Thermionic vacuum integrated microcircuits as mechanical transducers

Dielectric layers of anodic alumina (AA) are widely used as substrates and insulating elements in various design configurations of electron devices. Combination of anodizing with photolithographic and etching processes as well as vacuum deposition of conductive, resistive, semiconductor and dielectric films makes it possible to create, in a three-dimensional dielectric structure, holes, cavities, etc., with thin-film microcircuit components formed to a high degree of accuracy on different levels (with respect to the main working surface of the substrate). Three-dimensional multilevel microreliefed substrates form a structural basis of unique thermo- and radiation-resistant thermionic VIMCs. The possibility has been demonstrated of making simple logic and analog electrical circuits in the form of VIMC. Particular promising is the use of porous anodic alumina substrates for fabrication of multi-point field emitters where the size of each cell lies within several thousand angstrom.