Review of development and performance evaluation of active-matrix nanocrystalline Si electron emitter array for massively parallel electron beam direct-write lithography

This paper reviews our recent progress of application studies on planer-surface-type and Pierce-gun-type nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si) ballistic electron emitter arrays, which were designed and prototyped to be able to integrate with a separately fabricated active-matrix large scale integrated driving circuit for the realization of massively parallel electron beam (EB) direct-write lithography. The unit enables all the pixels to be simultaneously driven in accordance with a bitmap image stored in a built-in memory and the beamlets to be switched on and off by operating the CMOS compatible voltage. Discussion in this paper will be focused on the process design and performance evaluations of the prototype nc-Si electron emitter arrays, which include electron emission and 1:1 pattern transfer characteristics. In addition, our currently addressing preliminary assessment of the 1:1 EB projection test, made using a test bench by externally LSI-driving the planer-surface-type emitter array, will be introduced.