Electron Emission Device and Display Device Using the Same

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to an electron emission device and an electron emission display device using the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

In field electron emission display apparatuses, a Field Emission Display (FED) is known as a planar emission display device equipped with an array of cold-cathode electron emission source which does not require cathode heating. The emission principle of, for example, an FED using a spindt type cold cathode is as follows: Its emission principle is like a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), although this FED has a cathode array different from that of CRT, that is, electrons are drawn into a vacuum space by means of a gate electrode spaced apart from the cathode, and the electrons are made to impinge upon the fluorescent substance that is coated on a transparent anode, thereby causing light emission.

This field emission source, however, faces a problem of low production yield because the manufacture of the minute spindt type cold cathode is complex and involves many steps.

There also exists an electron emission device with a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) structure as a planar electron source. The electron emission device with the MIM structure has an Al layer as a cathode, an Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 insulator layer of about 10 nm in film thickness and an Au layer, as an anode, of about 10 nm in film thickness formed in order on the substrate. With this device placed under an opposing electrode in a vacuum, when a voltage is applied between the underlying Al layer and the overlying Au layer and an acceleration voltage is applied to the opposing electrode, some of electrons leap out of the overlying Au layer and reach the opposing electrode. Even the electron emission device with the MIM structure does not yet provide a sufficient amount of emitted electrons.

To improve this property of emission, it is considered that there is a necessity to make the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 insulator layer thinner by about several nanometers and make the quality of the membranous of the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 insulator layer and the interface between the Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 insulator layer and the overlying Au layer more uniform.

To provide a thinner and more uniform insulator layer, for example, an attempt has been made to control the formation current by using an anodization thereby to improve the electron emission characteristic, as in the invention described in Japanese Patent Application kokai No. Hei 7-65710.

However, even an electron emission device with the MIM structure which is manufactured by this method ensures an emission current of about 1.times.10.sup.-6 A/cm.sup.2 and an electron emission efficiency of about 1.times.10.sup.-3.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electron emission device with a high electron emission efficiency and an electron emission display apparatus using the same.

The foregoing and other problems are overcome and the object of the invention are realized by an electron emission device in accordance with embodiments of this invention, wherein the device according to the invention comprises:

an electron supply layer made of metal or semiconductor;

an insulator layer formed on the electron supply layer; and

a thin-film metal electrode formed on the insulator layer and facing a vacuum space,

characterized in that said insulator layer containing chemical elements constituting said electron supply layer and formed at a film thickness of 50 nm or greater, whereby the electron emission device emits electrons when an electric field is applied between the electron supply layer and the thin-film metal.

In the electron emission device according to the invention, said electron supply layer is made of silicon; and said insulator layer made a substance selected form silicon oxide and silicon nitride.

According to the electron emission device of the invention with the above structure, through-bores are not likely to be produced in the insulator layer because of its large thickness and then the production yield is improved. The emission current of the electron emission device is greater than 1.times.10.sup.-6 A/cm.sup.2 and is approximately 1.times.10.sup.-3 A/cm.sup.2, and the electron emission efficiency obtained is 1.times.10.sup.-1. Therefore, this electron emission device, when in use in a display device, can provide a high luminance, can suppress the consumption of the drive current and the generation of heat from the device, and can reduce a burden on the driving circuit.

The electron emission device of the invention is a planar or spot-like electron emission diode and can be adapted to high speed devices such as a source of a pixel vacuum tube or bulb, an electromagnetic emission source of an electron microscope, a vacuum-micro electronics device and the like. In addition, this electron emission device can serve as a light-emitting diode or a laser diode which emits electromagnetic waves of infrared rays, visible light or ultraviolet rays.

Moreover a display device using an electron emission device according to the invention comprises:

a pair of first and second substrates facing each other with a vacuum space in between;

a plurality of electron emission devices provided on the first substrate;

a collector electrode provided in the second substrate; and

a fluorescent layer formed on the collector electrode,

each of the electron emission devices comprising an electron supply layer of metal or semiconductor; an insulator layer formed on the electron supply layer; and a thin-film metal electrode formed on the insulator layer and facing a vacuum space, wherein said insulator layer containing chemical elements constituting said electron supply layer and formed at a film thickness of 50 nm or greater.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an electron emission device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a graph showing a dependency of the electron emission current on the film thickness of an insulator layer in the electron emission device embodying the invention;

FIG. 3 is a graph showing a dependency of the electron emission efficiency on the film thickness of the insulator layer in the electron emission device embodying the invention;

FIG. 4 is a graph illustrating a relationship between the electron emission current and the driving voltage applied for driving the electron emission device of an embodiment according to the invention together with that of a comparative electron emission device;

FIG. 5 is graph illustrating a relationship between the electron emission efficiency and the driving voltage applied for driving the electron emission device of an embodiment according to the invention together with that of the comparative electron emission device;

FIG. 6 is a schematic perspective view showing an electron emission display device according to one embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the electron emission device of the invention.

Preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, an electron emission device embodying the invention has an ohmic electrode 11 formed on a device substrate 10. The electron emission device further has an electron supply layer 12 of metal or semiconductor, an insulator layer 13 and a thin-film metal electrode 15 of metal facing a vacuum space which are layered or formed in turn on the ohmic electrode. The electron emission device emits electrons when an electric field is applied between the electron supply layer and the thin-film metal electrode. The insulator layer 13 is made of a dielectric substance containing chemical elements constituting the electron supply layer and formed at a film thickness of 50 nm or greater.

This electron emission device can be regarded as a diode of which the thin-film metal electrode 15 at its surface is connected to a positive potential Vd and the back i.e., ohmic electrode 11 is connected to a ground potential. When the voltage Vd is applied between the ohmic electrode 11 and the thin-film metal electrode 15 to supply electrons into the electron supply layer 12, a diode current Id flows. Since the insulator layer 13 has a high resistance, most of the applied electric field is applied to the insulator layer 13. The electrons travel inside the insulator layer 13 toward the thin-film metal electrode 15. Some of the electrons that reach near the thin-film metal electrode 15 tunnel through the thin-film metal electrode 15, due to the strong field, to be discharged out into the vacuum space. The electrons e (emission current Ie) discharged from the thin-film metal electrode 15 by the tunnel effect are accelerated by a high voltage Vc, which is applied to an opposing collector electrode (transparent electrode) 2, and is collected at the collector electrode 2. If a fluorescent substance is coated on the collector electrode 2, corresponding visible light is emitted.

Although sputtering is particularly effective in forming those layers on the substrate, other methods such as the vacuum deposition, the CVD (Chemical Vapor Deposition), the laser ablation, the MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy) and the ion beam sputtering are also effective to the formation of those layers.

The sputtering method may be performed by using a gas of Ar, Kr or Xe or a mixture thereof, or a gas mixture essentially consisting of one of those rare gases with O.sub.2, N.sub.2, H.sub.2 or the like mixed therein, under the sputtering conditions of a gas pressure of 0.1 to 100 mTorr, preferably 0.1 to 20 mTorr and the forming rate i.e., deposition rate of 0.1 to 1000 nm/min, preferably 0.5 to 100 nm/min. The single layer or multilayer structure, the amorphous phase, the grain size and the atomic ratio of each layer for the electron supply layer and insulator layer are able to be controlled by properly altering the sputtering target and sputtering conditions of the sputtering device.

The actual analysis on the SiO.sub.2 insulator layer 13 in this embodiment by using an X-ray diffraction has been performed and then the result showed mainly a halo intensity Ia caused by the amorphous phase. It can be assumed from this result that SiO.sub.2 of the insulator layer having an amorphous phase.

While Si is particularly effective as a material for the electron supply layer 12 of the electron emission device, an elemental semiconductor or a compound semiconductor of an element of a group IV, a group III-V, a group II-VI or the like, such as a germanium (Ge), silicon carbide (SiC), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), or cadmium selenide (CdSe) can be used as well.

While metals for the electron supply layer 12 such as Al, Au, Ag and Cu are effective as the electron supplying material, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Zn, Ga, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Ru, Rh, Pd, Cd, Ln, Sn, Ta, W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, Tl, Pb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, C and the like can be used as well.

The preferred combinations of materials of the electron supply layer and insulator layer containing the same chemical elements in both are listed as examples as follows:

In this case, when the material for electron supply layer is selected from the right side of list, at least one material is selected from the corresponding material of the left side for the insulator layer. Fullerene (C.sub.2n) consists of carbon atoms. The representative C.sub.60 is a spherical surface basket molecule as known a soccer ball molecule. There are also known C.sub.32 to C.sub.960 and the like. The subscribed x in O.sub.x, N.sub.x and the like in the above chemical formulas represent atomic ratios and also herein after.

Metals Pt, Au, W, Ru and Ir are effective as the material for the thin-film metal electrode 15 on the electron emission side. In addition, Al, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ga, Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, Tc, Rh, Pd, Ag, Cd, Ln, Sn, Ta, Re, Os, Tl, Pb, La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Pm, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu and the like can be used as well for the thin-film metal electrode.

Ceramics such as Al.sub.2 O.sub.3, Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 and BN etc., or a Si wafer surface-oxidized may be used for the material of the device substrate 10 instead of glass.

Electron emission devices according to the invention were fabricated and their characteristics were examined concretely.

An electron supply layer of silicon (Si) was formed at 5000 nm thick, by sputtering, on an electrode surface of a device substrate 10 of glass on which an ohmic electrode of Al was previously formed 300 nm thick by sputtering. A plurality of Si substrates of this type were prepared.

Then, insulator layers of SiO.sub.x were formed on the electron supply layers of the Si substrates by sputtering respectively while changing the film thickness thereof in a range from 50 nm to 700 nm. Thus a plurality of SiO.sub.x -insulator substrates were provided.

Finally, a thin-film metal electrode of Pt was formed at a 10 nm thick on the surface of the amorphous SiO.sub.2 layer of each substrate by sputtering, thus providing plural device substrates.

Meanwhile, transparent substrates were prepared, each of which has an ITO collector electrode formed inside a transparent glass substrate and has a fluorescent layer of a fluorescent substance corresponding to R, G or B color emission formed on the collector electrode by the normal scheme.

Electron emission devices were assembled in each of which the device substrate and the transparent substrate are supported apart from one another by 10 mm in parallel by a spacer in such a way that the thin-film metal electrode 15 faced the collector electrode 2, with the clearance therebetween made to a vacuum of 10.sup.-7 Torr or 10.sup.-5 Pa.

Then, the diode current Id and the emission current Ie corresponding to the thickness of the SiO.sub.2 film of each of the acquired plural devices were measured.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show the relationships between the film thickness of each SiO.sub.x layer and the maximum emission current Ie, and between the film thickness and the maximum electron emission efficiency (Ie/Id) for each film thickness respectively when a driving voltage Vd of 0 to 200 V was applied to the prepared electron emission devices. As apparent from FIGS. 2 and 3, while the enough emission current and the electron emission efficiency were saturated from the thickness of 50 nm, the devices whose SiO.sub.x layers having thicknesses of 300 to 400 nm showed the maximum emission current of about 1.times.10.sup.-3 A/cm.sup.2 and the maximum electron emission efficiency of about 1.times.10.sup.-1.

It is understood from those results that by applying a voltage of 200 V or lower, the emission current of 1.times.10.sup.-6 A/cm.sup.2 or greater and the electron emission efficiency of 1.times.10.sup.-3 or greater can be acquired from an electron emission device which has an SiO.sub.x dielectric layer 50 nm or greater in thickness, preferably 100 to 400 nm in thickness.

With a voltage of approximately 4 kV applied between the fluorescent-substance coated collector electrode and the thin-film metal electrode, a uniform fluorescent pattern corresponding to the shape of the thin-film metal electrode was observed in the devices whose SiO.sub.2 layers have thicknesses of 50 nm or greater. This shows that the electron emission from the amorphous SiO.sub.x layer is uniform and has a high linearity, and that those devices can serve as an electron emission diode, or a light-emitting diode or laser diode which emits electromagnetic waves of infrared rays, visible light or ultraviolet rays.

When there were observations of the surface of the SiO.sub.x insulator layer by a scanning electron microscope (SEM) during the above formation process, grain surface each having an about 20 nm diameter appeared. The grain structure of SiO.sub.x of the insulator layer seems to cause the peculiar phenomenon that the tunnel current flows through the insulator layer which has a thickness of 50 nm or greater. As shown in FIG. 7, while SiO.sub.2 is an insulator by nature, multiple bands with low potentials are caused by the grain structure defects adjacent thereto or impurities in the insulator layer. It is assumed that electrons tunnel-pass through the low-potential bands one after another, and thus pass through the insulator layer of 50 nm or greater in thickness as a consequence.

Next, comparative electron emission devices were manufactured through the same manner as the above embodiments except that the electron supply layers were formed of aluminum instead of silicon i.e., the chemical elements of different kind Si and Al were contained in the electron supply layer and the insulator layer respectively. The devices of the embodiment and commutative were then measured in their emission current Ie with respect to the driving voltage Vd under the application of the accelerating voltage Vc of 200 V in which a driving voltage Vd in a ranging of 0 to 100 V was applied to each prepared electron emission device.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show the results of relationship the emission current Ie and the electron emission efficiency Ie/Id to the driving voltage Vd applied for driving the electron emission device of in the embodiment and the comparative electron emission devices respectively. In Figures, the plots A (.circle-solid.) denote a property of the embodiment electron emission device having the SiO.sub.2 insulator layer and the Si electron supply layer whereas the plots B (.tangle-solidup.) denote the property of the comparative device having the SiO.sub.2 insulator layer and the Al electron supply layer. As seen from Figures, the electron emission devices began to emit electrons at a driving voltage Vd of about 50 V. As seen from FIGS. 4 and 5, the embodiment device comprising the same kind Si in both the insulator layer and the electron supply layer exhibits the emission current value by 4 figures greater than the comparative device comprising the different kinds Si and Al in both the insulator layer and the electron supply layer as well as the electron emission efficiency by 3 figures. In this way, it is understood that the electron emission property of the embodiment device comprising the same kind chemical elements in both the insulator layer and the electron supply layer is improved in comparison with the comparative.

Thus it can be considered that electrons easily pass through the interface between the insulator layer and the electron supply layer contained the same kind chemical element Si, so to reach stably the thin-film metal electrode.

FIG. 6 shows an electron emission display device according to one embodiment of the invention. This embodiment comprises a pair of the transparent substrate 1 and the device substrate 10, which face each other with a vacuum space 4 in between. In the illustrated electron emission display apparatus, a plurality of transparent collector electrodes 2 of, for example, an indium tin oxide (so-called ITO), tin oxide (SnO), zinc oxide (ZnO) or the like, are formed in parallel on the inner surface of the transparent glass substrate 1 or the display surface (which faces the back substrate 10). The collector electrodes 2 may be formed integrally. The transparent collector electrodes which trap emitted electrons are arranged in groups of three in association with red (R), green (G) and blue (B) color signals in order to provide a color display panel, and voltages are applied to those three collector electrodes respectively. Therefore, fluorescent layers 3R, 3G and 3B of fluorescent substances corresponding to R, G and B color emissions are respectively formed on the three collector electrodes 2 in such a way as to face the vacuum space 4.

A plurality of ohmic electrodes 11 are formed in parallel on the inner surface of the device substrate 10 of glass or the like which faces the transparent glass substrate 1 with the vacuum space 4 in between (i.e., said inner surface faces the transparent glass substrate 1) via an auxiliary insulator layer 18. The auxiliary insulator layer 18 is comprised of an insulator such as SiO.sub.2, SiN.sub.x, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 or AlN, and serves to prevent an adverse influence of the device substrate 10 on the device (such as elution of an impurity such as an alkaline component or a roughened substrate surface). A plurality of electron emission devices S are formed on the ohmic electrodes 11. In order to adjoining thin-film metal electrodes 15 are electrically connected to each other, a plurality of bus electrodes 16 are formed on parts of the thin-film metal electrodes 15, extending in parallel to one another and perpendicular to the ohmic electrodes 11. Each electron emission device S comprises the electron supply layer 12, the insulator layer 13 and the thin-film metal electrode 15 which are formed in order on the associated ohmic electrode 11.

The thin-film metal electrodes 15 face the vacuum space 4. A second auxiliary insulator layer 17 with openings is formed to separate the surfaces of the thin-film metal electrodes 15 into a plurality of electron emission regions. This second auxiliary insulator layer 17 covers the bus electrodes 16 to prevent unnecessary short-circuiting.

The material for the ohmic electrodes 11 is Au, Pt, Al, W or the like which is generally used for the wires of an IC, and has a uniform thickness for supplying substantially the same current to the individual devices.

While silicon (Si) is one material for the electron supply layer 12, it is not restrictive for the electron supply layer of the invention and other semiconductors or metals of any of amorphous, polycrystal and monocrystal can be used as well.

From the principle of electron emission, it is better that the material for the thin-film metal electrode 15 has a lower work function .phi. and is thinner. To increase the electron emission efficiency, the material for the thin-film metal electrode 15 should be a metal of the group I or group II in the periodic table; for example, Mg, Ba, Ca, Cs, Rb, Li, Sr, and the like are effective and alloys of those elements may be used as well. To make the thin-film metal electrode 15 very thin, the material for the thin-film metal electrode 15 should be a chemically stable metal with a high conductivity; for example, single substances of Au, Pt, Lu, Ag and Cu or alloys thereof are desirable. It is effective to coat or dope a metal with a low work function as described above on or in those metals.

The material for the bus electrodes 16 can be Au, Pt, Al or the like which is generally used for the wiring of an integrated circuit IC, and should have a thickness enough to supply substantially the same potential to the individual devices, adequately of 0.1 to 50 .mu.m.

A simple matrix system or an active matrix system may be employed as the driving system for the display device of the invention.

In addition to the dispersed Si, SiO.sub.x in the insulator layer as shown in the above embodiment, the Si or SiO.sub.x region may be formed in the form of plural layers laminated to one another.