| A field emission device which exhibits a low turn-on voltage has been fabricated by applying potassium hydroxide (KOH) orientation-dependent etching to single crystal silicon. KOH etching creates V-shaped grooves in the silicon aligned with the (111) planes at an angle of 54.74;Etching of (100) silicon on insulator (SOI) wafers was carried out over a wide range of reaction temperatures and KOH concentrations. Using statistical methods, it is concluded that the important factors in the silicon etch rate are, in decreasing order of importance, reaction temperature, KOH concentration, and interaction between temperature and KOH concentration. The activation energy of etching at different KOH concentration was calculated from Arrhenius plots to be between 0.43eV and 0.59eV. In addition, the first qualitative study of the sharpness of Si tips formed by KOH etching has been performed. The sharpness increases with temperature to a critical point and then decreases at very high temperature and KOH concentration. The sharpest tip dimension was found to occur at 30% KOH concentration and 70... |
