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US 4,550,257 AGranted
Narrow line width pattern fabrication
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsGerd K. Binnig, Randall M. Feenstra, Rodney T. Hodgson, Heinrich Rohrer, Jerry M. Woodall
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The formation of lines of the order of 8 Angstroms wide is achieved using a tunneling current through a gas that changes to provide a residue that is the basis of the line. The tunneling current energy is tuned to the energy required to dissociate the gas.
Claims4
Apparatus for forming a line of a material on a substrate comprising in combination
- a pointed stylus,
- a substrate,
- an electric current decomposable gas,
- means providing current flow between said stylus and said substrate through said gas,
- means including interdependent voltage, point radius, and point to substrate separation parameters for adjusting said current flow to provide quantum mechanical tunneling at a field energy value essentially matched to the energy required to dissociate the molecules of said gas.
2 more elements
In a system for producing a line of a particular material on a substrate using tunneling current, the improvement comprising
- providing a gaseous compound of said particular material at least in the location of said tunneling current, and
- matching the energy in the electrons in said tunneling current with the decomposition energy required to dissociate said particular material from said gaseous compound.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.