TY - JOUR A1 - Serbun, Pavel A1 - Bornmann, Benjamin A1 - Navitski, Aliaksandr A1 - Müller, Günter A1 - Prommesberger, Christian A1 - Langer, Christoph A1 - Dams, Florian A1 - Schreiner, Rupert T1 - Stable field emission of single B-doped Si tips and linear current scaling of uniform tip arrays for integrated vacuum microelectronic devices JF - Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B Nanotechnology and Microelectronics N2 - Advanced Si-based semiconductor technology is most suitable to fabricate uniform nanostructures as integrated field emitter arrays for novel vacuum electronic devices. In order to improve the field emission homogeneity and stability of p-type silicon tip arrays for pulsed sensor applications, the authors have systematically studied the influence of the fabrication parameters on the tip shape and on the specific operating conditions. Based on detailed design calculations of the field enhancement, they have fabricated two series of hexagonal arrays of B-doped Si-tips in a triangular arrangement. The first (second) type contains three (four) patches with different number of tips (1, 91, 547 and 1, 19, 1027, 4447 for the first and second type, respectively) of about 1 (2.5) μm height, ∼20 (20) nm apex radius, and 20 (10) μm pitch. The field emission properties of both individual tips and complete arrays were investigated with a field emission scanning microscope at a pressure of 10−9 mbar. The current plateau of these tips typically occurs at about 10 (3) nA and around 65 (25) V/μm field level. In this carrier saturation range, single tips provide the highest current stability (<5%) and optical current switching ratio (∼2.5). Fairly homogeneous emission of the tip arrays leads to an undershooting of the expected linear scaling of the mean plateau current as well as to a much improved current stability (<1%). Y1 - 2013 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1116/1.4765088 VL - 31 IS - 2 PB - AIP Publishing 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 -