Field emitter arrays and displays produced by ion tracking lithography

[摘要] When ions of sufficient electronic energy loss traverse a dielectric film or foil, they alter the chemical bonding along their nominally straight path within the material. A suitable etchant can quickly dissolve these so-called latent tracks leaving holes of small diameter (similar to 10 nm) but long length - several microns. Continuing the etching process gradually increases the diameter reproducibly and uniformly. The trackable medium can be applied as a uniform film onto large substrates. The small, monodisperse holes produced by this track etching can be used in conjunction with additional thin film processing to create functional structures attached to the substrate. For example, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Candescent Technologies Corporation (CTC) co-developed a process to make arrays of gated field emitters (similar to 100 nm diameter electron guns) for CTC's Thin CRT (TM) displays, which have been fabricated to diagonal dimensions > 13 in. Additional technological applications of ion tracking lithography will be briefly covered. (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V.

[发布日期] 2005-12-01

[效力级别]  Proceedings Paper

[关键词] electronic stopping;ion track;field emitter;latent track;nanotechnology;flat panel display