STRUCTURE, FABRICATION, AND CORRECTIVE TEST OF ELECTRON-EMITTING DEVICE HAVING ELECTRODE CONFIGURED TO REDUCE CROSS-OVER CAPACITANCE AND/OR FACILITATE SHORT-CIRCUIT REPAIR

摘要

An electron-emitting device (20, 70, 80, or 90) contains an electrode, either a control electrode (38) or an emitter electrode (32), having a specified portion situated off to the side of the bulk of the electrode. For a control electrode, the specified portion is an exposure portion (38EA or 38EB) having openings that expose electron-emissive elements (50A or 50B) situated over an emitter electrode. For an emitter electrode, the specified portion is an emitter-coupling portion situated below at least one electron-emissive element exposed through at least one opening in a control electrode. Configuring the device in this way enables the control-electrode-to-emitter-electrode capacitance to be quite small, thereby enhancing the device's switching speed. If the specified portion of the electrode becomes short circuited to the other electrode, the short-circuit defect can be removed by severing the specified portion from the remainder of its electrode.