Spacers for a flat panel display

摘要

The manufacture of spacers (30) for a flat viewing screen with a high control voltage, the screen being divided into a series of image elements or pixels. The process includes anisotropic etching of at least one substrate (31) which has two main parallel surfaces separated by a given distance, called the substrate thickness (l). The etching allows profiles to remain, and these form the spacers, with the length of each spacer being equal to the substrate thickness. The section of the spacers, in a plane parallel to the main surfaces of the substrate, is such that they can be inserted between the pixels which form the screen display. The section may for example be a cross shape which fits at the corner between four pixels, an L-shape fitting around two sides of one pixel, or a rectangular M-shape with legs fitting between lines of pixels. The substrate from which the spacers are made may be silicon, photosensitive glass or quartz.