The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Oct. 19, 1999
Filed:
Apr. 30, 1997
Clayton C Williams, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Robert C Davis, Ithaca, NY (US);
Pavel Neuzil, Palo Alto, CA (US);
University of Utah Research Foundation, Salt Lake City, UT (US);
Abstract
A submicrometer photodiode probe with a sub-50 nanometer tip radius is used for optical surface characterization on a nanometer scale. The nanoprobe detects subwavelength optical intensity variations in the near field of an illuminated surface. The probe comprises a metal-semiconductor Schottky diode that is constructed at the end of a micromachined tip of a semiconductor wafer. A process is disclosed for micromachining the tip of the semiconductor wafer and then of creating a photodiode at the tip, with the photodiode having an optical aperture of a size less than 1000 nanometers.