Claims
- 1. An electron emitting device, comprising:
an electron supply structure; at least one nano-protrusion integrally formed on a top of the electron supply structure; an emitter insulator formed above the electron supply structure; and a top conductor formed above the emitter insulator such that the at least one nano-protrusion is exposed.
- 2. The device of claim 1, wherein:
a height of the at least one nano-protrusion substantially ranges from 5-50 nm; a diameter of the at least one nano-protrusion substantially ranges from 5-60 nm; a thickness of the emitter insulator substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm; and a thickness of the top conductor substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm.
- 3. The device of claim 1, wherein the electron supply structure includes a conductive substrate.
- 4. The device of claim 3, wherein the conductive substrate is formed from at least one of a metal and a doped semiconductor.
- 5. The device of claim 4, wherein the metal or the doped semiconductor is coated on an insulating substrate.
- 6. The device of claim 5, wherein the insulating substrate includes at least one of glass, ceramic, and plastic.
- 7. The device of claim 4, wherein the metal includes at least one of aluminum, tungsten, titanium, copper, gold, tantalum, platinum, iridium, palladium, rhodium, chromium, magnesium, scandium, yttrium, vanadium, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, silicon, beryllium, hafnium, silver, and osmium and alloys and multilayered films thereof.
- 8. The device of claim 4, wherein the doped semiconductor includes at least one of silicon, polysilicon, amorphous silicon and ITO.
- 9. The device of claim 3, wherein the electron supply structure further comprises an electron supply layer formed above the conductive substrate, wherein the at least one nano-protrusion is formed integrally with the electron supply layer.
- 10. The device of claim 9, wherein the electron supply layer is formed from at least one of a doped and an undoped semiconductor.
- 11. The device of claim 9, wherein a thickness of the electron supply layer electron supply layer substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm.
- 12. The device of claim 9, further including at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 13. The device of claim 12, wherein:
a thickness of the intervening insulator substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm; and a thickness of the intervening conductor substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm.
- 14. The device of claim 1, further including at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 15. The device of claim 14, wherein:
a thickness of the intervening insulator substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm; and a thickness of the intervening conductor substantially ranges from 5-1000 nm.
- 16. The device of claim 14, wherein each of the emitter insulator and the intervening insulator is formed from at least one of diamond-like carbon, plastic, and insulating oxides, nitrides, carbides, and oxynitrides of silicon, aluminum, titanium, tantalum, tungsten, hafnium, zirconium, vanadium, niobium, molybdenum, chromium, yttrium, scandium, nickel, cobalt, beryllium, magnesium and alloys and multilayered films thereof.
- 17. The device of claim 14, wherein each of the top conductor and the intervening conductor is formed from at least one of a metal, conductive oxides, nitrides, carbides and oxynitrides of metals and metal alloys, doped polysilicon, doped silicon, doped amorphous silicon, graphite, and alloys, and multilayered films thereof.
- 18. The device of claim 17, wherein the metal includes at least one of aluminum, tungsten, titanium, molybdenum titanium, copper, gold, silver, tantalum, platinum, iridium, palladium, rhodium, chromium, magnesium, scandium, yttrium, vanadium, zirconium, niobium, molybdenum, hafnium, silver, and osmium and any alloys and multilayered films thereof.
- 19. The device of claim 1, wherein a plurality of nano-protrusions are formed on the top of the electron supply structure.
- 20. The device of claim 19, wherein a density of the plurality of nano-protrusions substantially ranges from 20-200 per μm2.
- 21. The device of claim 19, wherein the plurality of nano-protrusions are substantially regularly spaced.
- 22. An electron beam focusing device, comprising:
a plurality of electron beam emitters; and an electron beam focusing lens configured to focus electron beams emitted from the plurality of electron beam devices.
- 23. The device of claim 22, wherein each of the plurality of electron beam emitters is configured to diverge, converge, or collimate the emitted electron beam.
- 24. The device of claim 23, wherein each of the plurality of the electron beam emitters comprises:
an electron supply structure; at least one nano-protrusion integrally formed on a top of the electron supply structure; an emitter insulator formed above the electron supply structure; and a top conductor formed above the emitter insulator such that the at least one nano-protrusion is exposed.
- 25. The device of claim 24, wherein the electron supply structure includes a conductive substrate.
- 26. The device of claim 25, wherein the electron supply structure further comprises an electron supply layer formed above the conductive substrate, wherein the at least one nano-protrusion is formed integrally with the electron supply layer.
- 27. The device of claim 26, further including at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 28. The device of claim 24, further including at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 29. The device of claim 22, wherein a thickness of the focusing lens substantially ranges from 100-2000 nm.
- 30. The device of claim 22, wherein:
a distance between the focusing lens and the plurality of electron beam emitters substantially ranges from 0.1-300 μm; a distance between the focusing lens and a target medium substantially ranges from 0.1-5000 μm; a diameter of an aperture of the focusing lens substantially ranges from0.1-300 μm.
- 31. The device of claim 22, wherein the focusing lens is formed from at least one of a metal, doped polysilicon, graphite, and alloys, and multilayered films thereof.
- 32. The device of claim 22, wherein the plurality of electron beam emitters are substantially regularly spaced.
- 33. A method for forming electron emitting device, comprising:
forming an electron supply structure; integrally forming at least one nano-protrusion on a top of the electron supply structure; forming an emitter insulator above the electron supply structure; forming a top conductor above the emitter insulator; and exposing the at least one nano-protrusion.
- 34. The method of claim 33, wherein at least one of the following is performed:
using physical vapor deposition process in the step of forming the top conductor; and using thermal oxidation in the step of forming the emitter insulator.
- 35. The method of claim 33, wherein the step of forming the electron supply structure includes forming a conductive substrate.
- 36. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of forming the conductive substrate and the at least one nano-protrusion includes using low pressure chemical vapor deposition.
- 37. The method of claim 35, wherein the step of forming the electron supply structure further comprises forming an electron supply layer above the conductive substrate, wherein the at least one nano-protrusion is formed integrally with the electron supply layer.
- 38. The method of claim 37, further including forming at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 39. The method of claim 38, wherein at least one of the following is performed:
using physical vapor deposition process in the step of forming the intervening conductor; using at least one of physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition in the step of forming the intervening insulator; and controlling characteristics of a junction between the conductive substrate and the electron supply layer.
- 40. The method of claim 35, further including at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 41. The method of claim 40, wherein:
using physical vapor deposition process in the step of forming the intervening conductor; using at least one of physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition in the step of forming the intervening insulator.
- 42. The method of claim 33, wherein a plurality of nano-protrusions are formed on a top of the electron supply structure.
- 43. The method of claim 42, further including substantially regularly spacing the plurality of nano-protrusions.
- 44. A method for forming an electron beam focusing device, comprising:
forming a plurality of electron beam emitters; and forming an electron beam focusing lens configured to focus electron beams emitted from the plurality of electron beam emitters.
- 45. The method of claim 44, wherein in the step of forming the plurality of electron beam emitters, each electron beam emitter is configured to diverge, converge, or collimate the emitted electron beam.
- 46. The method of claim 45, wherein in the step of forming the plurality of the electron beam emitters, a method to form each electron beam emitter comprises:
forming an electron supply structure; integrally forming at least one nano-protrusion on a top of the electron supply structure; forming an emitter insulator above the electron supply structure; forming a top conductor above the emitter insulator; and exposing the at least one nano-protrusion.
- 47. The method of claim 46, wherein the step of forming the electron supply structure includes forming a conductive substrate.
- 48. The method of claim 47, wherein the step of forming the electron supply structure further comprises forming an electron supply layer above the conductive substrate, wherein the at least one nano-protrusion is formed integrally with the electron supply layer.
- 49. The method of claim 48, further comprising forming at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 50. The method of claim 46, further comprising forming at least one pair of intervening conductor and intervening insulator placed between the emitter insulator and the top conductor.
- 51. The method of claim 44, wherein:
the step of forming the focusing lens includes using physical vapor deposition process; and the step of forming the intervening insulator includes at least one of a physical vapor deposition and chemical vapor deposition process.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] The following application of the common assignee, incorporated by reference in its entirety, may contain some common disclosure and may relate to the present invention:
[0002] U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/975,296, filed on Oct. 12, 2001 entitled “APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FIELD-ENHANCED MIS/MIM ELECTRON EMITTERS” (Attorney Docket No. 10016850-1).