The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 10, 1998
Filed:
May. 19, 1995
International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US);
Abstract
The invention relates to the structure of a field emitter device, to the method of fabricating a field emitter device and to the use of the field emitter device in the technical field of flat panel displays. The field emission device comprises an array (1) of widely-spaced tips (2) for emitting electrons and a perforated extracting electrode (3) facing the array of tips. An individual series resistor is formed by each of said tips itself. The widely-spaced tips are not surrounded by a layer of electrically insulating material. The tips are not surrounded by an insulating layer and the tip end is not surrounded by a gate or extraction electrode. This avoids failures like shorts between the cathode electrode and the gate or extraction electrode which could occur due to inaccurate coating or etching processes, and enhances the reliability and the life-time of the array of tips. To fabricate the field emission device, a micromechanically manufactured array (1) of widely-spaced tips (2) and a micromechanically manufactured perforated extracting electrode (3) are provided. The outer sides of the perforated extracting electrode are bonded to the array in a way that the perforated extracting electrode is facing the array. With the array of widely-spaced tips and the perforated extracting electrode being fabricated separately and bonded together subsequently, both the number of process steps required for each of the two parts and the manufacturing process costs are reduced.