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:
Sep. 10, 2002
Filed:
Jun. 05, 2000
Igor L. Maslennikov, Sunnyvale, CA (US);
Dennis M. Urbon, San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher J. Spindt, Menlo Park, CA (US);
Ronald L. Hansen, San Jose, CA (US);
Christopher J. Curtin, Los Altos Hills, CA (US);
Candescent Technologies Corporation, San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
A field emission display having an improved operational life. In one embodiment of the present invention, the field emission display comprises a plurality of row lines, a plurality of column lines, and a plurality of electron emissive elements disposed at intersections of the plurality of row lines and column lines, a column driver circuit, and a row driver circuit. The column driver circuit is coupled to drive column voltage signals over the plurality of column lines; and, the row driver circuit is coupled to activate and deactivate the plurality of row lines with row voltage signals. Significantly, according to the present invention, operational life of the field emission display is substantially extended when the electron emissive elements are intermittently reverse-biased by the column voltage signals and the row voltage signals. In another embodiment, the row driver circuit is responsive to a SLEEP signal. The row driver circuit, upon receiving the SLEEP signal, drives a sleep-mode voltage over the row lines to reverse-bias the electron emissive elements.