JP3507394B2 - Spacer for electron beam device, method for manufacturing the same, and image forming apparatus - Google Patents

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 and an image forming apparatus such as an image display apparatus, which is an application of the electron beam apparatus, and a spacer used in the image forming apparatus. The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus and a spacer used in them.

[0002]

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

As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, for example, MIElinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290, (1
965) and other examples described later are known.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon that electron emission occurs in a small-area thin film formed on a substrate by passing an electric current in parallel with the film surface. As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, in addition to the SnO ₂ thin film by Erinson et al., An Au thin film [G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid Films”, 9,317 (1972)]
Or by In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M. Hartwell and
CGFonstad: “IEEE Trans.ED Conf.”, 519 (1975)]
And carbon thin film [Hiraki Araki et al .: Vacuum, No. 2
Vol. 6, No. 1, 22 (1983)] and the like are reported.

As a typical example of the device configuration of these surface conduction electron-emitting devices, FIG. Hartw
Figure 3 shows a plan view of the device by Ell et al. In the figure, 3
001 is a substrate and 3004 is a conductive thin film made of a metal oxide formed by sputtering. Conductive thin film 3004
Is formed in an H-shaped planar shape as shown. An electron-emitting portion 3005 is formed by subjecting the conductive thin film 3004 to an energization process called energization forming described later. The interval L in the figure is 0.5 to 1 [mm], W
Is set to 0.1 [mm]. For convenience of illustration, the electron emitting portion 3005 is shown in a rectangular shape in the center of the conductive thin film 3004, but this is a schematic one.
It does not faithfully represent the actual position or shape of the electron emitting portion.

M. In the above-described surface conduction electron-emitting device including the device by Hartwell et al., The electron-emitting portion 30 is formed by performing an energization process called energization forming on the conductive thin film 3004 before the electron emission.
It was common to form 05. That is, the energization forming is performed by applying a constant DC voltage or a DC voltage that is boosted at a very slow rate of, for example, about 1 V / min to both ends of the conductive thin film 3004 to energize the conductive thin film 3004. Of the electron-emitting portion 300 in a state of high electrical resistance by locally destroying, deforming, or degrading
5 is to be formed. A crack occurs in a part of the conductive thin film 3004 which is locally destroyed, deformed or altered. Conductive thin film 3 after the energization forming
When an appropriate voltage is applied to 004, electrons are emitted near the crack.

An example of the FE type is, for example, WP Dyke &
WWDolan, “Field Emission”, Advance in Electron
Physics, 8,89 (1956) or CASpindt, “Physi
calProperties of Thin-Film Field Emission Cathodes
with Molybdenium cones ”, J.Appl.Phys., 47,5248 (197
6) etc. are known.

As a typical example of the FE type element structure, FIG. A. 3 shows a cross-sectional view of the device by Spindt et al. In the figure, reference numeral 3010 denotes a substrate, and 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 includes 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 structure of the FE type, as shown in FIG.
There is also an example in which an emitter and a gate electrode are arranged on a substrate substantially parallel to the plane of the substrate, instead of the laminated structure of 8.

As an example of the MIM type, for example, C.I.
A.Mead, “Operation of Tunnel-Emission Devices, J.Ap
pl.Phys., 32,646 (1961) and the like are known. FIG. 29 shows a typical example of the MIM type device configuration. The figure is a cross-sectional view. In the figure, 3020 is a substrate, 3021 is a lower electrode made of metal, 3022 is a thin insulating layer having a thickness of about 100 [Å], and 3023 is a thickness of about 80 to 300 [Å]. The upper electrode is made of metal. 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 cold cathode device described above can obtain electron emission at a lower temperature than the hot cathode device, and thus does not require a heater for heating. Therefore, the structure is simpler than that of the hot cathode device, and a fine device can be manufactured. Also,
Even if a large number of elements are arranged on the substrate at a high density, problems such as heat melting of the substrate hardly occur. In addition, the response speed is slow because the hot cathode device operates by heating the heater, and the cold cathode device has an advantage that the response speed is fast.

Therefore, researches for applying the cold cathode device have been actively conducted.

For example, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has an advantage that a large number of devices can be formed over a large area because it has a particularly simple structure and is easy to manufacture among cold cathode devices. Therefore, for example, JP-A-64-31 by the present applicant
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 332, a method for arranging and driving a large number of elements has been studied.

Regarding 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, a charged beam source, and the like have been studied. Particularly, as an application to an image display device, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 by the present applicant and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2525/1990.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 7551 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-28137, an image display device using a combination of a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a phosphor that emits light when irradiated with an electron beam 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, it can be said that it is superior in that it does not require a backlight because it is a self-luminous type and that it has a wide viewing angle, even compared with liquid crystal display devices that have become popular in recent years.

A method for driving a large number of FE types is disclosed in, for example, US Pat. No. 4,904,8 by the present applicant.
No. 95. Further, as an example in which the FE type is applied to an image display device, for example, R.I. A flat panel image display device reported by Meyer et al. Is known [R. Meye.
r: “Recent Development on Micro-Tips Display at LE
TI ”, Tech.Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Microelectroni
cs Conf., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)].

An example in which a large number of MIM types are arranged and applied to an image display device is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-5 by the present applicant.
It is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5738.

Among the image forming apparatus using the electron-emitting device as described above, the flat-type image display apparatus having a small depth is space-saving and lightweight, and thus is noticed as a replacement for the CRT-type image display apparatus. ing.

FIG. 30 is a perspective view showing an example of a display panel portion which constitutes a flat image display device, and a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In the figure, 3115 is a rear plate and 3116.
Is a side wall, 3117 is a face plate, and the rear plate 3115, the side wall 3116 and the face plate 3
117 forms an envelope (airtight container) for maintaining a vacuum inside the display panel. Rear plate 3
A substrate 3111 is fixed to 115, and N × M cold cathode elements 3112 are formed on the substrate 3111. (N and M are positive integers of 2 or more and are appropriately set according to the target number of display pixels.) Further, the N × M number of cold cathode elements 3112 are M as shown in FIG. Row direction wirings 3113 and N column direction wirings 31
It is wired by 14. A portion constituted by the substrate 3111, the cold cathode device 3112, the row-direction wiring 3113, and the column-direction wiring 3114 is called a multi-electron beam source. In addition, the row-direction wiring 3113 and the column-direction wiring 311
An insulating layer (not shown) is formed between both wirings at least at the intersecting portions of 4 to maintain electrical insulation.

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

Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn and Hv are electric connection terminals of an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting the display panel and an electric circuit (not shown). Dx1 to Dxm are electrically connected to the row-directional wiring 3113 of the multi-electron beam source, Dy1 to Dyn are electrically connected to the column-directional wiring 3114 of the multi-electron beam source, and Hv is electrically connected to the metal back 3119.

The inside of the airtight container is 10 ^-6 Tor.
It is held in a vacuum of about r, and 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 outside of the airtight container is required as the display area of the image display device increases. . Rear plate 3115 and face plate 31
The method of increasing the thickness of 17 not only increases the weight of the image display device, but also causes image distortion and parallax when viewed from an oblique direction. On the other hand, in FIG. 30, a structural support body (called a spacer or rib) 312 made of a relatively thin glass plate for supporting atmospheric pressure is provided.
0 is provided. In this way, the space between the substrate 3111 having the multi-beam electron source formed thereon and the face plate 3117 having the fluorescent film 3118 formed thereon is normally maintained at a submillimeter to a few millimeters, and as described above, the inside of the airtight container is kept at a high vacuum. ing.

In the image display device using the display panel described above, terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dy outside the container are provided.
When a voltage is applied to each cold cathode element 3112 through n,
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 terminal Hv outside the container to accelerate the emitted electrons to collide with the inner surface of the face plate 3117. As a result, the phosphors of the respective colors forming the phosphor film 3118 are excited and emit light, and an image is displayed.

[0024]

The display panel of the image display device described above has the following problems. First, some of the electrons emitted from the vicinity of the spacer 3120 hit the spacer 3120, or ions ionized by the action of emitted electrons adhere to the spacer, which may cause spacer charging. By charging this spacer, the cold cathode device 311
The electron emitted from 2 has its orbit bent, and reaches a position different from the regular position on the phosphor, and the image near the spacer is distorted and displayed.

Second, in order to accelerate the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 3112, a high voltage of several hundreds V or more (that is, 1 k) is applied between the multi-beam electron source and the face plate 3117.
Since a high electric field of V / mm or more) is applied, creeping discharge along the surface of the spacer 3120 between the multi-electron source and the face plate 3117 is concerned. In particular, when the spacers are charged as described above, discharge may be induced.

In order to solve this problem, a proposed USP in which a small amount of electric current flows through the spacer to remove the charge
5,760,538 have been made. There, a high resistance thin film as an antistatic film is formed on the surface of an insulating spacer so that a minute current flows on the surface of the spacer. The antistatic film used here is tin oxide, or a mixed thin film of tin oxide and indium oxide or a metal film.

Further, the reduction of the image distortion may be insufficient only by the method of removing the charge by the high resistance film. This problem is caused by insufficient electrical connection between the spacer with a high resistance film and the upper and lower substrates, that is, the face plate (hereinafter, referred to as “FP”) and the rear plate (hereinafter, referred to as “RP”), and the bonding is not performed. It is considered that the electric charge is concentrated near the area. As a proposal for solving this point, JP-A-8-180821 and JP-A-10-14
As described in Japanese Patent No. 4203, by coating the end face on the FP side and the end face on the RP side of the spacer with a material having a resistivity lower than that of a metal or a high resistance film within a range of about 100 to 1000 μm, electrical connection with the upper and lower substrates is achieved. Secure contact and reflect electrons (radiation electrons) from face plate
There is a method of suppressing charging due to incident light.

The material and thickness of the face plate, the shape, the anode accelerating voltage, etc. of the face plate can also be obtained by forming the low resistance film for the purpose of electrical contact, which will be described later, and the means for applying the high resistance film and the trajectory control of the emitted electrons. Depending on other design parameters of the electron beam device, the suppression of charging on the spacer was insufficient, and there was a problem such as displacement of the light emitting point and occurrence of partial minute discharge near the spacer.

Although the details of the causes of these electrifications have not been clarified, it is considered that the following background is a factor.

There is a factor that effectively increases the capacity or resistance of the spacer described later, or the reflected electrons from the cold cathode element 3112 other than the closest one in the non-selection period of the cold cathode element 3112 close to the spacer. It is presumed that exposure to abnormal electric field emission from the electric field concentration region near the junction with the cathode is a factor for charging the spacer. Further, it is considered that the secondary electron emission coefficient on the surface of the spacer, which will be described later, is not controlled by design, which is also a factor for charging the spacer.

Therefore, the present inventor conducted the examination by dividing into several factors as described below.

[Background 1] Limitation due to the relaxation time constant of the high resistance film on the spacer surface The progress of the charging phenomenon in an arbitrary region on the spacer surface is as follows.
In general, by applying a dielectric charging model, it can be considered as a temporal change of the charging potential with respect to the injection current.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a model in which the effective injection current ic is supplied from an electric current source to an arbitrary position z on the surface of the spacer and is relaxed by the capacitive resistance component when the upper and lower electrodes are viewed from the injection region. In this figure, Va means the voltage applied from the voltage source to the anode, and ic is the effective voltage supplied to the position of height zh (h corresponds to the height of the spacer, 0 <z <1). This is the injection current, and it matches the difference between the secondary electron current and the primary electron current. C1 and R1 mean the capacitance value and the resistance value that define the relaxation time constant between the implantation region and the anode, and C1 and C1
2 and R2 mean the capacitance value and the resistance value that define the relaxation time constant between the injection region and the cathode. At this time, when the resistance and the capacitance are uniformly distributed in the height direction, the resistance R and the capacitance C of the spacer are used to calculate C1, C2, R1, and R2.
Are C / (1-z), R (1-z) and C /, respectively.
It is described as z and Rz.

Since the principle of superposition of the injection currents at arbitrary positions is established, as shown in FIG. 4, a high voltage Va is applied between the anode and the cathode by a voltage source, and the target region position z is incident from the vacuum side. The electron current to be treated is treated as an effective injection current Ic which is a value obtained by taking the difference between inflow and outflow, and this is formulated by an equivalent circuit that supplies it as a current source, and the charging process is considered without any loss of generality on the spacer. The potential of the height area can be defined.

In order to devise a suitable structure for the spacer, the formulation of the relaxation process of the charging potential on the spacer with an insulating or high-resistance film, which is particularly suitable for the electron beam emitting device of the present invention, is formulated below. I do. For simplicity, assume that the distribution of electrical constants on the spacer surface is uniform. First, when the effective injection charge velocity to the spacer surface is treated as the amount of current supplied by the current source and formulated in consideration of the energy distribution of incident electrons and the incident angle distribution, the amount of electron current emitted from the electron-emitting device Ie height Incident electron quantity ratio at zh (0 <z <1) βij Secondary electron emission coefficient δ at height zh (0 <z <1)
The ij subscripts i and j are the primary electron current amount Ip Ip = ΣΣIpij = ΣΣβij × Ie at the position z corresponding to the incident energy and the incident angle, respectively, and the secondary electron current amount Is Is = ΣΣδij × Ipij = ΣΣδij × βij × at the position z. Ie charge injection speed at position z Ic Ic = ΣΣ (δij−1) × Ipij = ΣΣ (δij−1) ×
It is expressed as βij × Ie.

Finally, the injected charge velocity Ic is Ic = P × It General formula (2) Can be described as

However, P is P = ΣΣ (δij-1) × βij
Although Ie is an independent coefficient, it is actually expected to change as charging progresses.

Next, the arrangement of the capacitance and the resistance of the spacer film viewed from the injection region is that there is no distribution of the resistance and the capacitance in the height direction of the spacer (corresponding to the high voltage application direction between the anode and the cathode) for simplification. I will assume. At this time, the resistance and capacitance in the plane direction of the spacer as viewed from the anode / cathode are R and C, the height of the spacer is h, the height of the implantation region is zh, (0 ≦ z ≦ 1,
When the anode side is z = 1), the electric constants existing above and below the implantation region are defined corresponding to the position z. Further, since the voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode by the voltage source, the effective impedance Z is regarded as zero. Therefore, it is understood that the injected charge is relaxed through the parallel resistance and parallel capacitance of the resistance and the capacitance located above and below the injection region. The resistance between the implantation region at the position z and GND is z (1-z) R, and the capacitance is C / z + C / (1-
z), and the response time constant τ of the relaxation path matches the original spacer resistance capacitance product and becomes CR.

The potential at an arbitrary location at this time is described as a function of time from the solution obtained by constructing the differential equation for the current in the full circuit in the equivalent circuit diagram 4 described above.

Under continuous driving conditions of the electron-emitting device, assuming that the electron emission start time is t = 0, finally, ΔV (t) representing the progress process of the charging potential in the injection region is ΔV (t) = z (1-z) * R * ic * (1-exp (-t / τ)) General formula (3) is obtained, and it can be seen that it depends on the product of the resistance value R and the effective injection current Ic.

As shown in FIG. 5, the time progress of charging is plotted along the horizontal axis, and the vertical axis indicates the emission current amount from the electron-emitting device and the charge potential electron emission time on the spacer. Period, non-selection period) t1 seconds, t
Considering the case where the driving is repeated every 2 seconds, the first period (t1 + t2 seconds) of the implantation region is calculated from the general formula (3).
The charging potential ΔV at the end of is ΔV (t) = z (1-z) * R * ic * (1-exp (-t1 / τ)) * exp (-t2 / τ) General formula (4) Except for the condition of t2 >> τ or t1 << τ,
It is expected that charge will be accumulated every time a nearby element is driven. The above is the description of the process of relaxing the charging of the spacer.

On the other hand, in the display element, the beam position changes depending on the amount of emitted electrons during the selection period t1 (D
uty dependence) is a problem, but D
Since the uty dependence can be understood as a change in ΔV represented by the general formula (3) with respect to the amount of emitted electrons (product of Ie and pulse width), both sides of the general formula (3) can be regarded as the emitted electron amount (Ie).
And the product of pulse width). dΔV (t) / d (Ie × t
1) = z (1-z) * R * [P * (1-exp (-t1 / τ)) / t1 + P * exp (-t1 / τ) / τ] = z (1-z) * / C * P / t1 * [τ + (t1-τ) * exp (-t1 / τ)] General formula (5) is used, but it is simplified by the driving conditions and material constants, and it is an insulating material and the selection time is extremely short. If it is too short, CR =
τ << t1 holds, and dΔV (t) / d (Ie × t1) = z (1-z) * P / C general formula (6).

When the material is a low resistance or when the selection time is very long, CR = τ >> t1 holds, and dΔV (t) / d (Ie × t1) = z (1-z) * P * R / t1 General formula (7) is obtained.

Based on the above formulation, the Dut of the light emission position
Parameters that define y dependence, that is, gradation dependence in the selection period will be described.

From the condition of maintaining the accelerating voltage between the anode and the cathode, the spacer preferably has a certain degree of insulation or high resistance in the surface direction. Therefore, normally, when considering the duty dependence of the charging potential at an arbitrary position, it is preferable to apply the general formula (5) or (6). Therefore, in order to suppress the duty dependence,
Although it is required to increase the dielectric constant or the cross-sectional area of the spacer material, the controllable range of the dielectric constant on the material is extremely narrow compared to the specific resistance, and the film thickness is also a process reason. Can not secure an effective size from. Therefore, it is necessary to suppress the parameter P.

Further, from the viewpoint of enhancing the effect of alleviating the charge during the rest period, the above general formula (4) is used.
As described above, if the charges are injected into the spacer at a repetition cycle shorter than the time constant defined by the resistance and the capacitance, the charges will be accumulated. If the relaxation time constant of the high resistance film on the spacer surface is the line non-selection period t2 of the electron-emitting device.
Even if a material smaller than a second (≈selection period × number of scanning lines) is applied, cumulative charging may be formed, so designing the relaxation time τ by controlling the resistance value is not sufficient as an antistatic measure. Is considered to be.

In any case, it is difficult to design the conditions suitable for suppressing the charging only by controlling the resistance value and the capacitance, and it is necessary to control the secondary electron emission coefficient.

[Background 2] In general, the secondary electron emission coefficient greatly depends on the incident angle of incident electrons, and the secondary electron emission coefficient δ exponentially doubles as the incident angle is increased. As described above, the secondary electron emission coefficient when the primary electron is incident on a smooth surface is θ [degree] (-
90 <θ <90), the incident energy is Ep [keV],
The penetration distance of incident electrons into the film is d [Å], the absorption coefficient of secondary electrons is α [1 / Å], the average energy of primary electrons required to generate secondary electrons in the film ξ [eV], from the surface Letting B be the escape probability of secondary electrons into the vacuum, it can be quantitatively described by the following general formula (0) by parameters A and n that describe the energy loss process of primary electrons in the film.

[0049]

[Equation 3] The incident energy dependence characteristic of the secondary electron emission coefficient represented by the general formula (0) generally shows a mountain-shaped characteristic having a peak on the low energy side as shown in FIG. 10, and in many cases, the secondary electron emission coefficient The peak value of δ exceeds 1, and two incident energies satisfying δ = 1 are included. At the incident energy between these two cross point energies, the secondary electron emission coefficient becomes positive, which means the generation of positive charges. The smaller one of the two crosspoint energies is called the first crosspoint energy E1, and the larger one is called the second crosspoint energy E2. At this time, in the general formula (0), the incident angle dependency of the secondary electron emission coefficient normalized by vertical incidence, that is, θ = 0 degree can be an index for evaluating the secondary electron emission multiplication effect by oblique incidence. This is shown below as general formula (1).

[0050]

[Equation 4] However, also here, the parameters m1 and m2 are m1 =
A constant having a value of 0.68273, m2 = 0.86212. However, m ₀ here corresponds to αd, which is the product of the absorption coefficient α of the secondary electrons and the penetration distance d of the primary electrons, is a function of the incident energy, and can be a positive real number. Due to its nature, m ₀ will be referred to as the incident angle multiplication coefficient of the secondary electron emission coefficient.

In the above general formula (1), it shows a monotonically increasing tendency with respect to the incident angle | θ | under any incident energy condition, and it rapidly increases near the 90 ° incident condition. FIG. 3 shows the high incidence angle multiplication effect of the secondary electron emission coefficient. This is because the oblique incidence causes the distribution of secondary electron generation sites in the film to move to a shallow location close to the film surface, increasing the proportion of secondary electrons that are not eliminated by recombination and are emitted into a vacuum. . This can be understood as apparently that the absorption coefficient α of the secondary electron is reduced to α cos θ. In a smooth film formed on a smooth surface as an actual spacer material, for example, many antistatic films have an energy having a positive secondary electron emission coefficient, that is, larger than the first crosspoint energy and the second crosspoint. The incident energy, which is smaller than the energy, is 1 keV
Under the condition of, the incident angle multiplication coefficient m _{0 of the} secondary electron emission coefficient is 1
It has a value larger than 0, and the positive charge is enlarged due to the increase of the incident angle, which is a major cause of the positive charge of the spacer material.

[Background 3] The incident angle distribution to the spacer is large, and the incident electrons with a higher incident angle are dominant. Although there are various incident paths of electrons to the spacer surface, there are three major paths. Represented by. The first path is the direct incidence of the emitted electrons from the electron-emitting device, and the incident angle depends on the degree of distortion of the electric field near the spacer and the design value of other devices, and is a high incident angle of about 80 to 86 degrees. Moreover, it adopts an incident mode of high incident energy. In addition, since the distance between the spacer and the near-field emission electron element is short, the amount of incident electrons is extremely large. The second path is indirect incidence of backscattered electrons reflected from the face plate to the surroundings, the incident angle is distributed from 0 to a high incident angle, and the incident energy also has a distribution, but it is smaller than the incident energy of the first path. . The third path is the re-injection of the first and second incident electrons or the electrons field-emitted from the electric field concentration point near the contact point between the spacer and the cathode to the spacer surface. The third route is
Although there is a shape of the spacer surface and a distribution of the charging potential, it is considered that this occurs because electrons are likely to re-enter the locally positively charged region. The incident angle of this third path also has a distribution, and is usually several to several 1 in the creeping direction as an acceleration voltage.
Since a high electric field of about 0 kV / cm is applied, the incident angle is modulated from normal incidence and the incident angle becomes high. Therefore, the incident electrons passing through either path have an incident angle distribution, and effective charge injection is performed by the positive charges formed inside the solid by the incident electrons with a high incident angle. Of the above-mentioned incident modes, it is usually the directly incident electrons of the first path that dominate the problem of positive charging, but it depends on the driving state and the design of the electron-emitting device, and The re-injection of the radiated electrons from the face plate and the multiple scattered electrons described in the next section is not a problem.

[Background 4] Multiple electron emission on the surface Secondary electrons once emitted from the spacer surface have a relatively small initial energy of about 50 eV at most. Energy is received from the electric field between the anode and cathode in space, but in many cases the spacer is positively charged in addition to the electrons reaching the anode, so many electrons re-enter the positively charged area on the spacer. Exists. These are problems because positive charges are cumulatively accumulated on the spacer while alternately repeating incidence and emission at relatively low incident energy and high incidence angle. Therefore, it is a problem to suppress the above multiple electron emission.

When the above background is organized, from background 1, there is a limit to the selection range of the dielectric constant and resistance value of the film, and there are cases where the resistance value design alone is insufficient. It turns out that it is important to limit the quantity, ie the secondary electron emission coefficient.

Further, from the backgrounds 2 and 3, since the charging at a high incident angle is dominant in the actual electron-emitting device, it is possible to decrease the incident angle dependence and the absolute value of the secondary electron emission coefficient by the spacer. This is a design issue on the surface. Furthermore, from Background 4, it can be seen that it is necessary to reduce the cumulative electron emission phenomenon in order to suppress the cumulative positive charge due to the multiple scattered electrons.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and a spacer that suppresses electrification and does not distort electron trajectories when used in an electron beam apparatus, and efficiency of such a spacer. It is an object of the present invention to provide a good manufacturing method. A further object of the present invention is to provide an electron beam apparatus having excellent display quality and long-term reliability, which suppresses displacement of a light emitting point and creeping discharge due to charging.

[0057]

The present invention is used in an electron beam apparatus provided with an electron source, a plate facing the electron source, and a spacer arranged between the electron source and the plate. A spacer, wherein the spacer has an uneven surface-roughening layer on a spacer substrate, and the surface-roughening layer is a binder.
Having a particle size larger than the film thickness of the binder and the binder
A spacer characterized by containing fine particles .

[0058] The average particle diameter of the fine particles, a binder
The average film thickness is preferably 1.2 times or more. Furthermore
In addition, the average particle diameter of the fine particles is the average film thickness of the binder.
It is preferably 1.5 times or more and 100 times or less.

A second aspect of the present invention is an electron source,
A plate facing the electron source, the electron source and the plate
Electron beam device provided with a spacer disposed between
A spacer used in
The substrate has an uneven surface roughening layer, and the roughening layer is
The particle size smaller than the film thickness of the binder and the binder.
Formed by agglomeration of the fine particles
The particle size of the secondary particles is larger than the film thickness of the binder.
The present invention relates to a spacer characterized in that

In the present invention, the secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacer surface is δ under normal incidence conditions.
## EQU1 ## There are two incident energies satisfying = 1, and when the larger energy among the energies satisfying the δ = 1 condition is taken as the second cross point energy,
At incident energy below the cross point,

[0061]

[Equation 5] And the secondary electron emission coefficient for the primary electron at the incident angle θ and 0 degree, respectively,

[0062]

[Equation 6] It is preferable that the incident angle multiplication coefficient m _{0 of the} secondary electron emission coefficient, which is a parameter in, is 10 or less. In the present invention, the uneven surface-roughened layer is preferably formed by a liquid phase film forming method.

The present inventor has achieved the present invention as a result of extensive studies as described below. First, the above-mentioned general formulas (0) and (1) are empirically satisfied in most materials, and the incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient is fitted to the general formula (1) by an experimental value. Since it is obtained by the above, and the reproducibility is high, it can be used as an index for evaluating the incident angle dependency of the secondary electron emission coefficient. According to a detailed study by the present inventor, even in many inorganic materials having a low secondary electron emission coefficient, which are considered to be suitable as a spacer material, they have strong incident angle dependence and have a second cross point energy E2 or less. The incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient with respect to the primary electron has a value of 10 or more. Therefore, this is a major factor in positive charging of the spacers in the electron beam emission type image display device, which is often obliquely incident.

[Ideal State from Theoretical Formula] <Effect of Suppression of Incident Angle Dependence of Secondary Electron Emission Coefficient by Fine Particle Dispersion-Roughened Layer> The incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient is reduced. Moreover, as a result of studying how to reduce the secondary electron emission coefficient δ ₀ at normal incidence, it was found that the above-mentioned problems can be achieved by satisfying the following requirements. That is, in order to alleviate the incident angle dependency, it can be considered to roughly divide into two methods.

A method of relaxing the uniformity of the incident angle itself, or a method of reducing the surface effect, that is, the ratio d / λ of the penetration lengths of the primary electrons and the secondary electrons, can be considered as a characteristic on the material side.

By providing a distribution in the direction of the normal line of the interface which regards the incident angle of the primary electron as the dispersion surface, the incident angle is not limited to the angle defined from the outside but the locally defined incident angle. Has a distribution with respect to the angles defined in the macro, and the incident angle dependence is relaxed. Since the dependency of the incident angle has a characteristic of rapidly increasing near the incidence of 90 degrees, the effect of dispersing and relaxing the incident angle is large.

Reduction of Penetration Length of Primary Electrons to Secondary Electrons Penetration depth in solid is electron density ρ Zeff
/ Aefff (where ρ is the density of the solid, Zeff is the substantial atomic number (or equivalent atomic number), Aeff is the substantial atomic weight [g / ml] (or equivalent atomic weight), and In the case of a substance consisting of elements, the equivalent value obtained by multiplying the atomic ratio or atomic weight of each element ratio for each element is used.) Since it is proportional to the reciprocal of It is possible to reduce the incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the emission coefficient. Zeff / Aeff is in the range of 2 to 2.5 for elements other than hydrogen, and is smaller than the change in ρ, so the penetration length is defined by the solid density ρ. That is, for primary electrons having the same incident energy, the penetration depth becomes smaller in a film having a larger density ρ. Therefore, suppressing the incident angle doubling coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient is m ₀ = d / λ (where λ is the escape depth of secondary electrons, λ = 1 / α). It can be understood as suppressing the ratio of the penetration distance of primary electrons and secondary electrons in the medium.

However, in a uniform one-material system, the above λ
It is very difficult to control the relationship between and d independently,
As a result of studies by the inventors of the present application, it has been found that in many cases, the incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient becomes a value of 10 or more for primary electrons of the second cross point energy E2 or less. .

As a result of a detailed study by the present inventors, it was found that the structure for making the above-mentioned function work has the following structure.

It is possible to disperse the escape depth λ and increase it in the depth direction by adopting a structure in which the position of the surface has a distribution in the film thickness direction. Since the difference in electron energy is λ / d in many regions in the solid, the rate of increase in d with the dispersion of the surface position is smaller than the rate of increase in λ, and as a result, d / λ is a small value. Therefore, the incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient is reduced. The above-described method of providing the dispersion of the position of the surface in the film thickness direction is realized by taking a concavo-convex structure in which the surface is locally embedded inside. As a result of a detailed study by the present inventors, a specific example of such a complicated structure is not necessarily limited to a configuration in which the shape of the outermost surface of the spacer has irregularities, and even if the outermost surface is smooth. It has been found that even in the structure in which the interface having a qualitative difference in the electron penetration depth region is complicated inside, the structure in which the incident angle multiplication coefficient of the secondary electron emission coefficient is small can be realized.

The increase of λ can be measured by these methods, and the second cross point energy can be increased by applying a suitable design.
The incident angle multiplication coefficient m _{0 of the} secondary electron emission coefficient for primary electrons of E2 or less is about one third or less as compared with the conventional example, and m ₀ for primary electrons of the second cross point energy or less. It has been found that can be reduced to about 3.

<Effect of Suppressing Secondary Electron Emission Coefficient by Fine Particle Dispersion-Roughened Layer> Further, the spacer having a complicated surface by the fine particle dispersion-type roughened layer has an absolute secondary electron emission amount. Although it has been found that the value also has an effect of reducing the value, this mechanism of action is understood as follows.

The secondary electrons and the primary electrons traveling in the high resistance film portion repeatedly collide and scatter while interacting with atoms inside the medium, and lose energy. At this time, the penetration length and the energy reduction rate are strongly dependent on the electron density of the medium through which the electrons pass, and the penetration probability is high in a medium with a high electron density, so the penetration length is small. Furthermore, the rate of energy reduction per constant penetration distance is large, and the amount of secondary electron production per unit depth increases. A structure having a high electron density, that is, a material having a large specific gravity has a smaller electron penetration length and a larger secondary electron generation amount in the medium than a material having a small specific gravity.

Considering the difference between the penetration depth of electrons and the generation amount of the electrons, considering the behavior of the secondary electrons generated at the interfaces of these media having different electron densities, it is microscopically observed that the region has a large electron density. Therefore, it is considered that the phenomenon in which secondary electrons are emitted in the region where the electron density is low occurs.

Here, in the case where the above-mentioned interface is formed in such a direction as to form irregularities and increase the surface area, while traveling in the region on the low electron density side where the penetration length of electrons is large, the high electron density region is again formed. Reaches the interface of and loses energy. As a dielectric polarization, charges remain in the film for a certain period of time, but eventually they recombine with holes and finally disappear inside the film. Eventually, most of these are not finally released into the vacuum, and the amount of secondary electron emission into the vacuum is reduced.

In the present invention, the high resistance film and the vacuum are used as two regions having different electron densities, and the two regions form an intricate interface. Therefore, as described above, the secondary electrons to the vacuum are formed. The amount of release can be effectively reduced, which can prevent charging.

Table 1 summarizes the operations realized by the claims of the present invention.

[0078]

[Table 1] Further, in the present invention, by considering a region where the difference in electron density is different as an interface, there is no limitation to a specific material due to a structure in which both interfaces are intricately included in the film, that is, a structure in which the film has sparseness and denseness. , A similar effect can be realized.

Further, the spacer of the present invention is preferably used for an electron beam apparatus, in which case the spacer has a high resistance film on the surface thereof and faces the contact surface with the electron source and / or the electron source. It is possible to have a structure in which a conductive film is provided on the contact surface with the electrode on the plate, and the high resistance film is electrically connected to the electron source and the electrode through the conductive film. It is preferable.

The electron beam apparatus of the present invention may be in the following forms.

The electrode is an accelerating electrode for accelerating the electrons emitted from the electron source, and an image is formed by irradiating the target with the electrons emitted from the cold cathode element according to an input signal to form an image. Is a form. In particular, an image display device in which the target is a phosphor.

The cold cathode device is a cold cathode device having a conductive film including an electron emitting portion between a pair of electrodes, and a surface conduction electron emitting device is particularly preferable.

The electron source is a simple matrix arrangement of electron sources having a plurality of cold cathode elements arranged in a matrix by a plurality of row-direction wirings and a plurality of column-direction wirings.

In the electron source, a plurality of rows of cold cathode elements in which a plurality of cold cathode elements arranged in parallel are connected at both ends are arranged (called a row direction), and a direction (column direction) orthogonal to this wiring is arranged. (Also referred to as), a control electrode (also referred to as a grid) arranged above the cold cathode element to control electrons from the cold cathode element, which is a ladder-shaped electron source.

Further, according to the present invention, not only the image forming apparatus suitable for display but also the above-mentioned as an alternative light emitting source such as a light emitting diode of an optical printer including a photosensitive drum and a light emitting diode, It is also possible to use this image forming apparatus. At this time, by appropriately selecting the above-mentioned m row-direction wirings and n column-direction wirings, it can be applied not only as a line-shaped light emitting source but also as a two-dimensional light-emitting source. In this case, the image forming member is not limited to a substance that directly emits light such as a phosphor used in the following embodiments, but a member that forms a latent image by charging with electrons can be used. Further, according to the idea 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, such as an electron microscope. . Therefore, the present invention can also be embodied as a general electron beam apparatus that does not specify a member to be irradiated.

[0086]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

The spacer according to the present invention has a spacer substrate and a roughening layer that covers at least a part of the spacer substrate, and the roughening layer has a structure in which fine particles are contained together with a binder. Thereby, the unevenness on the spacer substrate is formed so as to reduce the incident angle in a plurality of directions. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a typical spacer shape, and is used as a spacer 1020 in an image display device as shown in FIG. 11, for example. Figure 1 (b),
(C) is a schematic cross-sectional view of the concavo-convex substrate spacer of the present invention, (b) is a cross section including the vertical direction BB ′ in the same figure (a), and similarly (c) is a horizontal direction. It is a schematic diagram of the cross section containing CC '. Reference numeral 1 is a spacer substrate, 4 is a roughening layer in which fine particles are dispersed, and 2 is a high resistance film formed on the surface of the spacer substrate 1 for the purpose of preventing static charge. The high resistance film 2 has unevenness on the final surface following the unevenness of the surface of the roughening layer formed on the spacer substrate.
The roughened layer 2 may also serve as a high resistance film as an embodiment. Reference numeral 3 is a low resistance film provided as necessary to obtain ohmic contact between the upper and lower electrode substrates and the spacer. As is clear from FIGS. 1B and 1C, the spacer substrate has a concavo-convex shape in both the BB ′ cross section direction and the CC ′ cross section direction which are orthogonal to each other. Therefore, it also has an uneven shape in the other cross-sectional directions.

Furthermore, the spacer of the present invention has a structure in which the film thickness of the roughening layer is smaller than the particle diameter of the dispersed fine particles, but at this time, the outermost surface is roughened. For example, any particle dispersion state may be used, the particle size of monodispersed primary particles may be treated, or the particle size of secondary particles having an aggregate in the binder may be considered. Furthermore, when the secondary particle diameter is larger than the film thickness, since the distribution of the fine particles is formed unevenly in the film, if the conductivity of the fine particles is larger than the conductivity of the binder matrix,
Since there is no boundary in the conductive path in the film thickness direction and there are multiple boundaries in the conductive path in the film surface direction, there is also a side effect that resistance anisotropy can be expressed in the film thickness direction and the film surface direction. It can be generated.

Hereinafter, the constitution in which the particle diameter of the primary particles is larger than the film thickness is referred to as a first form, and the first form is illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 8. In the figure, 601 and 801 are fine particles provided for roughening, 602 and 802 are binder matrix portions provided for the purpose of fixing the fine particles to the substrate, and fine particle diameters 603 and 803, respectively. The film thicknesses 604 and 804 of the binder matrix portions are designed to be large. From the viewpoint of substrate adhesion, conductivity, etc., as shown in FIG. 8, the binder may contain fine particles 806 of other sizes in addition to the roughened fine particles.

On the other hand, when the primary particles are aggregated and there is a sparse distribution of the primary particles, the distribution is such that the secondary particles formed by the dense parts are interspersed with each other through the sparse parts in the film. When viewed macroscopically, they form an agglomeration boundary (boundary) and an agglomerate (cluster). This configuration is called a second mode, and this second mode is illustrated in FIGS. 7 and 9. In the figure, reference numerals 701 and 901 denote primary particles contained in the binder, each having a diameter smaller than the film thickness 706 and 906, and 702 and 902, a binder matrix.
When the primary particles are agglomerated, a sparse and dense distribution exists in the film, but since the agglomeration of fine particles is larger than that of the binder, the dense parts 703 and 903 are usually sparse and sparse.
A distribution surrounded by four regions is shown. Further, if the film thicknesses 706 and 906 are smaller than the secondary particle diameter, a structure in which secondary particle agglomerates are scattered in the film surface direction can be realized. further,
Surface coat layer 7 provided for the purpose of suppressing secondary electron emission, etc.
05 may be provided.

<First Embodiment> In the first embodiment of the present invention, the primary particle diameter of the fine particles in the roughening layer is larger than the average film thickness of the binder (hereinafter, also simply referred to as binder film thickness). Take In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8, in the roughening layer, the fine particles 60 for roughening are used.
1 or 801 does not exist in the binder matrix portion 6
02 or 802 is always present. Therefore, in the present invention, the average film thickness of the binder refers to the average film thickness of the binder matrix portion (excluding the portion where the meniscus is lifted in the vicinity of the fine particles).

Here, the size of the fine particle diameter with respect to the binder film thickness is preferably 1.2 times or more, more preferably 1.5 times to 100 times. When the particle size is smaller than the lower limit, the effect of roughening cannot be sufficiently obtained, and when the particle size is larger than the upper limit, the adhesion of fine particles to the substrate decreases.

Further, in this case, by imparting conductivity to the binder, it becomes possible to impart a current path for alleviating the charging charge to the roughened film, and it becomes possible to control the resistance value. There is an advantage that the step of providing the high resistance layer can be omitted. In addition, especially when not imparting conductivity to the roughened layer itself, it is possible to newly provide a high resistance film as a charge relaxation path, but in this case, the shape function of the roughened layer and the resistance It is preferable in that the value and the value can be set independently.

Furthermore, as a surface coat layer, for the purpose of suppressing the secondary electron emission coefficient independently of providing a conductive path.
It is also possible to surface coat a material with a low secondary electron emission coefficient of about several to several tens of liters. In this case, since conductivity in the film surface direction is not required, it is possible to use an insulating material or form a discontinuous film.

<Second Embodiment> In the second embodiment of the present invention,
The film thickness of the roughened layer has a value larger than the particle size of the primary particles, and is the same as or smaller than the particle size of the secondary particles. Here, the film thickness of the roughened layer means an average film thickness of the entire roughened layer.

The primary particles dispersed in the coating solution consist of the solid content and the energy balance of the solution, the temperature during storage, photostimulation,
Due to instability factors such as the atmosphere during the film formation and the cleaning conditions, the monodispersed state is changed to a more stable state to form agglomerated secondary particles, and the primary particles are dispersed in the film. At this time, by designing the specific resistance of the fine particles with respect to the binder material and setting the film thickness to be smaller than the particle diameter of the secondary particles, there is no boundary showing a sparse distribution in the film thickness direction, and the film In the plane direction, a structure is formed in which a boundary surrounds a cluster of secondary particles. At this time, a resistance value anisotropy having a low resistance in the film thickness direction with respect to the film surface direction can be exhibited. The lower limit of the sheet resistance is set in the film surface direction due to power consumption and the like, but a film that satisfies this condition and that can effectively alleviate charging in the film thickness direction can be realized. As a further effect, the agglomerated cluster region has a larger film thickness as compared with the surrounding boundary portion, so that it becomes possible to provide the final surface with a concavo-convex structure in the order of the particle size of the secondary particles. Also in this form, a low secondary electron emission coefficient material can be separately surface-coated, if necessary.

[Forming Method] In the spacer of the present invention, the roughened layer is preferably formed by a liquid phase film forming method.
The liquid phase film forming method means a method including a step of applying a dispersion liquid / solution containing a solvent and a step of drying the solvent.

As a coating method of the roughened layer, an existing antistatic film forming process can be applied. For example, a wet printing method, an aerosol method, a dipping method or the like can be applied. A simple process such as a dipping method is preferable from the viewpoint of lowering the cost of forming a film on a finely-shaped substrate, but particularly in the case of roughening by thinning as in the first embodiment, spin coating or the like is preferable. From the viewpoint of film thickness controllability, a method in which a coating solution developed on another member by such a process having excellent film thickness uniformity is subjected to color development by offset printing is preferable.

Thus, when the wet process is used,
Since the coating film is obtained from the coating process and the drying process of the paste containing the fine particle component and the binder component, compared to the gas phase process, the utilization efficiency of the raw material is high, the tact time is shortened, and the vacuum decompression / fixing is unnecessary. This is advantageous in that a cost reduction effect can be obtained.

[Fine Particle Size and Concentration] In the present invention, it is sufficient that the fine particle component and the binder component have an uneven structure on the surface, and various fine particles and binder materials can basically be used, but the average particle diameter is Fine particles of 5000 Å or less are used. It is more preferably 2000 Å or less, and even more preferably 1000 Å or less.
The lower limit is preferably 50 Å or higher, and more preferably 100 Å or higher. The lower limit is determined by the effect of the concavo-convex structure and the storage stability of the coating solution, and the upper limit is determined by the adhesion to the substrate and the storage stability of the coating solution. From the viewpoint of obtaining a large rough surface as the concavo-convex structure, in the first embodiment, as large particles as possible are selected within the above range.

On the other hand, in the second embodiment, since it is necessary to form an agglomerate of the film, fine particles as small as possible are preferably used.

Further, from the viewpoint of obtaining a large rough surface as the concavo-convex structure, the concentration of fine particles in the solid content is preferably a high value, but usually 10 to 80% by weight is used. Furthermore, the concentration of solids in the coating solution is 15% by weight.
The following is preferable. The upper limit is determined by the storability of the coating solution.

[Material of Fine Particles, Material of Binder] Examples of the fine particles used for roughening in the present invention include carbon, silicon dioxide, tin dioxide and chromium dioxide.

Any binder may be used as long as it has a binder function capable of holding the fine particles on the spacer substrate when fired. For example, a binder containing a silica component or a metal oxide is preferable.

[Shape of Spacer Substrate] The antistatic effect by roughening the spacer of the present invention is not limited to a spacer having a specific shape as long as fine particles are formed as a means for modifying the surface of the spacer. 31 and 32 show the form of a columnar structure as another structure of the spacer in which the uneven surface is provided by the roughening layer of the present invention.

[Spacer Substrate Material] In order for the spacer substrate to obtain heat resistance in the heating process in the paste, the material of the substrate is ceramic glass such as alumina, non-alkali glass, low alkali glass,
It is preferable to use glass in which the amount of transferred alkali is suppressed. Furthermore, in order to prevent the image forming apparatus from being destroyed due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between the face plate or rear plate and the spacer in the thermal process at the time of assembly, the substrate material is heated as necessary for the purpose of adjusting the coefficient of thermal expansion. It is also possible to add an expansion coefficient adjusting material.

Examples of the material for adjusting the coefficient of thermal expansion include zirconia (zirconium oxide) when an alumina substrate is used as the spacer substrate. For example, the coefficient of thermal expansion is 80 × 10 ⁻⁷ / ° C. to 90 × 10 ⁻⁷
When assembling a spacer having a spacer substrate made of alumina on a face plate made of soda-lime glass at a temperature of / ° C., the weight mixing ratio of alumina and zirconia is 70:
By setting the ratio to 30 to 10:90, the thermal expansion coefficient of the spacer substrate can be changed from 75 × 10 ⁻⁷ / ° C. to 95 × 10 ⁻⁷ / ° C. The weight mixing ratio of alumina and zirconia is preferably 50 to 80%. The thermal expansion coefficient adjusting materials, it is also possible to use other materials than zirconia such as lanthanum oxide (La ₂ 0 _3).

Furthermore, the secondary electron emission coefficient of the roughened layer is preferably low, and the secondary electron emission coefficient of the smooth film is
It is more preferable that the peak value is 3.5 or less. That is, it is more preferable that the secondary electron emission coefficient measured under the condition of vertical incidence on the surface of the smooth film formed on the smooth substrate is 3.5 or less. Further, from the viewpoint of chemical stability of the film, it is preferable that the surface layer is in a highly oxidized state as compared with the inside of the film.

The spacer of the present invention is, for example, in the image display device shown in FIG. 11, one side of the spacer 1020 is electrically connected to the wiring on the substrate 1011 on which the cold cathode element is formed. In addition, the opposite side thereof emits electrons emitted from the cold cathode device with high energy by using a light emitting material (fluorescent film 1
018) Accelerating electrode (metal back 1)
019). That is, a current obtained by dividing the acceleration voltage by the resistance value of the antistatic film flows through the antistatic film formed on the surface of the spacer.

Therefore, the resistance value Rs of the spacer is set to its desired range from the viewpoint of antistatic and power consumption. From the perspective of antistatic, sheet resistivity R /
□ is preferably 10 14 [Ω / □] or less. In order to obtain a sufficient antistatic effect, it is more preferably 10 13 [Ω / □] or less. Although the lower limit of the sheet resistance depends on the shape of the spacer and the voltage applied between the spacers, it is preferably 10 7 [Ω / □] or more.

The thickness t of the high-resistance film has a lower limit in consideration of the penetration depth of primary electrons and the roughness of the uneven structure, and an upper limit thereof is:
Considering peeling due to film stress and the like, the thickness is preferably 0.1 μm or more and 10 μm or less.

The sheet resistance R / □ is ρ / t (in this context, ρ represents the specific resistance), and the above-mentioned R / □.
From the preferable range of □ and t, the specific resistance ρ of the high resistance film is 10
2 to 10 11 Ωcm is preferable. In order to realize the more preferable range of sheet resistance and film thickness, ρ
Is preferably 10 5 to 10 9 Ωcm.

As described above, the temperature of the spacer rises when a current flows through the high resistance film formed thereon or when the entire display generates heat during operation. When the resistance temperature coefficient of the high resistance film has a large negative value, the resistance value decreases when the temperature rises, the current flowing through the spacer increases, and the temperature rises further. And the current continues to increase until the limit of the power supply is reached. The condition under which such current runaway occurs is the temperature coefficient TCR (Temperature Coeffici) of the resistance value explained by the following general formula (ξ).
ent of Resistance) value. Where Δ
T and ΔR are the temperature T of the spacer in the actual driving state with respect to room temperature
And the increase in resistance value R. TCR = ΔR / ΔT / R × 100 [% / ° C] ・ ・ ・ Equation (ξ) The temperature coefficient of resistance that causes such thermal runaway of current is empirically negative and absolute value is 1% / ℃ or above. That is, the resistance temperature coefficient of the antistatic film is preferably greater than -1% / ° C (when negative, the absolute value is preferably less than 1%).

The roughened layer of the spacer of the present invention can control the temperature-dependent characteristic of the resistance value by the additive material, in addition to the resistance control by controlling the component ratio. At this time, it is advantageous in that the network structure of the membrane can be controlled without causing a great change. A metal oxide is excellent as an additive. Among the metal oxides, transition metal oxides such as chromium, nickel and copper are preferable materials.

The high resistance film having such an antistatic function can be used not only as a spacer but also as an antistatic film for other purposes.

Further, by providing a low resistance film at the contact portion of the spacer provided with the high resistance film with the upper and lower substrates, it is possible to suppress the local accumulation of charges near the junction between the spacer and the anode / cathode. Is 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 electrical connection with the upper and lower substrates. / □] or less is desirable.

[Outline of Image Display Device] Next, the configuration and manufacturing method of the display panel of the image display device to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to specific examples.

FIG. 11 shows a schematic structure of an example of a flat type image display device (electron beam device) using the spacer with a roughened layer (details will be described later). A plurality of cold cathode devices 1012
Substrate 1011 on which is formed a fluorescent film 101 which is a light emitting material
8 is an image display device having a structure in which a transparent face plate 1017 on which the film No. 8 is formed is opposed via a spacer 1020, and the spacer 1020 has a concavo-convex structure composed of fine particles and a binder component. It is covered with a resistance film.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the display panel used in the embodiment, in which a part of the panel is cut away to show the internal structure.

In the figure, 1015 is a rear plate, and 1016.
Is a side wall, 1017 is a face plate, and 1015
1017 to 1017 form an airtight container for maintaining a vacuum inside the display panel. When assembling an airtight container, it is necessary to seal the joints of each member in order to maintain sufficient strength and airtightness. Sealing was achieved by firing at 400-500 degrees for 10 minutes or more. A method of evacuating the inside of the airtight container will be described later. The inside of the airtight container is 1
Since the vacuum is maintained at about 0 ⁻⁶ [Torr], a spacer 1020 is provided as a space maintaining structure for the purpose of preventing destruction of the airtight container due to atmospheric pressure or unexpected impact.

Next, the electron-emitting device substrate that can be used in the image forming apparatus of the present invention will be described.

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 cold cathode elements are arranged in a ladder arrangement in which the cold cathode elements are arranged in parallel and both ends of each element are connected by wiring (hereinafter referred to as "ladder arrangement electron source substrate"). Another example is a simple matrix arrangement (hereinafter, referred to as “matrix-type arrangement electron source substrate”) in which the X-direction wiring and the Y-direction wiring of the pair of device electrodes of the cold cathode device are connected. An image forming apparatus having a ladder type electron source substrate requires a control electrode (grid electrode) which is an electrode for controlling the flight of electrons from the electron-emitting device.

The rear plate 1015 has a substrate 1011.
, But the cold cathode element 1012 is fixed on the substrate.
Are formed by N × M. N and M are positive integers of 2 or more and are appropriately set according to the target number of display pixels. For example, in an image display device intended to display a high-definition television, it is desirable to set N = 3000 and M = 1000 or more. The N × M cold cathode elements are arranged in a simple matrix by M row-direction wirings 1013 and N column-direction wirings 1014. The portion composed of 1011-1014 is called a multi-electron beam source.

The multi-electron beam source used in the image display device of the present invention is not limited in the material, shape or manufacturing method of the cold cathode element as long as it is an electron source in which the cold cathode elements are arranged in a simple matrix wiring or a ladder shape.

Therefore, for example, a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an FE type, or a MIM type cold cathode device can be used.

Next, the structure of a multi-electron beam source in which surface conduction electron-emitting devices (described later) as cold cathode devices are arranged on a substrate and simple matrix wiring is described.

FIG. 14 is a plan view of the multi-electron beam source used in the display panel of FIG. Board 101
A surface conduction electron-emitting device 1012 similar to that shown in FIG. 13 which will be described later is arranged on the substrate 1, and these devices are arranged in a simple matrix by row-direction wiring 1013 and column-direction wiring 1014. An insulating layer (not shown) is formed between the electrodes at the intersection of the row wiring 1013 and the column wiring 1014 to maintain electrical insulation.

A cross section taken along the line BB 'of FIG. 14 is shown in FIG.
Shown in.

The multi-electron source having such a structure is
Row direction wiring 1013 and column direction wiring 1 on the substrate in advance
014, an inter-electrode insulating layer (not shown), and the device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 1012 and the conductive thin film are formed, and then each device is supplied with power through the row directional wiring 1013 and the column directional wiring 1014 to conduct electricity. It was manufactured by performing a forming treatment (described later) and an energization activation treatment (described later).

In this embodiment, the substrate 1011 of the multi-electron beam source is provided on the rear plate 1015 of the airtight container.
The substrate 1 of the multi-electron beam source is configured to be fixed.
When 011 has sufficient strength, the substrate 1 of the multi-electron beam source is used as the rear plate of the airtight container.
011 itself may be used.

A fluorescent film 1018 is formed on the lower surface of the face plate 1017. Since the present embodiment is a color image display device, phosphors of three primary colors of red, green, and blue used in the field of CRT are separately coated on the phosphor film 1018. The phosphors of each color are shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 6 (a), the conductors are painted in stripes, and black conductors 1010 are provided between the stripes of the phosphor. The purpose of providing the conductor 1010 is to prevent the display color from being shifted even if there is a slight shift in the irradiation position of the electron beam, and to prevent the reflection of external light to prevent the deterioration of the display contrast. This is to prevent the fluorescent film from being charged up by the electron beam. Although graphite was used as a main component for the black conductor 1010, other materials may be used as long as they are suitable for the above purpose.

The method of separately coating the phosphors of the three primary colors is not limited to the stripe-shaped arrangement shown in FIG. 16 (a). For example, a delta arrangement shown in FIG. 16 (b), or Other arrangements (for example, FIG. 17) may be used.

In the case of producing a monochrome display panel, a monochromatic phosphor material may be used for the phosphor film 1018, and the black conductor 1010 may not be necessarily used.

On the surface of the fluorescent film 1018 on the rear plate side, a metal back 1019 known in the field of CRT is used.
Is provided. The purpose of providing the metal back 1019 is
Part of the light emitted by the fluorescent film 1018 is specularly reflected to improve the light utilization rate, and the fluorescent film 10 is prevented from colliding with negative ions.
18 is to be protected, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam acceleration voltage, and to act as a conductive path for excited electrons in the fluorescent film 1018. The metal back 1019 was formed by forming a fluorescent film 1018 on the face plate substrate 1017, smoothing the surface of the fluorescent film, and vacuum-depositing Al on the surface. When the fluorescent material for the low voltage is used for the fluorescent film 1018, the metal back 1019 may not be used.

Although not used in this embodiment,
For the purpose of applying acceleration voltage and improving the conductivity of the fluorescent film,
A transparent electrode made of, for example, ITO may be provided between the face plate substrate 1017 and the fluorescent film 1018.

FIG. 12 is a schematic sectional view taken along the line AA 'in FIG. 11, and the numbers of the respective parts correspond to those in FIG. Spacer 1
Reference numeral 020 denotes a high resistance film 11 formed on the surface of the insulating member 1 for the purpose of preventing static electricity, and the inside of the face plate 1017 (metal back 1019 or the like) and the surface of the substrate 1011 (row direction wiring 1013 or column direction wiring). 1014)
It is made of a member in which a low resistance film 21 is formed on the contact surface 3 of the spacer facing the spacer and the side surface portion 5 in the vicinity of the contact surface. Placed on the inside of the face plate and the substrate 10.
It is fixed to the surface of 11 by the bonding material 1041. Also,
The high resistance film is formed on at least the surface of the insulating member 1 exposed in vacuum in the airtight container,
The low resistance film 21 and the bonding material 104 on the spacer 1020
1 is electrically connected to the inside of the face plate 1017 (metal back 1019 or the like) and the surface of the substrate 1011 (row-direction wiring 1013 or column-direction wiring 1014). In the embodiment described here, the spacer 1020 has a thin plate shape, is arranged in parallel with the row-directional wiring 1013, and is electrically connected to the row-directional wiring 1013.

As the spacer 1020, the substrate 1011 is used.
It has an insulation property of withstanding a high voltage applied between the upper row direction wiring 1013 and the column direction wiring 1014 and the metal back 1019 on the inner surface of the face plate 1017,
In addition, the spacer 1020 needs to have electrical conductivity to the extent that the surface of the spacer 1020 is prevented from being charged.

Examples of the insulating member 1 of the spacer 1020 include quartz glass, glass with a reduced content of impurities such as Na, soda lime glass, and ceramic members such as alumina. The insulating member 1 preferably has a coefficient of thermal expansion close to that of the member forming the airtight container and the substrate 1011.

Low resistance film 21 constituting the spacer 1020
Is the face plate 101 on the high potential side of the high resistance film 11.
7 (metal back 1019, etc.) and the low potential side substrate 1
011 (wirings 1013, 1014, etc.) is provided for electrical connection, and hereinafter, the name of an intermediate electrode layer (intermediate layer) is also used. Intermediate electrode layer (intermediate layer)
Can have multiple functions listed below.

The high resistance film 11 is formed on the face plate 101.
7 and the substrate 1011 electrically.

As described above, the high resistance film 11 is provided for the purpose of preventing the surface of the spacer 1020 from being charged, but the high resistance film 11 is formed on the face plate 1017.
When connecting (metal back 1019 etc.) and substrate 1011 (wirings 1013, 1014 etc.) directly or via the abutting material 1041, a large contact resistance is generated at the interface of the connecting portion and the charges generated on the surface of the spacer 1020 are removed. There is a possibility that it cannot be removed promptly. In order to avoid this, a low resistance intermediate layer is provided on the contact surface 3 or the side surface portion 5 of the spacer 1020 that contacts the face plate 1017, the substrate 1011 and the contact material 1041.

The potential distribution of the high resistance film 11 is made uniform.

The electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 form an electron orbit according to the potential distribution formed between the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011. Spacer 1
In order to prevent the disturbance of electron trajectories near 020, it is necessary to control the potential distribution of the high resistance film 11 over the entire area. Face plate 10 with high resistance film 11
17 (metal back 1019, etc.) and substrate 1011
Direct contact with (wiring 1013, 1014, etc.) or contact member 10
When the connection is made via 41, the contact resistance at the interface of the connection portion may cause unevenness in the connection state, and the potential distribution of the high resistance film 11 may deviate from a desired value. In order to avoid this, the spacer 1020 is attached to the face plate 10
An intermediate layer having a low resistance is provided in the entire length region of the spacer end portion (contact surface 3 or side surface portion 5) that abuts 17 and the substrate 1011 and a desired electric potential is applied to this intermediate layer portion, whereby the high resistance film 11 is formed. The whole electric potential can be controlled.

Control the orbits of emitted electrons.

The electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 form an electron trajectory according to the potential distribution formed between the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011. Regarding the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacer, restrictions (wiring, change of device position, etc.) associated with the installation of the spacer 1020 may occur. In such a case, in order to form an image without distortion or unevenness, the trajectory of the emitted electrons is controlled to control the face plate 101.
It is necessary to irradiate the desired position on 7 with electrons. By providing a low-resistance intermediate layer on the side surface portion 5 of the surface contacting the face plate 1017 and the substrate 1011, the potential distribution in the vicinity of the spacer 1020 can have desired characteristics and the trajectory of the emitted electrons can be controlled. I can.

The low resistance film 21 may be selected from those containing a material having a resistance value lower than that of the high resistance film 11 by one digit or more. Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti,
Metals such as Al, Cu, Pd, or alloys, and P
a printed conductor composed of a metal such as d, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-Ag or a metal oxide and glass, or I
It is appropriately selected from a transparent conductor such as n ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ and a semiconductor material such as polysilicon.

The bonding material 1041 needs to have conductivity so that the spacer 1020 is electrically connected to the row wiring 1013 and the metal back 1019. That is, a frit glass to which a conductive adhesive, metal particles or a conductive filler is added is suitable.

Further, in FIG. 11, Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn and Hv are electric connection terminals having an airtight structure provided for electrically connecting the display panel and an electric circuit (not shown). Dx1 to Dxm are row wirings 1013 of the multi-electron beam source and Dy1 to Dyn.
Is electrically connected to the column-direction wiring 1014 of the multi-electron beam source, and Hv is electrically connected to the metal back 1019 of the face plate.

In order to evacuate the inside of the airtight container to a vacuum, after assembling the airtight container, an exhaust pipe (not shown) and a vacuum pump are connected, and the inside of the airtight container has a vacuum degree of about 10 ⁻⁷ [Torr]. Exhaust to. After that, the exhaust pipe is sealed,
In order to maintain the degree of vacuum in the airtight container, a getter film (not shown) is formed at a predetermined position in the airtight container immediately before or after the sealing. The getter film is, for example, a film formed by heating a getter material containing Ba as a main component with a heater or high-frequency heating and vapor deposition, and the inside of the airtight container is 1 × 10 ^{−5 to} 1 × due to the adsorption action of the getter film. 10 ^-7
The vacuum degree of [Torr] is maintained.

The image display device using the display panel described above is provided with terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dy outside the container.
When a voltage is applied to each cold cathode element 1012 through n,
Electrons are emitted from each cold cathode element 1012. At the same time, when a high voltage of several hundred [V] to several [kV] is applied to the metal back 1019 through the external terminal Hv, the emitted electrons are accelerated and collide with the inner surface of the face plate 1017. As a result, the phosphors of each color forming the phosphor film 1018 are excited and emit light, and an image is displayed.

Normally, the voltage applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 1012 of the present invention, which is a cold cathode device, is 12 to 16.
[V], metal back 1019 and cold cathode device 101
The distance d from 2 is about 0.1 [mm] to 8 [mm], and the voltage between the metal back 1019 and the cold cathode element 1012 is about 0.1 [kV] to 10 [kV].

Next, a method of manufacturing the multi-electron beam source used in this image display device will be described. The multi-electron beam source of the image display device in which the spacer of the present invention is used may be an electron source in which cold cathode elements are arranged in a simple matrix and are wired, or an electron source in which cold cathode elements are arranged in a ladder and are wired. Therefore, there is no limitation on the material, shape, or manufacturing method of the cold cathode device. Therefore, for example, a surface conduction electron-emitting device, an FE type, or a MIM type cold cathode device can be used.

However, under the circumstances where an image display device having a large display screen and a low cost is demanded, the surface conduction electron-emitting device is particularly preferable among these cold cathode devices. That is, in the FE type, the relative position and shape of the emitter cone and the gate electrode greatly affect the electron emission characteristics, and thus an extremely high-precision manufacturing technique is required, which achieves a large area and a reduction in manufacturing cost. Will be a disadvantageous factor. Further, in the MIM type, it is necessary to make 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 that respect, since the surface conduction electron-emitting device is relatively simple in manufacturing method, it is easy to increase the area and reduce the manufacturing cost. Further, the 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. Therefore, it can be said that it is most suitable for use in a multi-electron beam source of a high-luminance and large-screen image display device. Therefore, in the display panel of the above embodiment, the surface conduction electron-emitting device in which the electron-emitting portion or its peripheral portion is formed of the 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 beam source in which many devices are wired in a simple matrix will be described.

[Preferable Element Configuration and Manufacturing Method of Surface Conduction Electron-Emitting Element] Typical configurations of the surface-conduction electron-emitting element in which the electron-emitting portion or its peripheral portion is formed of a fine particle film include a planar type and a vertical type. There are two types.

[Plane Type Surface Conduction Electron Emitting Element] First, the element structure and manufacturing method of the plane type surface conduction electron emitting element will be described. FIG. 13 shows a plan view (a) and a cross-sectional view (b) for explaining the configuration of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device. In the figure, 1011 is a substrate, 1102 and 1103 are element electrodes, 1104 is a conductive thin film, 1105 is an electron emission portion formed by an energization forming process, and 1113 is a film formed by an energization activation process.

Examples of the substrate 1011 include various glass substrates such as quartz glass and soda lime glass, various ceramic substrates such as alumina, and insulating layers made of, for example, SiO ₂ on the above-mentioned various substrates. A laminated substrate or the like can be used.

Further, device electrodes 1102 and 1103 provided on the substrate 1011 so as to face each other in parallel with the substrate surface.
Is formed of a material having conductivity. For example, Ni, Cr, Au, Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Cu,
A material such as Pd, Ag or the like, an alloy of these metals, a metal oxide such as In ₂ O ₃ —SnO ₂ or a semiconductor such as polysilicon may be appropriately selected and used. Good. Device electrode 1102
To form 1103, for example, a film forming technique such as vacuum deposition and a patterning technique such as photolithography and etching can be easily used.
It may be formed using another method (for example, a printing technique).

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 several hundred [Å] to several hundred μ
It is designed by selecting an appropriate numerical value from the range of m, but the range of several μm to several tens of μm is preferable for application to an image display device. In addition, as for the thickness d of the device electrode, an appropriate numerical value is usually selected from the range of several hundred [Å] to several μm.

A fine particle film is used for the conductive thin film 1104. The fine particle film described here is a film containing a large number of fine particles as constituent elements (including an island-shaped aggregate).
Refers to. A microscopic examination of the particulate film usually reveals that
A structure in which individual fine particles are arranged apart from each other, a structure in which fine particles are adjacent to each other, or a structure in which fine particles overlap each other are observed.

The particle diameter of the fine particles used for the fine particle film falls within the range of several [Å] to several thousand [Å].
Among them, the range of 10 [Å] to 200 [Å] is preferable. Further, the film thickness of the fine particle film is appropriately set in consideration of various conditions as described below. That is,
Necessary conditions for making good electrical connection with the device electrode 1102 or 1103, necessary conditions for favorably performing the energization forming described later, and necessary electric resistance of the fine particle film itself for obtaining an appropriate value described later. Conditions, etc.
Specifically, it is set within the range of several [Å] to several thousand [Å], but among them, 10 [Å] to 500 is preferable.
It is between [Å].

Materials that can be used to form the fine particle film include, for example, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ag, and A.
u, Ti, In, Cu, Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, T
Metals such as a, W, Pb, PdO, Sn
_{O 2, In 2 O 3,} PbO, oxides and other like Sb ₂ O _{3 and, HfB 2, ZrB 2, LaB} 6, CeB 6, YB
₄ , boride such as GdB ₄ , TiC, Zr
Carbides such as C, HfC, TaC, SiC and WC; nitrides such as TiN, ZrN and HfN; semiconductors such as Si and Ge; and carbon. It is appropriately selected from the inside.

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

Incidentally, the conductive thin film 1104 and the device electrode 11
Since 02 and 1103 are preferably electrically connected well, they have a structure in which some of them overlap each other. In the example of FIG. 13, how they overlap is
The substrate, the device electrode, and the conductive thin film are stacked in this order from the bottom, but in some cases, the substrate, the conductive thin film, and the device electrode may be stacked in this order from the bottom.

Further, the electron emission portion 1105 is a crack-like portion formed in a part of the conductive thin film 1104, and has an electrically higher resistance property than the surrounding conductive thin film. The crack is formed by subjecting the conductive thin film 1104 to a later-described energization forming process. Fine particles with a particle size of several [Å] to several hundred [Å] may be placed in the crack. Since it is difficult to accurately and accurately show the actual position and shape of the electron-emitting portion, the electron-emitting portion 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 the energization activation process described later after the energization forming process.

The thin film 1113 is made of single crystal graphite, polycrystalline graphite, amorphous carbon, or a mixture thereof, and the film thickness is 500 [Å] or less, but 300 [Å] or less. Is more preferable. Since it is difficult to accurately illustrate the actual position and shape of the thin film 1113, the thin film 1113 is schematically shown in FIG. In the plan view (a), a part of the thin film 1113 (1
The device in which the upper layer portion of 105 is removed is illustrated.

The basic structure of the preferable element has been described above. Specifically, the following structure is adopted.

That is, soda lime glass was used for the substrate 1011 and Ni thin films were used for the device electrodes 1102 and 1103. The thickness d of the device electrodes 1102 and 1103 is 1000
[Å], and the electrode interval L was 2 [μm].

Pd or P as the main material of the fine particle film
The fine particle film had a thickness of about 100 [Å] and a width W of 100 [μm] using dO.

Next, a method for manufacturing a suitable flat surface-conduction type electron-emitting device will be described. 18 (a)-
13E is a cross-sectional view for explaining the manufacturing process of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, and the reference numerals of the respective members are the same as those in FIG.

1) First, as shown in FIG. 18A, device electrodes 1102 and 1103 are formed on a substrate 1011.

Before forming, the substrate 1
After thoroughly cleaning 011 with a detergent, pure water, and an organic solvent,
The material of the device electrode is deposited. As a method of depositing,
For example, a vacuum film forming technique such as a vapor deposition method or a sputtering method may be used. After that, the deposited electrode material is patterned using photolithography / etching technology,
The pair of device electrodes 1102 and 1103 shown in (a) are formed.

2) Next, a conductive thin film 1104 is formed as shown in FIG.

In forming the film, first, the substrate of (a) is coated with an organic metal solution, dried, and heated and baked to form a fine particle film, followed by photolithography.
Patterning is performed into a predetermined shape by etching. Here, the organometallic solution is a solution of an organometallic compound whose main element is the material of the fine particles used for the conductive thin film. Specifically, Pd is used as the main element in this embodiment.
Further, although the dipping method is used as the coating method in the embodiment, 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 the film forming method of 04, other than the method of applying the organic metal solution used in the present embodiment, for example, a vacuum vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, or the like may be used.

3) Next, as shown in FIG. 11C, the forming power supply 1110 to the device electrodes 1102 and 110 are connected.
An appropriate voltage is applied between 3 and energization forming is performed to form the electron emitting portion 1105.

The energization forming treatment means that the electroconductive thin film 1104 made of a fine particle film is energized so that a part of it is appropriately destroyed, deformed or altered to change into a structure suitable for electron emission. It is a process that causes it. A portion of the conductive thin film made of the fine particle film, which has been changed to a structure suitable for emitting electrons (that is, the electron emitting portion 110).
In 5), an appropriate crack is formed in the thin film.
Note that the electric resistance measured between the element electrodes 1102 and 1103 after the formation is significantly increased as compared with before the formation of the electron emission portion 1105.

To explain the energizing method in more detail, FIG. 19 shows an example of an appropriate voltage waveform applied from the forming power supply 1110. When forming the conductive thin film 1104 made of a fine particle film, a pulsed voltage is preferable, and in the case of the present embodiment, a triangular wave pulse having a pulse width T1 is continuously formed at a pulse interval T2 as shown in FIG. Applied. In that case, the peak value Vp of the triangular wave pulse
f was sequentially boosted. Further, monitor pulses Pm for monitoring the formation state of the electron emitting portion 1105 were inserted between the triangular wave pulses at appropriate intervals, and the current flowing at that time was measured by the ammeter 1111.

In the embodiment, for example, 10 ⁻⁵ [To
rr] in a vacuum atmosphere, for example, pulse width T
1 is 1 [msec] and the pulse interval T2 is 10 [mse]
c] and the peak value Vpf is 0.1 [V] for each pulse.
We stepped up each. The monitor pulse Pm was inserted once every five pulses of the triangular wave were applied. The voltage Vpm of the monitor pulse 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
At the stage of × 10 ⁶ [Ω], that is, when the monitor pulse is applied, the current measured by the ammeter 1111 is 1 × 10 ^−7.
[A] When the temperature became the following, 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 film thickness of the fine particle film, the device electrode spacing L, etc. are designed. It is desirable to appropriately change the conditions of energization when the value is changed.

4) Next, as shown in FIG. 18D, the device electrodes 1102 and 11 are formed by using the activation power supply 1112.
During 03, an appropriate voltage is applied to carry out energization activation treatment to improve electron emission characteristics.

The energization activation process is a process of energizing the electron emitting portion 1105 formed by the energization forming process under appropriate conditions 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 the member 1113.) Note that by performing the energization activation treatment, the emission current at the same applied voltage is typically compared to that before the activation. Specifically, it can be increased 100 times or more.

Specifically, 10 ^{−5 to} 10 ⁻⁴ [Tor
By periodically applying a voltage pulse in a vacuum atmosphere in the range of r], carbon or a carbon compound originating from an organic compound existing in the vacuum atmosphere is deposited.
The deposit 1113 is 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 3
It is less than 00 [Å].

In order to explain the energization method in more detail, FIG. 20A shows an example of an appropriate voltage waveform applied from the activation power supply 1112. In this embodiment, the energization activation process is performed by periodically applying a rectangular wave having a constant voltage. Specifically, the rectangular wave voltage Vac is 14 [V],
The pulse width T3 is 1 [msec], and the pulse interval T4 is 10.
[Msec]. The above-mentioned energization conditions are preferable conditions for the surface-conduction type electron-emitting device of the present embodiment, and when the design of the surface-conduction type electron-emitting device is changed, it is desirable to appropriately change the conditions accordingly. .

Reference numeral 1114 shown in FIG. 18D is an anode electrode for trapping the emission current Ie emitted from the surface conduction electron-emitting device, to which a DC high voltage power supply 1115 and an ammeter 1116 are connected. (Note that the substrate 101
1 is incorporated in the display panel and then activated, the fluorescent surface of the display panel is set to the anode electrode 111.
Used as 4. ) While applying the voltage 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 1
Control the operation of 112. An example of the emission current Ie measured by the ammeter 1116 is shown in FIG. 20B. When the pulse voltage is started to be applied from the activation power supply 1112, the emission current Ie increases with the passage of time, but the emission current Ie is saturated soon. And then almost no increase. Thus, the emission current I
When e is almost saturated, the voltage application from the activation power supply 1112 is stopped, and the energization activation process is terminated.

The above-mentioned energization conditions are preferable conditions for the surface conduction electron-emitting device of this embodiment, and when the design of the surface conduction electron-emitting device is changed, the conditions are changed accordingly. Is desirable.

As described above, the flat surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 18E was manufactured.

[Vertical Surface Conduction Electron Emitting Element] Next, another typical configuration of the surface conduction electron emitting element in which the electron emitting portion or its periphery is formed of a fine particle film, that is, vertical surface conduction The configuration of the electron emission device will be described.

FIG. 21 is a schematic cross-sectional view for explaining the basic structure of the vertical type, in which 1201 is a substrate.
202 and 1203 are element electrodes, 1206 is a step forming member, 1204 is a conductive thin film using a fine particle film, 1205
Is an electron emission portion formed by the energization forming process, 1
213 is a thin film formed by the energization activation process.

The vertical type is different from the above-described flat type in that one of the element electrodes (1202) is provided on the step forming member 1206, and the conductive thin film 1204 covers the side surface of the step forming member 1206. The point is that they are covered. Therefore, the device electrode spacing L in the planar type shown in FIG.
Is the step height L of the step forming member 1206 in the vertical type.
is set as s. The substrate 1201 and the device electrode 1
202 and 1203, conductive thin film 1 using fine particle film
For 204, the materials listed in the description of the planar type can be similarly used. Further, for the step forming member 1206, an electrically insulating material such as SiO ₂ is used.

Next, a method of manufacturing a vertical type surface conduction electron-emitting device will be described. 22A to 22F are cross-sectional views for explaining the manufacturing process, and the reference numerals of the respective members are the same as those in FIG.

1) First, as shown in FIG. 22A, a device electrode 1203 is formed on a substrate 1201.

2) Next, as shown in FIG. 10B, an insulating layer for forming a step forming member is laminated. The insulating layer may be formed by stacking SiO ₂ by sputtering, for example.
For example, another film forming method such as a vacuum vapor deposition method or a printing method may be used.

3) Next, as shown in FIG. 13C, a device electrode 1202 is formed on the insulating layer.

4) Next, as shown in FIG. 9D, a part of the insulating layer is removed by using, for example, an etching method to expose the device electrode 1203.

5) Next, as shown in FIG. 13E, a conductive thin film 1204 using a fine particle film is formed. For formation, a film forming technique such as a coating method may be used as in the case of the flat type.

6) Next, as in the case of the flat type, an energization forming process is performed to form an electron emitting portion.
(The same process as the planar energization forming process described with reference to FIG. 18C may be performed.)

7) Next, as in the case of the planar type, an energization activation process is performed to deposit carbon or a carbon compound in the vicinity of the electron emitting portion. (The same process as the planar energization activation process described with reference to FIG. 18D may be performed.) As described above, the vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIG. Was manufactured.

[Characteristics of Surface Conduction Electron-Emitting Element Used in Image Display Device] The element structure and the manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the flat type and the vertical type have been described above. The characteristics of the existing device will be described.

FIG. 23 shows an element used in the image display device.
Typical examples of (emission current Ie) vs. (device applied voltage Vf) characteristic and (device current If) vs. (device applied voltage Vf) characteristic are shown. Note that the emission current Ie is significantly smaller than the device current If and is difficult to be illustrated on the same scale, and these characteristics are changed by changing design parameters such as the size and shape of the device. Therefore, 2
The characteristics of each book are shown in arbitrary units.

The element used in the image display device is the emission current I
e has the following three characteristics.

First, a certain voltage (this is called "threshold voltage Vt
h ". ) When the voltage of the above magnitude is applied to the element, the emission current Ie rapidly increases, while the threshold voltage Vt
At a voltage below h, the emission current Ie is hardly detected.

That is, it is a nonlinear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

Secondly, since the emission current Ie changes depending on the voltage Vf applied to the element, the emission current Ie at the voltage Vf.
The size of e can be controlled.

Thirdly, 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 charge amount of the electrons emitted from the element depends on the length of time for which the voltage Vf is applied. You can control.

Due to the above-mentioned characteristics, the surface conduction electron-emitting device could be suitably used for the image display device. For example, in an image display device provided with a large number of elements corresponding to the pixels of the display screen, if the first characteristic is used,
The display screen can be sequentially scanned for display.
That is, a voltage equal to or higher than the threshold voltage Vth is appropriately applied to the driven element according to the desired light emission luminance, and a voltage lower than the threshold voltage Vth is applied to the non-selected element. By sequentially switching the elements to be driven, it is possible to sequentially scan the display screen for display.

Further, since the emission brightness can be controlled by utilizing the second characteristic or the third characteristic, gradation display can be performed.

[Driving Circuit Configuration (and Driving Method)] FIG.
4 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a drive circuit for performing television display based on an NTSC television signal. In the figure, a display panel 1701 corresponds to the above-mentioned display panel, and is manufactured and operates as described above. The scanning circuit 1702 scans a display line, and the control circuit 1703 generates a signal or the like to be input to the scanning circuit 1702. The shift register 1704 shifts the data for each line, and the line memory 1705 outputs the data for one line from the shift register 1704 to the modulation signal generator 1707. Sync signal separation circuit 17
06 separates the sync signal from the NTSC signal.

The functions of the respective parts of the apparatus shown in FIG. 24 will be described in detail below.

First, the display panel 1701 is connected to an external electric circuit via the terminals Dx1 to Dxm, the terminals Dy1 to Dyn, and the high voltage terminal Hv. Among them, the terminals Dx1 to Dxm are connected to the multi-electron beam source provided in the display panel 1701, that is, m rows and n
A scanning signal is applied to sequentially drive the cold cathode devices arranged in a matrix of columns one row at a time (n elements). On the other hand, a modulation signal for controlling the output electron beam of each of the n elements for one row selected by the scanning signal is applied to the terminals Dy1 to Dyn. Further, the high voltage terminal Hv receives, for example, 5 [k] from the DC voltage source Va.
A DC voltage of V] is supplied, which is an accelerating voltage for giving enough energy to excite the phosphor to the electron beam output from the multi-electron beam source.

Next, the scanning circuit 1702 will be described. The circuit has m switching elements (in the figure,
S1 to Sm), each switching element selects either the output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx or 0 [V] (ground level) to display the display panel 1701. The terminals Dx1 to Dxm are electrically connected. Each of the switching elements S1 to Sm has a control signal T output from the control circuit 1703.
Although it operates based on the scan, it can actually be easily configured by combining switching elements such as FETs. The DC voltage source Vx outputs a constant voltage so that the drive voltage applied to the non-scanned element is equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold voltage Vth voltage based on the characteristics of the electron emission element illustrated in FIG. It is set.

The control circuit 1703 has a function of matching the operations of the respective parts so that an appropriate display is performed based on the image signal input from the outside. The sync signal T sent from the sync signal separation circuit 1706 described below
Tscan and T for each part based on sync
Generates sft and Tmry control signals. The sync signal separation circuit 1706 is a circuit for separating a sync signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC system television signal input from the outside. Sync signal separation circuit 1706
The sync signal separated by is composed of a vertical sync signal and a horizontal sync signal, as is well known, but is shown as a Tsync signal here for convenience of description. On the other hand, the luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is referred to as DA for convenience.
Although referred to as a TA signal, this signal is input to the shift register 1704.

The shift register 1704 is for serial / parallel conversion of the DATA signal serially input in time series for each line of the image, and is based on the control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 1703. Works. That is, it can be said that the control signal Tsft is the shift clock of the shift register 1704. The serial / parallel converted image data for one line (corresponding to drive data for n electron-emitting devices) is output from the shift register 1704 as n signals Id1 to Idn.

The line memory 1705 is a storage device for storing data for one line of an image for a required time, and a control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 1703.
Accordingly, the contents of Id1 to Idn are stored as appropriate.
The stored contents are output as I′d1 to I′dn and input to the modulation signal generator 1707.

The modulation signal generator 1707 is a signal source for appropriately driving and modulating each of the electron-emitting devices 1012 in accordance with each of the image data I'd1 to I'dn.
The output signal is applied to the electron-emitting device 1015 in the display panel 1701 through the terminals Dy1 to Dyn.

As described with reference to FIG. 23, the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention has the following basic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie. That is, there is a clear threshold voltage Vth for electron emission (8 [V] in the surface conduction electron-emitting device of the embodiment described later), and electron emission occurs only when a voltage equal to or higher than the threshold Vth is applied. Further, for a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold Vth, the emission current Ie also changes according to the change in voltage as shown in the graph of FIG.
From this, when a panel-like voltage is applied to this element, for example, electron emission does not occur even if a voltage below the electron emission threshold Vth is applied, but when a voltage above the electron emission threshold Vth is applied to the surface An electron beam is output from the conduction electron-emitting device. At that time, the intensity of the output electron beam can be controlled by changing the pulse peak value Vm. Further, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the electron beam output by changing the pulse width Pw.

Therefore, as the method of modulating the electron-emitting device according to the input signal, the voltage modulation method, the pulse width modulation method or the like can be adopted. When carrying out the voltage modulation method, as the modulation signal generator 1707, a circuit of a voltage modulation method that generates a voltage pulse of a fixed length and appropriately modulates the peak value of the pulse according to the input data is used. be able to. When the pulse width modulation method is implemented, the modulation signal generator 1707 generates a voltage pulse having a constant crest value and appropriately modulates the width of the voltage pulse according to the input data. Any type of circuit can be used.

The shift register 1704 and the line memory 1
705 may be a digital signal type or an analog signal type. That is, the serial of the image signal /
This is because parallel conversion and storage may be performed at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, the output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 1706 needs to be converted into a digital signal.
An A / D converter may be provided at the output section of 6. In this regard, the circuit used for the modulation signal generator is slightly different depending on whether the output signal of the main memory 115 is a digital signal or an analog signal. That is, in the case of the voltage modulation method using a digital signal, for example, a D / A conversion circuit is used for the modulation signal generator 1707, and an amplification circuit or the like is added if necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 1707 includes, for example, a high-speed oscillator, a counter for counting the number of waves output from the oscillator, and a comparator for comparing the output value of the counter with the output value of the memory. A circuit that combines (comparators) is used. If necessary, an amplifier for voltage-amplifying the pulse-width-modulated modulation signal output from the comparator up to the driving voltage of the electron-emitting device can be added.

In the case of the voltage modulation method using an analog signal, the modulation signal generator 1707 can employ, for example, an amplifier circuit using an operational amplifier or the like, and a shift level circuit or the like can be added if necessary. In the case of the pulse width modulation method, for example, a voltage control type oscillation circuit (VCO)
Can be adopted, and an amplifier for amplifying the voltage up to the driving voltage of the electron-emitting device can be added if necessary.

In the image display device to which the present invention is applicable, which has the above-mentioned structure, the electron emission element is formed by applying a voltage to each electron emission element through the terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn. Occurs. A high voltage is applied to the metal back 1019 or a transparent electrode (not shown) via the high voltage terminal Hv to accelerate the electron beam. The accelerated electrons collide with the fluorescent film 1018 and emit light to form an image.

[Case of Ladder Type Electron Source] Next, the ladder type electron source substrate and the image display device using the same will be described with reference to FIGS. 25 and 26.

In FIG. 25, 1011 is an electron source substrate,
1012 is an electron-emitting device, and 1126 is Dx1 to Dx10.
Is a common wiring connected to the electron-emitting device. A plurality of electron-emitting devices 1012 are arranged in parallel in the X direction on the substrate 1011 (this is called a device row). A plurality of this element row is arranged on the substrate to form a ladder type electron source substrate.
By appropriately applying a drive voltage between the common wirings of each element row, each element row can be independently driven. That is, an electron beam having a voltage equal to or higher than the electron emission threshold may be applied to the element row that emits the electron beam, and a voltage equal to or lower than the electron emission threshold may be applied to the element row that does not emit the electron beam. In addition, the common wirings Dx2 to Dx9 between the respective element rows are, for example, Dx2 and Dx2.
You may make it set x3 to the same wiring.

FIG. 26 is a diagram showing the structure of an image forming apparatus provided with a ladder-type electron source. Reference numeral 1120 is a grid electrode, 1121 is a hole through which electrons pass, 112
2 is a terminal outside the container made of Dox1, Dox2 ... Doxm,
1123 are G1 and G connected to the grid electrode 1120.
The outer terminals 1011 made of 2 ... Gn are electron source substrates in which the common wiring between the respective element rows is the same wiring as described above. Note that the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 25 and 26 denote the same members. The image forming apparatus having the above-mentioned simple matrix arrangement (see FIG.
The difference from 1) is that a grid electrode 1120 is provided between the electron source substrate 1011 and the face plate 1017.

In the above-mentioned panel structure, the spacer 120 is provided between the face plate 1017 and the rear plate 1015, if necessary due to the atmospheric pressure structure, regardless of whether the electron source is arranged in the matrix wiring or the ladder type arrangement. You can

Substrate 1011 and face plate 1017
A grid electrode 1120 is provided in the middle.
The grid electrode 1120 is used for the surface conduction electron-emitting device 10.
The electron beam emitted from 12 can be modulated. Since the electron beam passes through the stripe-shaped electrodes that are provided orthogonal to the ladder-shaped element rows, one for each element. A circular opening 1121 is provided. The shape and installation position of the grid are not necessarily those shown in FIG. 26, and a large number of passage openings may be provided in the form of a mesh as openings, and may be provided around or near the surface conduction electron-emitting device. Good.

The external terminal 1122 and the grid external terminal 1123 are electrically connected to the drive circuit shown in FIG.

In this image forming apparatus, the modulation signals for one image line are simultaneously applied to the grid electrode columns in synchronization with the sequential driving (scanning) of the element rows one row (one line) at a time. The irradiation of each electron beam to the phosphor can be controlled to display an image line by line.

The configurations of the above two image display devices are examples of the image forming device to which the present invention can be applied, and various modifications can be made based on the idea of the present invention. Although the NTSC system has been described as the input signal, the input signal is not limited to this, and a TV signal (high-definition TV) system including more scanning lines such as PAL and SECAM can be adopted.

Further, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide an image forming apparatus suitable not only for an image display apparatus for television broadcasting but also for an image display apparatus such as a video conference system and a computer. Further, it can be used as an image forming apparatus as an optical printer including a photosensitive drum or the like.

[0232]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to examples.

In each of the embodiments described below, as a multi-electron beam source, N × M (N = 307) of the above-mentioned type having an electron emitting portion in the conductive fine particle film between electrodes.
2. A multi-electron beam source was used in which the surface conduction electron-emitting device (2, M = 1024) was matrix-wired (see FIGS. 11 and 14) with M row-direction wirings and N column-direction wirings.

Example 1 A spacer used in this example was prepared as follows.

A ceramic substrate in which zirconia and alumina were mixed at a weight ratio of 65:35 so as to have the same coefficient of thermal expansion as the soda-lime glass substrate of the same quality as the rear plate was used as a prototype, and the external dimensions of the ceramic substrate were determined by polishing. The shape was processed so that the thickness was 0.2 mm, the height was 3 mm, and the length was 40 mm. The average value of the surface roughness at this time is 100.
It was [Å]. This substrate is designated as a0.

Prior to the film forming step, the spacer substrate a0 is first ultrasonically cleaned in pure water, IPA, and acetone for 3 minutes, dried at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes, and then subjected to U.
V ozone cleaning was performed to remove organic residue on the substrate surface.

Further, in a 6.0% by weight metal alkoxide solution containing Ti: Si = 1: 1, the average particle size is 1000Å (900 to 1100Å in the distribution of 3σ).
The fine particles of silica in Example 1 were dispersed in advance and printing of the solution was performed using a color spreading plate having a roughness of 5 μm. Then 1
Pre-baking was performed at 00 ° C. for about 10 minutes, UV irradiation was further performed, and heat baking treatment was further performed at 300 ° C. for about 1 hour. The thickness of the binder portion of this insulating film was 200Å.

After that, as an antistatic film on the surface of the substrate,
By sputtering targets of Cr and Al with a high frequency power source, a high resistance film was formed so that the Cr—Al alloy nitride film had a film thickness of 200 Å. Sputter gas is Ar:
The mixed pressure of N ₂ is 1: 2, and the total pressure is 1 mTorr. Not limited to this, various fine particle-dispersed antistatic films can be used in the present invention.

The resistance value of the present spacer in the film surface direction is R / □ = 8 × 10 ⁹ Ω / □ in terms of sheet resistance, which is the first secondary electron emission coefficient on the smooth film simultaneously formed under the above conditions. , The second crosspoint energy is 30 eV and 5 respectively.
It was keV.

Further, a low resistance film was formed in the region to be a junction with the upper and lower substrates by the following method. A titanium film with a thickness of 10 nm and a thickness of 200 nm was formed in a band shape of 200 μm in parallel with the junction.
Both Pt films having a thickness of nm were formed in a vapor phase by sputtering. At this time, the Ti film was necessary as a base layer for reinforcing the film adhesion of the Pt film. Thus, a spacer 1020 with a low resistance film was obtained. This is designated as spacer A. At this time, the film thickness of the low resistance is 210 nm, and the sheet resistance is 10
It was [Ω / □].

The obtained spacer A is shown in FIG.
It is as in (a), and the cross-sectional view in the vicinity of the bonded portion provided with the low resistance film is as shown in FIG. 1 (b). Further section TEM
The result of observing the substrate shape in detail is as shown in FIG. 6, and the outermost surface convex shape corresponding to the convex portion of the fine particles was confirmed. The film thickness of the binder part was 400Å, and the height of the convex part was 1200Å. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the Cr-Al alloy nitride film formed by sputtering also wraps around the convex portion and is covered.

The incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacer A is as follows with respect to the incident electron energy of 1 kV.
It was 5.

In this example, a display panel having the spacers 1020 shown in FIG. 11 described above was prepared. Less than,
This will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. First, the row-direction wiring electrodes 1013 and the column-direction wiring electrodes 1 are previously formed on the substrate.
014, an inter-electrode insulating layer (not shown), and the substrate 1011 on which the device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 1012 and the conductive thin film were formed were fixed to the rear plate 1015. next,
Substrate 1011 using spacer A as spacer 1020
On the row-direction wiring 1013, the row-direction wiring 101 is evenly spaced.
Fixed in parallel with 3. After that, a face plate 1017 having a fluorescent film 1018 and a metal back 1019 attached to the inner surface is arranged 5 mm above the substrate 1011 via a side wall 1016, and the rear plate 1015, the face plate 1017, the side wall 1016, and the spacer 1020 are joined together. Fixed. Substrate 1011 and rear plate 1015
The frit glass (not shown) is applied to the joints of the above, the joint of the rear plate 1015 and the side wall 1016, and the joint of the face plate 1017 and the side wall 1016. I sealed it. The spacer 1020 is mixed with a conductive filler or a conductive material such as metal on the row wiring 1013 (line width 300 [μm]) on the substrate 1011 side and on the metal back 1019 surface on the face plate 1017 side. Placed through a conductive frit glass (not shown),
Simultaneously with the sealing of the airtight container, at 400 ° C to 5 in the atmosphere.
By baking at 00 ° C. for 10 minutes or more, adhesion and electrical connection were made.

In this embodiment, the fluorescent film 101 is used.
8 is a phosphor 1301 for each color as shown in FIG.
Adopts a stripe shape that extends in the column direction (Y direction),
The black conductor 1010 is a phosphor of each color (R, G, B) 13
01, and a fluorescent film arranged so as to separate not only the pixels in the Y direction but also the pixels in the Y direction.
The black conductor 1010 was arranged in a region (line width 300 [μm]) parallel to the row direction (X direction) via the metal back 1019. When performing the above-described sealing, each color phosphor 1301 and each element 1 arranged on the substrate 1011
Therefore, the rear plate 1015, the face plate 1017, and the spacer 1020 are sufficiently aligned.

The inside of the airtight container completed as described above is evacuated by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to
A multi-electron beam source was manufactured by supplying power to each element 1013 through Dyn through the row-direction wiring electrode 1013 and the column-direction wiring electrode 1014 and performing the above-described energization forming process and energization activation process. Next, 10 ^-6 [T
The exhaust pipe (not shown) was heated by a gas burner at a degree of vacuum of about [orr] to weld and seal the envelope (airtight container).

Finally, a getter process was performed in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing.

11 and 1 completed as described above.
In an image display device using a display panel as shown in No. 2, each cold cathode element (surface conduction type emission element) 1012
, A scanning signal and a modulation signal are respectively applied from a signal generating means (not shown) through terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn outside the container to emit electrons. The application accelerates the emitted electron beam to apply the fluorescent film 101.
An image was displayed by colliding electrons with 8 and exciting and emitting each color phosphor 1301 (R, G, B in FIG. 16). The applied voltage Va to the high voltage terminal Hv is 3 [kV].
The applied voltage Vf between the wirings 1013 and 1014 was set to 14 [V] in the range of ˜12 [kV] until the discharge was gradually generated. 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 judged to be good.

At this time, the withstand voltage was good in the vicinity of the spacer A. Further, a light emitting spot row is formed in a two-dimensional manner at equal intervals, including a light emitting spot due to electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacer A.
It was possible to display a clear color image with good color reproducibility. This means that even if the spacer A is installed, the disturbance of the electric field that affects the electron orbit did not occur.

Example 2 Using a glass substrate g0 shown below as a spacer substrate, a spacer having an uneven surface was produced in the same manner as in Example 1.

As a low-alkali glass substrate of the same quality as the rear plate, PD200 manufactured by Asahi Glass Co., Ltd. was used as a prototype, and the outer dimensions were 0.2 mm in thickness, 3 mm in height, and length by cutting and mirror polishing the glass. The shape was processed to be 40 mm. The average value of the surface roughness at this time is 50 [Å]
Met. The spacer substrate g0 with this substrate as g0
Prior to the film forming step, first, ultrasonic cleaning is performed in pure water, IPA, and acetone for 3 minutes, and then a drying process is performed at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes, and then UV ozone cleaning is performed to remove organic residue on the substrate surface. Was removed.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, Ti: S
Fine particles of silica having an average particle size of 650Å (500 to 800Å with a distribution of 3σ) are pre-dispersed in a 12.0 wt% metal alkoxide solution containing i = 1: 1, and the solution is printed. Was performed using a spreading plate having a roughness of 5 μm. After that, calcination is performed at 100 ° C for about 10 minutes,
UV irradiation was further performed, and a heating and baking treatment was further performed at 270 ° C. for about 1 hour. The thickness of the binder portion of this insulating film was 150Å.

After this, further, in the same manner as in Example 1,
As the antistatic film, a high resistance film was formed by sputtering a target of Cr and Al with a high frequency power source so that the Cr—Al alloy nitride film had a film thickness of 200 Å. The sputtering gas is a mixed gas of Ar: N ₂ 1: 2, and the total pressure is 1 mTorr.

The resistance value of the present spacer in the film surface direction is R / □ = 8 × 10 ⁹ Ω / □ in terms of sheet resistance, and is the first secondary electron emission coefficient on the smooth film simultaneously formed under the above conditions. , The second crosspoint energy is 30 eV and 5 respectively.
It was keV.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a low resistance film was formed in the region to be the junction with the upper and lower substrates by the following method. 10 nm in a 200 μm band parallel to the junction
Both a thick titanium film and a 200 nm thick Pt film were formed in a vapor phase by sputtering. At this time, the Ti film was necessary as a base layer for reinforcing the film adhesion of the Pt film. Thus, a spacer 1020 with a low resistance film was obtained. This is designated as a spacer B. The low resistance film thickness at this time was 210 nm, and the sheet resistance was 10 [Ω / □].

The obtained spacer B had the same surface as in Example 1 as a sectional view, and the outermost surface convex shape corresponding to the convex portion of the fine particles was confirmed. At this time, the film thickness of the binder portion was 350Å and the height of the convex portion was 850Å. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the Cr-Al alloy nitride film formed by sputtering also wraps around the convex portion and that the high resistance film continuously covers the spacer side surface.

Further, a low resistance film was formed by sputtering in the same manner as in Example 1. This is designated as a spacer B. The incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacer B is
The incident electron energy was 8.9 for 1 kV.

Further, an electron beam emitting apparatus was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 together with a rear plate and the like incorporating an electron beam emitting element, and high voltage application and element driving were performed under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage was good in the vicinity of the spacer B. Further, including the light emission spots due to the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacer B, two-dimensional light emission spot rows are formed at equal intervals,
It was possible to display a clear color image with good color reproducibility. This indicates that even if the spacer B is installed, the disturbance of the electric field that affects the electron orbit does not occur.

Example 3 Using the glass substrate g0 used in Example 2 as a spacer substrate, a spacer having an uneven surface was produced in the same manner as in Example 1.

As in Example 1, the spacer substrate g0 was first ultrasonically cleaned in pure water, IPA and acetone for 3 minutes and then dried at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes in the same manner as in Example 1. After that, UV ozone cleaning was performed to remove organic residue on the substrate surface.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, Ti: S
In order to improve the adhesiveness with the fine particles made of silica having an average particle size of 650Å (500 to 800Å with a distribution of 3σ) in a metal alkoxide solution of 12.0% by weight of a component of i = 1: 1 The tin oxide particles having a diameter of 50Å were dispersed in advance, and the solution was printed using a spreading plate having a roughness of 5 μm. After that, temporary baking was performed at 100 ° C. for about 10 minutes, UV irradiation was further performed, and heat baking processing was further performed at 270 ° C. for about 1 hour. The thickness of the binder portion of this insulating film was 200Å.

Thereafter, in the same manner as in Example 1,
As the antistatic film, a high resistance film was formed by sputtering a target of Cr and Al with a high frequency power source so that the Cr—Al alloy nitride film had a film thickness of 400 Å. The sputtering gas is a mixed gas of Ar: N ₂ 1: 2, and the total pressure is 1 mTorr.

The resistance value of the present spacer in the film surface direction is R / □ = 4 × 10 ⁹ Ω / □ in terms of sheet resistance, which is the first secondary electron emission coefficient on the smooth film simultaneously formed under the above conditions. , The second crosspoint energy is 30 eV and 5 respectively.
It was keV.

Further, in the same manner as in Example 1, a low resistance film was formed by the following method in the region to be the joint with the upper and lower substrates. 10 nm in a 200 μm band parallel to the junction
Both a thick titanium film and a 200 nm thick Pt film were formed in a vapor phase by sputtering. At this time, the Ti film was necessary as a base layer for reinforcing the film adhesion of the Pt film. Thus, a spacer 1020 with a low resistance film was obtained. This is designated as a spacer C. The low resistance film thickness at this time was 210 nm, and the sheet resistance was 10 [Ω / □].

The obtained spacer C had a surface similar to that of Example 1 as a sectional view. Further, the result of observing the shape of the obtained substrate with a film in detail by a cross-sectional TEM is as shown in FIG. 8, and the outermost surface convex shape corresponding to the convex portion of the fine particles was confirmed. Further, fine particles were dispersed and contained in the binder portion. At this time, the thickness of the binder portion was 600Å and the height of the convex portion was 1050Å. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the Cr-Al alloy nitride film formed by sputtering also wraps around the convex portion and that the high resistance film continuously covers the spacer side surface.

Further, a low resistance film was formed by sputtering in the same manner as in Example 1. This is designated as a spacer C. The incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacer C is
The incident electron energy was 5.5 for 1 kV.

Further, an electron beam emitting device was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 together with a rear plate incorporating an electron beam emitting element, and high voltage application and element driving were performed under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage was good in the vicinity of the spacer C. Further, a light emitting spot row is formed in a two-dimensional manner at equal intervals, including a light emitting spot due to electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacer C.
It was possible to display a clear color image with good color reproducibility. This means that even if the spacer C is installed, the disturbance of the electric field that affects the electron orbit does not occur.

[Examples 4 and 5] Using the glass substrate g0 used in Example 2 as a spacer substrate, a spacer having an uneven surface was produced in the same manner as in Example 1. The spacer substrate g0 is formed in the same manner as in Example 1,
Prior to the film forming step, first, ultrasonic cleaning is performed in pure water, IPA, and acetone for 3 minutes, and then a drying process is performed at 80 ° C. for 30 minutes, and then UV ozone cleaning is performed to remove organic residue on the substrate surface. Treated.

Further, as a fine particle dispersion solution, a particle size of 50
Å to 100 Å antimony-doped tin oxide fine particles and 100 Å silica fine particles at a ratio of 90%: 10% at a Ti: Si = 1: 4 ratio of 12.0.
It was predispersed in a wt% silicon-metal alkoxide solution and the printing of the solution was carried out using a spreading plate with a roughness of 5 μm. After that, temporary baking was performed at 100 ° C. for about 10 minutes, UV irradiation was further performed, and heat baking processing was further performed at 270 ° C. for about 1 hour. The thickness of this high resistance film is 1400Å
And This spacer substrate with a roughened film is designated as g1.

Thereafter, the Cr-Al alloy nitride film is formed on the spacer substrate g1 as an antistatic film by sputtering a target of Cr and Al with a high frequency power source in the same manner as in the first embodiment. A high resistance film was formed so as to have a thickness of 150Å. The sputtering gas is a mixed gas of Ar: N ₂ 1: 2, and the total pressure is 1 mTorr. The spacer substrate with an antistatic film thus obtained is designated as g2.

Further, on the spacer substrates g1 and g2, in the same manner as in Example 1, a low resistance film was formed in the region to be a joint with the upper and lower substrates by the following method. In parallel with the bonding portion, a titanium film having a thickness of 10 nm and a Pt film having a thickness of 200 nm were both formed in a 200 μm band shape by sputtering in a vapor phase. At this time, the Ti film was necessary as a base layer for reinforcing the film adhesion of the Pt film. Thus, a spacer 1020 with a low resistance film was obtained. These are designated as spacers D and E.

The incident angle multiplication factor m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacers D and E was 9.5 and 9.4 for an incident electron energy of 1 kV, respectively.

The resistance value of the spacers D and E in the film surface direction is
In both cases, the sheet resistance was R / □ = 8 × 10 ⁷ Ω / □, and the volume resistance in the film surface direction was 1.1 × 10 in terms of film thickness.
Volume resistance in the film thickness direction of the monitor substrate simultaneously formed under the above conditions is 1.3 × 10 2 Ωc.
It was m.

With respect to the spacer D and the spacer E with the antistatic film, the results of observing the obtained film-formed substrate shape in detail by a cross-sectional TEM are as shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 7, respectively. The convex shape of the outermost surface corresponding to was confirmed. At this time, the region 90 where the primary particle distribution is sparse
The film thicknesses of 4 and 704 are 1150Å and 1300Å, respectively.
The regions 903 and 703 having a dense primary particle distribution had film thicknesses of 1450Å and 1600Å, respectively.

Further, an electron beam emitting device was prepared in the same manner as in Example 1 together with a rear plate incorporating an electron beam emitting element, and high voltage application and device driving were performed under the same conditions as in Example 1.

At this time, the withstand voltage was good in the vicinity of the spacers D and E. Further, a light emitting spot row is formed two-dimensionally at equal intervals including the light emitting spots due to the electrons emitted from the cold cathode device 1012 near the spacers D and E, and a clear and good color reproducible color image display is achieved. did it. This means that even if the spacer D is installed, the disturbance of the electric field that affects the electron orbit does not occur. The volume content of the fine particles contained in the spacer g1 in this example was 30%. The average particle size (average particle size, diameter) of the particles contained in the layer containing the particles of this example was confirmed as follows. The spacer is a portion that is parallel to the direction of the accelerating electric field applied in a state where the spacer is installed in the display device, and is a part that is installed as a spacer side surface in the display area, and is also a spacer side surface (often a surface of maximum area). ) Was cut as a plane that was parallel to the perpendicular. The thin piece including the spacer surface was cut out by performing the cutting twice with the cut surfaces parallel to each other. The thickness of the sliced slice (distance between parallel cut surfaces) may be any thickness as long as a two-dimensional image can be recorded, but in calculating the particle content, the influence of uneven distribution of particles in the sliced thickness direction In order to avoid such a problem, it is preferable to cut the particles 100 times or more thicker than the particle diameter or 10 times or more thicker than the film thickness. Next, using a scanning transmission electron microscope equipped with a field emission type electron gun, a cross section of the cross section of the spacer surface was observed 50,000 times, and a two-dimensional image was photographed and recorded. The diameter of particles projected in this photographic image was determined. At this time, the particle diameter and the particle cross-sectional area can be quantified by performing feature extraction such as contour information from the two-dimensional image, but in the present invention, it is calculated by the following method. That is, based on the density of the fine-grained image, determine the portion where the fine particles according to the present invention are present and the portion where the fine particles are not present
The total <cross-sectional area> of the cross-sectional areas of the fine particles in the evaluation area is calculated. According to the present invention, as a threshold value for distinguishing between a portion where fine particles are present and a portion where no fine particles are present, an intermediate value between the density of the center of the image of the fine particles and the density of the portion where no particles are present in the two-dimensional image is adopted. By dividing this by the number of particles in the evaluation area,
The average cross-sectional area per fine particle is obtained. Next, let the circle be the particle model of the projected image, and let S = πφ
From ^2/4 to determine the mean particle diameter φ of the microparticles. Further, regarding the samples of Examples 1, 2, and 3 having relatively large particle diameters, the cutting plane direction of the samples was the same, and one portion of the cross section was replaced with the above-mentioned scanning transmission electron microscope. This can be easily performed using a scanning reflection electron microscope. Further, the volume content of the fine particles contained in the layer containing the fine particles of this example was determined as follows. In the same way as the above-mentioned size measurement of the contained fine particles, the concentration (unit m- ² ) in the unit area of the fine particles projected on the cross section is obtained, and this is divided by the evaluated depth to obtain the concentration in the unit volume ( Unit m
^-3 ) ask. Further, an average particle volume is obtained by using a sphere as a model shape from the above-mentioned average particle diameter, and the concentration in the volume is multiplied to obtain the volume content (unit 1). in this case,
Although the actual measurement value may include an error in the underdirection due to the shadow of the fine particle group, the minimum estimated value of the content can be identified. In addition, if the specific gravity of the solid content of the raw material and the specific gravity of the binder are known, it is possible to estimate it from the weight mixing ratio of the raw materials, and it is also possible to combine a method of chemically separating and quantifying the components. It is possible. For example, when it is known that the main component of the binder raw material in the solid content is silica (silicon dioxide), the silica component is dissolved using an aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid, and the weight of the remaining particles in the solution is weighed. It is also possible. Further, the film thickness of the spacer of the present invention was determined by the distance between the boundaries between the upper and lower structures of the fine particle-containing layer from the cut surface observation image of the aforementioned electron microscope. As another method, a stylus type step gauge may be used.
Further, it is preferable that the fine particles in the film of the spacer of the second embodiment have a sparse and dense distribution of the fine particle concentration in the film surface direction due to the aggregation effect. The sparse and dense distribution is easily confirmed by an electron microscope image of the cross section of the spacer surface, and in the cross-sectional image, at least in a region in the film surface direction of about 0.1 times the film thickness, the particle concentration is the average particle concentration. It was judged that there was a region where the density was 0.3 times or less than that of sparse particle concentration region.

With respect to the spacers A, B, C, D and E having the roughened layer according to the present invention, the surface shape, the secondary electron emission coefficient incident angle dependency, the light emitting point displacement, and the anode withstand voltage are compared. Then, all of them had good electrical contact, emission point displacement, and withstand voltage as the panel characteristics, and a spacer with a high-resistance film for antistatic suitable as a vacuum withstand spacer of an electron beam device could be formed. In addition,
The electrical contact is a contact between the high resistance film and the substrate wiring and the face plate wiring through the low resistance film. Incident angle multiplication factor m _{0 of} secondary electron emission coefficient
Was suppressed to 10 or less, and the effect of suppressing the charging of obliquely incident electrons incident on the spacer was obtained. Furthermore, since the secondary electron multiple emission phenomenon was also suppressed, a spacer having high beam stability and high discharge suppressing ability was obtained.

[0279]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY According to the present invention, various effects can be obtained by providing the surface-roughening layer on the surface of the spacer by the following actions.

The first action is to reduce the charge amount of incident electrons in the high incidence angle mode, which accounts for most of the charge amount. The surface-roughening effect of the fine particles appears as a reduction effect of the incident angle multiplication coefficient m ₀ of the secondary electron emission coefficient defined in the general formula (1), and makes it possible to uniformly disperse ordinary inorganic oxides and nitrides. It is possible to suppress the level to about 1/3 or less as compared with the film.
This effect is particularly effective for direct incident electrons from the closest electron-emitting device having a high incident angle of 80 degrees or more.

As the second action, the region occupied by the binder formed by the gaps between the fine particles in the film acts like an aggregate of fine Faraday cups, and the action of confining secondary electrons is obtained. The effect of suppressing the value is obtained.

Furthermore, as a third action, there is an action of suppressing multiple emission secondary electrons. The emitted secondary electrons take an orbit toward the anode while receiving energy from the accelerating electric field and accelerating. However, since the energy immediately after the emission is relatively small, the secondary electron is pulled to a locally charged region and re-enters the spacer. At this time, δ-1 times positive charges are generated. At this time, the probability that re-entry is performed between the convex shapes of the film is increased as compared with usual inorganic oxides and nitrides, and δ
Although −1 ≦ 0 or δ−1> 0, it is possible to provide the effect of suppressing the accumulation of positive charges by re-incident under the condition that the absolute value | δ−1 | does not become so large.

The fourth effect is to suppress the incident angle with respect to the anode radiation electrons. The flight paths of incident electrons to the spacer are variously distributed. Especially, when re-incident of reflected electrons from the face plate (hereinafter referred to as FP radiated electrons), the emission direction has a substantially concentric distribution. Therefore, backscattered electrons are distributed in many directions around.

At this time, the distribution of the orbits of the FP radiated electrons seen from the high voltage application direction was determined by the inventors of the present invention as a result of the spacer charge spacer, the distance between the emitting elements and the anode applied voltage dependence. It was found that the radiated electrons from the metal back or the anode electrode provided on the face plate were not only the re-proximity (first proximity) but also the emission electrons from the second, third, and fourth proximity electronic devices.

This phenomenon means that, when the distance between the light emitting point and the spacer in the FP reflection is short, the incident angle at the time of re-incident light on the far incident point on the spacer is multiplied. . For this reason, as a secondary electron emission suppressing effect on the oblique-mode reflected electrons, the network structure inside the film formed substantially uniformly at random functions effectively in all incident directions.

As described above, according to the present invention, due to the effect of relaxing the incident angle and the effect of suppressing the cumulative incident emission of secondary electrons, not only the charging by the direct incident electrons by the closest electron source but also the face It is possible to provide a spacer that also suppresses electrification due to reflected electrons from the plate and cumulative emission electrons that are multiply emitted on the edge surface of the spacer due to the voltage applied to the anode.

As a result, it becomes possible to prepare an electron beam type image display device which has excellent display quality and long-term reliability in which displacement of light emitting points and surface discharge due to charging are suppressed.

Furthermore, in the spacer of the present invention, the resistance value can be easily controlled by the mixing ratio of the conductor component and the glass component or the addition of a trace amount of metal oxide. Since it can be realized by the drying process, it is advantageous over the antistatic film which is premised on the film formation by another sputtering film forming apparatus, in addition to the high utilization efficiency of the material, the simplicity of the film formation process and the low cost. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a spacer substrate according to an embodiment of the present invention. (B) It is sectional drawing of the BB 'surface of the spacer of this invention illustrated to (a). (C) It is sectional drawing of CC 'surface of the spacer of this invention illustrated to (a).

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a positional relationship between a primary electron incident angle and secondary electron emission.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an incident angle θ-dependent characteristic of a secondary electron emission coefficient.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a basic calculation model of a charging potential in consideration of a secondary electron emission effect.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of driving time for explaining a charging accumulation effect.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a surface structure of a spacer according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing a surface structure of a spacer according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing a surface structure of a spacer according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing a surface structure of a spacer according to an example of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an incident energy dependence characteristic of a secondary electron emission coefficient.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the image display device according to the embodiment of the present invention with a part of the display panel cut away.

FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA ′ of the display panel that is an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a plan view (a) and a sectional view (b) of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a plan view of a substrate of a multi-electron beam source used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 15 is a partial cross-sectional view of the substrate of the multi-electron beam source used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a plan view illustrating a phosphor array on a face plate of a display panel.

FIG. 17 is a plan view illustrating a phosphor array on a face plate of a display panel.

FIG. 18 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing process of a flat surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 19 is a diagram showing applied voltage waveforms during energization forming processing.

FIG. 20 is an applied voltage waveform (a) during energization activation processing,
It is a figure which shows the change (b) of emission current Ie.

FIG. 21 is a cross-sectional view of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device used in an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 22 is a cross-sectional view showing a manufacturing process of a vertical surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 23 is a graph showing typical characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device used in the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 24 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a drive circuit of the image display device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 25 is a schematic plan view of a ladder type electron source which is an example of the present invention.

FIG. 26 is a perspective view of a planar image display device having a ladder-type electron source, which is an example of the present invention.

FIG. 27 is a diagram showing an example of a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

FIG. 28 is a diagram showing an example of an FE type element.

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of an MIM type element.

FIG. 30 is a perspective view showing a conventionally known planar image display device with a part of a display panel cut away.

FIG. 31 is an explanatory view showing another mode of the embodiment of the spacer of the present invention. (A) It is a figure which shows the general view of the columnar spacer which is another Example of this invention. (B) It is a vertical cross-sectional view of a columnar spacer which is another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 32 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the spacer according to the present invention. (A) It is a figure which shows the general view of the square spacer which is another Example of this invention. (B) It is a horizontal sectional view of a square spacer which is another example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Spacer Substrate 2 High Resistance Films 3 and 21 Low Resistance Film 5 Side Surface 11 High Resistance Film 1011 Substrates 1102 and 1103 Element Electrode 1104 Conductive Thin Film 1105 Electron Emitting Portion 1113 Formed by Current Forming Process Film Conducted by Current Activation Process 1015 Rear plate 1016 Side wall 1017 Face plate (FP) 1020 Spacer

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (58) Fields surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 9/24 H01J 29/87 H01J 31/12 H01J 5/03

Claims (14)

(57) [Claims] 1. A spacer used in an electron beam apparatus, comprising an electron source, a plate facing the electron source, and a spacer arranged between the electron source and the plate, wherein the spacer is A spacer having a roughened roughened layer on a spacer substrate, wherein the roughened layer contains a binder and fine particles having a particle diameter larger than the film thickness of the binder. 2. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the average particle diameter of the fine particles is 1.2 times or more the average film thickness of the binder. 3. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the average particle size of the fine particles is 1.5 times or more and 100 times or less the average film thickness of the binder. 4. A spacer used in an electron beam apparatus, comprising an electron source, a plate facing the electron source, and a spacer arranged between the electron source and the plate, wherein the spacer is Secondary particles having an uneven surface-roughening layer on a spacer substrate, the surface-roughening layer containing a binder and fine particles having a particle diameter smaller than the film thickness of the binder, and formed by aggregation of the fine particles. The particle diameter of is larger than the film thickness of the binder. 5. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the spacer has a high resistance film having a sheet resistance lower than that of the spacer substrate. 6. The spacer according to claim 5, wherein the roughened layer also serves as a high resistance film having a sheet resistance lower than that of the spacer substrate. 7. The fine particles are carbon, silicon dioxide,
7. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the spacer is fine particles of a material selected from the group consisting of tin dioxide and chromium dioxide. 8. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the binder contains a silica component or a metal oxide. 9. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein the fine particles are made of a conductive material having a volume resistivity lower than that of a binder. 10. The spacer according to claim 9, wherein the roughened layer has a resistance anisotropy in which the volume resistance in the film thickness direction is smaller than the volume resistance in the film surface direction. 11. The secondary electron emission coefficient of the spacer surface has two incident energies satisfying the secondary electron emission coefficient δ = 1 under the vertical incidence condition, and the energy of the energy satisfying the δ = 1 condition is satisfied. When the larger energy is used as the second crosspoint energy, the incident energy below the second crosspoint is as follows: Where the secondary electron emission coefficient for the primary electron at the incident angle θ and 0 degrees is expressed by the following general formula (1) 11. The spacer according to claim 1, wherein an incident angle multiplication coefficient m _{0 of the} secondary electron emission coefficient, which is a parameter in, is 10 or less. 12. An image forming apparatus comprising the spacer according to claim 1. 13. A method of manufacturing a spacer used in an electron beam apparatus, comprising an electron source, a plate facing the electron source, and a spacer arranged between the electron source and the plate, By a liquid phase film forming method in which a coating solution consisting of a solid component containing a binder and fine particles and a solvent component is applied on a spacer substrate and then heated, the thickness of the binder is made smaller than the particle diameter of the fine particles. A method of manufacturing a spacer, characterized in that a roughening layer having an uneven shape is formed on the surface of the spacer substrate by the step of forming. 14. The method for manufacturing a spacer according to claim 13, wherein the coating solution is a fine particle dispersion solution.