Method for low-temperature sharpening of silicon-based field emitter tips
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorsDonald J. Milligan, John Stephen Dunfield
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A low temperature process for silicon-based field emitter tip sharpening. A rough silicon-based field emitter tip is exposed to xenon difluoride gas in a process chamber to carry out low-temperature, isotropic etching of the rough silicon-based field emitter tip to produce a final, sharpened field emitter tip.
Claims14
A method for sharpening a silicon-based field emitter tip, the method comprising:
- enclosing the silicon-based field emitter tip within a process chamber;
- producing a room-temperature gas that reacts with silicon with high specificity and that produces a conformal isotropic etch profile;
- and
- introducing the room-temperature gas into the process chamber to isotropically etch the rough field emitter tip to sharpness.
A method for fabricating a sharp, silicon-based field emitter tip, the method comprising:
- microfabricating a silicon well, surrounded laterally by a dielectric layer, above an underlying first metal layer with a second metal layer overlying the dielectric layer leaving a surface area of the silicon well exposed;
- isotropically etching silicon within the silicon well to create a rough field emitter tip above the first metal layer;
- and
- isotropically etching the rough field emitter tip with a room-temperature gas to produce the final, sharp silicon-based field emitter tip.
A method for preparing an array of sharp, silicon-based field emitter tips for use as a component in an electronic device, the method comprising:
- microfabricating an array of silicon wells, each well surrounded laterally by a dielectric layer, above an underlying first metal layer with a second metal layer overlying the dielectric layer leaving a surface area of the silicon well exposed;
- isotropically etching silicon within the silicon wells to create an array of rough field emitter tips above the first metal layer;
- isotropically etching the rough field emitter tips with a room-temperature gas to produce an array of sharp, silicon-based field emitter tips;
- and
- including the array of sharp, silicon-based field emitter tips in the electronic device.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.