Claims
- 1. A method of conditioning a field emission display, the field emission display having an anode, a gate electrode and an emitter cathode, the method comprising:driving the anode of the field emission display to a threshold voltage; and controlling an emission current of the field emission display to increase from a substantially zero level to a maximum level, wherein the step of controlling is performed after the step of driving to avoid formation of electric arcs in the field emission display when the field emission display is initially turned on.
- 2. The method according to claim 1 wherein the emission current is controlled by applying appropriate voltages to the gate electrode and the emitter cathode.
- 3. The method according to claim 1 wherein the step of controlling comprises the step of slowly increasing the emission current from a zero level to approximately 1% of the maximum level over a period of at least 10 minutes.
- 4. The method according to claim 1 wherein the emitter cathode is coupled to a plurality of conical electron emitters.
- 5. The method as claimed in claim 4 wherein the conical electron emitters each comprises a molybdenum tip.
- 6. The method according to claim 1 further comprising the steps of:decreasing the emission current of the field emission display from the maximum level to the substantially zero level; and disabling the anode of the field emission display, wherein the step of decreasing is performed prior to the step of disabling to direct the electrons towards the anode and to prevent the electrons from striking the gate electrode when the field emission display is turned off.
- 7. The method according to claim 6 Further comprising the steps of:maintaining the anode at the predetermined voltage; and maintaining the emission current at the maximum level for a predetermined period in order to knock off contaminants contained in the field emission display screen.
- 8. The method according to claim 6 further comprising the step of providing a gas-trapping device to trap the contaminants.
- 9. The method according to claim 8 wherein the step of controlling further comprises the step of slowly increasing the emission current from the 1% level to approximately 50% of the maximum level over a period of approximately 20 minutes.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/493,698 filed Jan. 28, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,307,325 which is a continuation of and claims benefit of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/144,675, filed on Aug. 31, 1998, and now U.S. Pat. No. 6,104,139 issued Aug. 15, 2000.
US Referenced Citations (4)
Number |
Name |
Date |
Kind |
5721560 |
Cathey, Jr. et al. |
Feb 1998 |
A |
6104139 |
Elloway et al. |
Aug 2000 |
A |
6307325 |
Elloway et al. |
Oct 2001 |
B1 |
6307326 |
Elloway et al. |
Oct 2001 |
B1 |
Continuations (2)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/493698 |
Jan 2000 |
US |
Child |
09/767329 |
|
US |
Parent |
09/144675 |
Aug 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/493698 |
|
US |