Joule heating of field emitter tip fabricated on glass substrate

Abstract

Field emitters on glass substrate are highly attractive for the development of field emission display. Needlelike Si field emitter tips having very high aspect ratio can be fabricated by applying anodization to Si having optimally designed pn junction at the surface. In previous MNC, we have demonstrated a novel device transfer technique which can fabricated Si field emitter tips on glass substrate. The array of field emitter tips thus fabricated operated well and luminescence of phosphor screen due to field emitter was demonstrated. On the other hand, recent study of field emission from the needlelike Si tips fabricated on glass substrate has shown a hysteresis in current-voltage characteristics. The hysteresis is peculiar to the tips on glass substrate. The characteristics observed have suggested the occurrence of significant Joule heating while field emission. In fact, at high current operation, the apex of the emitter tip observed to be melted. The Joule heating of emitter tip formed on the glass substrate having low-thermal-conductivity gets importance from the viewpoint of both emission characteristic and reliability. In this report, measurement of temperature rise at the emitter during electron emission is carried out and we elucidate the Joule heating from field emitter tip on the glass substrate.