Patent ID: 6975288

Claim:
A method of driving an image-forming apparatus, the image-forming apparatus comprising (i) a first substrate having arranged thereon (a) a plurality of scanning wirings, (b) a plurality of signal wirings which intersect with the plurality of scanning wirings, (c) a plurality of electron-emitting devices each of which includes (c 1 ) a cathode electrode connected to one of the scanning wirings, (c 2 ) a gate electrode being arranged over the cathode electrode and connected to one of the signal wirings (c 3 ) an insulating layer being arranged between the cathode electrode and the gate electrode, (c 4 ) a hole, penetrating the gate electrode and the insulating layer, having a wide w 1 and a depth h 1 which is not larger than w 1 and (c 5 ) an electron-emitting film being arranged on the cathode electrode and arranged within the hole, and (ii) a second substrate, which is arranged at a distance not less than 1 mm from the first substrate, and having arranged thereon (d) a light-emitting film including a phosphor and (e) an anode electrode, made of aluminum, covering the light-emitting film, and facing the plurality of electron-emitting devices, said method comprising the steps of: applying a voltage not less than 10 kV between the anode electrode and the cathode electrode; applying a scanning pulse sequentially to the plurality of scanning wirings; and applying signal pulses to the plurality of signal wirings, so that at least some of the plurality of electron-emitting devices connected to those scanning wirings are driven, wherein if a voltage of the scanning pulse is referred to as Vc and a voltage of each signal pulse is referred to as Vg, a voltage that satisfies the condition of (Vg−Vc)>0 is applied to each electron-emitting device to be driven, and a voltage that satisfies the condition of (Vg−Vc)>0 is applied to each electron-emitting device other than the electron-emitting devices to be driven.