Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!swbatl!adams
From: adams@swbatl.UUCP (4237)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Vacuum Tube Breakthrough
Message-ID: <995@swbatl.UUCP>
Date: 1 Dec 89 20:58:11 GMT
Reply-To: adams@swbatl.UUCP (Tom Adams 5-4237)
Organization: Southwestern Bell Tele. Co. - Advanced Technology Lab - St. Louis
Lines: 51



    Title:    Silicon Needle May Signal New Age in Microelectronics

    Author:   Cathryn Conroy

    Source:   Online Today Daily Edition on CompuServe,
              November 25, 1989


    Bellcore scientists have developed what they believe is the
    sharpest silicon needle ever created, measuring just a few atoms
    wide at the tip.

    At 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, the
    needle could play a key role in the resurgence of vacuum tubes.  It
    would serve as an electronic emitter, which is the heart of a vacuum
    tube.

    These new miniature vacuum tubes could lead to ultra-fast
    communications equipment and computers, as well as flat display
    panels that could be used as high-definition television screens.

    Newly developed vacuum tubes are unlike those formerly associated
    with radios and televisions, in that they're so small they can be
    seen only through a microscope.  In addition, electrons are produced
    in the new tubes by applying voltage to a very sharp tip.  In the
    old-fashioned tubes, a hot filament was used to create electrons.

    The challenge facing researchers has been to create an emitter tip
    that's sharp enough to produce many electronics at low voltage.
    Until now, the sharpest tips used as electron emitters were between
    20 to 40 nanometers wide.  (As a point of reference, a human hair is
    about 50,000 nanometers wide.)

    Bellcore has applied an oxidation treatment process to tiny
    silicon cones that has resulted in tips less than one nanometer
    wide.  The diameter of an atom is about three-tenths of a nanometer.
    These silicon tips can produce substantially more electrons than
    previous emitters while using less voltage, according to Bob Marcus,
    Bellcore's district manager for materials and device analysis.

    He said that research is now focusing on measuring the actual
    electron emission from the tips, as well as studying device
    applications and additional features of the oxidation process.


-- 
#	---Tom Adams---	| uunet!swbatl!adams or adams@swbatl.swbt.com
# I collect pre-1930 wireless, electrical and scientific books.
# opinions... Opinions? I don't think I'm allowed to have opinions.


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