A novel field emission cathode process has been developed to produce cathode arrays with individual emitter structures having gates with <300 nm diameters. Ion tracking lithography was utilized to pattern submicron features, which can be controlled over the range 30-300 nm, and to create self-aligned and nanosized, gated emitter structures. Nanocone emitter tips were deposited into the gate structure using a variation of the Spindt process. Field emitter arrays having similar to 300 nm gate diameters and an emitter density of 10(8)/cm(2) exhibited a current density or 4 mA/cm(2) for a 45 V gate bias. This ion tracking lithographic approach is suitable and scalable for large flat panel video displays and appears to be commercially viable.