Method for producing microscopic passages in a semiconductor body for electron-multiplication applications
AssigneeThomson-CSF
InventorsChristian Baud, Yvan Raverdy, Henri Hougeot
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Abstract
A method for drilling microscopic passages in a semiconductor body. The semiconductor 1 is incorporated into the anode of an electrolysis installation, one of its faces being in contact with the electrolyte 11 and the other containing a hole injection system. The holes migrate in the electric field from one face to the other; at the latter, dissolution of the semiconductor face in the electrolyte takes place. Gradually, passages are bored through the semiconductor along the trajectories of the holes. In the example, the holes are created photoelectrically in the gaps 2 between the opaque parts 4 applied to the transparent anode contact 3.
Claims5
A method for drilling microscopic passages between two substantially parallel opposite faces of a semiconductor body, utilizing an electrolysis installation comprising:
- a cathode and an anode in contact with an electrolyte, and mounted between said cathode and said anode a direct voltage source for bringing said anode to a positive potential Vo with respect to said cathode, said method comprising the steps of:
- forming a semiconductor body with two substantially parallel opposite faces;
- providing one of said faces with means for creating at said face hole injector points separated from one another and with connection means causing said hole injector points to be in electrical contact with one another;
- immersing said semiconductor body in said electrolytic solution in such a manner that its other face, opposite said one face, is in contact with said electrolyte;
- energizing said connection means to the positive terminal of said source;
- said source being so dimensioned that the positive potential Vo is greater than that potential required to establish in said semiconductor an electric field extending from said one face at least up to a distance from that face in contact with the electrolyte, lesser than the diffusion length of said microscopic passages in said semiconductor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.