Potentialities of a New Dedicated System for Real Time Field Emission Devices Characterization: A Case Study

Real time in-situ characterization of electron emitters is fundamental to evaluate the efficiency of field emission devices. We here present the potentialities of a new system for this purpose, since conventional electronic systems provide only an average of the total emission current of the device under test. Through the developed system, images generated in a phosphorescent anode are captured, processed and correlated with the emission current from the effective emitting centers of the cathode surface in real time. We discuss the advantages of applying the innovative features of the new system based on virtual instrumentation concept in contrast with the traditional methods of characterization. Finally, a case study demonstrates the functionalities of the new system. The results prove that our system is an innovative tool for extracting relevant parameters in field emission devices characterization.