JPH08162006A - Electron emitting device, electron source, and image forming apparatus using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [Object] To provide an electron-emitting device used as an electron source capable of realizing a large area and high quality of an image forming apparatus. An electron-emitting device having an electron-emitting device portion 6 made of a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a gate electrode made of a piezoelectric cantilever 10. [Effect] By controlling the bending displacement of the piezoelectric cantilever 10, the flight direction of the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device portion 6 can be controlled.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electron-emitting device, an electron source having a plurality of the electron-emitting devices, and an image forming apparatus such as a display device and an exposure device which are constructed by using the electron sources.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, two types of electron emitters, a thermoelectron source and a cold cathode electron source, are known. The cold cathode electron-emitting device used as a cold cathode electron source includes a field emission type (hereinafter referred to as “FE type”), a metal / insulating layer / metal type (hereinafter referred to as “MIM type”), and the like. There are surface conduction electron-emitting devices and the like.

As an example of the FE type, W. P. Dyk
e and W.E. W. Dolan, “Field
Emission ", Advance in El
electron Physics, 8, 89 (195
6) or C.I. A. Spindt, "PHYS
ICAL Properties of thin-f
ilm field emission cathod
es with mollybdenum cone
s ", J. Appl. Phys., 47, 52.
48 (1976) and the like are known.

An example of the MIM type is C.I. A. Me
ad, J.M. Appl. Phys. , 32,646
(1961) and the like are known.

As an example of the surface conduction electron-emitting device,
M. I. Elinson, Radio Eng.
Electron Phys. , 10, 1290
(1965).

The surface conduction electron-emitting device utilizes a phenomenon in which electron emission occurs when a current is passed through a conductive thin film having a small area formed on an insulating substrate in parallel with the film surface. As the surface conduction electron-emitting device, one using the SnO ₂ thin film by Erinson et al., One using the Au thin film [G. Dittmer: "ThinS
old Films ", 9, 317 (197)
2)], by In ₂ O ₃ / SnO ₂ thin film [M.
Hartwell and C.I. G. Fonsta
d: “IEEE Trans. ED Con
f. , 519 (1975)], carbon thin films [Hiraki Araki et al .: Vacuum, Vol. 26, No. 1, p. 22 (1983)] and the like.

As a typical example of the structure of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, a conductive thin film such as a metal oxide which connects a pair of device electrodes provided on an insulating substrate is referred to as forming in advance. The thing which formed the electron emission part by the electricity supply process is mentioned. Forming is usually performed by applying a voltage across both ends of the conductive thin film, locally destroying, deforming, or altering the conductive thin film to change the structure, and electron emission in an electrically high resistance state. It is a process of forming a part. The electron emission is performed from the vicinity of the crack generated in the electron emitting portion by applying a voltage to the conductive thin film in which the electron emitting portion is formed and flowing a current.

The above-mentioned surface conduction electron-emitting device has an advantage that a large number of devices can be arrayed over a large area because it has a simple structure and is relatively easy to manufacture. Therefore, various applications for utilizing this feature are being researched. For example, it can be used for an image forming apparatus such as a charged beam source and a display device.

Conventionally, as an example in which a large number of surface-conduction type electron-emitting devices are arranged and formed, surface-conduction type electron-emitting devices are arranged in parallel, and both ends (both device electrodes) of individual devices are wired (also called common wiring). ), An electron source in which a large number of rows connected to each other is also arranged (also referred to as a ladder arrangement) (for example, JP-A-64-31332 and JP-A-1-283749).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-257552).

Further, particularly in the case of a display device, a surface conduction electron emission device can be used as a self-luminous display device which can be a flat panel display device similar to a display device using liquid crystal and which does not require a backlight. A display device has been proposed (US Pat. No. 5,066,883) in which an electron source in which a large number of elements are arranged and a phosphor which emits visible light when irradiated with an electron beam from the electron source are combined.

On the other hand, research on a small functional element called a micromachine is currently under way. According to micromachine technology, a small cantilever of 1 mm to 1 μm has been proposed and developed.

The above-mentioned micromachine technology is, for example, H
owe RT, Muller RS, Gabri
l Kj, Trimmer WSN: “Silic
onmicromachinics: sensors
and actuators on a chip,
IEEE Spectrum ", p.29-35,
(July issue, 1990).

FIG. 19 is a schematic view of a main part of a piezoelectric cantilever which is one kind of cantilevers manufactured by the micromachine technique. In the figure, reference numeral 2001 is a substrate, 2007 is a cavity, 2010 is a piezoelectric thin film 2011, and an electrode thin film 201.
2, 2013, and a piezoelectric cantilever composed of an insulator layer 2014. The piezoelectric cantilever 2010 is a piezoelectric thin film 2011 generated by applying a control voltage from the control voltage device 2020 to the electrode thin films 2012 and 2013.
The bending deformation is caused by the expansion and contraction deformation.

[0014]

In the above-mentioned conventional electron-emitting device, the directionality of the electrons emitted from the device is determined when the device is formed and cannot be controlled by the device alone.
Therefore, it has been considered that the application is based on the assumption that the flight direction of electrons is not controlled, and that the direction is controlled by using a complicated electron optical lens or the like.

However, when the electron-emitting device is used as an electron source of an image forming apparatus, for example, if the flight direction of electrons is not controlled, at least one electron-emitting device must correspond to one pixel, The number of electron-emitting devices used is huge.

On the other hand, forming a complicated electron optical system for controlling the flight direction of electrons in the vicinity of the electron-emitting device requires many steps and leads to an increase in the cost of the entire apparatus.

In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an electron-emitting device having a novel structure capable of controlling the directionality of emitted electrons, an electron source provided with a plurality of the electron-emitting devices, and further an electron source. An object of the present invention is to provide an image forming apparatus provided with the image forming apparatus.

[0018]

Means and Actions for Solving the Problems The constitution of the present invention made to achieve the above object is as follows.

A first aspect of the present invention is an electron-emitting device having a cold cathode type electron-emitting device section and a gate formed of a cantilever.

The first aspect of the present invention is further characterized in that the gate is direction control means for controlling a flight direction of electrons emitted from the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion. It also includes that the emitting element portion is formed of a surface-conduction electron emitting element having an electron emitting portion in a conductive thin film extending between a pair of opposing element electrodes, and that the cantilever is a piezoelectric cantilever.

A second aspect of the present invention is an electron source characterized by comprising a plurality of the above-mentioned electron-emitting devices of the present invention on a substrate.

The second aspect of the present invention is further characterized in that the electron source has at least one or more device rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and drives each cold cathode type electron-emitting device section. Wirings are arranged in a matrix, and the electron source has at least one or more element rows in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and the wirings for driving each cold cathode type electron-emitting device section are in a ladder shape. Including that it is arranged.

A third aspect of the present invention is an image forming apparatus for forming an image based on an input signal, which is obtained by irradiating the electron source of the second aspect of the present invention with an electron beam emitted from the electron source. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming member that forms an image.

The third aspect of the present invention is further characterized in that the number of pixels on the image forming member is larger than the number of the electron-emitting devices, and that the electrons emitted from the cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion are included. The flight direction of electrons is controlled by the gate so that the irradiation position on the image forming member changes within one pixel over time.
Electrons emitted from the respective electron-emitting devices having primary color phosphors are irradiated to the color phosphors of a plurality of colors, and the arrangement directions of the three primary color phosphors are such that the cold cathode type electron emitting portions are arranged. It also includes matching with the displacement direction on the fluorescent screen of the electron emitted from the device and the flight direction of which is controlled by the gate.

As described above, the present invention uses an electron-emitting device having a cold cathode type electron-emitting device section and a gate composed of a cantilever, an electron source having a plurality of the electron-emitting devices, and an electron source. The configuration and operation of each invention will be described in detail below.

The cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion according to the present invention comprises:
The FE type, the MIM type, the surface conduction type electron-emitting device and the like as described above can be used, and in particular, the surface conduction type electron emitting device having a simple structure and easy to manufacture is preferable.

First, the electron-emitting device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3, taking as an example a case where a surface conduction electron-emitting device is used as a cold cathode electron-emitting device section. still,
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an electron-emitting device, FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the principle of controlling the flight direction of emitted electrons.

In these figures, 1 is a substrate, 2 is an electron emitting portion, 3 is a conductive thin film including the electron emitting portion 2, 4 and 5 are device electrodes, and these constitute an electron emitting device unit 6. There is. The electron-emitting device portion 6 has a basic structure of a surface conduction electron-emitting device, and by applying a voltage exceeding a certain voltage between the device electrodes 4 and 5, as shown in FIG. Electrons are emitted from the electron emitting portion 2.

Further, 7 is an insulator layer, 8 is a cavity, and 10 is a gate made of a cantilever formed on the insulator 7. The cantilever 10 has a laminated piezoelectric structure and is composed of a piezoelectric thin film 11, electrode thin films 12 and 13, and insulating layers 14 and 15, and a hole 16 serving as an electron passage hole is formed near the tip thereof. There is. The cantilever 10 is refracted and changed according to the potential difference applied between the electrode thin films 12 and 13, and its tip is displaced in the Z direction of FIG.

The principle of controlling the direction of emitted electrons by the electron-emitting device of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. still,
Reference numeral 20 in the figure is an anode electrode attached to the electron beam irradiation portion when, for example, an image forming apparatus or the like is configured, and is for raising emitted electrons by the high voltage Va.

In the electron-emitting device of the present invention, the driving voltage Vf applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 of the electron-emitting device portion 6 is usually ten and several volts, the average potential Vg of the cantilever 10 is several ten and the substrate 1 The distance h between the cantilever 10 and the cantilever 10 is several μm
Is set to As a result, the electric field received by the electrons emitted from the electron emission portion 2 of the electron emission element portion 6 is about 10 ⁵ V / cm in the direction perpendicular to the substrate 1. On the other hand, the anode voltage Va is set to about 1 kV, and the distance H between the substrate 1 and the anode electrode 20 is set to about several mm. As a result, the electric field received by the electrons emitted from the electron emitting portion 2 is about 10 ⁴ V / cm in the direction perpendicular to the substrate 1. Therefore, between the cantilever 10 and the substrate 1, the electric field distribution between the electron-emitting device portion 6 and the cantilever 10 is more dominant than the electric field between the electron-emitting device portion 6 and the anode electrode 20.

The electrons emitted from the electron emitting portion 2 by applying the driving voltage Vf are pulled by the cantilever 10 while being deflected to the anode side element electrode (corresponding to the element electrode 5 in FIG. 3). Then, the electrode thin films 12, 1 of the cantilever 10
When a desired potential difference is applied to 3 around the average potential Vg and the cantilever 10 is refracted and changed, the electric field distribution in the vicinity of the cantilever 10 changes, so that when the electrons pass through the holes 16 of the cantilever 10, they generate an electric field of the electric field. The flight direction changes according to the distortion.

As described above, the electron-emitting device of the present invention controls the refraction change of the cantilever 10 by the potential difference applied between the electrode thin films 12 and 13 of the cantilever 10 to fly the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting portion 2. It is possible to control the direction.

Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described.

First, the basic structure and manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device which is particularly preferably used as the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion according to the present invention will be described.

The surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable for the present invention is basically a substrate 1, an electron-emitting portion 2, a conductive thin film 3 including the electron-emitting portion 2 and a facing surface as shown in FIGS. It is composed of a pair of element electrodes 4 and 5.

As the substrate 1, for example, quartz glass, Na
And the like, glass having a reduced content of impurities such as, soda lime glass, a laminated body obtained by laminating SiO ₂ on soda lime glass by a sputtering method, and ceramics such as alumina.

As the material of the device electrodes 4 and 5 facing each other,
Common conductor materials are used, such as Ni, Cr, Au,
Metal or alloy such as Mo, W, Pt, Ti, Al, Cu and Pd, and printed conductor composed of metal or metal oxide such as Pd, Ag, Au, RuO ₂ , Pd-Ag and glass. , In ₂ O ₃ —SnO _{2 and} other transparent conductors, and polysilicon and other semiconductor conductor materials.

The element electrode spacing L (see FIG. 1), the element electrode length W (see FIG. 2), the shape of the conductive thin film 3 and the like are appropriately designed according to the applied form.

The element electrode spacing L is usually several hundred Å to several hundred μ.
m, which is set by the voltage applied between the device electrodes, the electric field strength capable of emitting electrons, and the like.
It is several tens of μm.

The device electrode length W is preferably several μm to several hundreds μm in consideration of the resistance value of the electrodes and electron emission characteristics, and the device electrode thickness d (see FIG. 1) is several hundred Å to several hundreds. μm
Is.

The planar surface conduction electron-emitting device shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 is formed by stacking the device electrodes 4, 5 and the conductive thin film 3 in this order on the substrate 1. The conductive thin film 3 and the device electrodes 4 and 5 may be laminated in this order on the substrate 1.

The conductive thin film 3 is particularly preferably a fine particle film composed of fine particles in order to obtain good electron emission characteristics. The thickness of the conductive thin film 3 depends on the step coverage of the device electrodes 4 and 5 and the device. It is appropriately set depending on the resistance value between the electrodes 4 and 5 and the forming conditions described later. The thickness of the conductive thin film 3 is preferably several Å to several thousand Å, particularly preferably 10 Å to 500 Å, and its resistance value is 10
The sheet resistance value is ³ to 10 ⁷ Ω / □.

The fine particle film is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are aggregated, and its fine structure is not only in a state in which the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged but also in a state in which the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other (island shape). (Including)). In the case of a fine particle film, the particle diameter of the fine particles is preferably several Å to several thousand Å, particularly preferably 10 Å to 200 Å.

The main materials constituting the conductive thin film 3 are, for example, Pd, Pt, Ru, Ag, Au, Ti, In, Cu,
Metals such as Cr, Fe, Zn, Sn, Ta, W, Pb, P
dO, SnO ₂ , In ₂ O ₃ , PbO, Sb ₂ O ₃ , W
Oxides such as _{O x, HfB 2, ZrB 2} , LaB 6, Ce
Boride such as B ₆ , YB ₄ , GdB ₄ , TiC, ZrC,
Carbides such as HfC, TaC, SiC, WC, TiN, Z
It is made of a nitride such as rN or HfN, a semiconductor such as Si or Ge, or carbon.

A crack is included in the electron emitting portion 2, and the electron is emitted from the vicinity of the crack. The electron emitting portion 2 including the crack and the crack itself are formed depending on the film thickness of the conductive thin film 3, the film quality, the material, the forming conditions described later, and the like. Therefore, the position and shape of the electron emitting portion 2 are not limited to the position and shape shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The crack may have conductive fine particles having a particle diameter of several Å to several hundred Å. The conductive fine particles are the same as some or all of the elements of the material forming the conductive thin film 3. Further, the electron emitting portion 2 including a crack and the conductive thin film 3 in the vicinity thereof may contain carbon and a carbon compound.

When the surface conduction electron-emitting device is used as the electron-emitting device portion according to the present invention, for example, as shown in FIG.
It is preferable to provide the cantilever 10 so that the holes 16 are arranged above the electron emitting portion 2 including the cracks as shown in FIG.

Next, an example of a method of manufacturing the electron-emitting device of the present invention having the structure shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to the manufacturing process chart of FIG. The same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 are the same.

1) After the insulating substrate 1 is thoroughly washed with a detergent, pure water and an organic solvent, a device electrode material is deposited by a vacuum deposition method, a sputtering method or the like, and then on the surface of the substrate 1 by a photolithography technique. Element electrodes 4 and 5 are formed on the substrate (FIG. 4A).

2) By applying an organic metal solution on the insulating substrate 1 on which the device electrodes 4 and 5 are formed and leaving it to stand,
An organometallic thin film is formed. The organic metal solution is a solution of an organic compound whose main element is a metal that is a constituent material of the conductive thin film 3 described above. Then, the organic metal thin film is heated and baked, and is patterned by lift-off, etching, etc. to form the conductive thin film 3 (FIG. 4B). Although the organic metal solution coating method has been described here, the invention is not limited to this, and it may be formed by a vacuum vapor deposition method, a sputtering method, a chemical vapor deposition method, a dispersion coating method, a dipping method, a spinner method, or the like. In some cases.

3) Finally, the sacrifice layer 41 is laminated on the portion which will become the cavity 8, and then the insulating layer 7 is laminated. Thereafter, the insulating layers 15 and 14, the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 13, the PZT film as the piezoelectric thin film 11, and the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 12 are sequentially patterned and laminated so as to be connected to a wiring portion (not shown). . At the time of the patterning, holes 16 serving as electron passage holes are also formed (FIG. 4C).

4) After removing the sacrificial layer 41 by etching, an energization process called forming is performed. When a power supply (not shown) is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5, an electron emitting portion 2 having a changed structure is formed at the site of the conductive thin film 3 (FIG. 4D). By this energization treatment, the conductive thin film 3 is locally destroyed, deformed or altered, and the electron-emissive portion 2 is a portion whose structure is changed.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the voltage waveform of forming.

The voltage waveform is particularly preferably a pulse waveform,
There are a case where a voltage pulse whose pulse peak value is a constant voltage is continuously applied (FIG. 5A), and a case where a voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value (FIG. 5B).

First, the case where the pulse peak value is a constant voltage will be described. In FIG. 5A, T1 and T2 are the pulse width and the pulse interval of the voltage waveform, for example, T1 is 1 μsec to 10 msec, T2 is 10 μsec to 100 msec,
The peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage at the time of forming) is appropriately selected according to the form of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described above, and it is several seconds to several tens of minutes under a vacuum atmosphere of an appropriate degree of vacuum. Apply. The voltage waveform to be applied is not limited to the illustrated triangular wave, and a desired waveform such as a rectangular wave can be used.

Next, the case where the voltage pulse is applied while increasing the pulse peak value will be described. 5 (b), T1 and T2 are the same as those in FIG. 5 (a), and the peak value of the triangular wave (peak voltage during forming) is increased by, for example, about 0.1 V step, and FIG. It is applied in an appropriate vacuum atmosphere similar to the description of a).

In the pulse interval T2, a voltage that does not locally destroy, deform or alter the conductive thin film 3,
For example, the device current is measured at a voltage of about 0.1 V to obtain a resistance value, and the forming is terminated when a resistance of 1 M ohm or more is exhibited.

5) Next, it is preferable to perform an activation process on the element which has completed the forming process.

The activation step is, for example, 10 ⁻⁴ to 10 ⁻⁵ T.
As in the description of the forming step, a process of repeatedly applying a pulse with a constant pulse peak value at a degree of vacuum of about orr is used to remove carbon and carbon compounds from an organic substance existing in a vacuum. By depositing on 2,
This is a process in which the states of device current and emission current (which will be described later in detail) can be significantly improved. This activation process is performed while measuring the device current and the emission current, for example,
For example, it is effective to end the emission current when saturated, which is preferable. The pulse peak value in the activation step is preferably the peak value of the drive voltage applied when driving the element.

The above-mentioned carbon and carbon compound are graphite (both single crystal and polycrystal), amorphous carbon (amorphous carbon, and a mixture thereof with polycrystal graphite). . The deposited film thickness is preferably 500 Å or less, more preferably 300 Å or less.

6) More preferably, the electron-emitting device thus manufactured is operated and driven in a vacuum atmosphere having a vacuum degree higher than the vacuum degree in the forming step and the activation step. In addition, more preferably, operation is performed after heating at 80 ° C. to 150 ° C. in a vacuum atmosphere having a higher degree of vacuum.

By the step 6), further deposition of carbon and carbon compounds is suppressed, and the device current and the emission current are stabilized.

The basic characteristics of the electron-emitting device of the present invention obtained as described above will be described below.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram showing an example of a measurement / evaluation system for measuring the electron emission characteristics of the electron-emitting device of the present invention which has undergone the above-described manufacturing process. First, this measurement / evaluation system will be described.

6, the same reference numerals as those in FIGS. 1 and 2 denote the same members. Further, 51 is a power supply for applying a device voltage Vf to the device, 52 is an ammeter for measuring a device current If flowing through the conductive thin film 3 between the device electrodes 4, 5, and 20.
Is an anode electrode for capturing the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion 2, 53 is a high voltage power source for applying a voltage to the anode electrode 20, and 54 is an emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion 2. Is a power supply for electrically floating the cantilever 10, 56 is a modulation power supply for providing a potential difference between the electrode thin films 12 and 13, 57 is a vacuum device, and 58 is an exhaust pump.

The electron-emitting device, the anode electrode 20 and the like are installed in a vacuum device 57, and the vacuum device 57 is equipped with necessary equipment such as a vacuum gauge (not shown), so that the electron can be stored under a desired vacuum. The emission element can be measured and evaluated.

The exhaust pump 58 is composed of a normal high vacuum system such as a turbo pump and a rotary pump, and an ultra high vacuum system including an ion pump.
Further, the entire vacuum device 57 and the substrate 1 of the electron-emitting device are
It can be heated up to about 200 ° C. by a heater (not shown). In addition, this measurement and evaluation system is configured such that the display panel and the inside thereof are configured as the vacuum device 57 and the inside thereof at the stage of assembling the display panel (see 201 in FIG. 9) which will be described later, so that the above-described forming process and activation It can be applied to measurement evaluation and processing in the chemical conversion process.

The basic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described below are that the voltage of the anode electrode 20 of the above-mentioned measurement and evaluation system is 1 kV to 10 kV, and the distance H between the anode electrode 20 and the electron-emitting device portion is 2 mm. ~ 8 mm, cantilever 10
The average measurement is performed at an average potential of about 50 V.

First, the emission current Ie and the device current If,
A typical example of the relationship of the element voltage Vf is shown in FIG. 7 (solid line in the figure).
Shown in In FIG. 7, the emission current Ie is the device current Ie.
Since it is significantly smaller than f, it is shown in arbitrary units.

As is apparent from FIG. 7, the surface conduction electron-emitting device which is preferably used as the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion according to the present invention has the following three characteristic characteristics with respect to the emission current Ie.

First, in the surface conduction electron-emitting device, when a device voltage Vf higher than a certain voltage (called threshold voltage: Vth in FIG. 7) is applied, the emission current Ie rapidly increases, while At the threshold voltage Vth or less, the emission current Ie is hardly detected. That is, it is a non-linear element having a clear threshold voltage Vth with respect to the emission current Ie.

Secondly, since the emission current Ie has a characteristic of monotonically increasing with respect to the element voltage Vf (referred to as MI characteristic), the emission current Ie can be controlled by the element voltage Vf.

Thirdly, the emitted charges captured by the anode electrode 20 (see FIG. 6) depend on the time for applying the device voltage Vf. That is, the amount of charges captured by the anode electrode 20 can be controlled by the time for which the device voltage Vf is applied.

The characteristic shown by the solid line in FIG. 7 is the emission current Ie.
Has an MI characteristic with respect to the element voltage Vf, and at the same time, the element current If also has an MI characteristic with respect to the element voltage Vf. However, as indicated by the broken line in FIG. 7, the element current If changes to the element voltage Vf. On the other hand, it may exhibit a voltage control type negative resistance characteristic (called a VCNR characteristic). Which characteristic is exhibited is
It depends on the manufacturing method of the device and the measurement conditions at the time of measurement. However,
Even if the device current If has a VCNR characteristic with respect to the device voltage Vf, the emission current Ie is M with respect to the device voltage Vf.
It has the I characteristic.

Due to the characteristic characteristics of the surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable as the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion according to the present invention as described above, even in an electron source or an image forming apparatus in which a plurality of devices are arranged, an input is made. It is possible to easily control the amount of emitted electrons according to the signal, and it can be applied to various fields.

Further, the cantilever 10 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) can be used not only as a direction control means for emitted electrons as described above but also as a normal gate electrode, and the average potential given to it can be used. The emission current Ie can also be controlled by varying it.

In the electron-emitting device of the present invention, the combined action of the functions of the respective constituents is most important, and according to the idea, the concrete constitution of the cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion or the cantilever, and their concrete constitution. The manufacturing method is not particularly limited. Therefore, the cantilever is a shape memory material,
A magnetic material may be used, and in the case of a piezoelectric element, P
It is not limited to the ZT film. Furthermore, a separate gate electrode can be provided between the cantilever and the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion and / or above the cantilever.

Next, the arrangement of the electron-emitting devices in the electron source of the present invention will be described together with the driving method, taking as an example the case of using a surface conduction electron-emitting device suitable as a cold cathode electron-emitting device section.

As a method of arranging the surface conduction type electron-emitting devices as the cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion in the electron source of the present invention, in addition to the ladder arrangement as described in the section of the prior art, m
An arrangement method in which n Y-direction wirings are installed on the X-direction wirings via an interlayer insulating layer and the X-direction wirings and the Y-direction wirings are connected to a pair of device electrodes of the surface conduction electron-emitting device, respectively. Can be mentioned. This is hereinafter referred to as a simple matrix arrangement. This simple matrix arrangement will be described in detail.

According to the basic characteristics of the surface-conduction type electron-emitting device described above, when the applied device voltage Vf exceeds the threshold voltage Vth, the electron is generated at the peak value and pulse width of the applied pulsed voltage. The amount of release can be controlled. On the other hand, below the threshold voltage Vth, almost no electrons are emitted. Therefore, even when a large number of surface conduction electron-emitting devices are arranged, it becomes possible to apply a pulsed voltage controlled according to an input signal only by simple matrix wiring, select individual devices and drive them independently. .

The simple matrix arrangement is based on the above principle, and the structure of the electron source having the simple matrix arrangement, which is an example of the electron source of the present invention, will be further described with reference to FIG.

In FIG. 8, the substrate 1 is a glass plate or the like as already described, 101 and 102 are m wirings in the X direction, 103 is the wirings in the Y direction, and 104 is the electron-emitting device section 6. The electron-emitting device of the present invention is composed of a surface conduction electron-emitting device and a cantilever 10. The number and shape of the electron-emitting devices 104 are set appropriately according to the application.

The m X-direction wirings 102 have external terminals Dx1, Dx2, ... Dxm, respectively.
A conductive metal or the like formed on the upper surface by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. Further, the material, the film thickness, and the wiring width are set so that the voltage is supplied to the many electron-emitting devices 104 substantially evenly.

The n Y-direction wirings 103 each have external terminals Dy1, Dy2, ... Dyn, and are formed similarly to the X-direction wirings 102.

An interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is provided between the m X-direction wirings 102 and the n Y-direction wirings 103 and electrically separated to form a matrix wiring. Both m and n are positive even numbers.

The interlayer insulating layer (not shown) is SiO ₂ or the like formed by a vacuum evaporation method, a printing method, a sputtering method or the like, and has a desired shape on the entire surface or a part of the substrate 1 on which the X-direction wiring 102 is formed. In particular, the film thickness, material, and manufacturing method are appropriately set so as to withstand the potential difference at the intersection of the X-direction wiring 102 and the Y-direction wiring 103.

Further, the opposing device electrodes (not shown) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 are respectively formed on the even-numbered X-direction wirings 102 and the even-numbered Y-direction wirings 103 by vacuum vapor deposition, printing, They are electrically connected by a connecting wire 105 made of a conductive metal or the like formed by a sputtering method or the like. In addition, two electrodes (not shown) of the cantilever 10 are formed on the odd-numbered X-direction wirings 102 and the odd-numbered Y-direction wirings 103 by a vacuum deposition method, a printing method, a sputtering method, or the like. Connection 10 made of metal, etc.
It is electrically connected by 6.

Here, the m number of X-direction wirings 102, the n number of Y-direction wirings 103, the connections 105 and 106, the element electrodes, and the like, even if some or all of the constituent elements are the same, Further, they may be different from each other, and are appropriately selected from the above-mentioned material of the device electrode and the like. The surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 may be formed either on the substrate 1 or on an interlayer insulating layer (not shown).

Further, as will be described later in detail, an even-numbered X
In the directional wiring 102, in order to scan the rows of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 6 arranged in the X direction according to an input signal,
A scan signal applying means (not shown) for applying a scan signal is electrically connected.

On the other hand, in the even-numbered Y-direction wirings 103,
In order to modulate each row of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 6 arranged in the Y direction according to an input signal, a modulation signal applying means (not shown) for applying a modulation signal is electrically connected. The drive voltage applied to each surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 is supplied as a difference voltage between the scanning signal and the modulation signal applied to the device.

Further, in the odd-numbered X-direction wirings 102,
A control circuit (not shown) that applies a potential according to an input signal is electrically connected to the upper thin film electrodes (corresponding to 12 in FIG. 1) of the cantilevers 10 arranged in the X direction. Similarly,
On the odd-numbered Y-direction wirings 102, lower thin film electrodes of the cantilevers 10 arranged in the Y-direction (corresponding to 13 in FIG. 1).
A control circuit (not shown) that applies a potential corresponding to the input signal is electrically connected to.

Next, an example of the image forming apparatus of the present invention using the electron source of the present invention having the simple matrix arrangement as shown in FIG. 8 will be described with reference to FIGS. 9 to 11. Incidentally, FIG. 9 is a basic configuration diagram of the display panel 201, and FIG.
14 is a diagram showing the display panel 201 shown in FIG.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of a drive circuit for performing television display in accordance with an NTSC television signal.

In FIG. 9, the same symbols as those in FIG.
The same members are shown, 1 is a substrate of the electron source on which the electron-emitting device 104 is arranged, 111 is a rear plate on which the substrate 1 is fixed, and 116 is a fluorescent film 114 which is an image forming member on the inner surface of the glass substrate 113. A face plate having a metal back 115 and the like formed thereon, and 112 a support frame.
Rear plate 111, support frame 112, and face plate
The frit glass is coated with frit glass or the like on these joints, and the temperature is 400 ° C. to 500 ° C. in the air or a nitrogen atmosphere.
Enclose by baking at 10 ° C for 10 minutes or more
Make up eight.

The envelope 118 is composed of the face plate 116, the support frame 112, and the rear plate 111 as described above. However, the rear plate 111 is provided mainly for the purpose of reinforcing the strength of the substrate 1, and when the substrate 1 itself has sufficient strength, the rear plate 1 is a separate body.
11, the support frame 112 may be directly sealed to the substrate 1, and the face plate 116, the support frame 112, and the substrate 1 may constitute the envelope 118. Further, by further installing a support body (not shown) called a spacer between the face plate 116 and the rear plate 111, it is possible to form the envelope 118 having sufficient strength against atmospheric pressure.

The fluorescent film 114 is composed of only the fluorescent material 122 in the case of monochrome, but is composed of the fluorescent material 1 in the case of color.
The array of 22 makes the black stripes (see FIG. 10).
(A)) or black matrix (Fig. 10 (b))
And the like, and a phosphor 122. The purpose of providing the black stripes and the black matrix is to make the color mixture, etc., inconspicuous by blackening the separately colored portions between the phosphors 122 of the three primary colors required for color display, and to reflect external light on the phosphor film 114. This is to suppress the decrease in contrast due to. As the material of the black conductive material 121, not only a commonly used material containing graphite as a main component, but also another material can be used as long as it is a material that is conductive and has little light transmission and reflection. . As a method of applying the phosphor 122 to the glass substrate 113, a precipitation method or a printing method is used regardless of monochrome or color.

Further, as shown in FIG. 9, the fluorescent film 11
A metal back 115 is usually provided on the inner surface side of 4.
The purpose of the metal back 115 is to allow the light emitted from the phosphor 122 (see FIG. 10) toward the inner surface side to face the face plate 11.
6 to improve the brightness by specular reflection, to act as an electrode for applying an electron beam accelerating voltage from the high voltage terminal Hv, and to prevent damage due to collision of negative ions generated in the envelope 118. For example, protection of the fluorescent substance 122 from the light. The metal back 115 can be manufactured by performing smoothing processing (usually called filming) on the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 after manufacturing the fluorescent film 114, and then depositing Al by vacuum vapor deposition or the like.

The face plate 116 may be provided with a transparent electrode (not shown) on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 114 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 114.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of a color, the phosphors 122 of the respective colors have to correspond to the electron-emitting devices 104, so that it is necessary to perform sufficient alignment.

The inside of the envelope 118 is sealed through a vacuum degree of about 10 ⁻⁶ Torr through an exhaust pipe (not shown).
In addition, through an exhaust pipe (not shown), for example, a rotary pump,
With a normal vacuum system such as a turbo pump as a pump system, the terminal Dx outside the container is placed in a vacuum degree of about 10 ^-6 Torr.
A voltage is applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 through the even-numbered external terminals 1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dyn to perform the above-described forming process and activation process, and the electron emitting portion 2
(See FIG. 1).

After that, while performing baking at 80 ° C. to 150 ° C. for 3 to 15 hours, the system is switched to an ultra-high vacuum apparatus system which is a pump system such as an ion pump. This is because the switching to the ultra-high vacuum system and the baking satisfy the monotonically increasing characteristics (MI characteristics) of the device current If and the emission current Ie of the surface conduction electron-emitting device described above. It is not limited to.

Further, the getter process may be performed immediately before or after the envelope 118 is sealed. This is a process of heating a getter (not shown) arranged at a predetermined position in the envelope 118 by a heating method such as resistance heating or high frequency heating to form a vapor deposition film. The getter usually contains Ba or the like as a main component, and is for maintaining a vacuum degree of, for example, 10 ⁻⁵ to 10 ⁻⁷ Torr by the adsorption action of the deposited film.

The above-mentioned display panel 201 is shown in FIG.
It can be driven by a driving circuit as shown in FIG. However, the control circuit of the cantilever 10 is omitted here.

In FIG. 11, 201 is the display panel, 202 is a scanning circuit, 203 is a control circuit, and 204.
Is a shift register, 205 is a line memory, 206 is a sync signal separation circuit, 207 is a modulation signal generator, Vx and V
a is a DC voltage source.

As shown in FIG. 11, the display panel 20
1 is connected to an external electric circuit via the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm, the external terminals Dy1 to Dyn, and the high-voltage terminal Hv. Of these, the external terminals Dx1 to Dx
At even-numbered positions of xm, the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 6 provided in the display panel 201, that is, the surface conduction electron-emitting device groups arranged in a matrix form in rows (n / 2 elements). A scanning signal for sequentially driving is applied.

On the other hand, a modulation signal for controlling the output electron beam of each surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 of one row selected by the scanning signal is applied to the even-numbered external terminals Dy1 to Dyn.

The DC voltage source Va is connected to the high voltage terminal Hv.
Thus, a DC voltage of, for example, 10 kV is supplied. This is an accelerating voltage for giving enough energy to excite the phosphor to the electron beam output from the surface conduction electron-emitting device 6.

The scanning circuit 202 includes therein m / 2 switching elements (schematically shown by S1 to Sm / 2 in FIG. 11), and each switching element is an output voltage of the DC voltage source Vx. Or 0V (ground level)
One of the two is selected and electrically connected to the even-numbered external terminals Dx1 to Dxm of the display panel 201. Each switching element operates based on the control signal Tscan output from the control circuit 203,
In fact, it can be easily configured by combining elements having a switching function such as FETs. The DC voltage source Vx in this example is such that the drive voltage applied to the unscanned surface conduction electron-emitting device is equal to or lower than the threshold voltage based on the characteristics (threshold voltage) of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. It is set to output a constant voltage such that

The control circuit 203 has a function of matching the operation of each part so that an appropriate display is performed based on an image signal inputted from the outside. The synchronization signal Tsyn sent from the synchronization signal separation circuit 206 described below
Based on c, Tscan, Tsft, and Tmry control signals are generated for each unit.

The synchronizing signal separation circuit 206 is a circuit for separating a synchronizing signal component and a luminance signal component from an NTSC television signal input from the outside, and as is well known, a frequency separating (filtering) ) Using a circuit,
It can be easily constructed. Sync signal separation circuit 206
The synchronizing signal separated by means of a vertical synchronizing signal and a horizontal synchronizing signal are also well known. Here, for convenience of explanation, it is shown as Tsync. On the other hand, the luminance signal component of the image separated from the television signal is referred to as D for convenience.
This is shown as an ATA signal. This DATA signal is input to the shift register 204.

The shift register 204 is for serially / parallel converting the DATA signal serially input in time series for each line of the image, and based on the control signal Tsft sent from the control circuit 203. Operate. The control signal Tsft is supplied to the shift register 20.
In other words, it may be said that the shift clock is four. Also,
The serial / parallel converted image data for one line (corresponding to the driving data for n / 2 elements of the driving element) is output from the shift register 204 as n / 2 parallel signals Id1 to Idn / 2. Is output.

The line memory 205 is a storage device for storing data for one line of the image for a required time, and stores the contents of Id1 to Idn / 2 as appropriate in accordance with the control signal Tmry sent from the control circuit 203. The stored contents are output as I′d1 to I′dn / 2 and input to the modulation signal generator 207.

The modulation signal generator 207 is a signal line for appropriately driving and modulating each of the surface conduction electron-emitting devices 6 in accordance with each of the image data I'd1 to I'dn / 2. The output signal is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 in the display panel 201 through the even-numbered external terminals Dy1 to Dyn.

As described above, the surface conduction electron-emitting device has a clear threshold voltage for electron emission, and electron emission occurs only when a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage is applied. For voltages exceeding the threshold voltage,
The emission current also changes according to the change in the voltage applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device. The value of the threshold voltage and the degree of change of the emission current with respect to the applied voltage may be changed by changing the material, structure, and manufacturing method of the surface conduction electron-emitting device. I can say things.

That is, when a pulsed voltage is applied to the surface conduction electron-emitting device, no electron emission occurs even if a voltage below the threshold voltage is applied, but a voltage exceeding the threshold voltage is applied. If it does, electron emission occurs. At that time, firstly, it is possible to control the intensity of the output electron beam by changing the peak value of the voltage pulse. Secondly, it is possible to control the total amount of charges of the output electron beam by changing the width of the voltage pulse.

Therefore, as a method of modulating the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the input signal, there are a voltage modulation method and a pulse width modulation method. In the case of performing the voltage modulation method, the modulation signal generator 207 uses a voltage modulation method circuit that generates a voltage pulse of a constant length, but can appropriately modulate the pulse peak value according to the input data. In the case of performing the pulse width modulation method, the modulation signal generator 207 generates a voltage pulse having a constant peak value, but a circuit of the pulse width modulation method capable of appropriately modulating the pulse width according to the input data is used. To use.

The shift register 204 and the line memory 20
5 may be of a digital signal type or an analog signal type as long as it can perform serial / parallel conversion and storage of an image signal at a predetermined speed.

When the digital signal type is used, it is necessary to convert the output signal DATA of the sync signal separation circuit 206 into a digital signal. This can be done by providing an A / D converter at the output of the sync signal separation circuit 206.

Further, in connection with this, the line memory 20
Depending on whether the output signal of 5 is a digital signal or an analog signal,
The circuit provided in the modulation signal generator 207 is slightly different.

That is, in the case of the voltage modulation method using a digital signal, for example, a well-known D / A conversion circuit may be used as the modulation signal generator 207, and an amplification circuit or the like may be added if necessary. Further, in the case of a pulse width modulation method using a digital signal, the modulation signal generator 207, for example, a high-speed oscillator and a counter (counter) that counts the number of waves output by the oscillator, and the output value of the counter and the output value of the memory. It can be easily configured by using a circuit in which comparators for comparison are combined. Further, if necessary, an amplifier for voltage-amplifying the pulse-width-modulated modulation signal output from the comparator to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device may be added.

On the other hand, in the case of the voltage modulation method using analog signals, for the modulation signal generator 207, for example, a well-known amplifier circuit using an operational amplifier or the like may be used, and a level shift circuit or the like may be added if necessary. May be. Further, in the case of the pulse width modulation method using an analog signal, for example, a well-known voltage controlled oscillation circuit (VCO) may be used, and the voltage is amplified to the drive voltage of the surface conduction electron-emitting device as necessary. May be added.

The image forming apparatus of the present invention having the display panel 201 and the driving circuit as described above has the external terminals Dx1 to Dx1.
By applying a voltage from Dxm and an even number of Dy1 to Dyn, electrons can be emitted from an arbitrary surface conduction electron-emitting device 6, and a high voltage is applied to the metal back 115 or a transparent electrode (not shown) through the high voltage terminal Hv. A television display can be performed according to an NTSC television signal by excitation / emission generated by applying a voltage to accelerate an electron beam and causing the accelerated electron beam to collide with the fluorescent film 114. is there.

Also, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1.
By applying a voltage from an odd number of Dyn to Dyn, it is possible to control the refraction change of any cantilever 10, and thereby each surface conduction that constitutes the electron-emitting device 104 integrally with each cantilever 10. The flight direction of the electrons emitted from the electron-emitting device 6 can be controlled. Thereby, one electron-emitting device can be associated with a plurality of pixels.

The above-described structure is a schematic structure necessary for obtaining the image forming apparatus of the present invention used for display or the like, and the detailed parts such as the material of each member are limited to the above contents. However, it is appropriately selected so as to suit the purpose of the image forming apparatus. Further, although the NTSC system has been taken as an example of the input signal, the image forming apparatus of the present invention is not limited to this, and other systems such as PAL and SECAM systems may be used, and more scanning lines than these may be used. The TV signal may be a high-definition TV system such as the MUSE system.

As described above, the image forming apparatus of the present invention is
An image formation that can be obtained by using the electron source of the present invention in either a simple matrix arrangement or a trapezoidal arrangement and is suitable not only as a display device for the television broadcast described above but also as a display device for a video conference system, a computer, or the like. The device is obtained. Further, it can also be used as an exposure device of an optical printer constituted by a photosensitive drum and the like.

[0126]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be further described with reference to the following examples.

[Embodiment 1] In this embodiment, FIGS.
An experiment in which the electron-emitting device of the present invention having the structure shown in FIG.

First, a method of manufacturing the electron-emitting device of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

1) 0.5 on a cleaned soda lime glass with a thickness of
A desired pattern of the device electrodes 4 and 5 is formed on the substrate 1 on which a silicon oxide film of μm is formed by a sputtering method by a photoresist (R
D-2000N-41 (manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) and formed by vacuum vapor deposition to a thickness of 50Å Ti and a thickness of 1000ÅN.
i were sequentially deposited. The photoresist pattern was dissolved in an organic solvent and the Ni / Ti deposited film was lifted off to form device electrodes 4 and 5 (FIG. 4A). The element electrode spacing L
Was 2 μm, and the length W of the device electrode was 300 μm.

2) Subsequently, a mask having an opening L in the gap between the element electrodes and in the vicinity thereof is used, and a film thickness of 10 is formed thereon.
A Cr film of 00Å was deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and organic Pd (ccp4230, manufactured by Okuno Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.) was spin-coated on the Cr film by a spinner and heat-baked at 300 ° C. for 10 minutes. Next, the Cr film and the baked thin film were etched with an acid etchant to form a conductive thin film 3 having a desired pattern (FIG. 4).
(B)). The length of the conductive thin film 3 was 200 μm. The film thickness of the conductive thin film 3 formed in this way and mainly composed of fine particles of palladium oxide is 100.
Å The sheet resistance value was 2 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □. Incidentally, the fine particle film described here is a film in which a plurality of fine particles are gathered as described above, and as a fine structure thereof, not only the fine particles are individually dispersed and arranged, but also the fine particles are adjacent to each other or overlap each other. Membrane in the open state (including islands).

3) Next, after laminating the sacrificial layer 41 on the portion which will finally become the cavity 8, the insulating layer 7 is laminated. After that, the insulating layers 15 and 14, the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 13, the ZnO film as the piezoelectric thin film 11, and the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 12 were sequentially patterned and laminated so as to be connected to a wiring portion (not shown). . At the time of the patterning, holes 16 serving as electron passage holes were also formed (FIG. 4C).

In this embodiment, SiN resistant to etching is used as the insulating layer 15, the total thickness of the insulating layer 15 and the insulating layer 14 is about 0.2 μm, the thickness of the piezoelectric thin film 11 is about 0.2 μm, and the electrode is Thickness of thin films 12 and 13 is 0.1μ
It was about m.

4) The cantilever 10 was formed by removing the sacrificial layer 41 by etching. At this time, the length of the hollow portion of the cantilever 10 was 100 μm. The insulating layer 14 of the cantilever 10 does not expand or contract due to the potential of the electrode thin film 13, while the piezoelectric thin film 11 changes depending on the potential difference (several V or less) between the electrode thin films 12 and 13.

Subsequently, the substrate 1 was set in the vacuum device 57 of the measurement / evaluation system of FIG. 6 and was evacuated by the exhaust pump 58 to make the inside of the vacuum device 57 a vacuum degree of 2 × 10 ⁻⁵ Torr. . After that, a voltage was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 by the power supply 51 for applying the device voltage Vf, and a forming process was performed to form the electron emitting portion 2 (FIG. 4C). The voltage waveform shown in FIG. 5B was used for the forming process.

In this embodiment, T1 in FIG. 5B is set to 1 m.
Second, T2 was set to 10 msec, a rectangular wave was used instead of a triangular wave, and the crest value of the rectangular wave (peak voltage during forming) was raised in 0.1 V steps to perform the forming process. Further, during the forming process, at the same time, a resistance measurement pulse was inserted between T2 at a voltage of 0.1 V to measure the resistance. The forming process was ended when the measured value by the resistance measurement pulse became about 1 MΩ or more, and at the same time, the application of the voltage to the element was ended. As a result, in the element of this example, the voltage Vf during forming was 5.1V.

5) Subsequently, the element subjected to the forming process has the same period T2 and pulse width T as those in the forming process.
A rectangular wave having a peak value of 14 V of 1 was applied and the activation treatment was performed for about 30 minutes. The degree of vacuum in the vacuum device 57 at this time was 1.5 × 10 ⁻⁵ Torr.

The electron emission characteristics of the electron-emitting device of the present invention produced as described above were continuously measured using the above-mentioned measurement evaluation system. In this embodiment, the anode electrode 20 shown in FIG. 6 is replaced with an electrode in the shape of a sagittal parallel to the Y-axis direction.
The distribution of arrival points of electrons in the X direction was measured. When measuring the two-dimensional arrival distribution of electrons, the anode electrode 20
Was replaced with a mesh-like one, and a fluorescent plate was placed below this to measure the brightness distribution of the phosphor.

As a result, the electrode thin film 1 of the cantilever 10 was obtained.
By changing the potential difference applied between 2 and 13 to control the refraction change of the cantilever 10 as shown in FIG. 3, the displacement D in the X direction of the arrival position of the electron reaching the anode electrode 20 can be calculated. It was possible to control in the range of sub-millimeter compared to when it was horizontal.

As described above, since the electron-emitting device of this embodiment can control the flight direction of emitted electrons, its function is remarkably enhanced. For example, when it is used as an electron source of an image forming apparatus, one device is used. Can correspond to a plurality of adjacent pixels.

[Embodiment 2] In this embodiment, FIGS.
Using an electron source as shown in FIG. 8 in which a large number of electron-emitting devices of the present invention as shown in FIG.
An example of manufacturing the image forming apparatus as shown in FIG. 9 will be described.

A plan view of a part of the electron source is shown in FIG. 13 is a sectional view taken along the line AA ′ in the figure. However, in FIGS. 8, 9, 12, and 13, the same reference numerals indicate the same members.

Here, 1 is a substrate, 102 is an X-direction wiring (also called lower wiring), 103 is a Y-direction wiring (also called upper wiring), 3 is a conductive thin film, 4, 5 element electrodes, 10 is a cantilever, Reference numeral 401 is an interlayer insulating layer, 402 is a contact hole for electrically connecting the element electrode 4 and the even-numbered lower wiring 102, and 403 and 406 are odd-numbered lower wirings 102.
And a contact hole 405 for electrical connection between the electrode thin film 13 of the cantilever 10 and an upper wiring 10 of an odd number
3 is a contact hole for electrical connection between the electrode thin film 12 of the cantilever 10 and 404 is an insulator layer for providing the cavity 8 below the cantilever 10.

First, the manufacturing method of the electron source of this embodiment is shown in FIG.
It demonstrates concretely according to a process order using FIG. The following steps a to i correspond to (a) to (i) in FIGS. 14 and 15.

Step a: On a substrate 1 in which a 0.5 μm-thick silicon oxide film is formed on a cleaned soda-lime glass by a sputtering method, vacuum vapor deposition is used to deposit Cr having a thickness of 50Å and a thickness of 60.
After sequentially stacking 00Å Au, the photoresist (AZ1
370 Hoechst) is spin coated with a spinner,
After baking, the photomask image is exposed and developed to form a resist pattern of the lower wiring 102, and the Au / Cr deposited film is wet-etched to form the lower wiring 102 having a desired shape.
Was formed.

Step b: Next, an interlayer insulating layer 401 made of a silicon oxide film having a thickness of 1.0 μm was deposited by RF sputtering.

Step c: A photoresist pattern for forming contact holes 402 and 403 is formed on the silicon oxide film deposited in the above step, and the interlayer insulating layer 401 is etched by using this as a mask to form the contact hole. 40
2,403 was formed. The etching is performed by RIE (Reactive Ion Etch) using CF ₄ and H ₂ gas.
ing) method.

Step d: After that, a pattern for forming the gap L between the element electrodes 4 and 5 and the element electrodes is formed by a photoresist (R).
D-2000N-41 (manufactured by Hitachi Chemical Co., Ltd.) and formed by vacuum vapor deposition to a thickness of 50Å Ti and a thickness of 1000ÅN.
i were sequentially deposited. The photoresist pattern was dissolved in an organic solvent and the Ni / Ti deposited film was lifted off to form device electrodes 4 and 5.

Step e: After forming a photoresist pattern of the upper wiring 103 on the substrate 1, Ti with a thickness of 50 Å and Au with a thickness of 5000 Å are sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions are removed by lift-off. Thus, the upper wiring 103 having a desired shape was formed.

Step f: A film thickness of 1000 is formed by a metal mask having an element electrode gap L and an opening in the vicinity thereof.
The Cr film 407 of Å is deposited and patterned by vacuum evaporation, and organic Pd (ccp-4230 manufactured by Okuno Chemical Industries Co., Ltd.) is spin-coated by a spinner on the Cr film 407.
A heating and baking treatment for 0 minutes was performed. The conductive thin film 3 mainly composed of PdO fine particles thus formed
Had a film thickness of 100Å and a sheet resistance value of 5 × 10 ⁴ Ω / □.

Step g: The Cr film 407 and the conductive thin film 3 after firing were etched by an acid etchant to form a conductive thin film 3 having a desired pattern shape.

Step h: A resist is coated on the entire surface, exposed using a mask, and then developed to form contact holes 402, 4
The resist was removed only on the area 03. After that, Ti having a thickness of 50Å and Au having a thickness of 5000Å were sequentially deposited by vacuum evaporation, and unnecessary portions were removed by lift-off to fill the contact holes 402 and 403.

Step i: After laminating the sacrificial layer 41 on the portion corresponding to the cavity 8, the insulating layer 404 was laminated. Next, after forming the contact holes 405 and 406 in the insulating layer 404, the insulating layers 15 and 14, the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 13, the ZnO film as the piezoelectric thin film 11, and the Al thin film as the electrode thin film 12 are sequentially patterned. While stacking.
At this time, the connection 106 is formed so that the electrode thin film 12 is electrically connected to the odd-numbered upper wiring 103 via the contact hole 405 and the electrode thin film 13 is electrically connected to the odd-numbered lower wiring 102 via the contact hole 406. Also formed at the same time. Further, at the time of the above patterning, holes 16 as electron passage holes were also formed at the same time.

Finally, the sacrificial layer 41 was removed by etching to form the cantilever 10. Each electron-emitting device of the electron source manufactured in this example is the same as the electron-emitting device of the first example.

Through the above steps, the lower wiring 102, the interlayer insulating layer 401, the upper wiring 103, the electron-emitting device section 6, the cantilever 10 and the like were formed on the insulating substrate 1 to obtain an unformed electron source.

An image forming apparatus was manufactured using the unformed electron source manufactured as described above. The manufacturing procedure will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

First, after fixing the substrate 1 of the unformed electron source to the rear plate 111, 5 mm of the substrate 1 is fixed.
A face plate 116 (a fluorescent film 114, which is an image forming member, and a metal back 115 are formed on the inner surface of a glass substrate 113) is provided above the support frame 1.
12, the face plate 116, the support frame 1
12. Frit glass was applied to the joint portion of the rear plate 111 and baked at 500 ° C. in the air for 10 minutes or more to seal the joint. Further, the frit glass was also used to fix the substrate 1 to the rear plate 111.

Fluorescent film 114 which is an image forming member
In order to realize color, the stripe shape (see FIG.
(See (a)), black stripes are first formed on the phosphors, and the phosphors of the respective colors 12 are formed in the gaps by the slurry method.
2 was applied to produce a fluorescent film 114. As a material for the black stripe, a material having graphite as a main component, which is commonly used, was used.

A metal back 115 is provided on the inner surface side of the fluorescent film 114. The metal back 115 is the fluorescent film 1.
After producing 14, the inner surface of the fluorescent film 114 is smoothed (usually called filming), and then A
1 was vacuum-deposited.

The face plate 116 may be provided with a transparent electrode on the outer surface side of the fluorescent film 114 in order to further enhance the conductivity of the fluorescent film 114, but in this embodiment, only the metal back 115 is sufficient. Since conductivity was obtained, it was omitted.

When the above-mentioned sealing is performed, in the case of a color, the phosphors 122 of the respective colors and the surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 have to correspond to each other.

The atmosphere inside the envelope 118 completed as described above is exhausted by a vacuum pump through an exhaust pipe (not shown), and after reaching a sufficient degree of vacuum, the external terminals Dx1 to Dxm and Dy1 to Dy1 to Dy1. A voltage was applied between the device electrodes 4 and 5 of the surface conduction electron-emitting device 6 through the even number of Dyn, and the above-mentioned forming treatment was performed to form the electron-emitting portion 2.

For the forming process, the voltage waveform shown in FIG. 3B (however, a rectangular wave instead of a triangular wave) was used. In this embodiment, T1 is set to 1 msec and T2 is set to 10 msec, and about 1 ×
It was performed under a vacuum atmosphere of 10 ⁻⁵ Torr.

The electron emitting portion 2 formed in this way
Was in a state in which fine particles containing palladium element as a main component were dispersed and arranged, and the average particle size of the fine particles was 30Å.

Next, activation processing was performed using the voltage waveform shown in FIG. 3A (however, not the triangular wave but the rectangular wave). In this embodiment, T1 is 1 ms, T2 is 10 ms, the wave height is 14 V, and the vacuum is 2 × 10 ⁻⁵ Torr.
f and the emission current Ie were measured.

Then, the envelope 1 is passed through an exhaust pipe (not shown).
The inside of 18 was evacuated to a degree of vacuum of about 10 ^-6.5 Torr, and the exhaust pipe was heated by a gas burner to be welded to seal the envelope 118. Finally, in order to maintain the degree of vacuum after sealing, a getter process was performed by a high frequency heating method. The getter was mainly composed of Ba or the like.

The display panel 20 completed as described above
1 (see FIG. 9), the external terminals Dx1 to Dx
The scanning signal, the modulation signal, and the cantilever control signal are applied to the respective electron-emitting devices 104 through m and Dy1 to Dyn by a signal generating means (not shown), so that electrons are emitted and the direction is controlled, while the high-voltage terminal Hv. Through the application of a high voltage of several kV or more to the metal back 115, the electron beam is accelerated, collided with the fluorescent film 114, excited and emitted to display an image.

In the present embodiment, the direction control of the electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device could be performed on the fluorescent film 114 within a range of about sub-millimeter. As a result, one pixel does not correspond to one electron-emitting device, but
It has become possible to illuminate and respond to multiple pixels.

In the present embodiment, the arrangement directions of the three primary color phosphors are aligned with the displacement direction on the phosphor screen of the electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device section 6 and the flight direction of which is controlled by the cantilever 10. As a result of the fabrication, the R (red), G (green), and B (blue) pixels adjacent to each other on the fluorescent film 114 can be irradiated with electrons from one electron-emitting device 104 according to an image signal. did it.

Further, by making the electron displacement direction and the scanning direction of the image signal orthogonal to each other, it is possible to avoid the problem regarding the response time of the cantilever.

Further, in order to prevent deterioration (so-called burning) of the phosphor screen caused by fixing the irradiation position on the phosphor screen, the cantilever is used to minutely change the electron irradiation position within one pixel over time. You can Thereby,
The life of the image forming apparatus can be extended.

[Embodiment 3] Another example of the electron-emitting device of the present invention is shown in FIGS. In these electron-emitting devices, the electron-emitting device portion 6 and the cantilever 10 have the same structure as the electron-emitting device portion 6 of the electron-emitting device shown in the first embodiment.
And the cantilever 10.

The electron-emitting device of FIG. 16 has two acceleration electrodes 50 between the electron-emitting device portion 6 and the cantilever 10.
1, 502 are added, and these are formed on the insulating layers 503 and 504, respectively.

Reference numeral 502 is an electrode for accelerating electrons, which can control the amount of emission current to some extent. Fifty
Reference numeral 1 is an electrode for decelerating electrons, and the decelerated electrons are sensitive to the electric field created by the cantilever 10, and the flight direction thereof is sensitively changed according to the strain of the cantilever 10.

Although the electron-emitting device of FIG. 16 uses two accelerating electrodes, one or three or more accelerating electrodes may be used depending on required device characteristics.

The electron-emitting device shown in FIG. 17 is the cantilever 1.
An acceleration electrode 601 is added above 0. As the acceleration electrode 601, for example, a comb-shaped electrode can be used.

The electron-emitting device of the present invention is shown in FIGS.
A combination of the above element configurations may be used, and further, a gate formed of a plurality of cantilevers may be formed in series along the trajectory of electrons, and the flight direction of the electrons may be controlled by these.

[Fourth Embodiment] FIG. 18 shows the display panel (display panel) 201 (see FIG. 9) of the second embodiment, for example, image information provided from various image information sources such as television broadcasting. It is a figure which shows an example of the image display apparatus of this invention comprised so that it could display.

In the figure, 201 is a display panel, 100
1 is a display panel drive circuit, 1002 is a display controller, 1003 is a multiplexer, 10
Reference numeral 04 is a decoder, 1005 is an input / output interface circuit, 1006 is a CPU, 1007 is an image generation circuit, 10
08, 1009 and 1010 are image memory interface circuits, 1011 are image input interface circuits,
Reference numerals 1012 and 1013 are TV signal receiving circuits and 1014 is an input unit.

When the display device receives a signal including both video information and audio information, such as a television signal, it naturally reproduces audio at the same time as displaying video. Descriptions of circuits, speakers, etc. relating to reception, separation, reproduction, processing, and storage of audio information that are not directly related to the features of the invention will be omitted.

Each section will be described below along the flow of the image signal.

First, the TV signal receiving circuit 1013 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wireless transmission system such as radio waves or spatial optical communication.

The TV signal system to be received is not particularly limited, and examples thereof include NTSC system, PAL system and SE.
Various methods such as a CAM method may be used. Further, a TV signal including a larger number of scanning lines than these, for example, a so-called high-definition TV such as the MUSE system is suitable for taking advantage of the display panel 201 suitable for a large area and a large number of pixels. It is a signal source.

The T received by the TV signal receiving circuit 1013
The V signal is output to the decoder 1004.

The image TV signal receiving circuit 1012 is a circuit for receiving a TV image signal transmitted using a wired transmission system such as a coaxial cable or an optical fiber. Similar to the TV signal receiving circuit 1013, the system of the TV signal to be received is not particularly limited, and the TV signal received by this circuit is also output to the decoder 1004.

Image input interface circuit 1011
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal supplied from an image input device such as a TV camera or an image reading scanner, and the captured image signal is output to the decoder 1004.

Image memory interface circuit 1010
Is a circuit for capturing an image signal stored in a video tape recorder (hereinafter abbreviated as VTR), and the captured image signal is output to the decoder 1004.

Image memory interface circuit 1009
Is a circuit for capturing the image signal stored in the video disc.
It is output to 04.

Image memory-interface circuit 100
Reference numeral 8 denotes a circuit for capturing an image signal from a device that stores still image data, such as a so-called still image disc. The captured still image data is decoded by a decoder 1004.
Is output to

The input / output interface circuit 1005 is
It is a circuit for connecting the display device to an external computer, a computer network, or an output device such as a printer. It is of course possible to input / output image data and character / graphic information, and in some cases, input / output control signals and numerical data between the CPU 1006 of the display device and the outside.

The image generation circuit 1007 receives image data, character / graphic information, or CPU 1006 input from the outside via the input / output interface circuit 1005.
It is a circuit for generating display image data based on image data and character / graphic information output from the output. Inside this circuit, for example, a rewritable memory for accumulating image data and character / graphic information, a read-only memory that stores image patterns corresponding to character codes,
The circuits necessary for image generation, such as a processor for image processing, are incorporated.

The display image data generated by this circuit is output to the decoder 1004, but in some cases, it may be output to an external computer network or printer via the input / output interface circuit 1005.

The CPU 1006 mainly performs operations related to operation control of the display device and generation, selection and editing of a display image.

For example, a control signal is output to the multiplexer 1003 to appropriately select or combine image signals to be displayed on the display panel 201. At that time, a control signal is generated to the display panel controller 1002 according to the image signal to be displayed, and the screen display frequency, the scanning method (for example, interlaced or non-interlaced), the number of scanning lines in one screen, etc. are displayed. The operation of the device is controlled appropriately. In addition, image data and character / graphic information are directly output to the image generation circuit 1007,
Alternatively, the external computer or memory is accessed through the input / output interface circuit 1005 to input image data or character / graphic information.

It should be noted that the CPU 1006 may of course be involved in work for other purposes. For example, it may be directly related to a function of generating and processing information, such as a personal computer or a word processor. Alternatively, as described above, the computer may be connected to an external computer network via the input / output interface circuit 1005, and work such as numerical calculation may be performed in cooperation with an external device.

The input unit 1014 is used by the user to input commands, programs, data, etc. to the CPU 1006. For example, in addition to a keyboard and a mouse,
It is possible to use various input devices such as a joystick, a bar code reader, and a voice recognition device.

The decoder 1004 converts various image signals input from the above 1007 to 1013 into three primary color signals,
Alternatively, it is a circuit for inverse conversion into a luminance signal, an I signal, and a Q signal. In addition, as shown by a dotted line in FIG.
It is desirable that 004 has an image memory inside. This is to handle a television signal that requires an image memory for reverse conversion, such as the MUSE method.

The provision of the image memory makes it easy to display a still image. Alternatively, the image processing circuit 1007 and the CPU 1006 cooperate with each other to obtain an advantage of facilitating image processing and editing such as image thinning, interpolation, enlargement, reduction, and composition.

The multiplexer 1003 is the CPU 10
The display image is appropriately selected on the basis of the control signal input from 06. That is, the multiplexer 1003 selects a desired image signal from the inversely converted image signals input from the decoder 1004 and outputs it to the drive circuit 1001. In that case, by switching and selecting image signals within one screen display time, it is possible to divide one screen into a plurality of areas and display different images depending on the areas, as in a so-called multi-screen television. .

Display panel controller 1002
Is a circuit for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 1001 based on a control signal input from the CPU 1006.

As the elements related to the basic operation of the display panel 201, for example, the display panel 201
A signal for controlling the operation sequence of the driving power source (not shown) is output to the driving circuit 1001. As a signal relating to the driving method of the display panel 201, for example, a signal for controlling a screen display frequency and a scanning method (for example, interlace or non-interlace) is output to the drive circuit 1001. In some cases, the drive circuit 10 outputs control signals relating to image quality adjustment such as brightness, contrast, color tone, and sharpness of a display image.
It may be output to 01.

The drive circuit 1001 is a circuit for generating a drive signal to be applied to the display panel 201, based on the image signal input from the multiplexer 1003 and the control signal input from the display panel controller 1002. It works.

The function of each unit has been described above. With the configuration illustrated in FIG. 18, the display panel 2 displays image information input from various image information sources in this display device.
01 can be displayed. That is, various image signals such as television broadcasts are transmitted to the decoder 1004.
After being inversely converted in, the signal is appropriately selected in the multiplexer 1003 and input to the driving circuit 1001. On the other hand, the display controller 1002 generates a control signal for controlling the operation of the drive circuit 1001 according to the image signal to be displayed. The drive circuit 1001 applies a drive signal to the display panel 201 based on the image signal and the control signal. As a result, the image is displayed on the display panel 201. These series of operations are centrally controlled by the CPU 1006.

In this image forming apparatus, the image memory built in the decoder 1004 and the image generating circuit 100 are included.
7 and the CPU 1006 are involved not only to display one selected from a plurality of image information but also to enlarge, reduce, rotate, move, edge emphasize, thin out, and interpolate the displayed image information. It is also possible to perform image processing such as color conversion and aspect ratio conversion of images, and image editing such as combining, erasing, connecting, replacing, and fitting. Although not particularly mentioned in the description of the present embodiment, a dedicated circuit for performing processing and editing on audio information may be provided as in the above-mentioned image processing and image editing.

Therefore, the present image forming apparatus includes a display device for television broadcasting, a terminal device for a video conference, an image editing device for handling still images and moving images, a computer terminal device, an office terminal device such as a word processor,
It is possible to combine the functions of a game console etc. with one unit,
It has an extremely wide range of applications for industrial or consumer use.

Note that FIG. 18 shows only an example of the configuration of an image forming apparatus using a display panel having the electron-emitting device of the present invention as an electron beam source, and the image forming apparatus of the present invention is It goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to this.

For example, among the components shown in FIG. 18, circuits relating to functions unnecessary for the purpose of use may be omitted.
On the contrary, the constituent elements may be added depending on the purpose of use. For example, when the image forming apparatus is applied as a videophone, it is preferable to add a television camera, a voice microphone, an illuminator, a transmission / reception circuit including a modem, and the like to the constituent elements.

In this image forming apparatus, the display panel 201 according to the present invention can be easily thinned, so that the depth of the display apparatus can be reduced. In addition, since it is easy to make a large screen, has high brightness, and has excellent viewing angle characteristics, it is possible to display a highly realistic image with high power and good visibility.

[0208]

As described above, the electron-emitting device of the present invention can freely control the emission angle of emitted electrons. Thereby, when used as an electron beam source of an image forming apparatus such as a television, it is possible to fluoresce a large number of pixels with a small number of elements, the degree of freedom in designing the apparatus is expanded, and further deterioration of the fluorescent plate can be prevented. The durability of the device is improved.

Further, a large-area flat display which can deal with color images and has high definition and high display quality can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view showing a configuration example of an electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a partial perspective view of the electron-emitting device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating an example of a method for manufacturing an electron-emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an example of a voltage waveform used in forming processing.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a measurement evaluation system for measuring electron emission characteristics of the electron emitting device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a typical example of the relationship between the emission current Ie and the device current If and the device voltage Vf of the surface conduction electron-emitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a schematic configuration of a display panel including an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement according to the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a fluorescent film used in a display panel.

FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of a drive circuit of an image forming apparatus that displays an image in accordance with an NTSC television signal.

FIG. 12 is a partial plan view of an electron source having a simple matrix arrangement shown in a second embodiment.

13 is a partial cross-sectional view of the electron source of FIG.

FIG. 14 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source of FIG.

15 is a cross-sectional view for explaining a manufacturing process of the electron source of FIG.

FIG. 16 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an electron-emitting device shown in Example 3.

FIG. 17 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of an electron-emitting device shown in Example 3.

FIG. 18 is a block diagram of the image forming apparatus according to the fourth embodiment.

FIG. 19 is a sectional view showing a schematic configuration of a piezoelectric cantilever.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate 2 Electron emission part 3 Conductive thin film 4,5 Element electrode 6 Electron emission element part 7 Insulator layer 8 Cavity part 10 Cantilever 11 Piezoelectric thin film 12,13 Electrode thin film 14,15 Insulator layer 16 As an electron passage port Void 20 Anode electrode 41 Sacrificial layer 51 Power supply for applying device voltage Vf to the surface conduction electron-emitting device 52 Ammeter 53 for measuring device current If flowing through the conductive thin film 3 Voltage is applied to the anode electrode 20 High-voltage power source 54 for controlling the emission current Ie emitted from the electron emission portion 2 Ammeter 55 for electrically floating the cantilever 10 56 Control power source for controlling the refraction change of the cantilever 10 57 Vacuum Device 58 Exhaust pump 102 X-direction wiring 103 Y-direction wiring 104 Electron-emitting devices 105, 106 Connection 111 Apply 112 Support frame 113 Glass substrate 114 Fluorescent film 115 Metal back 116 Face plate Hv High voltage terminal 118 Envelope 121 Black conductive material 122 Phosphor 201 Display panel 202 Scan circuit 203 Control circuit 204 Shift register 205 Line memory 206 Synchronous signal separation circuit 207 Modulation signal generator Va DC voltage source Vx DC voltage source 401 Interlayer insulating film 402,403 Contact hole 404 Insulator layer 405,406 Contact hole 407 Cr film 501,502 Acceleration electrode 503,504 Insulator layer 601 accelerating electrode 1001 drive circuit for display panel 201 1002 display controller 1003 multiplexer 1004 decoder 1005 input / output interface circuit 1006 CPU 1007 Image generation circuit 1008, 1009, 1010 Image memory interface circuit 1011 Image input interface circuit 1012, 1013 TV signal receiving circuit 1014 Input unit

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. An electron-emitting device comprising a cold cathode type electron-emitting device section and a gate made of a cantilever. 2. The electron-emitting device according to claim 1, wherein the gate is a direction control unit that controls a flight direction of electrons emitted from the cold cathode type electron-emitting device section. 3. The surface emitting electron-emitting device, wherein the cold cathode electron-emitting device portion has an electron-emitting portion in a conductive thin film extending between a pair of opposing device electrodes. 1. The electron-emitting device according to item 1. 4. The electron-emitting device according to claim 1, wherein the cantilever is a piezoelectric cantilever. 5. An electron source comprising a plurality of electron-emitting devices according to claim 1 on a substrate. 6. The electron source has at least one device row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and wirings for driving each cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion are arranged in a matrix. The electron source according to claim 5, wherein the electron source is an electron source. 7. The electron source has at least one device row in which a plurality of electron-emitting devices are arranged, and wirings for driving each cold cathode electron-emitting device portion are arranged in a ladder. The electron source according to claim 5, wherein: 8. An image forming apparatus for forming an image based on an input signal, wherein the image is formed by irradiating the electron source according to claim 5 and an electron beam emitted from the electron source. An image forming apparatus comprising: an image forming member to be formed. 9. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the number of pixels on the image forming member is larger than the number of the electron-emitting devices. 10. The flight direction of electrons is controlled by the gate so that the irradiation position of the electrons emitted from the cold cathode type electron-emitting device portion on the image forming member changes within one pixel with time. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein 11. The image forming apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the image forming member has three primary color phosphors, and the electrons emitted from each electron-emitting device irradiate the color phosphors of a plurality of colors. An image forming apparatus characterized by the following. 12. The arrangement direction of the three primary color phosphors coincides with the displacement direction on the phosphor screen of the electrons emitted from each cold cathode type electron-emitting device section and the flight direction of which is controlled by the gate. The image forming apparatus according to claim 11, wherein: