Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi – Process – With start up – flashing or aging
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-23
2003-10-28
Ramsey, Kenneth J. (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp or space discharge component or device manufacturi
Process
With start up, flashing or aging
C445S024000, C445S062000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06638128
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for manufacturing an electron source and an image-forming apparatus to which the electron source is applied, and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for manufacturing an electron source having a plurality of electron-emitting devices.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, two types of electron-emitting device, i.e., a hot cathode device and a cold cathode device are known. As one of these devices, i.e., the cold cathode device, for example, a field emission device (which will be referred to as an FE hereinafter), a metal/insulation layer/metal emission device (which will be referred to as an MIM hereinafter) or a surface conduction emission device are known.
As an example of the FE, there is known a device disclosed in W. P. Dyke & W. W. Dolan, “Field emission”, Advance in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) or that disclosed in C. A. Spindt, “Physical properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenium cones”, J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976).
Further, as an example of the MIM, C. A. Mead, “Operation of tunnel-emission Devices”, J. Appl. Phys., 32, 646 (1961) is known.
Furthermore, as the surface conduction emission device, an example of M. I. Elinson Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290, (1965) or later-described another example is known.
The surface conduction emission device utilizes such a phenomenon as that flowing an electric current through a small-sized thin film formed on a substrate in parallel to a film surface causes electron emission to be produced. As the surface conduction emission device, there are reported a device using an Au thin film [G. Dittmer: “Thin Solid Films”, 9,317 (1972)], a device using an In
2
O
3
/SnO
2
thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad:“IEEE Trans. ED Conf.”, 519 (1975)], a device using a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki and et al.: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1, 22 (1983)] and others, as well as the above-described device using an SnO
2
thin film by Elinson and the like.
As a typical example of the device structure of these surface conduction emission devices, a plan view of the above-mentioned device by M. Hartwell and et al. is shown in FIG.
22
. In the drawing, reference numeral
3001
denotes a substrate, and
3004
designates an electroconductive thin film consisting of a metal oxide formed by spattering. The electroconductive thin film
3004
is formed into a planar H-like shape as shown in the drawing. When a later-described energization operation called an energization forming operation is performed with respect to the electroconductive thin film
3004
, an electron-emitting region
3005
is formed. In the drawing, a distance L is set to 0.5 to 1 [mm] and W is set to 0.1 [mm]. Although the electron-emitting region
3005
having a rectangular shape is shown in the central part of the electroconductive thin film
3004
for the sake of convenience, this is a typical arrangement and does not faithfully represent a position or a shape of the actual electron-emitting region.
In the above-described surface conduction emission device including the devices by M. Hartwell and others, it is general to form the electron-emitting region
3005
by carrying out the energization operation called the energization forming to the electroconductive thin film
3004
before performing the electron emission. That is, the energization forming means that a constant direct-current voltage or a direct-current voltage which rises at a very slow rate of, e.g., approximately 1V/min is applied to both ends of the electroconductive thin film
3004
for energization and the electroconductive thin film
3004
is then locally fractured, deformed or transformed to form the electron-emitting region
3005
having an electrically high resistance. It is to be noted that a fissure is generated to a part of the electroconductive thin film
3004
which has been locally fractured, deformed or transformed. When an appropriate voltage is applied to the electroconductive thin film
3004
after the energization forming, the electron emission is performed in the vicinity of the fissure.
Since the surface conduction emission device has a simple structure and can be easily manufactured, a plurality of devices can be advantageously formed over a large area. Therefore, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 64-31332 by the present applicant, a method for arranging and driving a plurality of devices has been studied.
As an application of the surface conduction emission device, for example, an image-forming apparatus such as an image-displaying apparatus or an image-recording apparatus or a charged beam source and the like have been studied.
In particular, as an application to the image-displaying apparatus, an image-displaying apparatus using a combination of the surface conduction emission device and a phosphor which emits light by irradiation of an electron beam has been studied as disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 or Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2-257551 by the present applicant. An image-displaying apparatus using a combination of the surface conduction emission device and the phosphor is expected for its characteristic superior to a prior art image-displaying apparatus adopting any other mode. For example, it can be said that such an apparatus is superior to a recently spread liquid crystal display unit in that this apparatus is of a spontaneous light emission type which requires no back light and has a wider view angle.
The present applicants have tried production of the surface conduction emission device having various materials and structures by a variety of methods in addition to the devices described in the above prior arts. Further, they have studied a multi-electron source in which plural surface conduction emission devices are arranged and an image-displaying apparatus to which the multi-electron source is applied.
The present applicants have tried manufacturing of the multi-electron beam source obtained by an electrical wiring method such as shown in FIG.
23
. That is the multi-electron beams source in which a plurality of surface conduction emission devices are arranged in the two-dimensional manner and these devices are wired in the matrix form.
In the drawing, reference numeral
4001
denotes a typically shown surface conduction emission device;
4002
, a row-directional wiring; and
4003
, a column-directional wiring. Although the row-directional wiring
4002
and the column-directional wiring
4003
actually have the finite electric resistance, the wiring resistance
4004
and
4005
is shown in the drawing. The above-described wiring method is referred to as a simple matrix wiring.
Incidentally, although a 6×6 matrix is shown for the sake of convenience, the scale of the matrix is not restricted thereto, and the devices whose number can suffice the desired image display are arranged and wired in case of, for example, the multi-electron beam source for the image-displaying apparatus.
In the multi-electron beam source in which the surface conduction emission devices are simple-matrix-wired, an appropriate electric signal is applied to the row-directional wiring
4002
and the column-directional wiring
4003
in order to output a desired electron beam. For example, in order to drive the surface conduction emission device in an arbitrary row in the matrix, a selected voltage Vs is applied to the row-directional wiring
4002
for a selected row and a non-selected voltage Vns is applied to the row-directional wiring
4002
for a non-selected row at the same time. In synchronism with this, a drive voltage Ve for outputting an electron beam is applied to the column-directional wiring
4003
. According to this method, if a drop in voltage due to the wiring resistance
4004
and
4005
is ignored, a voltage of Ve−Vs is applied to the surface conduction emission device in the selected row and a voltage Ve−Vns is applied to the surface conducti
Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Ramsey Kenneth J.
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