Abstract: Filaments having a thin exterior tungsten phosphide layer for use in incandescent lamps are made by exposing tungsten filaments to vapors of elemental phosphorous at approximately 675.degree. to 725.degree. C. in an evacuated vacuum furnace. The tungsten phosphide layer protects the filaments from oxidation while the lamps are manufactured, and decomposes to tungsten and phosphorous when the lamp is first energized by current. The resulting elemental phosphorous acts as a gettering agent.

Abstract: A low pressure gas discharge lamp has a low profile which includes at least one glass plate with a tube envelope channel having a cover plate covering the evacuation tube which is substantially flush with the plate.

Abstract: A fabrication process is disclosed using process steps (S1-S18) similar to those of semiconductor integrated circuit fabrication to produce lateral-emitter field-emission devices and their arrays. In a preferred fabrication process for the simplified anode device, the following steps are performed: an anode film (70) is deposited; an insulator film (90) is deposited over the anode film; an ultra-thin conductive emitter film (100) is deposited over the insulator and patterned; a trench opening (160) is etched through the emitter and insulator, stopping at the anode film, thus forming and automatically aligning an emitting edge of the emitter; and means are provided for applying an electrical bias to the emitter and anode, sufficient to cause field emission of electrons from the emitting edge of the emitter to the anode. The anode film may comprise a phosphor (75) for a device specially adapted for use in a field emission display.

Abstract: An electrodeless fluorescent lamp containing a fill of a rare gas and mercury and a flag (14) disposed therein at a predetermined location in the lamp for increasing the rate of luminous development in the lamp. The flag (14) includes a pair of spaced-apart metallic foil sections (31) and a metallic mesh substrate (30) disposed between the foil sections (31) whereby to be shielded from ion bombardment of the discharge. A coating (30a) of indium which is adapted to amalgamate with the mercury is disposed on the mesh (30). The sections are joined together by spot-welding (32) to enable migration of mercury into and out of the space between the sections thereby enable the atoms to form an amalgam with the indium and be rapidly released therefrom.

Abstract: A new method for forming an anode plate for a color flat panel Field Emission Displays (FEDs) having improved gettering, was accomplished. The method involves forming on a transparent insulating plate (glass) an array of pixels of three phosphors comprising the primary colors and having in or/and around the array of pixels gettering material to provide more efficient gettering of volatile material from the FED cavity. The electrons are injected into the pixels when the electron field emitters are electrically accessed via the address and image forming circuits. The injected electrons heat and activate the gettering material in and around the pixels and provide very effective gettering in the FED cavity.

Abstract: A field emission display having an ion pump, for removal of outgassed material, is described. The display has a baseplate and an opposing face plate. A substrate acts as a base for the baseplate. There are parallel, spaced conductors acting as cathode electrodes, over the substrate. An insulating layer covers the cathode electrodes and the substrate, and parallel, spaced conductors act as gate electrodes and overlay the insulating layer. There is a plurality of openings extending through the insulating layer and the gate electrodes. At each of the openings is a field emission microtip connected to and extending up from one of the cathode electrodes. The faceplate has a glass base and is mounted opposite and parallel to the baseplate. A conducting anode electrode covers the glass base.

Abstract: An anode plate 40 for use in a field emission flat panel display device comprises a transparent planar substrate 42 having a plurality of electrically conductive, parallel stripes 46 comprising the anode electrode of the device, which are covered by phosphors 48.sub.R, 48.sub.G and 48.sub.B, and a gettering material 52 in the interstices of the stripes 46. The gettering material 52 is preferably selected from among zirconium-vanadium-iron and barium. The getter 52 may be thermally reactivated by passing a current through it at selected times, or by electron bombardment from microtips on the emitter substrate. The getter 52 may be formed on a substantially opaque, electrically insulating material 50 affixed to substrate 42 in the spaces formed between conductors 46, which acts as a barrier to the passage of ambient light into and out of the device. Methods of fabricating the getter stripes 52 on the anode plate 40 are disclosed.

Abstract: A dewar assembly is cleaned, baked out, assembled, and joined in a single vacuum system without exposing the components to ambient atmosphere. The vacuum system preferably has a first chamber with multiple subchambers that can be isolated from each other, and a second chamber that can be isolated from the first chamber. The multiple chambers and subchambers prevent cross contamination during the various process steps, and also permit multiple dewar assemblies to be batch processed at different stages simultaneously. The components of the dewar assembly are loaded into one subchamber and cleaned, and thereafter moved to another subchamber for bakeout. The dewar getter is heated in the second chamber and moved to one of the subchambers for assembly. The components of the dewar assembly are assembled and joined.

Abstract: The luminescent phosphor degradation in a cathode ray display tube, caused by aging, is decreased. This decrease is achieved by introducing before and/or during evacuation a hydrolyzable gas into the tube's inner space for a limited time interval, using a partial pressure which is essentially larger than the eventual final vacuum pressure of the cathode ray tube, and then allowing the final vacuum pressure to be achieved without any further supply of gas. Thereafter, the cathode ray tube is sealed in a gastight manner.

Abstract: A process for manufacturing a color picture tube capable of minimizing the thermal deformation of the shadow mask is disclosed. A getter is filled with a Ba material, a high or low vaporizing material having a different vaporizing temperature compared with that of the Ba material, and the getter is installed within the color picture tube. The getter is heated by a microwave heating device, so that the Ba material is vaporized so that the vacuum level of the color picture tube is raised. The high or low vaporizing material is vaporized and coated onto an aluminum film of a panel or on the surface of the shadow mask. This vaporizing material layer coated on the aluminum film or on the surface of the shadow mask absorbs the heat generated by the shadow mask, so that the thermal expansion and the thermal deformation of the shadow mask is inhibited, thereby improving the colorimetric purity of the phosphor screen and extending the life expectancy of the color picture tube.

Abstract: A multistep process is disclosed which enables hermetically sealed, durable, long-lasting illumination devices which utilize electrical discharges through inert gas and inert gas/mercury vapor mixtures to be produced in an essentially flat-plate configuration without the use of glass tubing to contain the discharge. This process utilizes plates of glass having a particular range of thermal expansion coefficients for the preparation of these display devices through the discovery of a heating/cooling process that enables these thick glass assemblies to be produced rapidly yet without cracking and without significant residual air or water vapor contamination and which includes the heat sealing of a evacuation/backfilling tubulation in the same sequence and also includes the unique feature of the inclusion of finely divided powder in the inert gas chamber which, when subjected to the heating/cooling cycle, acts to getter residual air and water vapor from the inert gas.

Abstract: The invention relates to an unsaturated high-pressure sodium lamp provided with a discharge vessel enclosing a discharge space, having a ceramic wall and closed at both ends by a leadthrough element to which an electrode is secured, and at least one electrode provided with emitter material. The fill material within the discharge vessel contains sodium, mercury and a rare gas. According to the invention, the discharge space also contains in metallic form one or more of the elements Mg, Ca, Sr and Ba up to at most 10% by weight of the mercury metered.

Abstract: This invention related to incandescent lamps and more particularly to the gettering of such lamps. In accordance with the present invention there is provided an improved method of gettering an incandescent lamp. The method comprises introducing a fill gas and a getter compound comprising a silane compound, or a partially halogenated derivative thereof, into an unsealed lamp envelope; sealing the lamp envelope; and heating the sealed envelope, for a sufficient period of time, and at a temperature sufficient to activate the getter to perform its desired gettering function prior to the thermal decomposition thereof.

Abstract: A method of producing a magnetron is disclosed which has a getter on at least one of the opposed surfaces of two end shields of a cathode. The getter is formed in such a manner that after the cathode is assembled, a paste containing a getter metal powder is coated on at least one of the opposed surfaces of the end shields and dried before the filament of the cathode is carburized and then while the magnetron is being exhausted, the dried paste is sintered to produce a sintered substance of the getter metal powder.

Abstract: A method is disclosed for manufacturing a sealed-off RF excited CO.sub.2 laser with a longer operating life. The invention, which relates to the method and the resulting laser, comprises means for stabilizing the laser gas chemistry otherwise affected by CO.sub.2 dissociation, O.sub.2 consumption, and outgassing of H.sub.2 and H.sub.2 O. More specifically, the aluminum housing of the laser assembly is nickel-plated and then passivated by an oxidation technique using concentrated nitric acid. In addition, novel gettering substances, comprising either a group B metal or cellulose, are employed to adsorb hydrogen and/or water vapor to alleviate the outgassing problem.

Abstract: A method of incorporating a getter material within a vacuum vessel by placing the vacuum vessel, along with the getter material, inside a vacuum chamber and evacuating the vacuum chamber and vacuum vessel, then heating the getter material to activate the getter, thereafter allowing the activated getter material to cool, followed by placing the getter material within the vacuum vessel and sealing the vacuum vessel, thereby protecting any temperature-sensitive materials contained within the vacuum vessel from the effects of any high temperatures produced during the activation of the getter material.