifically, (Step A): a step of spreading and applying a printing solution containing a low-resistance film material on a developing plate (Step B): a step of bringing a cut surface of a substrate into contact with the developed printing solution and immersing the same ( Step C): an immersion transfer method having a step of separating the substrate from the printing solution and transferring the substrate to a cut surface; and (Step a): a step of applying a printing solution containing a low-resistance film material to a rotatable transfer member. b): a step of transferring the printing solution to the end face of the substrate by bringing the transfer member into contact with the cut surface of the substrate and rotating the same. (Step c): a step of separating the transfer member from the substrate.

This rotational transfer method can be specifically performed as follows using, for example, an apparatus shown in FIG. First, as shown in FIG.
The printing solution 705 is spread thereon by spin coating or the like, and the drum 702 around which the printing plate 703 is wound is moved while rotating on the printing solution 705, so that the printing solution 705 is applied to the printing plate 703. .

Next, as shown in FIG. 26 (b), an insulating substrate 70 processed into a desired shape is placed on a support base 706.
7 is supported with the contact surface facing upward, and the drum 702 is rotated while the printing plate 703 to which the printing solution 705 is applied is in contact with the contact surface of the insulating substrate 707, so that the insulating substrate 707 is The printing solution 705 is transferred.

Then, when the drum 707 is moved over the entire length of the insulating base 707 in the longitudinal direction, FIG.
The drum 702 is separated from the insulating substrate 707 as shown in FIG. Thus, the low-resistance film is printed only on the contact surface of the insulating base 707. After that, the insulating substrate 7
By turning over 07 and repeating the same procedure, a low-resistance film can be printed on the contact surfaces at both ends of the insulating substrate 707.

Here, the contact surface 23 of the spacer 20 is
The upper and lower substrates of the display panel, that is, surfaces directly or indirectly fixed to the face plate 17 and the rear plate 15, and the side surface is a surface on which the electron beam emitting element or the trajectory of the emitted electron beam exists on the normal line. In many cases, it is preferable that a high-resistance film is formed in consideration of the relaxation of charging.
And substantially parallel to the rear plate 15.

Further, when the shape processing of the base is performed before printing the low resistance film 25, it is advantageous in that it is not necessary to perform a new coating process for exposing the insulating surface on the cut surface, which is advantageous. .

In this case, if it is possible to simultaneously form a printing region that straddles the side surface and the contact surface on the printing surface when the low resistance film 25 is formed, it is necessary to print both the side surface and the contact surface. As a result, the number of printing steps can be reduced and the process cost can be suppressed. For this purpose, the cross-sectional shape at the boundary region (edge portion) between the contact surface 23 of the insulating base 21 and the side surface adjacent thereto does not have a substantially acute cross section, that is, the edge portion is formed into an obtuse angle or a curved surface. It is preferred that Furthermore, it is preferable that the surface area of the substrate surface near the low resistance film forming portion is smaller than the area of the vertically processed one, and furthermore, it is necessary to secure the bottom surface for the purpose of ensuring assembly accuracy. Is defined. That is, as shown in FIG. 13, the maximum thickness of the insulating base 21 in the region where the low-resistance film 25 is formed is t, the height of the low-resistance film 25 is h, and the inner circumferential length of the cross-section of the low-resistance film 25. Assuming that (the length of the cross section in contact with the insulating substrate 21) is s, it is preferable that the following formula (t ² + 4h ² ) <s ² <(t + 2h) ² is satisfied.

As a specific method for obtaining the above-mentioned shape, any means may be used as long as the continuity of the film and the electrical connection between the contact surface and the side surface are good. When glass is used as the insulating substrate 21, heat-stretching can be used as a simple means.

The processing of the insulating substrate 21 by the heat stretching can be carried out, for example, by using a heating stretching apparatus shown in FIG.

First, a long base material 501 having a shape similar to the cross section of the insulating substrate 21 to be manufactured is prepared. At this time, the sectional area of the insulating base 21 is s1, and the sectional area of the base material is s1.
Assuming that 2, s1 and s2 have a relationship of (s1 / s2) <1.

Next, the intermediate portion in the longitudinal direction of the base material 501 is heated by the heater 502 to a temperature equal to or higher than the softening point, and one end before heating is sent to the heater 502 side by the stretching roller 504 at the speed v2. At the speed v1 in the same direction as the speed v2 by the stretching roller 503. At this time, the speeds v1 and v2 are s1 × v1 = s
It is set to satisfy 2 × v2. That is, the base material 5
When 01 is pulled out by the stretching roller 503, the cross-sectional area of the base material 501 becomes s1. The heating temperature at this time depends on the type of glass and the processing shape, but is usually 5
The temperature is set to 00 to 700 ° C.

The base material 501 thus heat-stretched
After cooling, is cut to a desired length by a cutter 505,
An insulating substrate 21 is manufactured. When the insulating substrate 21 is manufactured by using the heat-stretch molding method, the heat-stretched base material 50 is used.
Reference numeral 1 denotes an R having a small radius at its four corners, but having a larger radius of curvature than the case where the insulating substrate 21 is manufactured by cutting.
A product having the same shape as that after the treatment is obtained.

Further, the edge of the cut or cut out insulating substrate 21 may be subjected to R processing or tapering as post-processing in order to ensure the continuity of the low-resistance film 25. Specific means at this time include sand blast, laser scribe, water blast,
Scribe cutting, polishing, chemical etching with hydrofluoric acid or the like can be used.

The processing range of the radius of curvature of the R processing of the edge of the insulating substrate 21 is t with respect to the thickness t of the insulating substrate 21.
/ 2 or less, it is possible to form a good continuous surface, but it is more empirically more preferable to have a radius of curvature of t × 1/100 or more to satisfy film continuity and assembly accuracy. Become. FIG. 15A is a diagram showing an example of a cross-sectional shape of an end portion of a spacer applicable to the embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 15A and 15B show the corner portions. The figure shows a C-chamfered shape in one direction. (3) shows a shape chamfered in two directions, and (4) shows a case of an R shape. Further, each of (1) to (4) in FIG. 15 (b) corresponds to (1) to (1) in FIG.
An example of a low resistance film formed corresponding to each of (4) is shown.

If necessary, a portion where the low-resistance film is not formed is formed as necessary, for example, when a short-circuit with the wiring or the projection of the low-resistance film near the edge of the insulating substrate causes a discharge. Things are also valid. Specific examples of the method include, but not limited to, an etching process corresponding to a low-resistance film, removal by laser repair, or photolithography, or pattern formation by a lift-off process, and application of a coating liquid using a mask. be able to.

Further, since the spacer provided with the low-resistance film by the printing method has a high-resistance film, the charging of the spacer surface is suppressed, and as a result, a good image with no shift of the light emitting point can be obtained. More preferably, as described above, the high-resistance film is to have a ^{10 7 [Ω / □] ~10} 1 sheet resistance of ^{4 [Ω} / □], suppress the current consumption and heat generation between the charge and the upper and lower substrates It becomes possible. Further, the resistance value of the low resistance film is 1/10 or less of the resistance value of the high resistance film as its sheet resistance, and 10 ⁷ [Ω / □, for the purpose of improving the electrical connection with the upper and lower substrates. ] It is desirable to be below.
Further, the electron-emitting device is a cold cathode device, furthermore, an electron-emitting device having a conductive film including an electron-emitting portion between the electrodes, and furthermore, is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. This is more preferable because the structure of the element is simple and high luminance can be obtained.

Next, a method of manufacturing the multi-electron source used for the display panel of the present embodiment will be described. The material, shape, and manufacturing method of the cold cathode device are not limited as long as the multi-electron source used in the image display device of the present embodiment is an electron source in which the cold cathode devices are arranged in a simple matrix. Therefore, for example, a cold cathode device such as a surface conduction type emission device, an FE type, or an MIM type can be used. However, in a situation where a display device having a large display screen and an inexpensive display device is required, among these cold cathode devices, the surface conduction type emission device is particularly preferable. That is, in the FE type, since the relative position and the shape of the emitter cone and the gate electrode greatly affect the electron emission characteristics, an extremely high-precision manufacturing technique is required, but this achieves a large area and a reduction in manufacturing cost. Is a disadvantageous factor. In the MIM type, it is necessary to make the thickness of the insulating layer and the upper electrode thin and uniform, which is also a disadvantageous factor in achieving a large area and a reduction in manufacturing cost. In this regard, since the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a relatively simple manufacturing method, it is easy to increase the area and reduce the manufacturing cost.

The present inventors have found that among the surface conduction electron-emitting devices, those in which the electron-emitting portion or its peripheral portion is formed of a fine particle film have particularly excellent electron-emitting characteristics and can be easily manufactured. I have. Therefore, it can be said that it is most suitable for use in a multi-electron source of a high-luminance, large-screen image display device. Therefore, in the display panel of this embodiment, a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which the electron-emitting portion or its peripheral portion is formed of a fine particle film is used. Therefore, the basic configuration, manufacturing method and characteristics of a suitable surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described first, and then the structure of a multi-electron source in which many devices are arranged in a simple matrix will be described.

(Suitable Device Configuration and Manufacturing Method of Surface Conduction Emission Device) A typical configuration of a surface conduction electron-emitting device in which an electron-emitting portion or its peripheral portion is formed from a fine particle film is a flat type or a vertical type. Kinds are given.

(Planar surface conduction electron-emitting device) First, the structure and manufacturing method of the planar surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present embodiment will be described.

FIG. 16 is a plan view (a) and a cross-sectional view (b) for explaining the structure of a planar type surface conduction electron-emitting device. In the figure, 1101 is a substrate, 1102, 11
03, a device electrode; 1104, a conductive thin film; 1105, an electron-emitting portion formed by an energization forming process;
Reference numeral 3 denotes a thin film formed by the activation process.

As the substrate 1101, for example, various glass substrates such as quartz glass and blue plate glass, various ceramics substrates such as alumina, or an insulating layer made of, for example, SiO ₂ on the various substrates described above. , A substrate on which is laminated, or the like.

The element electrodes 1102 and 1103 provided on the substrate 1101 so as to be parallel to the substrate surface are formed of a conductive material. For example, N
i, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Cu, Pd,
Ag and other metals, or alloys of these metals,
Alternatively, a material may be appropriately selected from metal oxides such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ , semiconductors such as polysilicon, and the like. The element electrodes 1102 and 1103 can be easily formed by using a combination of a film forming technique such as vacuum deposition and a patterning technique such as photolithography and etching. However, other methods (eg, printing technique) are used. It can be formed even if it is formed.

The shapes of the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 are appropriately designed according to the application purpose of the electron-emitting device.
Generally, the electrode interval L is usually designed by selecting an appropriate numerical value from the range of several hundreds of mm to several hundreds of μm.
Range. As for the thickness d of the device electrodes 1102 and 1103, an appropriate numerical value is usually selected from the range of several hundreds of .mu.m to several .mu.m. Further, a fine particle film is used for the conductive thin film 1104. The fine particle film mentioned here is
Refers to a film (including an island-shaped aggregate) containing many fine particles as a constituent element. If you examine the microparticle film microscopically,
Usually, a structure in which individual fine particles are spaced apart, a structure in which fine particles are adjacent to each other, or a structure in which fine particles overlap with each other is observed.

The particle diameter of the fine particles used in the fine particle film is in the range of several to several thousand, preferably 10 to 200. Also,
The thickness of the fine particle film is appropriately set in consideration of various conditions described below. That is, the device electrodes 1102 and 1103
And the conditions necessary to perform the energization forming satisfactorily described later, the conditions necessary to make the electric resistance of the fine particle film itself an appropriate value described later, and the like. is there. Specifically, it is set in the range of several to several thousand, but the most preferable is ten to five.
It is between 00Å.

Materials that can be used to form the fine particle film include, for example, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ag, A
u, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, T
a, W, Pb, and other metals, PdO, S
Oxides such as nO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ , etc., HfB ₂ , ZrB ₂ , LaB ₆ , CeB ₆ ,
Borides such as YB ₄ , GdB ₄ , etc., Ti
Carbides including C, ZrC, HfC, TaC, SiC, WC, etc., nitrides including TiN, ZrN, HfN, etc., semiconductors including Si, Ge, etc., carbon, etc. And these are appropriately selected from these.

As described above, the conductive thin film 1104 is formed of a fine particle film.
It was set to fall within the range of 10 ³ to 10 ⁷ [Ω / □].

Note that the conductive thin film 1104 and the device electrode 11
02 and 1103 are desirably electrically connected favorably, and thus have a structure in which a part of each overlaps. In the example of FIG. 16, the layers are stacked in the order of the substrate 1101, the device electrodes 1102, 1103, and the conductive thin film 1104 from the bottom, but in some cases, the substrate 1101, the conductive thin film 1104, the device electrode 11
02, 1103, in that order.

The electron emitting portion 1105 is a crack-like portion formed in a part of the conductive thin film 1104, and has a higher electrical property than the surrounding conductive thin film 1104. . This crack is formed by performing a later-described energization forming process on the conductive thin film 1104. Fine particles having a particle size of several to several hundreds of mm may be arranged in the crack. Note that the actual electron emission portion 11
Since it is difficult to precisely and accurately illustrate the position and shape of the part 05, it is schematically shown in FIG.

The thin film 1113 is a thin film made of carbon or a carbon compound, and covers the electron emitting portion 1105 and its vicinity. The thin film 1113 is formed by performing an energization activation process described later after the energization forming process. The thin film 1113 is any one of single-crystal graphite, polycrystalline graphite, and amorphous carbon, or a mixture thereof, and has a thickness of 500 ° or less.
More preferably, it is 300 ° or less. Since it is difficult to accurately show the actual position and shape of the thin film 1113, it is schematically shown in FIG. In addition, in the plan view (a), an element in which a part of the thin film 1113 is removed is illustrated.

The basic configuration of the preferred cold cathode device has been described above. In the present embodiment, the following device is used.

That is, soda glass was used for the substrate 1101, and a Ni thin film was used for the device electrodes 1102 and 1103. The thickness d of the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 is 1000
Å, the electrode interval L was 2 μm.

Pd or P as the main material of the fine particle film
Using dO, the thickness of the fine particle film is about 100 ° and the width W is 10
It was 0 μm.

Next, a method of manufacturing a suitable planar surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described.

FIGS. 17 (a) to 17 (e) are cross-sectional views for explaining the manufacturing steps of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the notation of each part is the same as in FIG.

(1) First, as shown in FIG.
Element electrodes 1102 and 1103 are formed over a substrate 1101. Before forming these, the substrate 1101
Is sufficiently washed using a detergent, pure water, and an organic solvent, and then the materials of the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 are deposited. (As a deposition method, for example, a vacuum film forming technique such as an evaporation method or a sputtering method may be used.) Thereafter, the deposited electrode material is patterned by using a photolithography / etching technique to form a pair of device electrodes 1102 and 1103.

(2) Next, as shown in FIG.
A conductive thin film 1104 is formed. This conductive thin film 110
In forming 4, first, the device electrodes 1102,
An organometallic solution is applied to the substrate 1101 on which 1103 is formed, dried and heated and baked to form a fine particle film.
It is patterned into a predetermined shape by photolithography and etching. Here, the organometallic solution is a solution of an organometallic compound containing a material of fine particles used for the conductive thin film 1104 as a main element. (Specifically, Pd was used as a main element in the present embodiment. As a coating method, a dipping method was used in the present embodiment, but other methods such as a spinner method and a spray method may be used.) .

The conductive thin film 11 made of a fine particle film
As a method of forming the film 04, for example, a vacuum evaporation method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, or the like may be used other than the method of applying the organometallic solution used in the present embodiment.

(3) Next, as shown in FIG.
From the forming power supply 1110 to the element electrodes 1102,1
An appropriate voltage is applied to the conductive thin film 1103 between the conductive thin films 1104 and the electron emitting portions 1105.
To form

[0138] The energization forming treatment is to energize the conductive thin film 1104 made of a fine particle film, and to appropriately break, deform, or alter the part of the conductive thin film 1104, thereby changing the structure to a structure suitable for emitting electrons. This is the process that causes A portion of the conductive thin film 1104 made of a fine particle film that has been changed to a structure suitable for emitting electrons (that is, the electron emitting portion 11
In (05), an appropriate crack is formed in the thin film. Note that the electrical resistance measured between the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 is significantly increased after the formation, as compared to before the electron emission portion 1105 is formed.

FIG. 18 shows an example of an appropriate voltage waveform applied from the forming power supply 1110 in order to explain the energization method in more detail. When forming the conductive thin film 1104 made of a fine particle film, a pulse-like voltage is preferable. In the case of this embodiment, a triangular wave pulse having a pulse width T1 is continuously generated at a pulse interval T2 as shown in FIG. Was applied. At that time, the peak value Vpf of the triangular wave pulse
Was sequentially increased in pressure. In addition, monitor pulses Pm for monitoring the state of formation of the electron-emitting portion 1105 were inserted at appropriate intervals between the triangular-wave pulses, and the current flowing at that time was measured by the ammeter 1111.

In this embodiment, for example, 10 ⁻⁵ [to
rr], a pulse width T1
Was set to 1 [millisecond], the pulse interval T2 was set to 10 [millisecond], and the peak value Vpf was increased by 0.1 [V] for each pulse. Then, each time five triangular waves were applied, the monitor pulse Pm was inserted once. The monitor pulse voltage Vpm was set to 0.1 [V] so as not to adversely affect the forming process. The electric resistance between the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 is 1 × 10
When the current became ⁶ [Ω], that is, when the current measured by the ammeter 1111 at the time of application of the monitor pulse became 1 × 10 ⁻⁷ [A] or less, the energization related to the forming process was terminated.

The above method is a preferable method for the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this embodiment. For example, the material and thickness of the fine particle film or the design of the surface conduction electron-emitting device such as the element electrode interval L are changed. In such a case, it is desirable to appropriately change the energization conditions accordingly.

(4) Next, as shown in FIG.
From the activation power supply 1112 to the device electrodes 1102 and 1103
During the energization activation process, apply an appropriate voltage during
Improve electron emission characteristics. This energization activation process
Electron emitting portion 11 formed by energization forming process
This is a process of energizing under conditions 05 to deposit carbon or a carbon compound in the vicinity thereof. (In the figure, a deposit made of carbon or a carbon compound is schematically shown as a thin film 1113.) By performing the activation process, the emission current at the same applied voltage is typically smaller than that before the activation. Specifically, it can be increased by 100 times or more.

Specifically, by periodically applying a voltage pulse in a vacuum atmosphere within a range of 10 ^-4 to 10 ^-5 [torr], the organic compound originates from an organic compound existing in the vacuum atmosphere. Deposit carbon or carbon compounds. Thin film 11
Reference numeral 13 denotes one of single-crystal graphite, polycrystalline graphite, and amorphous carbon, or a mixture thereof, and has a film thickness of 500 [Å] or less, more preferably 300 [Å].
[Å] It is as follows.

In order to explain this energization method in more detail, FIG. 19A shows an example of an appropriate voltage waveform applied from the activation power supply 1112. In the present embodiment, the energization activation process is performed by applying a rectangular wave of a constant voltage periodically, but specifically, the rectangular wave voltage Vac is 14
[V], pulse width T3 is 1 [millisecond], pulse interval T4
Was set to 10 [milliseconds]. The above-described energization conditions are preferable conditions for the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present embodiment, and when the design of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is changed,
It is desirable to change the conditions accordingly.

Reference numeral 1114 shown in FIG. 17D denotes an anode electrode for capturing an emission current Ie emitted from the surface conduction type emission element, and is connected to a DC high voltage power supply 1115 and an ammeter 1116. . The substrate 110
When the activation process is performed after the display panel 1 is incorporated in the display panel, the phosphor screen of the display panel is connected to the anode electrode 111.
Used as 4. While the voltage is applied from the activation power supply 1112, the emission current Ie is measured by the ammeter 1116 to monitor the progress of the energization activation process, and the activation power supply 111
2 is controlled.

Emission current Ie measured by ammeter 1116
FIG. 19B shows an example. When the pulse voltage is started to be applied from the activation power supply 1112, the emission current Ie increases with the elapse of time, but eventually saturates and hardly increases. In this way, when the emission current Ie is almost saturated, the application of the voltage from the activation power supply 1112 is stopped,
The energization activation process ends.

The above-described energization conditions are preferable conditions for the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the present embodiment, and when the design of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is changed, the conditions should be changed accordingly. desirable.

As described above, the flat surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 17E was manufactured.

(Vertical Type Surface Conduction Emission Element) Next, another typical configuration of a surface conduction type emission element in which the electron emission portion or its periphery is formed of a fine particle film, that is, a vertical type surface conduction emission device. The configuration of the element will be described.

FIG. 20 is a schematic sectional view for explaining the basic structure of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.
In the figure, 1201 is a substrate, 1202 and 1203 are device electrodes, 1206 is a step forming member, 1204 is a conductive thin film using a fine particle film, 1205 is an electron emitting portion formed by energization forming, and 1213 is an energization activation process. It is a formed thin film.

This vertical type is different from the flat type described above.
The point is that one of the device electrodes (1202) is a step forming portion.
Is provided on the material 1206, and the conductive thin film 1204 is
The point is that the side surface of the step forming member 1206 is covered.
Therefore, the element electrode interval L in the planar type shown in FIG.
In the case of a straight type, the step height Ls of the step forming member 1206 is set to Ls.
Is set. Note that the substrate 1201, the element electrode 120
2,1203, a conductive thin film 1204 using a fine particle film,
For the materials described in the description of the flat type,
Is possible. Also, the step forming member 1206
Is, for example, SiO _Two Use an electrically insulating material such as
I have.

Next, a method of manufacturing a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described. FIGS. 21A to 21F are cross-sectional views illustrating an example of a manufacturing process of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the notation of each part is the same as in FIG.

(1) First, as shown in FIG.
One element electrode 1203 is formed over a substrate 1201.

(2) Next, as shown in FIG.
Insulating layer 120 for forming step forming member 1206
6 'is laminated. The insulating layer 1206 ′ is made of, for example, SiO ₂
May be stacked by a sputtering method, but another film formation method such as a vacuum evaporation method or a printing method may be used.

(3) Next, as shown in FIG.
The other element electrode 1202 is formed over the insulating layer 1206 '.

(4) Next, a part of the insulating layer 1206 'is replaced with
For example, it is removed by an etching method, and as shown in FIG. 21D, the element electrode 1203 is exposed to form a step forming member 1206.

(5) Next, as shown in FIG.
A conductive thin film 1204 using a fine particle film is formed. In order to form the conductive thin film 1204, a film forming technique such as a coating method may be used as in the case of the planar type.

(6) Next, an energization forming process is performed in the same manner as in the case of the flat type to form the electron emitting portions 1205. (A process similar to the planar type energization forming process described with reference to FIG. 17C may be performed.) (7) Next, an energization activation process is performed as in the case of the planar type, and the electron emission section is performed. A thin film 1213 is formed by depositing carbon or a carbon compound near 1205. (FIG. 17
What is necessary is just to perform the same process as the planar type energization activation process described using (d). As described above, the vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG.

(Characteristics of Surface Conduction Emission Device Used in Display Device) The element structure and manufacturing method of the planar and vertical surface conduction electron-emitting devices have been described above. Next, the characteristics of the device used in the display device will be described. Is described.

FIG. 22 shows emission current Ie and element applied voltage Vf of the surface conduction electron-emitting device used in the display device of this embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a typical example of a relationship between the element current If and an element applied voltage Vf. Note that the emission current Ie is significantly smaller than the device current If, and it is difficult to show the same current on the same scale. In addition, these characteristics are changed by changing design parameters such as the size and shape of the device. Therefore, each of the two graphs is shown in arbitrary units.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device used in this display device has the following three characteristics regarding the emission current Ie.

First, when a voltage higher than a certain voltage (threshold voltage Vth) is applied to the element, the emission current Ie sharply increases. On the other hand, at a voltage lower than the threshold voltage Vth, the emission current Ie is hardly detected. Not done. That is, it is a non-linear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

Secondly, since the emission current Ie changes depending on the voltage Vf applied to the element, the emission current Ie varies with the voltage Vf.
Size can be controlled.

Third, since the response speed of the current Ie emitted from the element is fast with respect to the voltage Vf applied to the element, the amount of charge of the electrons emitted from the element depends on the length of time during which the voltage Vf is applied. Can control.

Because of the above-mentioned characteristics, the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this embodiment could be suitably used for a display device. For example, in a display device in which a large number of elements are provided corresponding to the pixels of the display screen, display can be performed by sequentially scanning the display screen by using the above-described first characteristic. That is, a voltage equal to or higher than the threshold voltage Vth is appropriately applied to the element being driven, and a voltage lower than the threshold voltage Vth is applied to the element in a non-selected state. By sequentially switching the elements to be driven in this manner, display can be performed by sequentially scanning the display screen.

Further, since the emission luminance can be controlled by using the second characteristic or the third characteristic, a gradation display can be performed.

The structure of a multi-electron source in which these surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged on a substrate and arranged in a simple matrix is as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 described above.

Next, the structure of an image display device including a display panel on which surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged will be described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 23, a display panel 201 has a row wiring terminal Dx1 connected to a row wiring in the display panel 201.
To DxM, also connected to an external driving circuit via column wiring terminals Dy1 to DyN which are also connected to the column wiring of the display panel 201. Of these, the row wiring terminals Dx1 to DxM are connected to the multi-electron sources provided on the display panel 201, ie, M
A scanning signal for sequentially selecting and driving the surface conduction electron-emitting devices wired in a matrix of rows N and N columns,
Input from the scanning circuit 202. On the other hand, the column wiring terminal Dy1
To DyN to control the electrons emitted from each element of the surface conduction electron-emitting device in one row selected by the scanning signal applied to the row wiring from the scanning circuit 202 in accordance with the input video signal signal. Is applied.

The control circuit 203 has a function of matching the operation timing of each unit so that appropriate display is performed based on a video signal input from the outside. Here, the video signal 220 input from the outside includes, for example, NT
There are cases where the image data and the synchronizing signal are compounded like the SC signal, and cases where the two are separated in advance.
Here, the latter case will be described. For the former video signal, a well-known sync separation circuit is provided to separate the image data from the sync signal Tsync, and the image data is input to the shift register 204 and the sync signal is input to the control circuit 203. It can be handled in the same manner as in the embodiment.

Here, the control circuit 203 generates each control signal such as a horizontal synchronization signal Tscan, a latch signal Tmry, and a shift signal Tsft for each unit based on the synchronization signal Tsync input from the outside.

Image data (luminance data) included in a video signal input from the outside is input to the shift register 204. The shift register 204 is for serially / parallel-converting image data input serially in time series in units of one line of an image, and a control signal (shift signal) Tsft input from the control circuit 203.
, And serially inputs and holds image data.
The image data for one line (corresponding to the drive data for the N-electron emitting elements) thus converted into parallel signals by the shift register 204 is output to the latch circuit 205 as parallel signals Id1 to IdN.

The latch circuit 205 is a storage circuit for storing and holding one line of image data for a required time only, and a control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 203.
, The parallel signals Id1 to IdN are stored. The image data thus stored in the latch circuit 205 corresponds to the parallel signal I'd
The signals are output to the pulse width modulation circuit 206 as 1 to I′dN.
The pulse width modulation circuit 206 outputs these parallel signals I'd1 to I '.
Image data (I'd) with a constant amplitude (voltage value) according to dN
1 to I'dN), the voltage signal having the pulse width modulated according to I "d
1 to I "dN.

More specifically, this pulse width modulation circuit 2
06 outputs a voltage pulse having a wider pulse width as the luminance level of the image data increases. For example, 30 μs for the maximum luminance, 0.12 μs for the minimum luminance, and an amplitude of 7. A voltage pulse of 5 [V] is output. The output signals I "d1 to I" dN are applied to the column wiring terminals Dy1 to DyN of the display panel 201.

The high voltage terminal Hv of the display panel 201 is supplied with a DC voltage V of, for example, 5 KV from the acceleration voltage source 209.
a is supplied.

Next, the scanning circuit 202 will be described.
This circuit 202 includes M switching elements inside, and each switching element selects either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 [V] (ground level), and the display panel The terminal 201 is electrically connected to the terminals Dx1 to DxM. Switching of these switching elements is performed by a control signal Tsc output from the control circuit 203.
Although it is performed based on an, it can be easily configured in practice by combining switching elements such as FETs. Note that the DC voltage source Vx is
The driving voltage applied to an element that is not scanned based on the characteristics of the electron-emitting device illustrated in FIG.
It is set to output a constant voltage so as to be equal to or lower than the th voltage. Further, the control circuit 203 has a function of matching the operation of each unit so that appropriate display is performed based on an image signal input from the outside.

It should be noted that the shift register 204 and the line memory 205 may be of a digital signal type or an analog signal type. That is, the serial / parallel conversion and storage of the image signal need only be performed at a predetermined speed.

In the image display apparatus of the present embodiment having such a configuration, electron emission is generated by applying a voltage to each electron-emitting device via the external terminals Dx1 to DxM and Dy1 to DyN. . A high voltage is applied to the metal back 19 or the transparent electrode (not shown) via the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam. The accelerated electrons collide with the fluorescent film 18 and emit light to form an image.

The configuration of the image display apparatus described here is an example of an image forming apparatus to which the present invention can be applied, and various modifications can be made based on the concept of the present invention. The input signal is described in the NTSC system. However, the input signal is not limited to this. In addition to the PAL and SECAM systems, a TV signal including a larger number of scanning lines (high-definition TV including the MUSE system) A method can also be adopted.

(Case of Ladder-Type Electron Source) Next, the above-described ladder-type arrangement electron source substrate and an image display device using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 24 and 25.

In FIG. 24, 1110 is an electron source substrate,
Reference numeral 1111 denotes an electron-emitting device, and Dx1 to Dx10 of 1112 denote common wirings connected to the electron-emitting device 1112. A plurality of electron-emitting devices 1111 are arranged on the substrate 1110 in parallel in the X direction (this is called an element row). A plurality of such element rows are arranged on a substrate 1110 to form a ladder-type electron source substrate. By appropriately applying a drive voltage between the common wires of each element row, each element row can be driven independently. That is, the element row that emits an electron beam has
A voltage lower than the electron emission threshold may be applied to an element row that does not emit an electron beam having a voltage higher than the electron emission threshold.
Further, the common wirings Dx2 to Dx9 between the element rows are changed to, for example, Dx
2, Dx3 may be the same wiring.

FIG. 25 is a diagram showing the structure of a display panel of an image forming apparatus having a ladder-type electron source. In the figure, 1120 is a grid electrode, 1211 is a hole for passing electrons, 1122 is Dox1, Dox2,.
.., GN connected to the grid electrode 1120, and 1110 are connected to the same wiring between the element rows as described above. This is an electron source substrate on which the emission elements 1111 are arranged.

The electron source substrate 1110 has a grid electrode 1
The face plate 1086 is arranged to face the portion 120. The space between the electron source substrate 1124 and the face plate 1086 is surrounded by a side wall, and a vacuum atmosphere is maintained. A fluorescent film 1084 is provided on the face of the face plate 1086 on the electron source substrate 1110 side. Although not shown, a spacer is provided between the electron source substrate 1110 and the face plate 1086 as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure. The difference between the ladder arrangement and the image forming apparatus having the simple matrix arrangement is that a grid electrode 1120 is provided between the electron source substrate 1110 and the face plate 1086.

As described above, the grid electrode 1120 is
It is located between the substrate 1110 and the face plate 1086. The grid electrode 1120 is connected to the electron-emitting device 1111.
It is possible to modulate the electron beam emitted from the ladder, and to allow the electron beam to pass through the stripe-shaped electrodes provided orthogonally to the ladder-shaped element rows, one for each element. Holes 1121 are provided. The shape and installation position of the grid need not always be as shown in FIG. 25, and a large number of openings may be provided in the form of meshes as holes.
It may be provided around or near 111.

The outer terminal 1122 and the outer grid terminal 1123 are electrically connected to a control circuit (not shown).

In this image forming apparatus, a modulation signal for one line of an image is simultaneously applied to the grid electrode rows in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one by one, so that each electron beam is By controlling the irradiation of the phosphor, one image
Can be displayed line by line.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus suitable not only for a display device for television broadcasting but also for a display device such as a video conference system and a computer.

According to the concept of the present invention, the present invention is not limited to an image forming apparatus suitable for display, but may be used as an alternative light source such as a light emitting diode of an optical printer including a photosensitive drum and a light emitting diode. Alternatively, the above-described image forming apparatus can be used. In this case, by appropriately selecting the above-mentioned m row-directional wirings and n column-directional wirings, the present invention can be applied not only to a linear light emitting source but also to a two-dimensional light emitting source. In this case, the image forming member is not limited to a substance that emits light directly, such as a phosphor used in the following embodiments, and a member that forms a latent image by electron charging can also be used. Further, according to the concept of the present invention, the present invention can be applied to a case where a member to be irradiated with electrons emitted from an electron source is other than an image forming member such as a phosphor, as in an electron microscope. . Therefore, the present invention can also take a form as a general electron beam apparatus that does not specify a member to be irradiated.

[0189]

The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples.

In each of the embodiments described below, as the multi-electron beam source, N × M (N = 307) of the above-described type having an electron emission portion in the conductive fine particle film between the electrodes is used.
2, M = 1024) was used as the surface conduction electron-emitting device, using a multi-electron beam source in which M row-directional wirings and N column-directional wirings were arranged in a matrix as shown in FIGS.

Example 1 In this example, a groove was formed in a sheet-like glass substrate in accordance with the process shown in FIG. 10, and a low-resistance film made of platinum paste was formed in the groove by screen printing. A spacer was made by cutting along the groove.

First, as shown in FIGS. 27A and 27B, a soda lime glass having the same quality as that of the rear plate is used as an original and subjected to injection molding and planar polishing of the glass, as shown in FIGS. And a groove 602 having a length of 40 mm, an opening width of 2.4 mm, a depth of 0.02 mm, and a bottom width of 2.0 mm is formed on a sheet-like glass plate 601 having a depth of 50 mm.
One row of 90 pieces were formed at the same position on the front and back sides at a 5.0 mm pitch.

Then, this sheet-like glass plate 601 is
Prior to the printing process, after ultrasonic cleaning in pure water, IPA (isopropyl alcohol) and acetone for 3 minutes,
After a drying treatment at 30 ° C. for 30 minutes, a UV ozone cleaning was performed to remove organic residues on the surface.

Next, as shown in FIG. 28A, a low-resistance film 603 was formed by screen printing on the surface of the sheet-like glass plate 601 where the groove 602 was formed. At this time, a 325 mesh screen printing plate (not shown) having an opening shape that matches the shape and arrangement of the groove 602 of the sheet-like glass plate 601 was used as a patterning mask. At this time, the width of the opening of the mask was 2.5 mm.

The squeegee used was a square squeegee made of stainless steel, the squeegee moving speed was 5 cm / sec, and the width from the bottom of the low resistance film 603 was 250 μm.
m, the clearance between the sheet glass plate 601 of the squeegee and the printing plate was set so that the liquid thickness of the low resistance film solution forming section was 10 μm. The printing solvent used was NEChem
An organic metal salt dissolving type platinum paste manufactured by cat was used.
Note that members such as a screen plate and a squeegee before the printing coating solution was adhered were wiped with IPA in advance, and then blown with dry nitrogen to remove residual solvent.

Screen-printed sheet glass plate 60
In No. 1, after a heat treatment at 80 ° C. for 10 minutes in a clean oven, a heat treatment at 450 ° C. for 10 minutes was performed, and the temperature was lowered to room temperature over 1 hour or more.

The printing, heating, and cooling steps described above are also performed on the other surface of the sheet-like glass plate 601 to obtain FIG.
As shown in (b), low-resistance films 603 were formed on both surfaces of a sheet-like glass plate 601. The printing surface of the sheet-like glass plate 601 on which the low resistance film 603 is formed
Wrapped around the groove shape, and glossy reflection was observed by visual observation at the low resistance film forming portion.

Next, as a substrate shape processing step, the sheet-like glass plate 601 on which the low-resistance film 603 is formed is inserted into the groove 60.
The wafer was cut along a scribe cutting device with a diamond tip along No. 2, and projections such as burrs were smoothed by polishing. As a result, as shown in FIG. 28C, a spacer 604 with a low-resistance film having the low-resistance film 603 formed on both end portions was obtained. The height of the low resistance film 603 is 250 μm
Met. The thickness of the low-resistance film 603 was 2000 ° and the sheet resistance was 10Ω / □.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 28D, a high resistance film 605 for preventing charging is formed on the surface of the spacer 604 with the low resistance film, and the low resistance film 603 and the high resistance film 60 are formed.
The spacer 606 provided with No. 5 was produced. In this embodiment, a Cr and Al target is simultaneously sputtered with a high frequency power source as the high resistance
An Al alloy nitride film was formed with a thickness of 200 nm. The sputtering gas is a mixed gas of Ar: N ₂ of 1: 2, and the total pressure is 1
mm [Torr]. The sheet resistance value of the spacer 606 formed simultaneously under the above conditions was R □ = 2 × 10 ⁹ [Ω / □].

The low-resistance film portion of the obtained spacer 606 has gloss reflection and has no partial peeling at the boundary region between the contact surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and has good film coverage. Met.

The spacer 606 produced as described above
In this example, the display panel shown in FIG. 1 was manufactured. Hereinafter, the manufacturing procedure of the display panel of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

First, the row direction wiring electrodes 13, the column direction wiring electrodes 14, the interelectrode insulating layer (not shown), and the device electrodes and the conductive thin film of the cold cathode device 12, which is a surface conduction electron-emitting device, were formed in advance. The substrate 11 was fixed to the rear plate 15. Next, the spacer 606 manufactured by the above-described process was used as the spacer 20, and the spacer 606 was fixed on the row-directional wiring 13 of the substrate 11 at equal intervals and in parallel with the row-directional wiring 13. Then, the fluorescent film 18 is formed on the inner surface 5 mm above the substrate 11.
Plate 17 with metal back 19
Were arranged via the side wall 16, and the joints of the rear plate 15, the face plate 17, the side wall 16 and the spacer 606 were fixed. A joint between the substrate 11 and the rear plate 15,
The joint between the rear plate 15 and the side wall 16 and the joint between the face plate 17 and the side wall 16 are coated with frit glass (not shown), and are heated at 400 ° C. to 500 ° C. in air.
It sealed by baking for 0 minutes or more. Also, the spacer 60
6 is a row-direction wiring 13 (line width 300 μm) on the substrate 11 side.
m) On the face plate 17 side, a metal back 1
Nine surfaces are placed via a conductive frit glass (not shown) in which a conductive material such as a conductive filler or a metal is mixed, and the airtight container is sealed at the same time as 400 ° C.
By baking at 500 ° C. for 10 minutes or more, bonding and electrical connection were also performed.

In this embodiment, the fluorescent film 18
As shown in FIG. 4, a stripe shape in which each color phosphor (rR, G, B) extends in the column direction (Y direction) is adopted, and the black conductor 10 is formed not only between the color phosphors but also in the Y direction. A fluorescent film arranged so as to separate each pixel is used,
The spacer 606 was arranged via the metal back 19 in the black conductor 10 region (line width 300 μm) parallel to the row direction (X direction). When the above-described sealing is performed, the phosphors of the respective colors must correspond to the elements arranged on the substrate 11, so that the rear plate 15, the face plate 17, and the spacer 606 are sufficiently aligned. Was done.

The inside of the hermetically sealed container completed as described above is evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown). A multi-electron beam source was manufactured by supplying power to each element via the directional wiring electrodes 13 and the column direction wiring electrodes 14 and performing the above-described energization forming processing and energization activation processing.

Next, at a degree of vacuum of about 10 ⁻⁶ [Torr], an exhaust pipe (not shown) was welded by heating with a gas burner to seal the envelope (airtight container).

Finally, gettering was performed to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing.

In the image display device using the display panel as shown in FIG. 1 completed as described above, each cold cathode element (surface conduction type emission element) 12 has an external terminal Dx
1 to DxM and Dy1 to DyN to emit electrons by applying a scanning signal and a modulation signal from signal generation means (not shown), respectively, and to apply a high voltage to the metal back 19 through a high voltage terminal Hv to emit electrons. The beam is accelerated so that electrons collide with the fluorescent film 18 to excite the phosphors of each color.
The image was displayed by emitting light. The high-voltage terminal Hv
The voltage Va applied to the wiring 1 is applied within a range of 3 [kV] to 12 [kV] up to a limit voltage at which a discharge is gradually generated.
The applied voltage Vf between 3 and 14 was 14 [V]. When a voltage of 8 kV or more was applied to the high voltage terminal Hv and continuous driving was possible for one hour or more, the withstand voltage was determined to be good.

At this time, the withstand voltage was good in the vicinity of the spacer 606. Further, a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements 12 located near the spacer 606 was formed two-dimensionally, and a clear, color-reproducible color image could be displayed. . This indicates that even when the spacer 606 was provided, no electric field disturbance that would affect the electron trajectory occurred. In addition, since a low-resistance film can be formed only in the area where the pattern is to be formed without applying a printing solution and forming a separate pattern only in the vicinity of the bonding portion of the substrate, waste of the solution as a raw material is reduced. This can be omitted, which is advantageous in terms of cost.

(Example 2) In this example, alumina was used as the material of the insulating base of the spacer, and other than that, a spacer was produced in the same manner as in Example 1. In the manufactured spacer, glossy reflection was recognized on the low resistance film portion, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the contact surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. there were.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was produced together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no electric field disturbance affecting the electron trajectory occurred.

Example 3 In this example, a thick film silver paste was used as a printing solution for forming a low-resistance film on a spacer. Other than that, a spacer was produced in the same manner as in Example 1. . In the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized in the low resistance film portion, and there was no partial film peeling in the boundary region between the contact surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate or the like in which an electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light-emitting spots is formed at two-dimensional intervals including light-emitting spots generated by electrons emitted from the cold-cathode elements located near the spacer. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no electric field disturbance affecting the electron trajectory occurred.

Example 4 In this example, a low-resistance film of a spacer was formed by using an offset printing method. Other than that, a spacer was produced in the same manner as in Example 1. As a printing plate material when a low resistance film was formed by offset printing, a material obtained by patterning the convex shape having the same in-plane arrangement used in Example 1 on a photosensitive styrene-based resin was used.

At the time of printing, the development of the printing liquid has a depth of 2 μm.
The solution was spread uniformly using a stainless steel plate having grooves formed at a pitch of 2 μm and a stainless doctor blade having a thickness of 0.3 mm. All components, such as printing plates, doctor blades, and color plates before the printing coating solution is applied,
After pre-wiping with IPA, the remaining solvent was blown off by blowing with dry nitrogen.

Also, the printing plate is magnetized and fixed to a printing drum (not shown) using a sheet-like magnet attached to the back surface, and a stage on which a sheet-like glass plate is mounted is fixed.
After the printing drum is brought into contact with the printing solution developed on the developing plate by a doctor blade (not shown) while rotating the printing drum,
The drum was brought into contact with the sheet-like glass plate to transfer the low-resistance film pattern.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a sheet-like glass plate was cut to produce a spacer with a low-resistance film.
A high-resistance film was formed on the low-resistance film-equipped spacer by sputtering to produce a spacer. In the low-resistance film portion of the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the abutting surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was produced together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no electric field disturbance affecting the electron trajectory occurred.

Example 5 In this example, a spacer was produced in the same manner as in Example 1 except that no groove was formed in the sheet glass plate according to the process shown in FIG. That is, as shown in FIG. 29A, a low-resistance film 613 is formed at predetermined positions on both sides of a smooth sheet-like glass plate 611 by screen printing using a platinum paste, and the low-resistance film 613 is formed by the low-resistance film 613. By cutting along the formed direction, as shown in FIG. 29B, the spacer 61 with the low-resistance film having the low-resistance film 613 formed on both side surfaces at both ends.
4 was produced. Next, a high-resistance film was formed by sputtering in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a spacer. In the low-resistance film portion of the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the abutting surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no electric field disturbance affecting the electron trajectory occurred.

(Embodiment 6) In this embodiment, a spacer was manufactured according to the process shown in FIG. Specifically, after the spacer with the low-resistance film was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 5,
The cut surface (contact surface) is further covered with a low-resistance film, and FIG.
As shown in FIG. 0, a spacer 625 with a low-resistance film on the contact surface, in which low-resistance films 623a and 623b were provided on both side surfaces and a contact cross section of both ends, respectively, was manufactured. The cut surface of the spacer with the low-resistance film was coated with the low-resistance film by the immersion transfer method using the same platinum paste as the low-resistance film on the side surface. Further, a high-resistance film was formed by sputtering on the spacer with the low-resistance film on the contact surface in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a spacer. The low-resistance film portions on the side surfaces and the contact surfaces of the manufactured spacers were glossy and reflected, and the boundary region between the contact surfaces and the side surfaces, that is, the edge portion did not have partial peeling of the film. The coatability was good.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate or the like in which an electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were installed, no disturbance of the electric field that would affect the electron trajectory occurred. (Embodiment 7) In this embodiment, a sheet-like shape was formed according to the process shown in FIG. A spacer was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1 except that the order of the glass plate cutting step and the low-resistance film printing step was changed. In the printing process, the spacer base material cut into a desired shape is arranged on a stainless steel holder (not shown) having a thickness of の of the thickness, and the holder is fixed by vacuum suction. Then, a low resistance film was printed on the substrate by overlapping the screen plates. The suction of the holder was performed immediately before the application of the printing solution, and continued until the step of removing the screen plate from the holder. As a result, as shown in FIG. 31, a spacer 635 with a low-resistance film on the contact surface having the low-resistance film 633 provided not only on the side surface but also on the contact surface was obtained.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a high-resistance film was formed on the spacer with the low-resistance film on the contact surface by sputtering to produce a spacer. In the low-resistance film portion of the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the abutting surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage near the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots caused by electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, the disturbance of the electric field that would affect the electron trajectory did not occur. (Embodiment 8) In this embodiment, the steps shown in FIG. The spacer was manufactured according to the following procedure. The base of the spacer was processed by heat stretching. That is, in the same manner as in Example 7, except that the base stretched by the heat stretching method was used, and that both ends of the base were made by the heat stretching of the base material and were subjected to the R treatment instead of the groove processing. A spacer with a low resistance film was manufactured.

[0230] The apparatus shown in Fig. 14 was used for the heat stretching, and was made of a soda lime glass of the same quality as the rear plate, having a width of 3mm, a thickness of 0.2mm, and a radius of curvature of four corners of 0.02mm. Was prepared and cut out to a length of 40 mm to obtain a spacer base.

Further, a high-resistance film was formed on the spacer with the low-resistance film by sputtering in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a spacer. In the low-resistance film portion of the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the abutting surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light-emitting spots is formed at two-dimensional intervals, including light-emitting spots generated by electrons emitted from the cold-cathode devices located near the spacer. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no disturbance of the electric field that would affect the electron trajectory occurred. (Example 9) In this example, the insulating base of the spacer was made of glass. A spacer with a low-resistance film was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 7, except that alumina was used instead. Then, a high-resistance film was formed on the spacer with the low-resistance film by sputtering in the same manner as in Example 1 to produce a spacer. In the low-resistance film portion of the manufactured spacer, gloss reflection was recognized, and there was no partial peeling of the film in the boundary region between the abutting surface and the side surface, that is, the edge portion, and the film coverage was good. Was.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate or the like in which an electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of luminescent spots is formed at two-dimensional intervals, including luminescent spots generated by electrons emitted from the cold cathode devices located near the spacer. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacer was provided, no disturbance of the electric field that would affect the electron trajectory occurred (Example 10). The low-resistance film of the spacer was formed by the rotational transfer method. Except for this, a spacer was produced in the same manner as in Example 7. That is, after cutting the sheet-like glass plate having the grooves formed thereon, a low-resistance film was printed on both end surfaces of the cut sheet-like glass plate using an apparatus as shown in FIG. Here, a platinum paste was used as the printing solution, and a styrene-based printing plate was used as the printing plate. This allows
As shown in FIG. 32, a spacer 645 with a low-resistance film having a contact surface provided with a low-resistance film 643 only on both contact surfaces was manufactured.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a high-resistance film was formed by sputtering on the spacer with the low-resistance film on the contact surface, to produce a spacer. The low resistance film portion of the produced spacer had gloss reflection and no partial peeling of the film up to the peripheral boundary region of the contact surface, and the film had good coatability.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a display panel was prepared together with a rear plate and the like in which the electron beam emitting element was incorporated, and a high voltage was applied and the element was driven under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage in the vicinity of the spacer is good, and a two-dimensional array of light emitting spots including light emitting spots due to electrons emitted from the cold cathode elements located near the spacer is formed. And a clear and good color reproducibility color image could be displayed. This indicates that even when the spacers were provided, no electric field disturbance affecting the electron trajectory occurred.

As described above, the display panels using the spacers manufactured according to Examples 1 to 10 had good electrical contact, light emitting point displacement, and withstand voltage as panel characteristics. In other words, with regard to the spacer, it can be said that an appropriate low resistance film could be formed as a vacuum resistant spacer of the electron emission panel.

In addition, the spacers manufactured in Examples 1 to 10 do not require an expensive vacuum decompression device and have a high material utilization efficiency as compared with the case where a low-resistance film is formed by vapor deposition. However, it is more advantageous in terms of the production process cost. Further, in the case of vapor phase film formation, a process for providing an underlayer between the glass substrate and the substrate may be required due to the problem of adhesion to the glass substrate. ) Can be omitted.

When a low-resistance film is formed by vapor deposition,
In some cases, a very small discharge is generated on the electron source substrate to such an extent that it does not destroy the electron beam device. This is a tapered cross section where the film thickness distribution of the film formed by printing becomes thinner toward the periphery, whereas in vapor phase film formation, the film edge at the patterned end is a perpendicular cross section or a mask. It is considered that the projections such as burrs are generated toward the outer space of the spacer at the stage of peeling off from the spacer, so that the electric field tends to concentrate on those projections in the electron beam apparatus.

[0242] Among Examples 1 to 10 described above, in Example 6, it was confirmed that the edge portion of the spacer base on which the low-resistance film was formed had a low coverage ratio of the low-resistance film. Therefore, in consideration of the yield at the time of mass production and the like, it is more preferable to perform the R process on the edge portion of the base in order to improve the yield rate.

The low-resistance film of the spacer according to the present invention can be easily and easily formed, and the obtained film has good electric contact and good discharge withstand voltage. Improve the display quality of the display,
In addition, the present invention is particularly effective for a manufacturing process requiring mass productivity and low cost, and an electron beam apparatus using the same. This further reduces the manufacturing cost of the spacer and the electron beam device, and provides an inexpensive image display device of high display quality in which the displacement of the light emitting portion due to charging is suppressed.

As described above, the following three effects can be expected by forming a low resistance film by a printing method by eliminating the need for a vacuum depressurizing step. In the formation by vapor deposition, the film is in a metastable state after evacuation, decompression, film formation, and air leakage, and other members are formed in an unstable transient state. As a result, problems such as film peeling may occur, and it is necessary to relax the state to a stable state. This seems to be related to the structure and surface activity of the membrane, but in particular to the stabilization of water desorption. However, by adopting the heating and baking that does not go through the vacuum process, it is possible to suppress the passing through these unstable states. High efficiency in the use of raw materials According to the printing method, it is possible to avoid printing on unnecessary portions of the film, and the usage efficiency of the materials is high. Also, by controlling the moving speed of the printing plate and the sample to be printed and the amount of printing, it is possible to easily control the film forming area, that is, patterning can be performed simultaneously with the film forming process, so that patterning steps such as photolithography can be omitted. It is.

The following effects can be expected from the effect obtained by making the cross-sectional shape of the boundary region between the contact surface and the side surface of the spacer base into a smooth continuous surface such as by performing R processing.

The coverage of the film at the edge of the substrate, ie, at the boundary region between the contact surface and the side surface, can be improved.
For this reason, the low-resistance film is not separated at the contact surface and the side surface, and good electrical contact on both surfaces can be obtained. It is possible to efficiently escape to the substrate surface of the rear plate.

This further reduces the manufacturing cost of the spacer and the electron source, and provides an inexpensive image display device of high display quality in which the displacement of the light emitting portion due to charging is suppressed.

[0248]

As described above, according to the present invention, at least one of the end on the electron source side and the end on the electrode side of the insulating member which is the base of the spacer has a sheet resistance higher than that of the insulating member. By forming a low-resistance film having a low value by a printing method, a low-resistance film can be easily and stably formed without the need for a vacuum decompression step, and as a result, when incorporated into an electron beam device, A spacer that does not adversely affect the electron emission trajectory can be provided at low cost. Further, by providing the above-described spacer of the present invention, it is possible to provide an inexpensive electron beam apparatus having a good withstand voltage near the spacer and a stable electron emission trajectory.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of a display panel of an image display device to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a multi-electron source of the display panel shown in FIG.

3 is a schematic cross-sectional view of the multi-electron source shown in FIG. 2, taken along line BB '.

FIG. 4 is a plan view showing an example of a phosphor array (stripe array) of a face plate of the display panel shown in FIG. 1;

5 is a plan view showing an example (delta arrangement) of a phosphor array of a face plate of the display panel shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing an example of a phosphor array (matrix array) of a face plate of the display panel shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 7 is a schematic cross-sectional view taken along line AA ′ of the display panel shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a manufacturing process of a spacer (printing → cutting).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing an example of a manufacturing process of a spacer (cutting → printing).

FIG. 10 shows an example of a spacer manufacturing process (groove processing → printing →
It is a flowchart which shows cutting.

FIG. 11 shows an example of a spacer manufacturing process (groove processing → cut →
FIG.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an example of a spacer manufacturing process (printing → cutting → contact surface covering).

FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining coverage of a low-resistance film at an edge portion of a spacer.

FIG. 14 is a schematic configuration diagram of a heating and stretching device used for manufacturing a spacer.

FIG. 15 is a sectional view showing various shapes of an end portion of the insulating base of the spacer.

FIGS. 16A and 16B are a plan view and a cross-sectional view of a planar type surface conduction electron-emitting device. FIGS.

FIG. 17 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a step of manufacturing the surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG.

FIG. 18 is a diagram showing an applied voltage waveform during the energization forming process.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing an applied voltage waveform (a) and a change in emission current (b) during the activation process.

FIG. 20 is a sectional view of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

21 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing step of the surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG.

FIG. 22 is a graph showing typical characteristics of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of a driving circuit of the image display device.

FIG. 24 is a schematic plan view of a ladder-shaped arrangement of electron sources.

25 is a perspective view of an example of a display panel having the ladder-shaped array of electron sources shown in FIG.

FIG. 26 is a diagram illustrating a printing process of a low-resistance film by a rotational transfer method.

FIGS. 27A and 27B are a perspective view of a sheet-like glass plate used when fabricating a spacer according to the first embodiment of the present invention, and a cross-sectional view taken along the line CC ′ of FIG.

FIG. 28 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a step of manufacturing a spacer according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 29 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a step of manufacturing a spacer with a low-resistance film according to Example 5 of the present invention.

FIG. 30 is a sectional view of a spacer with a low-resistance film according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a cross-sectional view of a spacer with a low-resistance film on a contact surface according to a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is a cross-sectional view of a spacer with a low-resistance film on a contact surface according to Embodiment 10 of the present invention.

FIG. 33 is a plan view of a conventional typical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 34 is a sectional view of a conventional field emission device.

FIG. 35 is a sectional view of a conventional MIM element.

FIG. 36 is a partially cutaway perspective view of a display panel of a conventional image display device using a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

2,3,1102,1103,1202,1203
Device electrode 4, 1104, 1204 Conductive thin film 5, 1105, 205 Electron emitting portion 6, 1113, 1213 Thin film 10 Black conductive material 11, 1101, 1201 Substrate 12 Cold cathode device 13 Row wiring 14 Column wiring 15 Rear plate 16 Side wall 17, 1086 Face plate 18, 1084 Fluorescent film 19 Metal back 20, 606 Spacer 21, 707 Insulating substrate 22, 605 High-resistance film 23 Contact surface 24 Side surface 25, 03 Low-resistance film 26 Bonding material 201 Display panel 202 Scanning circuit 203 Control circuit 204 Shift register 205 Latch circuit 206 Pulse width modulation circuit 209 Acceleration voltage source 501 Base material 502 Heater 503, 504 Stretching roller 505 Cutter 601 Sheet glass plate 602 Groove 604, 614 Spacer with low resistance film 6 25,635,645 Spacer with low resistance film on contact surface 701 Development plate 702 Drum 703 Printing plate 705 Printing solution 706 Support 1110 Electron source substrate 1111 Electron emitting element 1112 Common wiring 1120 Grid electrode

Claims (27)

[Claims] 1. An electron beam apparatus comprising: an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel, the electron source including an electron emitting element; and an electron irradiation member including an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. A method of manufacturing a spacer installed between the electron source and the electrode as an anti-atmospheric structure, comprising: an insulating member that is a base of the spacer; A method for manufacturing a spacer, comprising a printing step of forming a low-resistance film having a lower sheet resistance value than the insulating member on at least one of the ends by a printing method. 2. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, further comprising a processing step of processing the insulating member into a desired shape corresponding to a distance between the electron source and the electrode. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the processing step is performed after the printing step. 4. The processing step according to claim 3, wherein the processing step uses a sheet-shaped member as the insulating member, and includes a cutting step of processing the sheet-shaped member to the desired size by cutting the sheet-shaped member. Manufacturing method of spacer. 5. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 4, wherein the cutting step includes a step of forming a contact surface of the insulating member fixed to the electron source or the electrode by cutting. 6. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 5, further comprising a contact surface low resistance film forming step of forming the low resistance film on the contact surface after the cutting step. 7. The step of forming a low-resistance film on the contact surface includes: developing a solution containing a material constituting the low-resistance film on a plate; and developing the contact surface of the insulating member on the plate. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 6, further comprising: a step of contacting and dipping the insulated solution; and a step of separating a contact surface of the insulating member soaked in the solution from the solution. 8. The contact surface low resistance film forming step includes: applying a solution containing a material constituting the low resistance film to a rotatable transfer member; and applying the solution to the transfer member to which the solution is applied. The spacer according to claim 6, further comprising: rotating the transfer member while making contact with the contact surface of the insulating member; and separating the transfer member from the contact surface after the transfer member rotates. Production method. 9. The method according to claim 2, wherein the printing step is performed after the processing step. 10. The processing step includes preparing, as the insulating member, a long glass base material having a shape similar to the desired shape and having a cross-sectional area larger than the cross-sectional area of the desired shape. And heating a portion of the glass base material in the longitudinal direction to a temperature equal to or higher than the softening point of the glass base material. The cross-sectional area of the glass base material softened by heating has a desired cross-sectional area. The method of manufacturing a spacer according to claim 9, further comprising: stretching the glass base material so that the glass base material is cooled to a desired length after cooling. 11. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein the printing method is a screen printing method. 12. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, wherein the printing method is an offset printing method. 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the printing solution used in the printing step contains at least a metal element. 14. An edge treatment in which a gap between a contact surface of the insulating member fixed to the electron source or the electrode and a side surface adjacent to the contact surface is formed into an obtuse angle or a curved surface before the printing step. The method of manufacturing a spacer according to claim 1, further comprising a step. 15. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 14, wherein the edge processing step includes a polishing processing step. 16. An electron beam apparatus comprising: an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel and having an electron-emitting device; and an electron-irradiated member provided with an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. A spacer which is provided between the electron source and the electrode as an anti-atmospheric pressure structure, wherein the spacer is manufactured by the manufacturing method according to claim 1. 17. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the insulating member is glass. 18. The spacer according to claim 16, wherein the insulating member is made of ceramic. 19. The sheet resistance of at least the surface is 10
The spacer according to any one of claims 16 to 18, wherein the spacer is in a range of ⁷ Ω / □ to 10 ¹⁴ Ω / □. 20. The high-resistance film according to claim 16, wherein a high-resistance film having a higher sheet resistance than the low-resistance film is formed on at least a surface exposed in the vacuum vessel. Spacer. 21. A sheet resistance value of the low resistance film is 1/10 or less of a sheet resistance value of the high resistance film, and 10 ⁷
21. The spacer according to claim 20, which is Ω / □ or more. 22. An electron beam apparatus comprising: an electron source provided in a vacuum vessel and having an electron-emitting device; and an electron-irradiated member provided with an electrode for controlling electrons emitted from the electron source. 22. An electron beam device, wherein the spacer according to any one of claims 16 to 21 is provided between the electron source and the electrode as an atmospheric pressure resistant structure of the vacuum vessel. 23. The electron beam device according to claim 22, wherein said electron-emitting device is a cold cathode device. 24. The electron beam apparatus according to claim 23, wherein said cold cathode device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device. 25. The surface conduction electron-emitting device has a pair of device electrodes opposed to the electron source and an electron-emitting portion formed between the device electrodes and electrically connected to the device electrodes. The electron beam device according to claim 24, further comprising a conductive film. 26. The image forming apparatus according to claim 22, wherein the electron-irradiated member is an image forming member that forms an image by irradiating electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device. Electron beam device. 27. The electron beam apparatus according to claim 26, wherein the image forming member is a phosphor film containing a phosphor that emits light when electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device collide.