A color filter is used in a color face plate for, for example, CRT display, a photoelectric element plate for copying, a filter for single tube type TV cameras, a flat panel display using liquid crystals, and a color solid-state image sensor.
Generally employed color filters comprise regularly arranged three primary colors, i.e., blue, green and red. Color filters comprising four or more hues are also available for some uses. For example, color filters for camera tubes or for liquid crystal displays are required to have a black pattern for various purposes.
Known processes for producing these color filters include vacuum evaporation, dyeing, printing, pigment dispersion, electrodeposition, and resist electrodeposition transfer. However, color filters obtained by these processes have their several disadvantages, such as involvement of a complicated step, liability to pinholes or scratches, poor yield, and insufficient precision.
In order to overcome these disadvantages, methods of producing color filters by coupler-in-emulsion type development (for example, JP-A-63-261361) or coupler-in-developer type development (for example, JP-A-55-6342) each using a silver halide color light-sensitive material has been studied (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application). Since the latter development method requires at least three steps of color development, the processing steps are not easy. However, both the methods requires a light-sensitive material having a multi-layer structure, and formation of light-sensitive layers on such a hard substrate as a glass plate involves repetition of spin coating. Therefore, these processes are not sufficiently easy and simple to carry out.
The present inventors have investigated preparation of a color filter using a silver halide color light-sensitive material easily (Japanese Patent Application Nos. 5-302804 and 6-1363).
However, the improvement of the color filter using a silver halide color light-sensitive material has been desired because cyan dyes particularly have poor heat resistance.