JPH0746581B2 - Image forming device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using an electron beam, and more specifically, image forming using an electron beam generating apparatus having a plurality of electron beam generating units. Regarding the device.

[Prior Art] In recent years, for example, Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 54-30274, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 54-111272 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4259678), No. 56-15529 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4303930), As shown in No. 57-38528, an electron beam generator using a so-called cold cathode has been developed.

The cold cathode in the electron beam generator is a hot cathode most commonly used in the electron beam generator at present,
Due to the problem of durability, there is a great restriction to reduce the area of the electron emission surface, but there is an advantage that such restriction is scarcely applied. In addition, the hot cathode is
While it is difficult to arrange with uniform characteristics with high positional accuracy, cold cathodes are formed by a manufacturing process such as photolithography or electron beam lithography, so that multiple cold cathodes can have uniform characteristics. It has the advantage that it can be arranged and arranged with high positional accuracy. Therefore, according to such a technique or a technique similar thereto, it is possible to obtain an electron beam generator having a large number of electron beam generators, and it is expected to be applied to various image forming apparatuses including a display device. There is.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, since the electron beam generator including the plurality of electron beam generators has not yet been realized at the idea stage, the electron beam generator is used. No specific proposal has been made as to how to form an image.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus that forms an image by an electron beam generator including a plurality of electron beam generators.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention relates to an electron beam generator having a plurality of cold cathode electron sources, and a deflection for deflecting an electron beam group emitted from the electron beam generator in X and Y directions. In the image forming apparatus having a means and an image forming area irradiated with the electron beam, the electron beam group is divided by the deflecting means into small areas obtained by dividing the image forming area in the X and Y directions. The image forming apparatus is characterized by scanning and sequentially irradiating the image forming area for each of the small areas.

The present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 1 corresponding to one embodiment of the present invention. In the present embodiment, an electron beam generator 2 having an electron beam generator 1 composed of a plurality of cold cathode electron sources and an electron beam generator 2 The electron beam group emitted from the beam generator 2 is X
And an image forming apparatus having a deflecting unit 3 capable of deflecting in the Y direction.

In the present invention, the X and Y directions refer to two directions that are perpendicular to the electron beam emitted from the electron beam generator 2 and orthogonal to each other.

[Operation] Since the electron beam generator 2 includes the plurality of electron beam generators 1, the irradiated member 4 that forms an image by being irradiated with the electron beam by emitting a group of electron beams. It is possible to irradiate the upper fixed region with an electron beam at a time. On the other hand, since the electron beam group can be deflected in the X and Y directions by the deflecting means 3, the entire image forming area on the irradiation target member 4 is irradiated with the electron beam group without overlapping each of the certain areas. It can be scanned to form any image.

[Embodiment] As shown in FIG. 1, an electron beam generator 2 and a member to be irradiated 4 are provided to face each other, and a deflecting means 3 is arranged between them.

The electron beam generator 2 includes a plurality of electron beam generators 1 that are integrally provided by arranging a plurality of cold cathode electron sources on the same substrate. Electron beam generator 1
A cold cathode is most suitable as the cathode for forming the. Also,
The electron beam generators 1 in this embodiment can be independently driven, and are one-dimensionally arranged so as to irradiate an electron beam within a predetermined line region of the irradiated member 4. Here, the one-dimensional array means that the cells are arranged in a line vertically, horizontally, or obliquely.

The deflection means 3 in this embodiment is composed of a pair of left and right (X direction) flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b and a pair of upper and lower (Y direction) flat plate electrodes 3c and 3d. Flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b, 3c and 3d of each set
Are arranged parallel to each other with the trajectories of all the beams emitted from the electron beam generator 1 in between.
A variable voltage source (not shown) can independently apply a required voltage between the plate electrodes 3a and 3b and between the plate electrodes 3c and 3d. As the deflecting means 3, an electromagnetic coil or the like can be used in addition to the flat plate electrodes 3a to 3d.

The irradiated member 4 forms a fixed image or a variable image by irradiation with an electron beam. Specifically, when the present image forming apparatus is used as a display device, for example, a fluorescent screen coated with a phosphor that emits light when irradiated with an electron beam can be used. When used as a photoresist device, a member having a photoresist layer may be used.

As shown in FIG. 1, the plurality of parallel electron beams emitted from the electron beam generator 1 of the electron beam generator 2 are deflected by the deflecting means 3 to form a one-dimensional area on the irradiated member 4. Will be irradiated. Then, as will be described later, between the flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b which are the deflecting means 3 and between the plate electrodes 3a and 3b.
By applying an appropriate voltage between 3d, the irradiated member 4
It is possible to sequentially scan the entire upper area without overlapping. At that time, if the plurality of electron beam generators 1 of the electron beam generator 2 are appropriately turned on and off according to the scanning position, it is possible to form an arbitrary image on the irradiated member 4.

In the above-described embodiment, the electron beam generators 1 have a one-dimensional array, but a two-dimensional array generally enables a two-dimensional array because scanning can be performed in a shorter time.
Here, the two-dimensional array means that a plurality of columns are arrayed both vertically and horizontally. Regarding the scanning of the electron beam in this device, taking the case where the electron beam generators 1 are two-dimensionally arranged as an example,
Further description will be given with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 2 shows an irradiation section in the case of irradiating the irradiated member 4 without overlapping with the electron beam group emitted from the electron beam generator 2 in which the electron beam generators 1 are arranged two-dimensionally. There is. A ₁₁ indicated by a dotted line on the irradiated member 4
For convenience of description, the areas a to a ₃₃ are obtained by dividing the image forming area on the surface of the irradiated member 4. Each of these areas a _{11 to} a ₃₃
Each have a shape similar to the arrangement region of the electron beam generator 1. By sequentially irradiating the electron beam group with these areas a _{11 to} a ₃₃ as one unit, the entire image forming area of the irradiated member 4 can be scanned without overlapping in a short time.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the image forming apparatus shown in FIG.
The pair of flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b have a role of collectively deflecting the electron beam group emitted from the electron beam generator 1 in the X direction. Similarly, the pair of plate electrodes 3c and 3d facing each other have a role of collectively deflecting the electron beam group in the Y direction. The dotted line drawn in the figure indicates the path of the electron beam group when the electron beam group emitted by the electron beam generator 1 irradiates any one of a ₁₁ or a ₁₂ or a _{13 in} FIG. Similarly, the solid line represents the path of the electron beam group in the case of irradiating any one of the regions a ₂₁ or a ₂₂ or a ₂₃ in FIG. The alternate long and short dash line indicates a ₃₁ or a _{32 in} FIG.
Alternatively, it is the path of the electron beam group when irradiating either area of a ₃₃ .

FIG. 4 shows the space between the flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b and 3c and 3d shown in FIG.
It is a figure which shows the voltage applied in between in a time series.

Now, in order to form one image on the irradiation target member 4, the subdivided areas a _{11 to} a ₃₃ are divided into a ₁₁ , a ₁₂ , a ₁₃ , a ₂₁ ,
It is assumed that a ₂₂ , a ₂₃ , a ₃₁ , a ₃₂ , and a ₃₃ are sequentially scanned to irradiate the electron beam group.

As in a general CRT, when a raster scan is performed using a single electron beam source (3 in the case of a color CRT) to form an image, it is well known that a flat plate electrode is used. A triangular wave (sawtooth wave) voltage may be applied between 3a and 3b and between 3c and 3d. However, as in the image forming apparatus, a plurality of electron beam generators 1 arranged two-dimensionally are used.
In order to perform the above-mentioned area-by-area scanning by using, the use of the triangular wave causes overlapping irradiation. Therefore, in the device according to the present invention, it is preferable to perform scanning as follows. That is, as shown in FIG.
It suffices to apply a stepwise voltage waveform as shown in (the figure shows the voltage of the plate electrode 3b when the plate electrode 3a is used as a reference. Similarly, FIG. The figure shows the voltage waveform that should be applied between 3d and (c) in the figure.
Shows the timing of driving the electron beam generator 1 on the same time axis. At a timing shown as an ON state in the figure, only the necessary one is driven according to the shape of the image to be formed among the plurality of electron beam generators 1 included in the electron beam generator 2 and the electron beam is emitted. Irradiate the area.

It is possible to form a desired image on the irradiated member 4 by the above-described scanning procedure, and by repeating this at high speed, it is possible to realize a high-definition and large-capacity image display as never before.

In the description of FIG. 2-FIG. 4 described above, the surface of the irradiated member 4, at the same time divided into three parts in the X direction, and also divided into three parts in the Y direction, is divided into nine areas of a ₁₁ ~a ₃₃ Although the case of irradiating an electron beam has been described, the application of the scanning method in the present invention is not limited to this example. Generally, it can be considered as a scanning method in which the X direction of the irradiated member 4 is divided into n and the Y direction is divided into m, and the electron beam is irradiated to each region. At that time, stepwise voltages of n stages are sequentially applied to the flat plate electrodes 3a and 3b for X direction deflection, and stepwise voltages of m stages are sequentially applied to the flat plate electrodes 3c and 3d for Y direction deflection. Go!

Regarding the means for generating the stepwise voltage, for example,
It can be easily realized by applying a known D / A conversion circuit or a circuit similar thereto.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, by forming an image for each partial region of a member to be irradiated by an electron beam group emitted by a plurality of electron beam generators, an extremely large-capacity image is spread over a large area. It can be formed in a short time. Further, when the present invention is applied to, for example, an image display device, it is possible to inexpensively provide a high-definition CRT having a large display capacity as never before.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is an explanatory view of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view of a scanning state by an electron beam group, FIG. 3 is a side view of FIG. 1, and FIGS. 4 (a) to 4 (c) are It is a figure which shows the voltage applied to a deflection means in time series. 1: Electron beam generator, 2: Electron beam generator, 3: Deflection means, 3a to 3d: Flat plate electrode, 4: Irradiated member.

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An electron beam generator comprising a plurality of cold cathode electron sources, and deflection means for deflecting an electron beam group emitted from the electron beam generator in X and Y directions.
In an image forming apparatus having an image forming area irradiated with the electron beam, the electron beam group is scanned by the deflecting unit for each small area obtained by dividing the image forming area in the X and Y directions, An image forming apparatus, wherein the image forming area is sequentially irradiated for each of the small areas. 2. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the small area includes a plurality of adjacent pixels. 3. The image forming apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the number of pixels included in the small area is equal to the number of cold cathode electron sources included in the electron beam generator. 4. The deflecting means applies a stepwise voltage waveform to the deflecting electrodes so that the electron beam groups are irradiated with the electron beam groups so that the irradiation areas do not overlap with each other on one screen. The image forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image is deflected. 5. The image forming apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the image forming area is a resist.