To provide a manufacturing method of a field emission cathode, which method exerts no adverse effect on element characteristics at the time when etching is performed with an ion beam. A sacrificial layer 4 made of a thermosetting resin is formed on a gate electrode layer 3. An opening section 5 is formed in the sacrificial layer 4 and the gate electrode layer 3 by irradiating a focused ion beam, and a hole section 6 is formed by etching the insulating layer 2 by using the sacrificial layer 4 and the gate electrode layer 3 as a mask. An emitter electrode 8 is formed in the hole section 6, and the emitter material 7 on the sacrificial layer 4 is removed together with the sacrificial layer 4 on the gate electrode layer 3.