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Homogeneous Field Emission Cathodes With Precisely Adjustable Geometry Fabricated by Silicon Technology

  • 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.

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Metadaten
Author:Florian Dams, Aliaksandr Navitski, Christian PrommesbergerORCiD, Pavel Serbun, Christoph LangerORCiD, Günter Müller, Rupert SchreinerORCiDGND
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1109/TED.2012.2206598
ISSN:0018-9383
ISSN:1557-9646
Parent Title (English):IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices
Publisher:IEEE
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of first Publication:2012
Release Date:2022/12/09
Tag:Field emission (FE) cathodes; cathodes; electron field emission; elemental semiconductors; field emitter array (FEA); miniaturized electron sources; oxidation; silicon; silicon tips; sputter etching
Volume:59
Issue:10
First Page:2832
Last Page:2837
Institutes:Fakultät Angewandte Natur- und Kulturwissenschaften
Fakultät Angewandte Natur- und Kulturwissenschaften / Labor Mikrosensorik
Begutachtungsstatus:peer-reviewed
research focus:Produktion und Systeme
Licence (German):Keine Lizenz - Es gilt das deutsche Urheberrecht: § 53 UrhG