Coating processes – Direct application of electrical – magnetic – wave – or... – Pretreatment of substrate or post-treatment of coated substrate
Reexamination Certificate
1998-03-23
2003-09-02
Beck, Shrive P. (Department: 1762)
Coating processes
Direct application of electrical, magnetic, wave, or...
Pretreatment of substrate or post-treatment of coated substrate
C427S553000, C427S261000, C427S269000, C427S287000, C427S299000, C427S421100, C427S077000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06613399
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for producing printed substrates on which electric and electronic devices, particularly, components of electric and electronic devices for image-forming apparatus and the like have been patterned. The present invention also relates to processes for producing electron-emitting elements, electron sources and image-forming apparatus using such a process.
2. Related Background Art
The electron emitting element has been heretofore known in two broadly divided types, i.e. the thermoelectron emitting element and the cold cathode electron emitting element. The cold cathode electron emitting element comes in such types as the field emission type (hereinafter referred to as “FE type”), metal/insulating layer/metal type (hereinafter referred to as “MIM type”), and surface conduction type, for example.
As examples of the FE type electron emitting element, those elements which are disclosed in W. P. Dyke & W. W. Doran, “Field Emission,” Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics, 8, 89 (1956) or C. A. Spindt, “Physical Properties of Thin-film Field Emission Cathodes with Molybdenium Cones,” J. Appl. Phys., 47, 5248 (1976) have been known.
As an example of the MIM type electron emitting element, the element which is disclosed in C. A. Mead, “Operation of Tunnel-Emission Devices,” J. Appl. Phys., 32, 646 (1961) has been known.
As an example of the surface conduction type electron emitting element, the element which is disclosed in M. I. Elinson, “The Emission of Hot Electrons and the Field Emission of Electrons from Tin-Oxide,” Radio Eng. Electron Phys., 10, 1290 (1965) has been known.
The surface conduction type electron emitting element utilizes a phenomenon that flow of an electric current parallel to the surface of a thin film of small area formed on a substrate results in emission of electrons. The surface conduction type electron emitting elements include the element using a thin film of Au reported in G. Dittmer, “Electrical Conduction and Electron Emission of Discontinuous Thin Films,” Thin Solid Films, 9, 317 (1972), the element using a thin film of In
2
O
3
/SnO
2
reported in M. Hartwell and C. G. Fonstad, “Strong Electron Emission from Patterned Tin-Indium Oxide Thin Films,” IEEE Trans. ED Conf., 519 (1975), and the element using a thin film of carbon reported in Hisashi Araki et al., “Electroforming and Electron Emission of Carbon Thin Films,” J. Vacuum Soc. Japan, Vol. 26, No. 1, page 22 (1983) in addition to the element using a thin film of SnO
2
proposed by Elinson as mentioned above.
As a typical example of the surface conduction type electron emitting element, the construction of the element proposed by M. Hartwell et al. as mentioned above is illustrated in the form of a model in FIG.
23
. In the figure,
1
denotes a substrate and
4
an electroconductive thin film which is formed of a metal oxide in the pattern shaped like the letter H by sputtering and so forth and made to incorporate therein an electron emitting portion
5
by a treatment of electrification called an energization forming which will be specifically described herein below. As illustrated in the figure, the interval L between element electrodes
2
and
3
is set at a length in the range of 0.5 to 1 mm and the width W′ of the thin film at 0.1 mm.
In the surface conduction type electron emitting element of this class, the practice of subjecting the electroconductive thin film
4
to the treatment of electrification called energization forming in advance of the emission of electrons thereby forming the electron emitting part
5
thereof has been in vogue. To be specific, the energization forming consists in applying a DC voltage or very gradual elevation of voltage to the opposite terminals of the electroconductive thin film
4
mentioned above thereby forcing this thin film to sustain local fracture, deformation, or degeneration and, as a result, allowing formation of the electron emitting portion
5
in an electrically highly resistant state. The treatment, for example, locally inflicts a fisure to the electroconductive thin film
4
to enable this thin film to emit electrons from the neighborhood of the fisure. The surface conduction type electron emitting element which has undergone the energization forming treatment mentioned above is such that it is enabled to effect emission of electrons from the electron emitting part
5
in response to the application of voltage to the electroconductive thin film
4
and the consequent induction of flow of an electric current through the element.
The surface conduction type electron emitting element of the quality described above enjoys simplicity of construction and allows for the manufacture thereof the use of the conventional technique of semiconductor production. Therefore, applied studies such as a charged beam source and a display device, in which the characteristics of the above-mentioned surface conduction type electron emitting element are utilized, have been performed.
As an example where many surface conduction type electron-emitting elements are arranged, there is an electron source in which surface conduction type electron-emitting elements are arranged in parallel, called a ladder-type arrangement as described below, and connected at the respective ends with wiring (may referred to as common wiring), and many rows of elements thus arranged are arranged in parallel lines (for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 64-031332, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-283749, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-257552, etc.). In recent years, flat-type display devices using liquid crystals have become popular in place of CRT in the field of image-forming apparatuses, such as display devices in particular. However, they have involved such problems that a back light must be provided because they are not self-luminous. There has been a demand for development of a self-luminous type display device. An example of the self-luminous type display device includes an image-forming apparatus which is a display device comprising in combination the above-described electron source, in which many surface conduction type electron-emitting elements are arranged, and phosphors which emit visible light by virtue of electrons emitted from the electron source.
In the production process of an electroconductive thin film in the surface conduction type electron-emitting element according to the above prior art documents, the electroconductive thin film is formed and then patterned by means of photolithographic etching in a semiconductor process. Therefore, large-scale photolithography-etching equipment is essential to the formation of the elements over a wide area. Such a process has thus involved drawbacks that the number of steps is increased, and the production cost is high.
Therefore, as a production process advantageous to a wide area in a production process of a surface conduction type electron-emitting element, it has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-171850 to apply droplets of an organic metal-containing aqueous solution onto a substrate by an ink-jet system to form an electroconductive thin film in the desired form without using the photolithographic etching in the step of patterning the electroconductive thin film in the desired form. In this publication, it has also been proposed to coat the substrate with a liquid containing a water repellent prior to the step of applying the organic metal-containing aqueous solution.
It has also been proposed to produce a color filter used in a liquid crystal display device by means of a printing or ink-jet method. The use of the ink-jet method has a possibility that patterning of pixels may be conducted with higher definition compared with the printing method.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide a production process of a printed substrate, by which high-definition patterning can be conducted on a substrate.
Another object of the presen
Hasegawa Mitsutoshi
Miyamoto Masahiko
Sando Kazuhiro
Shigeoka Kazuya
Teshima Takayuki
Beck Shrive P.
Fitzpatrick ,Cella, Harper & Scinto
Jolley Kirsten Crockford
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