JP3136415B2 - Method of manufacturing image display device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an image display device, and more particularly to a method of manufacturing an image display device using a surface conduction electron-emitting device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, liquid crystal display devices, EL display devices, and plasma display panels have been put to practical use as flat display devices, but they are insufficient for image display due to viewing angle, colorization, brightness, and the like. Level. In particular, the difference in display performance is greater than that of a cathode ray tube (CRT), and the situation has not reached a situation where a cathode ray tube can be substituted.

On the other hand, with the advancement of information processing by computers and the improvement of image quality of television broadcasts, the need for high-definition, large-screen flat display devices is rapidly increasing.

For this reason, several electron beam acceleration type flat display devices for displaying images have been proposed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,408,532, U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,499 and JP-A-56-28.
No. 445, having a planar electron source,
An electron beam is extracted from this electron source, controlled and accelerated by a control electrode group provided with a number of holes corresponding to the phosphor pixels, and irradiates the planar phosphor screen to emit a desired phosphor pixel. Has become.

[0005] The vacuum vessel of such an apparatus is provided with an electron source for emitting an electron beam and a face plate for extracting electrons and irradiating the phosphor with light, and then using an amorphous frit in a furnace at about 430 ° C or higher. It is sealed. The sealed vacuum container is sealed by evacuating the inside of the container to fly an electron beam, and a constant degree of vacuum is maintained.

In the sealing process, even if the furnace temperature is set to, for example, 430 ° C. in order to reduce the power consumption of the furnace, precise control of the furnace temperature is performed in consideration of productivity. And the actual furnace temperature may fluctuate to some extent and cause fluctuations. For example, in the case of batch-type sealing heat treatment, after placing a vacuum vessel in the furnace and then raising the temperature in a short time to increase production throughput, the furnace temperature overshoots due to rapid heating and peaks Temperature 4
It may reach up to about 60 ° C. Also, the temperature in the furnace fluctuates during the belt-type sealing heat treatment with high mass production efficiency. That is, since the belt type heating furnace is in direct contact with the outside air due to its structure, precise temperature control is difficult, and even if the temperature is set at 430 ° C, the furnace temperature repeatedly undershoots and overshoots, and the peak temperature reaches about 460 ° C. May be reached.

By the way, as an electron source inside a vacuum vessel sealed in this way, for example, a cold cathode device disclosed by MI Elinson or the like is known [radio. -Engineering Electron Physics (Radio Eng.
Electron. Phys. ) Volume 10, 1290-
1296, 1965].

This utilizes a phenomenon in which electrons are emitted when a current flows in a small-area thin film formed on a substrate in parallel with the film surface, and is generally called a surface conduction electron-emitting device. Have been.

In addition, as a result of intensive studies, we have disclosed a new surface conduction electron-emitting device in which an electron-emitting member is provided between the electrodes and an electric current is applied to the electron-emitting member to provide an electron-emitting portion. See Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-200532).

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of such an electron-emitting device. In the figure, 32 and 33 are electrodes, 34 is an electrode gap, 36 is an electron-emitting member, 35 is an electron-emitting portion, 31
Is a substrate.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device that can be used in the present invention only needs to have an electron-emitting portion formed of a metal and metal oxide thin film or metal fine particle dispersion as described later.

These surface conduction electron-emitting devices are: 1) High electron emission efficiency can be obtained. It has the following advantages: 2) its structure is simple, its manufacture is easy; and 3) its many elements can be arranged on the same substrate.

In general, in the above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device, the distance between a pair of electrodes is 0.01 μm to 10 μm.
0 μm, the sheet resistance of the electron-emitting portion is 1 × 10 ³ Ω / □ or more
It is 1 × 10 ⁹ Ω / □.

When this device is used as an electron-emitting device,
In order to fly an electron beam, a vacuum atmosphere is required. That is, the surface conduction electron-emitting device is placed in a vacuum vessel, a face plate is provided vertically above the device, a voltage is applied between the device electrodes, and an electron beam obtained from the electron-emitting portion is irradiated on the phosphor. In this way, light is emitted.

By placing such an element inside a container, an image display device as shown in FIG. 6, for example, has been manufactured. In FIG. 6, 1 is a face plate, 3 is an element substrate, 4 is a side plate member, 5 is a metal back, 6 is a getter, 7 is a vacuum exhaust pipe, and 9 is a phosphor. That is, the above-mentioned components, including the element substrate 3 on which the surface conduction electron-emitting device is formed, are sealed with frit glass 10, the inside is evacuated by the vacuum exhaust pipe 7, and then the vacuum exhaust pipe 7 is sealed. , The getter 6 was operated to evacuate and maintain the vacuum in the container.

At this time, as described above, the sealing temperature is 430 ° C.
Even if it is set to, overshoot and the like occur, and the peak temperature may reach up to 460 ° C., so that oxidation of the electrode occurs, the wiring resistance of the electrode significantly increases, and the characteristic in driving the element deteriorates. I do. For example, even if a thin film of a Ni material that is relatively hard to be oxidized is used as the electrode material, the wiring resistance increases. Further, it is difficult to use a thin film material such as Cr or Ti, which is a material that is easily oxidized, alone as an electrode material. In order to prevent this characteristic deterioration, precise control of the sealing heat treatment temperature is required, but this significantly reduces the production efficiency. However, when the production method taking the productivity into consideration as described above is used, the furnace temperature may reach 460 ° C., and there is a disadvantage that the production yield of the device is significantly reduced.

[0017]

When a conventional image display device as shown in FIG. 6 is manufactured by using a surface-conduction electron-emitting device, the temperature becomes high in the atmosphere at the time of sealing. The electrodes on the element substrate placed on the substrate are oxidized and deteriorated. As a result, there has been a problem that the resistance of the element is increased, and characteristics are deteriorated at the time of manufacturing.

Therefore, even when one electron emission portion is formed on one substrate, the electrode resistance increases. In order to apply the same voltage as the unsealed element to the sealed element, it is necessary to increase the voltage only by the voltage drop portion at the electrode with increased resistance,
It is necessary to increase the voltage applied between the elements.

Furthermore, forming a plurality of electron-emitting portions on one substrate and using them as an electron source connected by wiring requires a large amount of electric power, and a plurality of electron-emitting portions requires a plurality of electron-emitting portions. The brightness of the arranged electron sources is not uniform,
There are problems such as variations.

According to the present invention, in view of the above problems, in an image display device having an electron-emitting device provided therein, a vacuum vessel is sealed and formed with a glass frit under conditions of high temperature in the atmosphere. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image display device capable of preventing element electrodes from being oxidized and increasing resistance due to electrode oxidation, thereby improving the element life and uniforming the brightness of a displayed image.

[0021] To achieve the above object, the present invention is characterized in that a plurality of electron-emitting devices are provided in a vacuum vessel.
Has a wired electron source, and the electron source is an element substrate.
In the method for manufacturing an image display device formed thereon,
Electron-emitting device components, wiring electrodes, and
A step of disposing a tall bag and a step of sealing the container.
And further comprising a step of sealing the container.
Before the sealing, the oxygen in the container is
Manufacture of an image display device having a step of arranging members to be consumed
Method , and the point.

[0022]

The present invention further has the following feature.
The members of consuming oxygen in the container upon sealing, the placing on the inner wall of the vacuum container "it is provided a space two layers communicating with each other <br/>on" the vacuum container, the sealing In the case of the container
The space where the member to consume oxygen of the inner said electron source is arranged to place in a separate space ", said in" of the sealing
Members that consumes oxygen within the container, at the time of sealing the heating of the vacuum vessel, the oxygen consumption than the electrode material of the electron source is large "it," oxygen in the container during the sealing vanishing
The member to be consumed is any metal of Cr, Ni, Ti, Cu, and Al " , and " the electron-emitting device is a surface conduction electron-emitting device ". In addition,
Regarding the arrangement of the members consuming oxygen in the container at the time of sealing, in the case of an image display device having two layers of space, as shown in FIG. The rear plate 2 is provided in the form of a film on the side upper surface and further formed to the outside of the vacuum vessel, or has a honeycomb shape or another three-dimensional shape so as to secure a surface area as illustrated in FIG. It is preferable to provide it in the side space.

Hereinafter, the structure and operation of the present invention will be described in detail. In the following description, what is described as an antioxidant means or an antioxidant is referred to at the time of the sealing.
This corresponds to a member that consumes oxygen in the container .

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing an embodiment of the image display device according to the present invention. In the figure, 1 is a face plate for displaying an image, 2 is a rear plate, 3 is an element substrate (electron source substrate) on which the electron-emitting devices shown in FIG. 5 are arranged, 4 is a side plate member surrounding the outer periphery, 5
Is a metal back, 6 is a getter, 7 is a vacuum exhaust pipe, 8 is an oxidation preventing means, 9 is a fluorescent plate, 10 is frit glass, 1
Reference numeral 2 denotes a ventilation hole that connects the two spaces.

The electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 5 has the electrodes 32, 33 in a vacuum of about 2 × 10 ^-6 Torr.
When a voltage is applied between the electrodes 32 and 33, the fine particle film 3 between the electrodes 32 and 33 is applied.
The linear portion in 6 is an electron emitting portion 35 from which electrons are emitted.

That is, the element substrate 3 on which the electron-emitting devices shown in FIG. 5 are arranged and the other components described above are arranged in a container.
It is heated to 430 ° C. or higher in the air and sealed by frit glass 10 for sealing to form an image display device as shown in FIG.

At this time, the oxidation preventing means 8 may be any metal which is generally oxidized at a high temperature and is stably present, such as Cr, Ni, Ti, Cu, and Al.

In the image display device having the antioxidant means 8 as shown in FIG. 1, when the temperature becomes high in the atmosphere, the internal antioxidant means 8 is oxidized to consume internal oxygen. . Therefore, even if the sealing temperature rises to about 460 ° C., the oxidation of the device electrodes 32 and 33 is reduced, so that the resistance of the device can be prevented from increasing.

As described above, the image display device of the present invention has an advantage that the deterioration of the electrode due to oxidation can be suppressed even if the electron-emitting device is installed inside and sealed with frit glass.

Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the inside of the image display device has a two-layer space, that is, a double structure, so that a space for providing antioxidant means can be separately secured, and therefore, it can be formed in a three-dimensional shape. Accordingly, the surface area can be increased and the amount of oxygen consumed inside can be increased, so that the effect of preventing the device electrode from being oxidized can be enhanced.

As a further effect, in the case of a single-layer structure, since the oxidation preventing means 8, the vacuum exhaust pipe 7, the getter 6 and the like are arranged in the same space, the device is larger than the area of only the image display section. With the double structure, the size of the image display unit can be made wider in the same size image display device. In addition, since the getter 6 can be provided in a space separate from the electron beam flight side space, the influence of the getter can be suppressed.

In the case of the single-layer structure, since the substrate material on which the image display member is formed also serves as the member of the envelope which becomes the vacuum container, the substrate material becomes thicker on the atmospheric pressure resistant structure. There was a drawback that, but by making it a double structure,
The thickness can be reduced.

Further, by applying a voltage between the elements and the face plate to evacuate the interior of the image display device after sealing to extract an electron beam from the electron-emitting device and perform image display for a long time. In some cases, local heating occurs in the wiring portion due to the application of the voltage, thereby deteriorating the device characteristics. However, as shown in FIG. 1, the antioxidant means 8 has a double structure and is provided outside the vacuum vessel. Structure, or Figure 4
As shown in (1), the structure in which the antioxidant means 8 is provided in contact with both the element substrate and the rear plate as the mesh material 18 can also serve as a heat sink, thereby increasing the temperature of the element substrate and the temperature increase. , The reduction in the amount of electron emission due to the

[0035]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 2 is a schematic sectional view of an image display apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1
Is a face plate for displaying an image, 3 is an element substrate on which electron-emitting devices are arranged, 4 is a side plate member surrounding the outer periphery, 5 is a metal back, 6 is a getter, 7 is an exhaust pipe, and 8 is Ti which is an oxidation preventing means. Reference numeral 9 denotes a fluorescent plate, 10 denotes frit glass, and 11 denotes an element.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of the element substrate 3 shown in FIG. 2, wherein 31 is a substrate, 32 and 33 are electrodes for obtaining electrical connection, 34 is an electrode gap, and 36 is an electron emitting member. A certain fine particle film 35 is an electron emitting portion.

The method of manufacturing the electron-emitting device shown in FIG.
It is shown below. First, a pair of element electrodes 32 and 33 are formed on a blue plate substrate 31 which is an insulating substrate that has been sufficiently degreased and cleaned by a photolithography technique and a vacuum film forming technique which are usually used. The material of the electrode is Ti50% and Ni950% as the base material, and the electrode gap 34 is 2
μm.

Further, a Cr1000 layer was formed on a part of the device electrodes 32 and 33 and in a region other than the electrode gap 34 by the same method. Next, an organic Pd compound solution (Catapaste CCP manufactured by Okuno Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) is spin-coated using a spin coater, baked at 300 ° C. for 12 minutes, and the previously formed Cr is etched out. Electrode gap 34 and device electrodes 32, 33
A fine particle film 36 was formed thereon.

Further, the wiring electrode 37 and a modulation electrode (not shown) for modulating an electron beam, and an insulating layer between the modulation electrode and the wiring electrode for preventing leakage of both, by a photolithography technique and a vacuum film forming technique. And placed. The material of the wiring electrode is Cr50Å as a subbing material,
Cu 2 μm, Cr 1000 °.

The Ti film, which is the antioxidant means 8, was formed on the inner surface of the side plate member 4 by a commonly used vacuum film forming technique. At this time, the area of the Ti film serving as the oxidation preventing means 8 was arranged to be three times the total area of the electrodes on the element substrate.

The side plate member 4, the element substrate 3, the face plate 1, the rear plate 2, the exhaust pipe 7 and the getter 6 in which the oxidation preventing means 8 thus manufactured are installed are shown in FIG.
And sealing was performed using a batch-type heat treatment furnace under the condition setting of 440 ° C. for 1 hour in order to melt the frit glass 10 for sealing.

At this time, the temperature rises to the set 440 ° C. in 30 minutes, and even if the temperature temporarily rises to about 460 ° C. due to overshoot, the device electrode (not shown) on the device substrate 3
The electrode wiring resistance did not increase significantly. Thereby, in the present image display device, a stable electron emission amount can be obtained with low power.

In this embodiment, Ti is used as the metal thin film of the oxidation preventing means, but the same effect can be obtained by using Cr, Cu or the like.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an image display apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, 1
Is a face plate for displaying an image, 2 is a rear plate, 3 is an element substrate on which electron-emitting devices are arranged, 4 is a side plate member surrounding the outer periphery, 5 is a metal back, 6 is a getter, 7
Is an exhaust pipe, 8 is a Ti film as an antioxidant, 9 is a fluorescent plate, 10 is frit glass, 11 is an element, and 12 is a vent. The element 11 used was of the type shown in FIG.

First, an element substrate 3 was manufactured in the same manner as in Example 1. Further, the Ti film as the oxidation preventing means 8 was formed on the entire back surface of the element substrate 3 by a vacuum film forming technique which is often used. At this time, the area of the Ti film serving as the oxidation preventing means 8 was arranged to be three times the total area of the electrodes on the element substrate.

The element substrate 3, the side plate member 4, the face plate 1, the rear plate 2, the exhaust pipe 7, and the getter 6 on which the antioxidant means 8 thus prepared are installed are arranged as shown in FIG. 44 to melt 10
Sealing was performed using a batch type heat treatment furnace under the condition setting of 0 ° C. for 1 hour.

At this time, even if the temperature rises to the set 440 ° C. in 30 minutes and temporarily rises to about 460 ° C. due to overshoot, the device electrode (not shown) on the device substrate 3
The electrode wiring resistance did not increase significantly. Thereby, in the present image display device, a stable electron emission amount can be obtained with low power.

Further, since the oxidation preventing means 8 is formed outside the vacuum vessel, heat generation when emitting electrons can be prevented, and a uniform image can be obtained.

In this embodiment, Ti is used as the metal thin film of the antioxidant means, but the same effect can be obtained by using Cr and Cu.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 4 is a schematic view of an image display apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, 1 is a face plate for displaying an image, 2 is a rear plate, 3 is an element substrate on which electron-emitting devices are arranged, 4 is a side plate member surrounding the outer periphery, 5 is a metal back, 6 is a getter, and 7 is exhaust. A tube 18 is an oxidation preventing means, a mesh of Ti in contact with both the element substrate and the rear plate, 9 is a fluorescent plate,
0 is frit glass, 11 is an element, and 12 is a vent.

Then, the element substrate 3, side plate member 4, face plate 1, rear plate 2, exhaust pipe 7, getter 6, and both the element substrate 3 and the rear plate 2 manufactured in the same manner as in Example 2 are brought into contact with each other. The mesh of Ti which is the antioxidant 18 provided in the
Sealing was performed using a batch-type heat treatment furnace under the condition setting of 440 ° C. for 1 hour to melt the frit glass 10.

At this time, the surface area of the mesh of Ti as the antioxidant 18 was arranged so as to be 10 times the total area of the electrodes on the element substrate 3.

At this time, even if the temperature rises to the set 440 ° C. in 30 minutes and temporarily rises to about 460 ° C. due to overshoot, the device electrode (not shown) on the device substrate 3
The electrode wiring resistance did not increase significantly. No oxidation was observed on the surface of the device electrode.

Further, the inside of the vacuum container was evacuated to a degree of vacuum of 1 × 10 ^6.
Vacuum and seal to about Torr, and 1
Apply a voltage of 4V and apply a high voltage of 1 kV to the face plate 1.
As a result, electron beams were extracted from the plurality of electron-emitting devices.

At this time, the beam spot diameter obtained by irradiating each phosphor on the face plate with each electron beam obtained from the plurality of elements was substantially constant and uniform. That is, in an electron source in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices were connected by wiring, a uniform beam spot was obtained without variation in luminance caused by an increase in resistance of an electrode.

Further, the oxidation preventing means 18 is used for the element substrate 3
With the structure of contacting both the rear plate 2 and the rear plate 2, heat generation during electron emission can be prevented, and a uniform image can be obtained.

In this embodiment, T is used as an antioxidant.
Although the mesh plate i was used, the same effect was obtained by using a metal mesh plate such as Cr or Cu or a metal plate such as Ti, Cr or Cu.

[0059]

As described above, by arranging oxidation preventing means such as a metal film and a mesh shape in an image display device, when a vacuum container as an image display device is sealed with frit glass. By consuming more oxygen present in the vacuum vessel, an increase in the resistance of the electrode wiring can be prevented.

Further, a uniform beam spot can be obtained without variation in luminance due to a voltage drop when a plurality of elements are connected.

In order to prevent the oxidation of the electrodes, it is not necessary to precisely control the heat treatment temperature in the sealing process of the vacuum vessel, so that the sealing can be performed without lowering the production efficiency, and the production yield can be reduced. Improvement can be achieved.

Further, by arranging the oxidation preventing means to the outside of the vacuum vessel, or by arranging it so as to be in contact with both the element substrate and the rear plate, it also serves as a heat radiating plate to prevent deterioration of the element. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an apparatus for explaining one embodiment of the present invention and a second embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of an apparatus for explaining the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view of an element substrate according to Examples 1, 2 and 3;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of an apparatus for explaining a third embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of an electron-emitting device.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a conventional image display device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Face plate 2 Rear plate 3 Element substrate 4 Side plate member 5 Metal back 6 Getter 7 Vacuum exhaust pipe 8 Oxidation prevention means 9 Fluorescent plate 10 Frit glass 11 Element 12 Vent hole 18 Oxidation prevention means 31 Substrate 32, 33 Element electrode 34 Electrode gap 35 Electron emitting section 36 Electron emitting member 37 Wiring electrode

Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Yoshikazu Banno 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Ichiro Nomura 3-30-2, Shimomaruko 3-chome, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Hidetoshi Suzuki 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Inside Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-61-55841 (JP, A) JP-A-2-270250 (JP, A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01J 31/12 H01J 9/39 H01J 29/46

Claims (6)

(57) [Claims] To 1. A vacuum vessel, a plurality of electron-emitting devices are have a electron source wired, to the electronic source device substrate
In the manufacturing method of the formed image display device, the electron emission element constituting member, the wiring electrode, and the metal
Arranging a bag, and sealing the container;
And before the step of sealing the container.
In the container, the oxygen in the container is consumed at the time of sealing.
A method for manufacturing an image display device, comprising a step of arranging a member to be formed. 2. The oxygen in the container is consumed during the sealing.
Member, manufacturing method of an image display apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that arranged on the inner wall of the vacuum vessel to be. 3. A two-layer space communicating with each other is provided in the vacuum container, and a member consuming oxygen in the container at the time of the sealing is provided separately from a space in which the electron source is arranged. The method for manufacturing an image display device according to claim 1 , wherein the image display device is arranged in a space. 4. Oxygen in the container is consumed during the sealing.
The method for manufacturing an image display device according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein a member to be used consumes a larger amount of oxygen than an electrode material of the electron source during sealing and heating of the vacuum vessel. 5. Oxygen in the container is consumed during the sealing.
5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the member to be formed is a metal selected from the group consisting of Cr, Ni, Ti, Cu, and Al. Wherein said electron-emitting device, method for manufacturing an image display device according to claim 1, characterized in that a surface conduction electron-emitting devices.