Fabrication technologies of surface-conduction electron-emitter display

We addressed the fabrication and vacuum sealing technologies of the cathode and anode for the surface conduction electron emitter display device. The cathode array were fabricated in three steps: first, the Pt films were grown by magnetron sputtering on glass substrate, followed by lithography; next, thick Ag films were deposited by screen printing; and finally, the conductive PdO films were coated to ease the sealing requirements. After sealing and degassing at 340°C for 2 h in vacuum, the nano-scaled gaps, formed in-situ by Joule heating of the saw-tooth shaped current applied to the conductive coatings, act as the electron emission source. The tested results show that the cathode-array of the lab-made, prototyped SEM are capable of emitting a fairly uniform pattern of light.