Electron emitters coated with carbon containing layer

A structure comprising:

• a sub-structure comprising an electrically non-insulating emitter layer divided into mutually insulated emitter lines;
• a plurality of electron emitters situated on said emitter lines, each emitter comprising electrically non-insulating material;
• an electrically non-insulating gate layer having an upper surface spaced above said electron emitters, said gate layer having a plurality of gate holes each corresponding to one of said electron emitters, said gate layer being divided into mutually insulated gate lines;
• and
• a carbon-containing layer coated over each of said electron emitters and said gate layer.

A structure comprising:

• a sub-structure;
• a plurality of electron emitters situated over said sub-structure, each emitter comprising electrically non-insulating material that can be deposited to an aspect ratio of height to maximum diameter of at least 1.2 at a temperature of 25° C. using physical vapor deposition through a deposition opening;
• and
• a carbon-containing layer coated over each of said electron emitters.

A flat panel display comprising:

• a display panel having an anode layer and a light emissive layer;
• a backplate disposed in spaced alignment from said display panel;
• an electrically non-insulating emitter layer situated over said backplate;
• a plurality of electron emitters situated over said emitter layer, each emitter comprising electrically non-insulating material chosen from nickel, palladium, platinum, tantalum, titanium, rhodium, chromium, and vanadium;
• and
• a carbon-containing layer coated over each of said electron emitters.

A flat panel display comprising:

• a display panel having an anode layer and a light emissive layer;
• a backplate disposed in spaced alignment from said display panel;
• an electrically non-insulating emitter layer situated over said backplate, said emitter layer divided into spaced apart emitter lines;
• a plurality of electron emitters situated over said emitter lines, each emitter comprising electrically non-insulating material;
• an electrically non-insulating gate layer having an upper surface spaced above said electron emitters, said gate layer having a plurality of gate holes each corresponding to one of said electron emitters, said gate layer being divided into mutually insulated gate lines;
• and
• a carbon-containing layer coated over said upper surface of said gate layer and each of said electron emitters.

A flat panel display comprising:

• a display panel having an anode layer and a light emissive layer;
• a backplate disposed in spaced alignment from said display panel;
• an electrically non-insulating emitter layer situated over said backplate;
• a plurality of electron emitters situated over said emitter layer, each emitter comprising electrically non-insulating material that can be deposited to an aspect ratio of height to maximum diameter of at least 1.2 at a temperature of 25° C. using physical vapor deposition through a deposition opening;
• and
• a carbon-containing layer coated over each of said electron emitters.

A method comprising the steps of:

• providing a backplate layer;
• forming an emitter layer over said backplate layer;
• forming a dielectric layer over said emitter layer;
• forming a gate layer over said dielectric layer, said gate layer having an upper surface;
• selectively etching holes through said gate layer and said dielectric layer to expose areas of said emitter layer;
• forming electron emitters comprising electrically non-insulating material within said holes over said exposed areas of said emitter layer;
• dividing said gate layer into mutually insulated gate lines;
• and
• coating said electron emitters and the upper surface of said gate layer with carbon containing material.