Silicon field emission triodes and diodes

Abstract

Uniform, sharp point and wedge type field emitter arrays (FEAs) were fabricated by using orientation-dependent etching and reoxidation sharpening techniques. This fabrication process results in very sharp and reproducible silicon field emitters which have yielded electron emission currents exceeding 20 mu A/tip for the pointlike structures with under 90-V turn-on extraction voltages. Collected currents of 5 mu A were obtained on wedge arrays at 300 V. Arrays of up to 30000 pyramidal point type emitters have been fabricated. Arrays of these devices have potential applicability to microvacuum tube transistors when sealed in microvacuum cavity arrays. These devices possess potential applicability to high-temperature transistors and diodes with high kW power at high frequencies (>1 GHz) and to high-brightness, high-resolution displays.<>