Field effect controlled lateral field emission triode

Abstract

Lateral field emission transistors show promise for many high frequency and high power applications. Typical lateral devices place a gate roughly in between the cathode tip and the anode. While effective, such devices require large gate voltages for device control. This study proposes relocating the gate on top of the semiconductor cathode stem, behind its emitting tip, allowing field effect transistor based control of the transistor. Both enhancement and depletion mode are possible, and the gate bias range needed for control becomes an easily designed parameter. Example structures are modeled where this range is about 1 V. Relocation of the gate has the additional benefit of simplifying the region between the anode and the cathode tip, thus opening up the possibility of shrinking their spacing.