High field insulation relevant to vacuum microelectronic devices

This paper briefly introduces the authors' recent results on high field vacuum insulation relevant to vacuum microelectronics. It addresses the key factors that contribute to the failure of the vacuum gap insulation. Approaches to the development of specific solutions to improve the vacuum gap breakdown voltages are presented. Solutions to alleviate the edge breakdown effect in the thin-film vacuum gap and to inhibit the formation of electrical activity in the spacer triple junction area were proven to be very effective in improving the vacuum insulation performance of vacuum microelectronics. The influence of the presence of an electron beam on the plain-vacuum-gap insulation is also reported.