A new fabrication process of field emitter arrays with submicrongate apertures using local oxidation of silicon

The field emitter arrays with submicron gate apertures for low voltage operation have been successfully fabricated by modifying the conventional Spindt process. The key element of the new process is forming the gate insulator by local oxidation of silicon, resulting in the reduction of the gate hole size due to the lateral encroachment of oxide. The gate hole diameter of 0.55 μm has been obtained from the original mask pattern size of 1.55 μm. An anode current of 0.1 μA per emitter is measured at the gate voltage of about 53 V, while the gate current is less than 0.3% of the anode current. To obtain the same current level from a Spindt-type emitter with the same gate hole diameter as the mask pattern size, a gate bias of about 82 V is needed     

Surface morphology and I-V characteristics of single-crystal,polycrystalline, and amorphous silicon FEA's

This letter reports the surface morphology and current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of single-crystal silicon (c-Si), polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si), and amorphous silicon (a-Si) field emitter arrays (FEAs). As-deposited a-Si film has a smoother surface than poly-Si film. The surface morphology of the a-Si remains smooth even after phosphorus doping and oxidation at 950°C to be improved in emission characteristics, i.e., smaller anode current deviation among arrays smaller gate current, and higher failure voltage than those of poly-Si FEAs. Such improved characteristics can be explained by the smooth surface morphology which is kept during doping and oxidation. The surface roughness and emission characteristics of a-Si FEAs are comparable to those of c-Si FEAs     

Structure and electrical characteristics of silicon field emissionmicroelectronic devices

Field emission current was measured from arrays of wet chemically etched silicon cold-cathode diodes. Two types of cathode tips were measured both as-etched and after sharpening by low-temperature oxidation. The field enhancement increase resulting from tip sharpening is less than expected from simulation. The currents measured follow a Fowler-Nordheim characteristic and are temperature insensitive from 130 to 360 K. Turn-on voltage is near 4 V, a value much less than measured from most other field emission sources. With a 920-nm anode-cathode spacing, a minimum 0.2-μA current per cathode was found. Telegraph noise of about 1% at 20 V was observed. These sharpened silicon tips are a viable cold cathode for vacuum microelectronics and other electron device applications     

A novel fabrication process of a silicon field emitter array withthermal oxide as a gate insulator

We have successfully developed a fabrication process of a silicon field emitter array with a gate insulator formed by Si₃N₄ sidewall formation and subsequent thermal oxidation. This process overcomes some problems in the conventional fabrication, such as high etch rate, low breakdown field, and gate hole expansion arising from evaporation of gate oxide. Therefore, we could improve process stability and emission performance, and also reduce gate leakage current. The optimum process conditions were determined by process simulations using SUPREM-4. The turn-on voltage of the fabricated field emitters was approximately 38 V. An anode current of 0.1 μA (1 μA) per tip was measured for a 625-tip array at the gate bias of 80 V (100 V), and the gate current was less than 0.3% of the anode current at those emission levels     

Demonstration of low voltage field emission

The authors describe field emission from a thin-film field emitter array. The process used to fabricate the field emitters is based on the mold technique described by H.F. Gray and R.F. Greene (US patent 4,307,507). Each emitter chip consists of a 10×10 square array of field emitter tips and associated lead bonding pads. There is a 10-μm spacing between emitter tips. The bare chips were packaged by mounting to an alumina substrate, four to eight chips per substrate. The chips were tested in a demountable vacuum system equipped with a movable anode. The testing apparatus makes it possible to accurately measure currents as low as 100 nA at low duty. Fowler-Nordhein-like current-voltage characteristics were measured for most of the chips tested, indicating field emission. Substantial emission currents were observed at less than 20 V. The emitted current was collected almost entirely at the anode: the measured gate current was 1 to 5% of the emitted current     

Effect of diamond-like carbon coating on the emissioncharacteristics of molybdenum field emitter arrays

We have studied the electron emission characteristics of Mo field emitter arrays (FEAs) using a diamond-like carbon (DLC) film deposited by a layer-by-layer technique using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The turn-on voltage was lowered from 55 to 30 V by a 20 nm thick hydrogen-free DLC coating and maximum emission current was increased from 166 to 831 μA. Also the gate voltage required to get the anode current of 0.1 (μA/emitter) decreases from 77 to 48 V. Furthermore, the emission current from DLC coated Mo FEAs is more stable than that of noncoated Mo FEAs     

Proceedings of 1990 IEEE 3rd International Conference on VacuumMicro-electronics

The following topics were dealt with: vacuum microelectronic device fabrication; field emission, cold cathode emission properties; field emitter arrays; emission noise theory high-vacuum test station; miniaturised liquid metal ion source; lateral field emitter microtriodes; oxidation; sharpened emitter array process; miniature electron-optical columns; display applications     

DC I-V characteristics of field emitter triodes

A simple model that is applicable to Spindt-type emitter triodes is presented. Experimentally, it has been observed that the gate current at zero collector voltage follows the same Fowler-Nordheim law as the collector current at high collector voltage, and that for low emission current densities, the sum of gate and collector currents is constant for any collector voltage and is given by the Fowler-Nordheim current I_FN. Based on these observations, a simple model has been developed to calculate the I-V characteristics of a triode. By measuring the Fowler-Nordheim emission, emission area and field enhancement can be obtained assuming a value for the barrier height. Incorporating the gate current, the collector current can be calculated from I_c=I_FN-I_g as a function of collector voltage. The model's accuracy is best at low current density. At higher emission currents, deviations occur at low collector voltages because the constancy of gate and collector currents is violated     

High current density Si field emission devices with plasmapassivation and HfC coating

A novel self-aligned process was developed to fabricate gated Si field emission devices. At a gate voltage of 100 V, the emission current from an array of 100 tips increased from 283 to 460 μA and the turn-on voltage decreased from 31 to 21 V after H₂ plasma passivation using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) source for 2 min. The improvements correspond to a 1.28-eV reduction in the effective work function of the emitters and the instability of the emission current decreased from ±1,25 to ±0.25% after H₂ plasma passivation. Emitter tips were also coated with Mo silicide and HfC. The emission current increased from 230 μA for uncoated emitters to 268 μA for emitters coated with Mo silicide and 389 μA for emitters coated with HfC. The turn-on voltage decreased from 50 to 41 and 25 V while the breakdown voltage increased from 126 to 129 and 143 V when Mo silicide and HfC were used for coating, respectively, which correspond to reductions of 0.95 and 2.23 eV, respectively, in the effective work function of the emitters. Single emitter tips have similar emission characteristics as high-density field emitter arrays, indicating excellent emission uniformity from the arrays     

用于场发射显示器的火山口型场发射阴极

介绍一种国内外研究的用于场发射显示器的火山口型场发射阴极,它相对于尖锥型场发射阴极来说，具有制作方法简单，制作成本更低，发射一致性更好，更适合大规模工业化生产。但不足之处是发射电流密度太小和有较大的栅极电流。文章详细介绍了火山口型场发射阴极的制作过程，分析并测试了其发射性能以及转移到玻璃基底上的制作方法。最后还介绍了火山口型场发射阴极的改进型-跑道型场发射阴极。     

Carbon Nanotube-Based Triode Field Emission Lamps Using Metal Meshes With Spacers

We fabricated a carbon nanotube (CNT)-based triode field emission flat lamp with a gated emitter structure, which is composed of a metal grid with a spacer as a gate, a cathode electrode layer, and a CNT layer. The metal mesh was designed with trenches and numerous holes to make a gap between gate and cathode electrodes and to provide electrons with a highly efficient passage. We observed that this metal mesh decreased the vibration and leakage current owing to high electric field generated from anode. As a result, the uniformity and stability of this field emission lamp was improved     

Gated carbon nanotube emitter with low driving voltage

By approaching the counter electrode to the carbon nanotubes (CNT) emitter, remarkable reduction of the cathode operating voltage has been accomplished in the under-gate CNT cathode structure. The peak emission current density of 2.5 mA/cm/sup 2/, which is sufficient for high brightness CNT field emission display, was obtained at the cathode-to-gate voltage of 57 V when the CNT-to-counter electrode gap was 2.2 /spl mu/m. The gate current was less than 10% of the anode current. The CNT cathode with low driving voltage can help the cost-effective field emission display implemented.     

Silicide application on gated single-crystal, polycrystalline andamorphous silicon FEAs. I. Mo silicide

In order to improve both the level and the stability of electron field emission, the tip surface of silicon field emitters have been coated with a molybdenum layer of thickness 25 nm through the gate opening and annealed rapidly at 1000°C in inert gas ambient. The gate voltages of single-crystal silicon (c-Si), polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) and amorphous silicon (a-Si) field emitter arrays (FEAs) required to obtain anode current of 10 nA per tip are 90 V, 69 V, and 84 V, respectively. In the case of the silicide emitters based on c-Si, poly-Si and a-Si, these gate voltages are 76 V, 63 V, and 69 V, respectively. Compared with c-Si, poly Si and a-Si field emitters, the application of Mo silicide on the same silicon field emitters exhibited 9.6 times, 2.1 times, and 4.2 times higher maximum emission current, and 6.1 times, 3.7 times, and 3.1 times lower current fluctuation, respectively. Moreover, the emission currents of the silicide FEAs depending on vacuum level are almost same in the range of 10^-9~10^-6 torr. This result shows that silicide is robust in terms of anode current degradation due to the absorption of air molecules     

A novel approach for focusing electron beams using low-cost ceramicgrid [field emitter arrays]

A low-cost ceramic grid was used as a stand-alone focusing electrode in field emitter arrays to obtain high brightness and small electron beam size. The ceramic grid with an array of 200-μm holes was made from DuPont 591 with low-cost equipment. Beam size is controllable by the voltage applied to the focusing grid. Light intensity profiles were measured and analyzed. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the light profile excited by electron emission from 30-μm wide field emitter arrays is 60 μm at 5000 V with 6 mm anode-cathode separation. At an anode voltage of 2000 V and gate voltage of 55 V, focusing is optimized at a focusing voltage of 30 V. Arc-free operation at 10 kV was achieved, thereby promoting improved phosphor efficiency. This focusing approach may lead to improve lifetimes for field emission displays and other vacuum microelectronic devices by significantly increasing the total vacuum volume and providing a means for improved getter utilization     

Optimization of electron beam focusing for gated carbon nanotube field emitter arrays

We fabricated gated field emitter arrays with a novel focusing structure of electron beams, where the focusing electrode concentrically surrounded each gate hole. Carbon nanotube emitters were screen printed inside an amorphous-Si concave well far below the gate. It was theoretically and experimentally verified that the concave well structure effectively focused the emitted electron beams to their designated phosphor pixels by modulating focusing gate voltages. For the vacuum packaged field emission displays with the pixel specification fitting high-definition televisions, color reproducibility of approximately 71% was achieved at the brightness of 400 cd/m/sup 2/.     

场致发射阵列阴极制备工艺研究

在修改常规Spindt型阴极制备工艺的基础上制作出低电压驱动且具有亚微米栅极孔径的场发射阵列,采用硅的局部氧化工艺制备栅极绝缘层,利用硅的侧向氧化使栅极孔径降低到亚微米量级,腐蚀出微腔阵列,通过固定角度蒸发铝制作牺牲层,再利用电子束蒸发钼,在微腔里沉积钼尖锥,去除牺牲层,成功制备出钼尖锥场发射阵列.为了改善场发射性能,制作出了六硼化镧尖锥阵列.分别对钼尖锥阴极阵列和六硼化镧尖锥阴极阵列的场发射特性进行了测试.本文研究对场发射阵列在实际中应用有着重要的意义.     

High‐Performance On‐Chip Thermionic Electron Micro‐Emitter Arrays Based on Super‐Aligned Carbon Nanotube Films

An important advancement towards the realization of miniaturized and fully integrated vacuum electronic devices will be the development of on‐chip integrated electron sources with stable and reproducible performances. Here, the fabrication of high‐performance on‐chip thermionic electron micro‐emitter arrays is demonstrated by exploiting suspended super‐aligned carbon nanotube films as thermionic filaments. For single micro‐emitter, an electron emission current up to ≈20 µA and density as high as ≈1.33 A cm^?2 are obtained at a low‐driven voltage of 3.9 V. The turn‐on/off time of a single micro‐emitter is measured to be less than 1 µs. Particularly, stable (±1.2% emission current fluctuation for 30 min) and reproducible (±0.2% driven voltage variation over 27 cycles) electron emission have been experimentally observed under a low vacuum of ≈5 × 10^?4 Pa. Even under a rough vacuum of ≈10^?1 Pa, an impressive reproducibility (±2% driven voltage variation over 20 cycles) is obtained. Moreover, emission performances of micro‐emitter arrays are found to exhibit good uniformity. The outstanding stability, reproducibility, and uniformity of the thermionic electron micro‐emitter arrays imply their promising applications as on‐chip integrated electron sources.     

Stabilized emission from micro-field emitter for electron microscopy

Micro-fabricated field emitter for the application in miniaturized scanning electron microscope (MSEM) was fabricated on silicon substrate. Field emission studies of the micro-fabricated field emitter were carried out in an ultra high vacuum system. A simple voltage controlled feedback circuit was designed and used to regulate the gate voltage in order to improve the emission current stability of the micro-fabricated field emitter. Preliminary results showed that the emission current fluctuation ((I_max − I_min)/I_ave) was reduced from 80% without feedback current stabilizer to less than 1% with the circuit control.     

A novel emitter-sharpened double-gate race-track-shaped fieldemitter structure

In this paper, a new emitter-sharpened double-gate race-track-shaped field emitter structure is reported. The race-track-shaped edge emission with double-gate control is used to provide high uniformity FEAs over a large area without the need of expensive submicron technology. In order to minimize the gate current, which is detrimental to the field emitter performance, an emitter-sharpened structure is used. Experimental results show that the turn-on voltage of the emitter-sharpened double-gate structure is 45 V, which is 60% smaller than that of the single-gate structure (110 V). Furthermore, the gate current of the emitter-sharpened double-gate structure is 7 times and 15 times smaller than that of the nonemitter-sharpened double-gate structure and the single-gate structure, respectively     

双栅极场发射阵列的特性模拟与设计

具有聚焦能力的双栅极场发射阵列(DGFEA)是两类最有发展前途的真空微电子器件(高分辨率场发射显示器和真空微电子微波、毫米波器件)的关键技术。本文简要比较了两种结构的DGFEA的主要性能和优缺点,叙述了双层栅极结构DGFEA的设计与模拟方法.从模拟计算获得的发射特性和聚焦性能可以看到:这种结构的DGFEA能获得几乎平行的场发射电子束,其最大发射电流密度可达到约500A/cm2以上,是发展真空微电子微波、毫米波器件和其它强流电子注器件等较理想的电子源。