Abstract: A method for fabricating an integrated field emission device (90) includes the steps of: (1) providing a substrate (52), (2) forming a conductive layer (54) on the substrate (52), (3) depositing a dielectric layer (56) on the conductive layer (54), (4) forming an emission well (62) in the dielectric layer (56), (5) forming an emissive film (72) over the dielectric layer (56) so that the emissive film (72) extends partially into the emission well (62) to define an emissive edge (94) within the emission well (62), and (6) selectively etching the dielectric layer (56) proximate to the emissive edge (94) so that electrons emitted by the emissive edge (94) are received by the conductive layer (54).

Abstract: A method of forming an electron emitter for an FED by means of successive evaporative material depositions, providing a flexibility of electron emitter formation which removes geometry constraints that limited the form of prior art field emission device electron emitters. The resultant field emission device yields improved performance as a result of increased insulator layer thickness and electron emitter aspect ratio.

Abstract: A method of producing an FED including a central conductive region having a surface perpendicular to the supporting structure forming a device anode, a structure including first and second layers of intrinsic semiconductor material with a conductive layer, forming an emitter, sandwiched therebetween and stacked to each provide a surface parallel to and spaced from the conductive region surface, and conductive layers disposed on the provided surfaces of the first and second layers, perpendicular to the sandwiched conductive layer, in spaced relation to each other and the sandwiched conductive layer to form gate extraction electrodes.

Abstract: An optical signal detector insensitive to variations in optical signal intensity and operably discriminable with respect to signal wavelength is provided. An incident optical signal comprised of wavelength dependent information is detected to provide electronic current information substantially insensitive to variations in incoming optical signal intensity.