Production of structures by electrostatically-focused deposition

Abstract

Structures having a controlled three-dimensional geometry are deposited by lectrostatically focused deposition using charged particle beam and gaseous precursors, or polarizable precursors with or without a charged particle beam. At least one apertured electrode is electrically biased with respect to the substrate surface. The resulting electrostatic field and field gradient focuses the charged particle beam or polarizable gaseous precursor molecules, and controls the three-dimensional geometry of the deposited structure. By this method, an array including many deposited structures may be simultaneously deposited on a single substrate. Thus, the disclosed method provides a fact and simple way of fabricating one or more arrays of three-dimensional structures. The method is particularly useful in the fabrication of arrays of sharp-tipped, cone-shaped conductive structures, such as field emitter tips and contacts.