Patent ID: 6893976

Claim:
A method of producing a shadow mask, the shadow mask having a set of apertures, the set of apertures including a given aperture with an aperture boundary, the method comprising: providing a wafer having at least a first silicon layer, a second silicon layer, and an insulator layer between the first and second silicon layers, the second silicon layer comprising silicon, the insulator layer comprising insulator material; removing a first portion of the first silicon layer within the aperture boundary, a second portion of the first silicon layer remaining within the aperture boundary; removing silicon from the second silicon layer within the aperture boundary to form the aperture in the second silicon layer; removing insulator material from the insulator layer within the aperture boundary to form the aperture in the insulator layer; and removing the second portion of the first silicon layer remaining within the aperture boundary to complete the aperture in the first silicon layer, the second portion supporting the insulator layer within the aperture boundary during removal of at least one of the second silicon layer and the insulator layer.