Silicon field emission transistors and diodes

Abstract

Uniform, sharp point, and wedge-type field emitter arrays (FEAs) have been fabricated by using orientation dependent etching (ODE) and reoxidation sharpening techniques. This fabrication process results in very sharp and reproducible silicon field emitters which have yielded electron emission currents exceeding 20 mu A per tip for the pointlike structures with under 90-V turn-on extraction voltages. Collected currents of 5 mu A were obtained on wedge arrays at 300 V. Arrays of up to 30000 pyramidal point-type emitters have been fabricated. A process has also been developed for sealing these microtriodes in a vacuum. In this configuration, these devices may be handled like a transistor in air. These devices possess potential applicability to high-temperature transistors and diodes with high kilowatt power at high frequencies >1 GHz and for high-brightness-high-resolution displays. >