E-Beam Evaporated Glass and MgO Layers for Gas Panel Fabrication

An electron-beam evaporation process has been developed that is capable of depositing stable, thick, borosilicate glass films (0.5–50 µm) on various substrates at a rate exceeding 0.5 µm/min. A very low stress of 4–10 ×10
⁷
N/m
²
in compression was obtained in freshly deposited glass films, and a further reduction below measurable levels of stress was observed after a thermal annealing at 500°C. The effects of evaporation parameter variation and thermal annealing on the film properties of the borosilicate glass layers, as well as the MgO secondary emission layers employed in the fabrication of gas discharge display panels, are presented.