Electric lamp and discharge devices – With luminescent solid or liquid material – Solid-state type
Reexamination Certificate
1999-07-27
2001-01-30
Patel, Ashok (Department: 2879)
Electric lamp and discharge devices
With luminescent solid or liquid material
Solid-state type
C313S506000, C313S633000, C313S355000, C313S311000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06181063
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to an electron discharge device and a discharge method. The electron discharge device and the discharge method of the invention are useful for physical or chemical processings or the like which requires a large amount of electrons.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
Various types of electron discharge electrodes and devices (hereinafter, referred to as “electron discharge device”) have been known and used in the art of discharge and light-emitting. There are two types in such an electron discharge electrode: a thermal electron source, and a cooled cathode electron source. As such a cooled cathode electron source, a field emission type (FE type) electron discharge device, a metal/insulator/metal type (MIM type) electron discharge device, and surface transmission type electron discharge device have been known.
With respect to an MIM type electron discharge device, Mead indicated that a device such as Al—Al
2
O
3
—Al, Ta—Ta
2
O
5
—Au, and so on operated as a vacuum emitter. The MIM type electron discharge device discharges electrons when tunnel electrons pass through an insulation film (I) such as Al
2
O
3
. This device, however, cannot enjoy discharging stably with high efficiency, and may suffer from insulation breakdowns due to a highly biased electric field for discharging electrons, thereby raising a problem in stability of the device itself, so that such a device is still not be used practically.
It is an object of the invention to provide a novel structured electron discharge device for discharging electrons in utilizing the tunnel effect but hardly suffering from insulation breakdowns otherwise caused by the bias voltage and a method for discharging electrons using this device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electron discharge device characterized in having a conductive layer on one surface of a dielectric substrate, a dielectric layer and a conductive layer, in this order, on the other surface of the substrate, wherein the dielectric layer has a thickness equal to or less than 5 nm and a permittivity lower than that of the dielectric substrate.
In this electron discharge device, the dielectric layer can have a uniform or not uniform thickness.
In the electron discharge device, the dielectric substrate can have a permittivity, e.g., five times or more of that of the dielectric layer.
This invention also relates to a method for discharging electrons from a surface of a conductive layer (2) by applying voltage between conductive layers (1) and (2) of a device having the conductive layer (1) on one surface of a dielectric substrate, a dielectric layer and the conductive layer (2), in this order, on the other surface of the substrate, wherein the dielectric layer has a thickness equal to or less than 5 nm and a permittivity lower than that of the dielectric substrate, such that the conductive layer (1) serves as a cathode and that the conductive layer (2) serves as an anode.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5272414 (1993-12-01), Iwanaga
patent: 6025677 (2000-02-01), Mos, III et al.
patent: 44-10407 B1 (1969-05-01), None
patent: 4-312738 (1992-11-01), None
patent: 6-177020 (1994-06-01), None
Kitai et al., SID International Symposium Digest of Technical Papers, US, Playa Del Rey, SID, vol. 22, pp. 440-443, XP000503070.
Burns Doane , Swecker, Mathis LLP
Patel Ashok
Sugihara Shinichi
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