Fabrication of groove shape cold cathode for enhancing field emission properties of carbon nanotube

Based on sintering process and screen printing technique, a novel groove shape cold cathode was developed. The black insulation slurry was sintered to fabricate the bottom insulation layer, in which a gradient surface existed. The silver slurry was screen-printed on the bar electrode. With the baking and sintering process in proper sequence, the silver electrode was formed. Using fine sandpaper, a proper polishing process for silver electrode was conducted, so a smooth electrode surface was obtained. Due to the special silver electrode shape, a larger field enhancement factor was achieved easily. Carbon nanotubes were prepared on the silver electrode to form the field emitters. The dense carbon nanotube layer would cover the silver electrode surface completely. Owing to the special edge field enhancing effect, lots of electrons would be emitted from the carbon nanotube. The top insulation layer was used to restrain the side electron emission of carbon nanotube. With the groove shape cold cathode, a triode field emission display was fabricated, which exhibited good field emission properties and better luminescence image uniformity.comparing with the common cold cathode field emission display, the turn-on electric field could be reduced from 1.86 V/μm to 1.78 V/μm, the maximum field emission current had been increased from 1 537 μA to 2 863 μA, and the maximum luminescence image brightness would be enhanced from 1 386 cd/m2 to 1 865 cd/m2. The developed fabrication technology had a potential practical application in field emission display.