Telecommunications – Interference signal transmission
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-24
2002-12-03
Ramsey, Kenneth J. (Department: 2879)
Telecommunications
Interference signal transmission
Reexamination Certificate
active
06490433
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electron-emitting device manufacturing method and apparatus, electron-emitting device driving method, and electron-emitting device adjusting method.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Conventionally, electron-emitting devices are mainly classified into two types of devices: thermionic and cold cathode electron-emitting devices. Known examples of the cold cathode electron-emitting devices are field emission type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as FE type electron-emitting devices hereinafter), metal/insulator/metal type electron-emitting devices (to be referred to as MIM type electron-emitting devices hereinafter), and surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices. Known examples of the FE type electron-emitting devices are disclosed in W. P. Dyke and W. W. Dolan, “Field emission”, Advance in Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) and C. A. Spindt, “PHYSICAL Properties of thin-film field emission cathodes with molybdenium cones”, J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976). A known example of the MIM type electron-emitting devices is disclosed in C. A. Mead, “Operation of Tunnel-Emission Devices”, J. Appl. Phys., 32,646 (1961). A known example of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices is disclosed in, e.g., M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290 (1965).
The surface-conduction emission type device utilizes the phenomenon that electrons are emitted from a small-area thin film formed on a substrate by flowing a current parallel through the film surface. The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device includes electron-emitting devices using an SnO
2
thin film according to Elinson mentioned above [M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290, (1965)], an Au thin film [G. Dittmer, “Thin Solid Films”, 9,317 (1972)], an In
2
O
3
/SnO
2
thin film [M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, “IEEE Trans. ED Conf.”, 519 (1975)], a carbon thin film [Hisashi Araki et al., “Vacuum”, Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)], and the like.
The FE, MIM, and surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices have an advantage that many devices can be arranged on a substrate. Various image display apparatuses using these devices have been proposed.
The surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device emits electrons from an electron-emitting portion formed in a conductive thin film by flowing a current parallel to the surface of the small-area conductive thin film formed on a substrate. Since this device has a simple structure and can be easily manufactured, many devices can be formed on a wide area, and applications to, e.g., image display apparatuses and the like have been studied. Applications of a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device to an image display apparatus are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,883 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-342636 filed by the assignee of the present applicant. These references disclose image forming means and manufacturing methods. In an image forming means, a plurality of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices are two-dimensionally arranged each of which has a pair of device electrodes formed on a substrate, a conductive film connected to the pair of device electrodes, and an electron-emitting portion formed in the conductive film. An electrical selection means is adopted to individually select electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device. An image is formed in accordance with an input signal. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-235255 filed by the assignee of the present applicant discloses the following technique. A voltage is applied to a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device in an organic atmosphere to deposit a deposit mainly containing carbon near an electron-emitting portion in order to improve the electron-emitting characteristics of the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device. According to the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-235275 filed by the assignee of the present applicant, electron-emitting characteristics are stabilized by a means of setting the residual partial pressure of an organic substance to 1.3×10
−6
Pa or less in an environment where an electron-emitting device is formed. According to the technique of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-259753 filed by the assignee of the present applicant, a voltage pulse higher than the sum of the maximum value of a normal driving voltage and a noise voltage which may be applied to a surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device is applied to a plurality of surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting devices arranged two-dimensionally in an atmosphere in which the partial pressure of an organic gas is 1.3×10
−6
Pa or less. This suppresses irreversible unstableness of an emission current caused by the temperature characteristics or disturbance of a driving circuit in normal driving, and reduces luminance irregularity.
An image display apparatus using such surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device formed by the above method is expected to exhibit more excellent characteristics than other types of conventional image display apparatuses. For example, this image display apparatus is superior to recent popular liquid crystal display apparatuses in that it does not require a backlight because of a self-emission type and has a wide view angle.
As described above, the surface-conduction emission type electron-emitting device has a simple structure, can be easily manufactured, and exhibits excellent electron-emitting characteristics. For this reason, the electron-emitting device is suitable for constituting an image forming apparatus, such as a large-size self-emission flat display using a fluorescent substance as an image forming member. Applications to various analyzers and processors using electron sources are also expected. Considering applications to image forming apparatuses and the like, the electron-emitting device is required to stably keep emitting an expected electron beam amount. To provide image forming apparatuses and analyzers with high reliability, conventional electron-emitting devices must attain more stable electron-emitting characteristics.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a manufacturing method capable of manufacturing a preferable electron-emitting device, a manufacturing apparatus for a preferable electron-emitting device, a driving method for a preferable electron-emitting device, and an adjusting method for a preferable electron-emitting device.
It is another object of the present invention to realize stable electron-emitting characteristics in an electron-emitting device.
To achieve the above objects, an electron-emitting device manufacturing method according to the present invention has the following step.
That is, a method of manufacturing an electron-emitting device which has at least two electrodes and emits electrons by applying a voltage between the two electrodes is characterized by comprising:
the voltage application step of applying a voltage between the two electrodes constituting the electron-emitting device, the voltage application step including applying a voltage of the same polarity (to be also referred to as a positive polarity hereinafter) as a polarity of a voltage applied in normal driving, and applying a voltage of an opposite polarity to the polarity of the voltage applied in normal driving.
The magnitude of the voltage of the same polarity is preferably larger than the magnitude of the voltage applied in normal driving. The magnitude of the voltage of the opposite polarity is preferably larger than the magnitude of the voltage applied in normal driving. The magnitude of the voltage of the opposite polarity is preferably smaller than the magnitude of the voltage of the same polarity.
The voltage application step is preferably performed in a high-vacuum atmosphere. When the two electrodes have a gap therebetween, the voltag
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