Claims
- 1. A method of conditioning a field emission display, the method comprising he steps of:a) providing the field emission display with electron-emissive elements for emitting electrons, a gate electrode for controlling electron emission from the electron-emissive elements, and a display screen for collecting the electrons; b) enabling the display screen to establish a voltage differential between the display screen and the electron-emissive elements; c) following enabling of the display screen, enabling the gate electrode by delaying substantial electron emission from the electron-emissive elements until the voltage differential has been established to direct the electrons towards the display screen and to substantially prevent the electrons from striking the gate electrode; and d) following enabling the gate electrode, lowering a voltage of the display screen to a predetermined level; e) following lowering the voltage of the display screen, increasing a voltage of the gate electrode to increase an emission current; and f) repeating the steps (d) and (e) until a threshold voltage at the display screen is reached.
- 2. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the display screen comprises an anode.
- 3. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step (b) further comprises the step of driving a predetermined anode voltage over the display screen.
- 4. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the step (c) further comprises the step of driving a predetermined gate voltage over the gate electrode.
- 5. The method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising the steps of:g) preventing further electron emission by disabling the gate electrode; and h) following disabling the gate electrode, disabling the display screen to prevent the electrons from striking the gate electrode.
- 6. The method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the electron-emissive elements comprise conical electron emitters.
- 7. The method as claimed in claim 6 wherein the conical electron emitters each comprises a molybdenum tip.
- 8. An apparatus for conditioning a field emission display having electron-emissive elements for emitting electrons, a gate electrode for controlling electron emission from the electron-emissive elements, and a display screen for collecting the electrons, the apparatus comprising:means for enabling the display screen to establish a voltage differential between the display screen and the electron-emissive elements; means for enabling the gate electrode following enabling of the display screen by delaying substantial electron emission from the electron-emissive elements until the voltage differential has been established to direct the electrons towards the display screen and to substantially prevent the electrons from striking the gate electrode; means for lowering a voltage of the display screen to a predetermined level following enabling the gate electrode; means for increasing a voltage of the gate electrode to increase an emission current following lowering the voltage of the display screen; and means for alternately lowering the voltage of the display screen and increasing the emission current until a threshold voltage at the display screen is reached.
- 9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the display screen comprises an anode.
- 10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein means for enabling the display screen further comprises means for driving a predetermined anode voltage to the display screen.
- 11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein means for the gate electrode further comprises the step of driving a predetermined gate voltage to the gate electrode.
- 12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 further comprising:means for preventing further electron emission by disabling the gate electrode; and means for disabling the display screen to prevent the electrons from striking the gate electrode following disabling the gate electrode.
- 13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein the electron-emissive elements comprise conical electron emitters.
- 14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 13 wherein the conical electron emitters each comprises a molybdenum tip.
Parent Case Info
This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of 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 (11)
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/144675 |
Aug 1998 |
US |
Child |
09/493698 |
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US |