Deep reactive ion etching for lateral field emission devices

Author

Milanovic, V. ; Doherty, L. ; Teasdale, D.A. ; Zhang, C. ; Parsa, S. ; Nguyen, V. ; Last, M. ; Pister, K.S.J.

Author_Institution

Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

Volume

21

Issue

6

fYear

2000

fDate

6/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

271

Lastpage

273

Abstract

The authors describe the design, fabrication and testing of lateral field emission diodes utilizing the deep reactive ion etch (DRIE). Devices were fabricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers of varied thickness, by etching the device silicon in the STS DRIE system in a single mask process. After subsequent oxidation sharpening and oxide removal, diodes were tested on a probing station under vacuum. A typical diode exhibited very high currents on the order of /spl sim/100 μA at 60 V, and turn-on voltage between 35 V and 40 V. The high electron current is emitted in such a diode by multiple sharp tips vertically spaced by 450 nm along the etched sidewall due to the pulsed nature of the DRIE process.

Keywords

diodes; electron device testing; electron field emission; silicon-on-insulator; sputter etching; vacuum microelectronics; 100 muA; 35 to 60 V; 450 nm; SOI wafers; STS deep RIE system; Si; deep reactive ion etching; diodes; lateral field emission devices; multiple sharp tips; oxidation sharpening; oxide removal; single mask process; Diodes; Electron emission; Etching; Fabrication; Oxidation; Pulse amplifiers; Silicon on insulator technology; Testing; Vacuum technology; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electron Device Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0741-3106

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/55.843147

Filename

843147