Diamond field emission devices

Abstract

Electron field emitter two and three terminal devices can be a new generation of micro-vacuum devices with potential high-speed capability and high temperature and radiation tolerance. Diamond emitters have excellent emission properties. We have developed micro-patterned diamond microtips on diamond films by a mold technique. We will discuss the fabrication of a self-align gated diamond emitter triode and present the emission and device characteristics of the diode and triode with low turn-on voltage and high emission current. For example, a diamond triode with low gate turn-on voltage of 10 V and high gain factor of 250 is reported. The gated diamond triode was fabricated with a self-aligning gate technique on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. I a– V g plot of emission characteristics with 4 tips shows a very low gate turn-on voltage of 10 V and high emission current of 6 μA at gate voltage of 20 V. I a– V a plots of emission characteristics demonstrate the desired saturation behavior of field emission transistor with a high voltage gain of 250. The low turn-on gate voltage and high gain factor comparable to solid-state devices, confirming the diamond field emission triode has significant potential for IC-compatible vacuum microelectronic applications and beyond. I a– V a plots of emission characteristics (Figure below) demonstrate the saturation behavior of a field emission transistor with a high voltage gain factor of 250. The diamond triode has a high transconductance of ∼2.5 μS (4 tips) at a low operating gate voltage of 20 V. Fowler–Nordhiem (F–N) plots confirm that diamond field emission triode conforms to emission behaviors.