Simulation study of reflective-type carbon nanotube field emission display

The operation characteristics of a newly proposed reflective-type carbon nanotube field emission display (CNT-FED) were studied experimentally and via computer simulation. Both the CNT emitter and the phosphor electrode are manufactured on the same lower plate. One advantage of the reflective CNT-FED is that the distance between the upper indium tin oxide (ITO) electrode and the lower plate is not a critical issue and can be as large as 1 mm, which overcomes the vacuum sealing problem during its manufacture. It is found from the experimental measurements and also the computer simulations that the display resolution varies with the negative upper ITO electrode bias. The magnitude of the upper ITO electrode bias needs to be larger than that for the CNT emitter in order to repel the emitted electrons back to the lower plate and strike only the nearest neighboring phosphor electrode in order to achieve a good display resolution. Under suitable operation conditions, the reflective CNT-FED can achieve good display resolution as well as brightness.