Amorphic diamond film flat field emission cathode
AssigneeMicroelectronics and Computer Technololgy Corp.
InventorsNalin Kumar, Chenggang Xie
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Abstract
A field emission cathode for use in flat panel displays is disclosed comprising a layer of conductive material and a layer of amorphic diamond film, functioning as a low effective work-function material, deposited over the conductive material to form emission sites. The emission sites each contain at least two sub-regions having differing electron affinities. Use of the cathode to form a computer screen is also disclosed along with the use of the cathode to form a fluorescent light source.
Claims16
A method of operating a cathode, comprising the steps of:
- causing an electrical current to flow through a layer of conducting material;
- and
- directing said current through a layer of low work-function material deposited over said conductive material, said low effective work-function material having a relatively flat emission surface comprising a plurality of distributed localized electron emission sites, wherein said emission surface is greater than 20,106.19 square nanometers in area.
A method of operating a cathode, comprising the steps of:
- causing an electrical current to flow through a layer of conductive material;
- and
- directing said current through a layer of low work function material deposited over said conductive material, said low effective work function material having an emission surface comprising a plurality of distributed localized electron emission sites, wherein some of said low effective work function material is amorphic diamond.
A method of operating a cathode, comprising the steps of:
- causing an electrical current to flow through a layer of conductive material;
- and
- directing said current through a layer of low work-function material deposited over said conductive material, said low effective work-function material having an emission surface comprising a plurality of distributed localized electron emission sites, wherein some of said low effective work-function material is amorphic diamond and said amorphic diamond is comprised of SP.sup.2 and SP.sup.3 crystallites.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.