Design and fabrication of an ultrahigh-luminance field-emission display

Abstract

An ultrahigh-luminance field-emission display (FED) is designed in which a field emitter array (FEA) and memory function are integrated in every pixel of the display panel. The memory function consists of an emission-control thin-film transistor (TFT), a memory capacitor, a write-enable TFT, and a memory-discharging TFT. The operation mechanism is that the time of luminance of the pixel is made longer by the memory function; thus, luminance becomes higher. In principle, the maximum luminance of such a display is expected to be more than 100 000 cd/m2. The ultrahigh-luminance FED is applicable for daylight-readable displays used in mobile electronic equipment. The authors fabricated a prototype of the ultrahigh-luminance FED using Spindt-type FEA and poly-Si TFT technology. It was confirmed that the luminance of the display panel is controlled by the signal for the memory-discharging TFT, which means that the luminance can be dynamically controlled by the input signal. The maximum luminance of 1700 cd/m2 was achieved at a relatively low anode voltage of 1.5 kV. The higher luminance can be expected by applying higher anode voltage.