A high brightness field emission display

Summary form only given. The technical objective of the Raytheon development program is to develop a high performance, full color, FED Panel that meets the performance and environmental operating condition requirements specified for military and other high performance display applications. This Flat Display Panel may be integrated into any display application currently being satisfied by current state-of-the-art display technology. The technical approach is to utilize Raytheon´s novel technique of an FED tetrode. The cathode is a conventional Field Emission Cathode with an integral emitter and control gate. A high voltage anode is required to give the desired brightness. The higher electric fields require a large anode/cathode gap as compared to low voltage FED´s. This precludes the use of proximity focusing that is used in low voltage FED´s. To solve this problem, an intermediate focus grid is mechanically placed between the cathode and anode. The focus grid serves three functions. First, it scrapes off the high angle electrons. Second, it focuses the electrons that make it through the focus holes. Third it protects the cathode from high voltage anode arcs. The mechanical design is comprised of a glass cathode, glass anode, glass rear cover, and metal focus grid. The assembly is frit sealed using conventional CRT techniques. There is also a parallel high voltage power supply, driver electronics, and interconnect effort to develop the components to drive the display in full video mode. Working prototype FED´s are demonstrated.