Jipelec (Division of Qualiflow) and NanoSciences Corp. have demonstrated that RT-LPCVD is a promising technique for obtaining silicon microchannel plate (MCP) used in imaging amplifications applications.
Thanks to the NanoSciences technology (US patent #5997713) an element with high aspect ratio channels (up to 500:1 or more) such as microchannel plate is fabricated by electrochemical etching of a p-type silicon wafer. Indeed, deep channels extending through the silicon element are formed (see Fig. 1). For use as a microchannel plate, the interior surfaces of the silicon channels were covered with insulating silicon dioxide or silicon nitride. Afterwards, an undoped polysilicon layer (dynode material) was deposited onto the insulating surfaces of the channels (see Fig. 2). Both insulating and polysilicon thin layers were sequentially deposited by RT-LPCVD in a Jipelec JetStar reactor without unloading the silicon element. More additional layers may be deposited between the insulating layer and the dynode material in order to control the electrical conductivity along the length of the channel.
All the deposited thin layers were uniform throughout the channels. In our knowledge, this is the first time a uniform coating has been obtained through such high aspect ratio structure using RT-LPCVD.

Fig. 1. SEM micrograph of silicon channels	Fig. 2 Cross-sectional SEM micrographs of RT-LPCVD Si-based layers on the silicon channels
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