Stamp technology for fabrication of field emitter from organic material

We propose and demonstrate a novel processing technique for fabrication of field electron emitter arrays. A stamp technology was used, in which the emitter tips are prepared by transferring the shape of a mold to an organic material through pressing the mold against the organic material. The transformed organic material is then modified by ion irradiation to produce a carbon based emitter material. The starting material tested was a polyimide film spin coated and cured on a Si substrate. The mold was prepared using anisotropic etching of Si(100). It has been found that the mold shape can be completely transferred to the polyimide by applying a pressure of 1 GPa at 250 degrees C. A field emission current up to the order of mu A was obtained from a wedge-shaped emitter array made using this new technology with modification using Ar ion irradiation at an energy of 100 keV, a dose of 3 X 10(16) cm(-2). (C) 2000 American Vacuum Society. [S0734-211X(00)00802-7].