Fabrication of nano-tips employing three different methods

Fabrication of sharp tips with the diameter of nano-scale size is paramount important for the devices based on the electronic tunneling effect such as field emission vacuum microelectronic devices, tunneling accelerometer and micro-gyroscope etc. Three kinds of processes are developed and investigated to fabricate the nano-tip for our micromachined tunneling gyroscope, which are (1) Anisotropic wet etching combined with silicon-to-glass bonding; (2) Anisotropic wet etching combined with Ni electroplating; and (3) Reactive Ion Etching. It has been shown from the experimental results that the tip diameter of the nano-tips fabricated by using three processes is 23.44 nm, 58.77 nm and 69.3 nm respectively. Though the first method contains more process steps than others, all of the steps are simple and manageable relatively. The bonding process is not required in the second method, but the smoothness of the electroplated surface is influenced by the composition, temperature, stirring way and PH value of the bath solution and the parameters of pulsed power.