No abstract

Surface damage in Si substrates created by Ar-ion milling or by reactive-ion etching in CF4, CHF3, Cl2, SiCl4, or SiF4 has been investigated. Metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors were fabricated on the etched Si substrates, and the interface-state densities were obtained from capacitance-voltage measurements. Interface states generated by the dry etching processes were strongly dependent on the etching gas and the bias voltage. Carbon-based gases (CF4, CHF3) induced more interface states than those without carbon. For the carbon-based gases, Si samples etched in CHF3 showed lower densities of interface states than samples etched in CF4 under the same conditions. Generation lifetime measurements indicated that samples with large densities of interface states also had short lifetimes. Measurements of oxidation-induced stacking faults caused by dry etching were consistent with both the interface-state and lifetime measurements. Thermal annealing of the etched wafers was not effective in reducing the surface damage. The measured interface states on the dry etched Si substrates could be lowered to their pre-etched levels by removing at least 500 Å of the etched surface by wet chemical etching.

No abstract

We have reduced the gate voltage required to achieve a given emission current density in field-emitter arrays by scaling down the gate-to-tip and tip-to-tip spacing to the unprecedented levels of 0.08 and 0.32 μm, respectively. The submicrometer features of our arrays are patterned using interferometric lithography. Electrical tests of arrays we have fabricated have shown a record low turn-on voltage of 8 V for cesiated molybdenum emitters. Emission current densities of 1600 A/cm2 have been obtained, which is also a record for such structures. These arrays provide large advantages for applications such as flat panel displays and microwave devices.