Patent ID: 7157848

Claim:
A field emission device for use as a backlight in a liquid crystal television comprising: a plurality of conductive anodes, each anode having a light-emitting layer; a plurality of electron emitters, the emitters being separated from the plurality of anodes by a spacer, forming a gap, each of the plurality of emitters comprising: a conductive electrode; and a plurality of fibrous clusters, each of the plurality of fibrous clusters being formed in situ by a chemical vapor deposition process, each of the plurality of fibrous clusters comprising a plurality of nanofibers grown from a catalytic particulate cluster adhered to the conductive electrode by an adhesion layer, the adhesion layer being formed during processing of a catalyst precursor, wherein the composition of the catalyst precursor comprises a catalyst compound, a solvent and a plurality of non-catalytic particles, the composition being selected such that the plurality of non-catalytic particles aggregate into clusters and support particulates of the catalyst compound helping to adhere the particulates to the conductive electrode in the form of catalytic particulate clusters after deposition and processing of the catalyst precursor such that at least a portion of the plurality of fibrous clusters have a hemispheroidal shape; and the plurality of conductive anodes and the conductive electrode is operatively connected to an electronic circuit such that the electronic circuit is capable of controlling the emission of electrons between the plurality of electron emitters and the plurality of anodes.