Fabrication and characterization of field emission display having a doped hydrogenated amorphous silicon as a resistive layer

Abstract

Since the proposal of the Mo-tip field emitter array by Spindt, LETI has improved the field emitter array (FEA) as an electron source through the addition of a resistive ballast layer, which led to a robust technology that could be taken out of the research laboratory and applied in production. The use of series resistors integrated with the emitter arrays is a straightforward way to limit the emission from an emitter in the array and therefore improve emission uniformity over the array for display. Even though the improvement in the aspect of the pixel is undeniable in the vertical resistive layer structure, the entire activation potential could be applied across the thin resistive layer in the case of a short between the tip and the gate. The resulting electric field sometimes destroys the layer, producing clear shorts. Following the development of the simple vertical resistive layer structure, a lateral resistive layer structure with a meshed cathode was proposed to take advantage of the lateral resistor, which would be superior to the vertical resistor in its ability to withstand electrical and thermal breakdown. However, in the mesh structure, the number of emitters is limited within the mesh if we are to put a group of tips onto a meshed area as well as provide uniform resistance for all the emitters. Thus, a resistive layer structure having a robust lateral resistor for each individual tip, not for a group of tips, is preferred to maximize the tip packing density. A novel resistive layer structure for a Mo-tip field emitter array (FEA) was fabricated and characterized. In this structure, the electrons travel along a resistive path running from a cathode electrode to a tip through the nearest-neighbor via holes of an insulating inter-dielectric film. An individual tip has its own lateral resistor of an identical path length in new resistive layer structure, contrast to the mesh structure and island structure where a group of tips is positioned in a mesh. ...