Deep reactive ion etching for lateral field emission devices

This letter describes the design, fabrication and testing of lateral field emission diodes utilizing the deep reactive ion etch (DRIE). Devices were f abricated on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers of varied thickness, by etch ing the device silicon in the STS DRIE system in a single mask process. Aft er subsequent oxidation sharpening and oxide removal, diodes were tested on a probing station under vacuum. A typical diode exhibited very high curren ts on the order of similar to 100 mu A at 60 V, and turn-on voltage between 35 V and 40 V. The high electron current is emitted in such a diode by mul tiple sharp tips vertically spaced by 450 nm along the etched sidewall due to the pulsed nature of the DRIE process.