Micromachined cold cathode vacuum tube device and method of making
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A device comprising:
- a vacuum chamber, wherein said vacuum chamber comprises a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer spaced apart from said first layer, and a side insulating layer positioned between and sealed to said first layer and said second layer such that a vacuum space is formed within said first, second and side layers;
a cathode disposed within said vacuum chamber and on said first layer, wherein said cathode comprises a planar field emitter having a small radius of curvature tip; and
an anode disposed within said vacuum chamber and on said first layer, spaced apart from said cathode; and
a gate positioned between and spaced apart from said cathode and said anode.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A miniaturized field emitter vacuum tube device and method of making are described. The device includes a needle-shaped field emitter cathode, metal gate and electron collecting anode, which are enclosed by an insulating chamber which is evacuated. The gate electrode may be used to form the insulator-to-metal vacuum seal. Device isolation is achieved by using a highly resistive polycrystalline silicon film. A method of making a field emitter cathode tip is described in which two masking and etching steps form a pair of intersecting lines, the intersection point forming the cathode tip.
-
Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A device comprising:
-
a vacuum chamber, wherein said vacuum chamber comprises a first insulating layer, a second insulating layer spaced apart from said first layer, and a side insulating layer positioned between and sealed to said first layer and said second layer such that a vacuum space is formed within said first, second and side layers; a cathode disposed within said vacuum chamber and on said first layer, wherein said cathode comprises a planar field emitter having a small radius of curvature tip; and an anode disposed within said vacuum chamber and on said first layer, spaced apart from said cathode; and a gate positioned between and spaced apart from said cathode and said anode. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 16, 17)
-
-
9. A method of making a device comprising the steps of:
-
providing a first insulating layer; forming a cathode on said first layer, wherein said cathode comprises a planar field emitter having a small radius of curvature tip; forming an anode on said first layer, said anode being spaced apart from said cathode; forming a side insulating layer on said first layer such that portions of said cathode and said anode are contained within said side layer; forming a second insulating layer on said side layer such that said second layer, said side layer and a portion of said first layer form a vacuum chamber having portions of said cathode and said anode contained therein; and forming a gate such that said gate is positioned between and apart from said cathode and said anode. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
18. A method of making a planar field emitter, having a small radius of curvature tip, for use in a vacuum device comprising the steps of:
-
depositing a layer of metal on an insulating layer; etching said metal layer such that one boundary of said etched metal layer forms a first line segment; covering said etched metal layer with a layer of photoresist; removing a portion of said photoresist to expose a portion of said etched metal layer such that one boundary of said removed photoresist forms a second line segment which intersects said first line segment; and etching said exposed portion of said etched metal layer.
-
Specification