Glass-to-glass bonding for vacuum packaging of field emission display in an ultra-high-vacuum chamber using silicon thin film

Field emission displays (FEDs) are among the most promising flat panel displays, and require a high vacuum for long-term performance and reliability. In this paper, glass-to-glass electrostatic bonding is presented for providing an in situ vacuum packaging of an FED panel in an ultra-high-vacuum chamber, based on a conventional Si-to-glass anodic bonding mechanism. Using radiofrequency sputter deposition, amorphous silicon films have been formed on Sn-doped In2O3 coated glass substrates. Secondary ion mass spectroscopy was used to characterize the kinetics of the glass-to-glass electrostatic bonding. In order to investigate the applicability of this bonding technique to the in situ vacuum packaging of FED devices, the hermetic sealing test of FED panels with an exhausting hole sealed by this technique was experimented under 10(-8) Torr vacuum level. This technique is suitable for mass production environments since it is capable of high-speed sealing and eliminating the outgassing problem. (C) 1999 The Electrochemical Society S0013-4651(98)01-017-9. All rights reserved.