According to the invention, a flat panel device includes a spacer for providing internal support. In one embodiment, the spacer is made of ceramic, glass-ceramic, ceramic reinforced glass, devitrified glass, metal with electrically insulative coating or high-temperature vacuum-compatible polyimide, and can be a spacer wall, a spacer structure including a plurality of holes, or some combination of a spacer wall, spacer walls, and spacer structure. Spacer surfaces are treated to reduce secondary emissions and prevent charging of the spacer surfaces. The flat panel device can include a thermionic cathode or a field emitter cathode, and the faceplate and backplate can both be straight or both be curved. The flat panel device can include an addressing grid. In a method according to the invention for assembling a flat panel device, spacer walls are held in proper alignment during assembly by being inserted into a notch formed in the addressing grid and/or a top or bottom wall of the enclosure. Spacers according to the invention can be easily fabricated using standard techniques for forming and assembling ceramic or glass-ceramic tape.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/450,327, filed May 25, 1995, now abandoned, which is a division of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/188,857, filed Jan. 31, 1994, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/012,542, filed Feb. 1, 1993, which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/867,044, filed Apr. 10, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,424,605. To the extent not repeated herein, the contents of U.S. Ser. Nos. 08/012,542 and 07/867,044 are incorporated by reference.
The present PDP includes a rear plate, a plurality of barrier ribs on the rear plate, and a front plate in parallel with the rear plate. The front plate includes a transparent dielectric layer, a plurality of joint notches on the transparent dielectric layer, and a protective layer on the transparent dielectric layer that covers the joint notches. The position of each of the joint notches is aligned with the position of one corresponding barrier rib, and each joint notch has a filler to affix within the joint notch corresponding the barrier rib. When the front plate is mounted onto the rear plate, the top of each of the barrier ribs of the rear plate is pushed through the protective layer and is embedded in the corresponding joint notch of the front plate. The filler within each of the joint notches fills the gap between the top of the barrier rib embedded in the joint notch and the joint notch so that the front plate is tightly fixed to the rear plate.
An encapsulated matrix structure and formation method for preventing contamination caused by thermally induced outgassing and electron stimulated desorption of contaminants. In one embodiment, the present invention is comprised of a matrix structure which is adapted to be coupled to a faceplate of a flat panel display. The matrix structure is located on the faceplate so as to separate adjacent sub-pixel regions. The present embodiment further includes a contaminant prevention structure which covers the matrix structure. The contaminant prevention structure of the present embodiment has a physical structure such that contaminants originating within the matrix structure are confined therein. The contaminant prevention structure can also be designed to prevent electrons from impinging on the black matrix and desorbing contaminants. In so doing, the present invention prevents deleterious thermally induced outgassing and electron stimulated desorption of contaminants by the matrix structure.
A coating material having specific resistivity and secondary emission characteristics. The coating material described herein is especially well-adapted for coating a spacer structure of a flat panel display. In one embodiment, the coating material is characterized by: a sheet resistance, .rho.sc, and an area resistance, r, wherein .rho.sc and r are defined as: In the present embodiment, .rho.sw is the sheet resistance of a spacer to which the coating material is adapted to be applied, and l is the height of the spacer to which the coating material is adapted to be applied. By having a coating material with such characteristics, the present invention eliminates the need to place rigorous secondary emission characteristic requirements on the material comprising the spacer structure in a flat panel display. More specifically, the present invention eliminates the need for the spacer material to meet rigorous secondary emission characteristic requirements in addition to meeting requirements such as, for example, high strength, precise resistivity, low TCR, precise CTE, accurate mechanical dimensions and the like.
Encapsulated matrix structures for flat panel displays are disclosed. In one embodiment, a field emission display includes a focusing structure disposed between a faceplate and a backplate, and a contamination prevention structure covering the focusing structure thereby preventing thermal outgassing and electron desorption of contaminants from the focusing structure. In another embodiment, a flat panel display includes a faceplate (100), a matrix structure (102), a porous material layer (702), a non-porous material layer (704), and a conductive coating (706).
The image forming apparatus comprises an electron source having a substrate on which a plurality of electron emitting devices are arranged, a face plate provided with fluorescent substances for emitting light of different colors and serving to form a color image upon irradiation of electrons by the electron emitting devices. Rectangular spacers are arrange between the substrate and the face plate and are fixed to the face plate and contacted to the substrate via soft members.
