TY - CHAP A1 - Schreiner, Rupert A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Bornmann, Benjamin A1 - Serbun, Pavel A1 - Navitski, Aliaksandr A1 - Müller, Günter T1 - Silicon-based integrated field emission electron sources for sensor application T2 - 24th International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference (IVNC), 2011 : 18 - 22 July 2011, Wuppertal, Germany N2 - We report on the design, fabrication and characterization of p-type silicon field emitter arrays for the application in compact fast switchable electron sources. Since standard silicon technology has been used to prepare the devices, they can be easily integrated with other silicon based sensors and electronic components, too. The emitter arrays consist of approx. 3×105 tips per cm2, with a tip radius less than 20 nm. By using self-aligned processes, an integrated gate electrode with a diameter of  3 μm was placed concentrically around the tips. A mesh of silicon-beams with a grating period of 100 μm and beam width of 20 μm forms the anode of the electron source. A glass wafer (thickness 300 μm) acts as spacer between anode and Si-tip cathode. Characterization of the field emission properties of the emitter arrays was performed by high resolution field emission scanning microscopy. The emitter arrays exhibit a highly stable and very homogeneous emission. A maximum stable current of 0.1 μA per tip was found. A saturation level in the voltage current characteristics, which was found at around 10 nA, supports current stabilisation and will enable optical modulation of the emission current. KW - anodes KW - cathodes KW - field emission electron microscopy KW - field emission electron sources KW - field emitter arrays KW - silicon tips KW - structured cold cathode KW - vacuum sensors Y1 - 2012 UR - https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/6004541?arnumber=6004541 SP - 19 EP - 20 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Navitski, Aliaksandr A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Serbun, Pavel A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Müller, Günter A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Homogeneous Field Emission Cathodes With Precisely Adjustable Geometry Fabricated by Silicon Technology JF - IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices N2 - Silicon-based cathodes with precisely aligned field emitter arrays of sharp tips applicable for miniaturized electron sources were successfully fabricated and characterized. This was made possible by an improved fabrication process using wet thermal oxidation, wet etching, and reactive-ion etching steps with adjustable anisotropy. As substrate materials, both p-doped silicon and n-doped silicon were used. The cathode chips contain about 3 × 10 5 Si tips/cm 2 in a triangular array with tip heights of 2.5 μm, tip radii of less than 30 nm, and spacing of 20 μm. Well-aligned field emission (FE) and excellent homogeneity from all tips (i.e., 100% efficiency) and maximum stable currents of typically 0.1 μA (0.6 μA) for p (n)-type Si were reproducibly achieved. The current-voltage characteristics of the p-Si tips exhibit the expected saturation at around 10 nA with around ten times better current stability, whereas the n-Si tips show the usual Fowler-Nordheim behavior. Additional coating of the Si tips with 5-nm Cr and 10-nm Au layers resulted in improved stability and at least five times higher average FE current limits (about 3 μA) at about 30% higher operation voltage. KW - cathodes KW - electron field emission KW - elemental semiconductors KW - Field emission (FE) cathodes KW - field emitter array (FEA) KW - miniaturized electron sources KW - oxidation KW - silicon KW - silicon tips KW - sputter etching Y1 - 2012 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2012.2206598 SN - 0018-9383 SN - 1557-9646 VL - 59 IS - 10 SP - 2832 EP - 2837 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Schreiner, Rupert A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Serbun, Pavel A1 - Bornmann, Benjamin A1 - Navitski, Aliaksandr A1 - Müller, Günter T1 - Highly uniform and stable electron field emission from B-doped Si-tip arrays for applications in integrated vacuum microelectronic devices T2 - 25th International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference (IVNC) - Jeju, Korea (South), 09.07. - 13.07.2012 N2 - In order to improve the uniformity and field emission stability of p-type silicon tip arrays for pulsed sensor applications, we have systematically studied the influence of the fabrication parameters on the tip shape and the specific operating conditions. Based on detailed design calculations of the field enhancement, we have fabricated a series of hexagonal arrays of B-doped Si-tips in a triangular arrangement, each containing a different number of tips (91, 575 and 1300) of 1 μm height, 20 nm apex radius, and 20 μm pitch. The field emission properties of both individual tips and complete arrays were investigated with by field emission scanning microscopy. The current plateaus of these tips typically occur at about 10 nA and 60 V/μm field level. In this carrier depletion range, single tips provide the highest current stability (<; 4%) and optical current switching ratios of ~2.5. Rather homogeneous emission of the tip arrays leads to an almost linear scaling of the saturation current (2 nA/tip) and to a much improved current stability (<; 1%) measured over 1 hour. KW - boron KW - circuit stability KW - elemental semiconductors KW - field emission ion microscopy KW - field emitter arrays KW - integrated optoelectronics KW - microfabrication KW - microsensors KW - optical switches KW - silicon tips Y1 - 2012 SN - 978-1-4673-1984-3 SN - 978-1-4673-1983-6 SN - 978-1-4673-1982-9 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/IVNC.2012.6316857 SN - 2380-6311 SN - 2164-2370 SP - 1 EP - 2 PB - IEEE CY - Piscataway, NJ. ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Ławrowski, Robert Damian A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Bachmann, Michael A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Fabrication and simulation of silicon structures with high aspect ratio for field emission devices T2 - 2014 27th International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference (IVNC), 6-10 July 2014, Engelberg, Switzerland N2 - To obtain higher field enhancement factors of Si-tip structures, we present an improved fabrication process utilizing reactive-ion etching (RIE) with an inductively coupled plasma (ICP). In our design, a pillar under the tips is realized by a combination of RIE with ICP. With adjusted power settings (≈ 240 W) and step times (<; 5 s), vertical slopes with a low roughness of approximately 10 nm to 20 nm are possible. The remaining silicon is oxidized thermally to sharpen the emitters. A final tip radius of R <; 20 nm is obtained for the tips of the emitters. The pillar height HP can be mainly adjusted by the duration of the ICP-etching step. A total emitter height of H ≈ 6 μm with a pillar height of HP ≈ 5 μm is achieved. Simulations with COMSOL Multiphysics® are applied to calculate the field enhancement factor β. A two-dimensional model is used in rotational symmetry. In addition to the previous model, a pillar with a varying diameter ØP and height HP is added. A conventional emitter (H = 1 μm and R = 20 nm) placed on a pillar of the height HP ≈ 5 μm approximately results in a three times higher β-factor (β≈ 105). By decreasing the diameter ØP a slight increase of the β-factor is observed. However, the aspect ratio of the emitter mainly influences on the β-factor. KW - Anodes KW - CATHODES KW - FABRICATION KW - field emission KW - field emitter array KW - field enhancement factor KW - Iterative closest point algorithm KW - Lead KW - silicon tips Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/IVNC.2014.6894805 SP - 193 EP - 194 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Bachmann, Michael A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Düsberg, F. A1 - Hofmann, Martin A1 - Pahlke, Andreas A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Ławrowski, Robert Damian A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Stability investigation of high aspect ratio n-type silicon field emitter arrays T2 - 2015 28th International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference (IVNC), 13-17 July 2015, Guangzhou, China N2 - Electron sources based on silicon field emitter arrays, produced in processes based on semiconductor technology, are good candidates for a miniaturized X-ray source. A key parameter for this application is the stability of the X-ray photon flux and, thus, the emission current. In the present work we have investigated the influence of the residual gas pressure and a resistor in series on the emission stability of a high aspect ratio n-type silicon emitter array with hybrid extraction electrode. An increase of current fluctuations was found for pressures above 10-6 mbar. High resistances in series to the emitter array alter the emission characteristics, but greatly suppress spikes in the emission current and improve its stability. This, however, strongly depends on the bias point. The field enhancement factor is not affected by the resistance. In a long term measurement the emission current was found to be constant after an initial phase of degradation. KW - Current measurement KW - emission current stability KW - field emitter array KW - Field emitter arrays KW - RESISTANCE KW - Resistors KW - semiconductor field emission KW - silicon KW - silicon tips KW - Stability analysis KW - Thermal stability KW - XRF spectroscopy Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/IVNC.2015.7225584 SP - 204 EP - 205 PB - IEEE ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Edler, Simon A1 - Hansch, Walter A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Influence of adsorbates on the performance of a field emitter array in a high voltage triode setup T2 - International Vacuum Nanoelectronics Conference (IVNC), 31st, 2018, Kyoto, Japan N2 - The influence of residual gas pressure on the characteristics of black-Silicon field emitter arrays in a high voltage triode setup is investigated. I-Vcharacteristics at different pressure levels show a decrease of emission current with rising pressure. This can be explained by an increase of the work function and charging of the emitter surface due to adsorbates. The initial characteristics can be restored by heating the FEA up to 110 °C during electron emission. This regeneration procedure enables an extension of the lifetime from about 20 h to 440 h at a residual gas pressure of 10 -5 mbar. KW - semiconductor field emission KW - field emitter array KW - silicon tips KW - emission current stability Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1109/IVNC.2018.8520214 PB - IEEE ER -