Texas Instruments Corporation

Kenneth G Vickers

Bruce E Gnade

Jules D Levine

Robert H Taylor

Chi-Cheong Shen

Charles E Primm

Randolph William Kahn

Yaojian Leng

Richard L Guldi

Arthur M Wilson

Edward J Leonard

Lester L Hodson

Kurt Peter Wachtler

Mark A Kressley

Leigh Ann Files

Charies E Primm

Henry S Yan

Hank G Prosack

John E Finklea

Wafer order is randomized in-situ by use of a separate wafer staging area and randomly shuffling wafers to and from this staging area to shuffle the processing order of the wafer lot. Positional data is captured for each wafer at both the send and receive ends of the process.

In-situ randomization and recording of wafer processing order at process tools

A field emission display apparatus has an emitter plate having a plurality of column conductors intersecting a plurality of row conductors , and electron emitters at the intersection of each of the row and column conductors. An anode plate is adjacent to the emitter plate , the anode plate comprising conductive stripes which are alternately covered by material luminescing in the three primary colors. The conductive stripes covered by the same luminescent material are electrically interconnected to form comb-like structures corresponding to each of the colors. The anode plate contains an active region and the buses have a non-uniform width.

Reduction of the probability of interlevel oxide failures by minimization of lead overlap area through bus width reduction

In a system (12) wherein articles are manufactured by a plurality of process steps (20, 22, & 24), a method for identifying causes of variations in performance of the manufactured articles is provided. The method includes tracking orientation data (48) for the articles during each of the process steps (20, 22, & 24) and then measuring (50) performance data for each of the articles. The method also includes preparing surface performance characteristic maps (54) for each of the articles from the performance data and ordering the surface performance characteristic maps (56) for each of the articles in accordance with the orientation data for each article at a given process step (20, 22, & 24).

Method and system for enhancing the identification of causes of

A method of fabricating electron emission structures 30 having enhanced emission characteristics. The method comprising the steps of providing a substrate 10 having electron emission structures 5 thereon and having a gate layer 6 over the electron emission structures 5. Then modifying the electron emission structures with a focused beam to create modified electron emission structures 30 with enhanced emission efficiency.

Method for increasing field emission tip efficiency through

An electron emitter plate (110) for an FED image display has an extraction (gate) electrode (22) spaced by an insulating spacer (125) from a cathode electrode including a conductive mesh (18). Arrays of microtips (14) are located in mesh spacings (16), within apertures (26) formed in extraction electrode (22) and subcavities (141) formed through apertures (26) in insulating spacer (125). Subcavities (141a) are open to row-adjacent and column-adjacent subcavities (141b, 141c) to form larger main cavities (144). Posts (143) of insulating spacer (125) separate diagonally-adjacent cavities (141d). Subcavities (141) are formed by over-etching a layer of insulating spacer material (25) through apertures (26) before or after forming microtips (14) through the same apertures (26). Over-etching reduces the dielectric constant factor of gate-to-cathode capacitance in the finished structure.

Field emission device with over-etched gate dielectric

A method of fabricating electron emission structures 28 having enhanced emission characteristics. The method comprises the steps of providing a substrate 10 having electron emission structures 5 thereon and having a layer 5' over the electron emission structures. The layer 5' having apertures 30 in alignment with said electron emission structures 5. Then modifying the electron emission structures 5 through the apertures 30 with a directional ion milling beam; thereby creating modified electron emission structures 17,29 with enhanced emission efficiency.

Self-aligned method of micro-machining field emission display microtips

In accordance with the principles of the present invention, there is disclosed herein a structure and method of fabricating an anode plate for use in a field emission device. The method comprises the steps of providing a transparent substrate 20 and applying transparent insulative material 28 over the substrate 20. Next, particles of luminescent material 25 are partially embedded in selective areas of the transparent insulative material 28. A layer of electrically conductive material 23 is then applied over the luminescent material 25. The layer of electrically conductive material 23 is abraded so as to remove portions of the layer of electrically conductive material 23 and portions of at least some of the luminescent particles 25.

Flat panel display anode structure and method of making

An electron emission apparatus comprising a gate emitter 6 formed as a conductive plate having an aperture 22 and an electron emitter structure 30 formed adjacent the aperture, the electron emission structure 30 having a void defining an emission surface.

Micro-machined field emission microtips

An electron emitter plate (110) for an FED image display has an extraction (gate) electrode (22) spaced by an insulating layer (125) from a cathode electrode including a conductive mesh (18). Hexagonal close-packed arrays (12) of microtips (14) are located in mesh spacings (16), within apertures (26) formed in extraction electrode (22). Microtips (14) are formed on a conductive plate (17) laterally spaced from mesh structure (18) by a resistive layer (15). Insulating layer (125) is etched to connect apertures (26) and place microtips (14) in a common cavity within each mesh spacing (16).

Field emission device with close-packed microtip array

A method of fabricating an anode plate 80 for use in a field emission device comprising the steps of providing a substantially transparent substrate 70, depositing a layer of a transparent, electrically conductive material 90 on a surface of the substrate, and then removing portions of said layer of conductive material to leave stripes of said conductive material 90.sub.R, 90.sub.G, 90.sub.B. The stripes of conductive material have a first and second corner 84, 88 distal from the substrate 70. The first and second corners 84, 88 of the stripes of conductive material are rounded and luminescent material 74 is applied on the conductive stripes 90. The first and second corners 84, 88 are rounded by applying voltage to the stripes 90 and then etching the stripes to form the rounded corners 84, 88.

Method for selective etching of flat panel display anode plate conductors

An electron emitter plate (110) for an FED image display has an extraction (gate) electrode (122, 222) spaced by a dielectric insulating layer (25) from a cathode electrode including a conductive mesh (118, 218). Circular arrays (112) of microtips (14) are located concentrically within mesh spacings (116, 216) on a resistive layer (15), within apertures (26) formed on ring-shaped pads (127, 227) patterned in an extraction electrode (122). Mesh spacings (116) and pads (127) are circular. Mesh spacings (226) and pads (227) are hexagonal. For reduced capacitance, dielectric material (25) is etched from cores (144) of rings (127, 227) and from toroidal regions (148) below rings (127, 227). Mesh spacings (116, 216) are hexagonal close-packed and mesh material (118, 218) is removed from portions (142) of cathode electrode. Y-shaped bridging strips (129') have nodes (146) located over removed cathode electrode portions (142).

Low capacitance field emission device with circular microtip array

A multiple model supervisor control system (24) for use in a manufacturing environment (10) including a plurality of model based statistical process control units (14.sub.1 -14.sub.N) associated with equipment (#1-#N) is provided. The multiple model supervisor control system (24) includes a database (16) storing model coefficient shift data representing statistically significant drifts in output measurables that are associated with the model based statistical process control units (14.sub.1 -14.sub.N). A supervisor control unit (26) is coupled to the database (16) and is operable to access the coefficient shift data stored in the database (16). A multiple model map (30) of coefficient shift history is generated by the supervisor control unit (26) and shows the coefficient shift data against a common domain. A user interface (28) is coupled to the supervisor control unit (26) to provide user access to the multiple model map (30) to allow identification of problems caused by equipment drift and problems caused by environmental change.

Multiple model supervisor control system and method of operation

An electron emitter plate (110) for an FED image display has an extraction (gate) electrode (122) spaced by an insulating layer (25) from a cathode electrode including a conductive mesh (118). Circular arrays (112) of microtips (14) are located concentrically within circular mesh spacings (116) on a resistive layer (15), within apertures (26) formed in extraction electrode (122). Microtips (14) are laterally spaced from mesh structure (118) by substantially identical paths of a ballast-providing resistive layer (15), placing all microtips (14) at generally the same potential.

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Whitesboro, TX, United States of America

Kenneth G Vickers