A flat thin display with RF electron generation

We report on a new type of a flat and thin display with a secondary emission electron source. In this display device electrons are multiplied between two secondary emission plates under a high frequency electric field. This principle has a few important advantages over a field emission display: the emission comes from flat plates, which reduces the life-time problems of ion bombardment of field emitter tips. Furthermore, the electron emission is space charge limited which gives a uniform electron distribution. The electrons are extracted from the source and accelerated to a phosphor screen to generate light. Gray levels are made by pulse width modulation.