We investigated new triode-type field emission arrays (FEAs) and an appropriate driving method in a lower plane (cathode plate) for a flat lamp applicable to backlight units (BLUs) in liquid crystal display (LCD). The proposed triode-type FEAs were designed with a gate and cathode on the same lower plane without distinction, and a `swap-gate driving' method was applied to obtain field emission uniformity and a longer emitter lifetime. A 3-in.-diagonal flat lamp for a LCD BLU was fabricated using carbon nanofibers grown by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition at approximately 480 °C. A white-phosphor luminance of 10,000 cd/m2 was obtained when the gate-voltage amplitude, gate frequency, and duration time were 230 Vamp, 25 kHz, and 2.0 µs, respectively, with an anode voltage of 10 kV and an anode-cathode spacing of 10 mm.

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CuO nanowires were grown on brown-oxide-coated Cu films on Si substrates by conductive heating in air and their field emission characteristics were investigated. High resolution scanning electron microscopy showed that the CuO nanowires grew perpendicularly to the substrate, and their length and radius could be controlled by varying heating temperature and time. It was found that the lengths of the CuO nanowires were saturated to a certain point with respect to the heating temperature, and the increasing heating time increased the uniformity of the CuO nanowires in length. The field emission characteristics were strongly affected by the formation of the brown-oxide layer and the morphologies of the CuO nanowires governed by heating temperature and time.

The triboelectricity method uses no adhesives but it induced by the difference of triboelectric series between materials can vertically align the carbon nanotube (CNT) emitters. CNTs are attached on a silicon wafer by dip-coating method, and then vertically aligned by the triboelectricity. The field emission property is enhanced up to 270 mA/cm 2 at 4 V/mm after the activation of the emitters but no emission is observed at the same electric field before activation. The triboelectricity method avoids inevitable contamination due to the adhesives of taping method and is suitable for the conventional fabrication process which uses indirect-attachment method of CNTs.

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