Processing of vacuum microelectronic devices by focused ion and electron beams

Localized physical and chemical reactions induced by focused ion and electron beams, i.e. dual beams, have been used to fabricate field emitters (FEs) and their arrays, field-emitter arrays (FEAs), without masking and annealing processes. Issues arising from beam processing such as beam-induced damage and contamination were eliminated to provide FEAs with low leakage current. Quick prototyping and repairing processes of FEs and FEAs using dual-beam processing have been demonstrated. Nb- or Au-gated Pt FEAs have been fabricated using dual beams. The fabricated FEAs showed a turn-on voltage of 40 V for field emission with a typical emission current of about 1 μA/tip. Received: 21 August 2002 / Accepted: 21 August 2002 / Published online: 12 February 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-6/6850-6662, E-mail: takai@rcem.osaka-u.ac.jp