Fabrication and properties of the field emission array with self-alignment gate electrode

Abstract

A new method for the fabrication of field emis- sion arrays (FEA) based on bulk/surface silicon micromachin- ing and diamond-like-carbon (DLC) coating was developed. A matrix of self-aligned electron field emitters is formed in sil- icon by mean anisotropic etching in alkali solution of the front silicon film through micro holes opened in silicon oxide layer. The field emission of the fabricated emitter tips is enhanced by a diamond-like-carbon film formed by chemical vapor de- position on the microtips. Back side contacts are formed by metal patterning. Detailed Raman, Auger and TEM investi- gations of the deposited DLC films (nanocrystalline diamond smaller than 10 nm) will be presented. In this paper we dis- cuss the problems related to the development of field emission arrays technology. We also demonstrate examples of devices fabricated according to those technologies.