Polycrystalline silicon field emitter arrays by silicidation-sharpening technique at low temperature

Abstract

Gated polysilicon field emitter tip arrays have been fabricated by a method consisting of dry etching and silicidation-sharpening techniques instead of high-temperature thermal oxidation. The silicidation process of titanium was adopted for the tip sharpening process. After dry etching of amorphous silicon, a titanium layer was deposited and silicide was formed by a low-temperature (450-550 degrees C) annealing process. After the formation of titanium silicide, the silicide layer was removed by a buffered HF solution and sharply formed amorphous silicon tips were converted to polysilicon tips by low-temperature (600 degrees C) annealing. The gate aperture was formed by a spin-on-glass etch-back process. The obtained polysilicon tips were very sharp, comparable with those by the conventional oxidation process. All processes were done below 600 degrees C, so that the technology could be applied to a glass-based polysilicon field-emission display. (C) 1998 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(98)09202-6].