Field emission display panel equipped with two cathodes and an anode

摘要

A field emission display panel that utilizes nanotube emitters as electron sources and is equipped with two cathodes i.e. a primary cathode and an auxiliary cathode, and an anode is provided. The nanotube emitters can be suitably formed by nanometer-dimensioned hollow tubes of carbon, diamond or diamond-like carbon mixed in a polymeric-based binder. The nanotube emitters are formed in two parallelly-positioned, spaced-apart rows on top of an electrode layer such as a silver paste by a thick film printing technique. Since both the primary cathode and the anode are formed on the bottom glass plate, the operating voltage can be controlled by the thickness of the dielectric layer that is used in forming the nanotube emitter stacks. An auxiliary cathode formed of an electrically conductive material is coated on the interior surface of a top glass plate to further repel electrons in a downward direction toward the anode on the bottom glass plate. As a result, the distance between the top plate and the bottom plate can be chosen to allow the rapid evacuation of the panel cavity to form a high vacuum therein without affecting the operating voltage of the device. The present invention novel FED panel can be fabricated with a large panel area and at a low cost.