Image forming apparatus for forming image by electron irradiation

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a rear substrate with a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged substantially linearly;
• a front substrate with an image forming member on which an image is formed by electrons emitted by said electron-emitting devices;
• a support member for maintaining an interval between said rear substrate and said front substrate;
• and
• an acceleration electrode which is arranged on or near said front substrate and applied with a voltage for accelerating electrons emitted by said electron-emitting devices toward said front substrate,
• wherein said support member comprises an electrode which is connected to said acceleration electrode and extends to a predetermined position toward said rear substrate, and intervals of said plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged substantially linearly are set to have an interval between two electron-emitting devices adjacent to each other via said support member larger than an interval between two electron-emitting devices adjacent to each other without mediacy of said support member.

An image forming apparatus comprising:

• a rear substrate with a plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged substantially linearly;
• a front substrate with an image forming member on which an image is formed by electrons emitted by said electron-emitting devices;
• and
• a support member for maintaining an interval between said rear substrate and said front substrate,
• wherein said support member comprises conductive means for giving conductivity for relaxing charge-up of said support member, and an electrode which becomes at a higher potential than said conductive means during operation, and intervals of said plurality of electron-emitting devices arranged substantially linearly are set to have an interval between two electron-emitting devices adjacent to each other via said support member larger than an interval between two electron-emitting devices adjacent to each other without mediacy of said support member.