I'll give it a try.
". . . major breakthrough with the development of its process to pattern carbon films using normal microelectronic processes without obstructing the electron emission qualities of these films. "
This process is different from most of the rest of the field emission display manufacturers. SIDT puts down a layer of carbon material in such a way that it also contains microscopic diamond-type carbon structures. For reasons that are not all that well understood, that sooty combination of materials is very happy to emit electrons with relatively small electric fields.
But, in order to make small directly-viewable displays, they need somehow to be able to use etching or masks to get those materials confined into rows, or even islands of the carbon material. There's the rub. Carbon is resistant to most kinds of solvents, and its adhesion to the substrate isn't stellar. Consequently, it has pretty much refused to accommodate processes like photo etching and other types of conventional semiconductor-type processes.
This announcement apparently indicates they have solved one of the two riddles with this technology. [The other problem relates to achieving uniform light emission over the area of one addressable picture element].
"The patterning will be particularly useful in the triode mode that
is necessary for matrix-addressed displays. This is the first time that carbon film has been patterned with such great success and without obstructing its electronic emission properties."
And, of course, they have to do the patterning operation in such a way as not to damage the electron emission characteristics of the deposited carbon material. "Triode mode" refers to an additional electrode layer in their proposed device, an additional layer required to focus the electrons to hit only the desired patch of colored light-emitting phosphor on the glass opposite the carbon film.
"FEPET will use this breakthrough to further its field emission technology projects for large screen display applications, which include the company's collaborative efforts with ISE Electronics and Noritake Co., Inc."
I'm not sure exactly how this helps with the larger-area devices used for large-screen displays, except to make for a neater, better-defined process (not too bad a thing in itself).
"This is the result I was hoping for when I initially invested in this company," said Marc W. Eller, chairman and chief executive officer of SI Diamond.
Well, it does represent a solution of one of the two primary difficulties with the technology. I have always thought the other luminance uniformity problem had a good chance of solution with time and effort. We'll see.
Duzzat help?
Oh, and Dwight, it's a cold emitter. JimA |
