Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Process – With assembly or disassembly
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-06
2004-07-13
Reichard, Dean A. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Process
With assembly or disassembly
C427S077000, C427S126500, C427S154000, C427S282000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06761606
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of producing a spacer arranged between a pair of substrates, and a method of manufacturing an image forming apparatus using the spacer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Known electron emitting devices include the two types of devices including a hot-cathode device and a cold-cathode device. Of these devices, known examples of the cold-cathode device include a surface conduction-type emission device, a field emission device (referred to as a FE type” hereinafter) and a metal/insulating layer/metal type emission device (referred to as a MIM type” hereinafter).
Examples of the surface conduction-type emission device include the device disclosed in M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290 (1965), and the other devices described below.
The surface conduction-type emission device utilizes the phenomenon that electrons are emitted by passing an electric current through a small-area thin film formed on a substrate in parallel to the film plane. As the surface conduction-type emission device, there have been reported the above-described device disclosed by Elinson using a SnO
2
thin film, a device comprising an Au thin film [G. Dittmer, “Thin Solid Films”, 9, 317 (1972)], a device comprising a In
2
O
3
/SnO
2
thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, “IEEE Trans. EDConf.”, 519 (1975)], a device comprising a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al., Vacuum, Vo. 26, No. 1, 22 (1983)], etc.
A typical example of the construction of the surface conduction-type emission device is the device disclosed in M. Hartwell, et al., shown in FIG.
33
. In
FIG. 33
, reference numeral
301
denotes a substrate, and reference numeral
304
denotes a conductive thin film of a metal oxide formed by sputtering. The conductive thin film
304
has an H-shaped planar form. The conductive thin film
304
is subjected to the electric forming described below to form an electron emitting portion
305
. In this drawing, the distance L is set to 0.5 to 1 mm, and the width W is set to 0.1 mm. Although, in
FIG. 33
, the electron emitting portion
305
is shown in a rectangular shape at the center of the conductive thin film
304
for convenience's sake,
FIG. 33
schematically shows the electron emitting portion
305
, but it does not faithfully express the position and the shape of the electron emitting portion
305
.
In the surface conduction-type emission devices such as the device of M. Hartwell et al., the conductive thin film
304
is generally subjected to electric forming to form the electron emitting portion
305
before electron emission. Namely, the electric forming means that an electric current is supplied to the conductive thin film
304
by applying a constant DC voltage or a DC voltage slowly increasing, for example, at a rate of about 1 V/min., across both ends of the conductive thin film
304
to locally break, deform or deteriorate, forming the electron emitting portion
305
in an electrically high-resistance state. In the electric forming, a crack occurs in a portion of the locally broken, deformed or deteriorated conductive thin film
304
. When an appropriate voltage is applied to the conductive thin film
304
after the electric forming, electrons are emitted from a portion near the crack.
Known examples of the FE type devices include the devices disclosed in W. P. Dyke & W. W. Dolan, “Field Emission”, Advance in Electron Physics, 8. 89 (1956), C. A. Spindt, “Physical Properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenum cone”, J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976), etc.
A typical example of the construction of the FE type device is the device of C. A. Spindt et al., shown in FIG.
34
. In
FIG. 34
, reference numeral
310
denotes a substrate; reference numeral
311
, an emitter wiring comprising a conductive material; reference numeral
312
, an emitter cone; reference numeral
314
, a gate electrode. In this FE type device, an appropriate voltage is applied between the emitter cone
312
and the gate electrode
314
to emit electrons from the tip of the emitter cone
312
.
Another example of the construction of the FE type device does not have such a laminated structure as shown in
FIG. 34
, but comprises an emitter and a gate electrode which are provided on a substrate in substantially parallel with the plane of the substrate,.
A known example of the MIM type device is the device disclosed in C. A. Mead, “Operation of tunnel-emission devices”, J. Appl. Phys., 32, 646 (1961), etc.
FIG. 35
shows a typical example of the construction of the MIM type device. In
FIG. 35
, reference numeral
320
denotes a substrate; reference numeral
321
, a lower electrode made of a metal; reference numeral
322
, an insulating thin layer having a thickness of about 100 angstroms; reference numeral
323
, an upper electrode made of a metal and having a thickness of about 80 to 300 angstroms. In the MIM type device, an appropriate voltage is applied between the upper and lower electrodes
323
and
321
to emit electrons from the surface of the upper electrode
323
.
The above-described cold-cathode device can emit electrons at a relatively low temperature and thus does not require a heater, as compared with the hot-cathode device. Therefore, the cold-cathode device has a simpler structure than the hot-cathode device, thereby permitting the formation of a fine device. Even when many cold-cathode devices are arranged on a substrate with a high density, the problem of heat-melting the substrate less occurs. Also, the cold-cathode device has the advantage of a high response speed, while the hot-cathode device has a low response speed because it is operated by heating with a heater.
Therefore, applications of the cold-cathode device have been actively studied. For example, of the cold-cathode devices, the surface conduction-type emission device has the simplest structure, and thus it can easily be manufactured. Therefore, the surface conduction-type emission device has the advantage that many devices can be formed over a large area. For example, as disclosed by the applicant of this application in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 64-31332, a method for driving an arrangement of many devices is studied.
With respect to applications of the surface conduction-type emission device, for example, a so-called image forming apparatus such as an image display device, an image recording device, and the like, a charge beam source, etc. have been studied. Particularly, as an application to the image display device, an image display device is studied, which comprises a combination of a surface conduction-type emission device and a fluorescent material, which emits light due to electron collision, as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2-257551 and 4-28137 which relate to the applicant of this application. In the image display device comprising a combination of the surface conduction-type emission device and the fluorescent material, excellent characteristics are expected, as compared with conventional other-system image display devices. For example, the image display device comprising the surface conduction-type emission device and the fluorescent material is excellent in that a back light is not required because it is a self-emission type, and the angle of view is wider than liquid crystal display devices which have recently been popularized.
A method of driving an arrangement of many FE-type devices is disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,895 relating to the applicant of this application. A known example of applications of the FE type device to image display devices is the flat-panel image display device reported by R. Mayer [R. Meyer, “Recent Development on Microtips Display at LET1”, Tech. Digest of 4th Int. Vacuum Microelectronics Conf., Nagahama, pp. 6-9 (1991)].
An example of application of the MIM type device to an image display device comprising an arrangement of many MIM devices is disclosed in Japanes
Fushimi Masahiro
Ito Nobuhiro
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Nino Adolfo
Reichard Dean A.
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