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- peer-reviewed (31)
The authors report on the fabrication and characterization of p-type Si tip arrays with an integrated gate electrode for applications as field emission electron sources. After the reactive ion etching of the emitters, the combined thermal dry and wet oxidation was used for both the sharpening of the emitters and for the realization of an enhanced insulation layer. Au was evaporated in a self-aligned process as gate electrode. Arrays of 16 Si tips were fabricated with tip heights of about 3 μm and tip radii of about 20 nm with integrated gate electrode concentrically positioned ≈2 μm below the tip apex. Integral measurements with an additional anode showed improved field emission properties with a reproducible and stable emission behavior. A fast activation of the tips, low onset voltages of about 30 V, and moderate field emission currents up to 0.55 μA were noticed. The field emission parameters were calculated using the Fowler–Nordheim characteristics. A pronounced saturation regime was observed, and current fluctuations of less than ±1% were investigated for 30 min. Long-term measurements were carried out for a period of more than 8 h. In the first 6 h of operation, the authors observed a drift of the emission current from 0.35 to 0.55 μA caused by an increased emission surface.
Fabrication and simulation of silicon structures with high aspect ratio for field emission devices
(2014)
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.
A compact vacuum-sealed field emission electron gun with an operation voltage below 5 kV is presented. With a 150 nm thick pyrolytic carbon membrane, a transmission of 40% at 5 kV is obtained. For more than 2500 h of continuous operation at an emission current of 100 nA, no significant increase (<50V ) and almost no degradation were found. From this measurement, a lifetime of more than 10 000 h at continuous operation with approximately a linear increase of the extraction voltage from about 545 V to about 730 V is predicted. This electron source enables application of field emitter arrays in poor vacuum or even ambient pressure.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy under Project No. ZF4081502GM8. C.P., R.L., M.H., and R.S. were supported by Grant No. ZF4562901GM8.
Influence of adsorbates on the performance of a field emitter array in a high voltage triode setup
(2017)
In the present work, black-silicon field emitter arrays (FEAs) are investigated regarding the influence of residual gas pressure on the characteristics and lifetime in the high voltage triode setup. Current-voltage-characteristics at different pressure levels are recorded and show a decreasing emission current with rising pressure. This decrease can be explained by an increase of the work function and charging of the emitter surface caused by adsorbates. The emission current can be restored to its initial value by heating of the FEA up to 110 °C during active emission. With this regeneration procedure, an extended lifetime from about 20 h to 440 h at a residual gas pressure of 10−5 mbar is achieved.
The components for a silicon chip electron source were fabricated by laser micromachining using pulsed laser ablation and wet chemical cleaning and etching dips. The field emission electron source consists of a silicon field emission cathode with 4 × 4 conical shaped emitters with a height of 250 μm and a tip radius of about 50 nm, a 50 μm thick laser-structured mica spacer, and a silicon grid electrode with a grid periodicity of 200 μm and a bar width of 50 μm. These three components are combined to a single chip with the size of 14 × 10 mm2 and the thickness of 1 mm to form the electron source. Several of these devices were characterized in ultrahigh vacuum. Onset voltages of about 165 V and cathode currents of about 15 μA for voltages lower than 350 V were observed. Operating the electron source with an anode voltage of 500 V and an extraction grid voltage of 300 V yielded a cathode current of 4.5 μA ± 8.9%, an anode current of 4.0 μA ± 9.6%, and a corresponding grid transmittance of 89%. Regulating the anode current by the extraction grid voltage, an extremely stable anode current of 5.0 μA ± 0.017% was observed. A long-term measurement over 120 h was performed, and no significant degradation or failure was observed.
At the moment, only complicated techniques are known for the determination of array properties of field emitter arrays such as the number of active tips, the current distribution, or the individual tip radii. In this work, a method for extracting these parameters from integral measurement data is presented. A model describing the characteristics of a single emitter, including the saturation as a function of the applied voltage and the emitter radius, is developed. It is shown that experimental data of field emitter arrays can be represented as the sum of these functions and the characteristic parameters can be fitted to field emission data of an array. Using this method, the values of the radii as well as the parameters of distribution models can be determined directly. Analysis of experimental data from p-type Si emitter arrays shows that only 1–2% of the tips contribute significantly.
Extraction of the characteristics of current-limiting elements from field emission measurement data
(2017)
In this contribution, the authors will present an algorithm to extract the characteristics of nonideal field emission circuit elements from saturation-limited field emission measurement data. The method for calculating the voltage drop on current-limiting circuit elements is based on circuit theory as well as Newton's method. Since the only assumption the authors make on the current-limiting circuit is a connection in series, this method is applicable to most field emission data showing saturation. To be able to determine the significance of any parameter output, the uncertainties of data and extracted parameters as well as the parameter correlations are fully taken into account throughout the algorithm. N-type silicon samples with varying external serial resistors are analyzed. All results show a good agreement to the nominal resistor values. Additionally, several p-type samples are analyzed, showing a diodelike behavior. The extracted current-limiting characteristics of the p-type samples are in good agreement with a pn-junction model. The stability of the emission current of the p-type samples is measured by constant voltage measurements and compared to the extracted current-limiting characteristics. The application of the algorithm to measurement data shows that the given algorithm is a valuable tool to analyze field emission measurement data influenced by nonemissive processes.
We report on a method to stabilize the transmitted electron flux in a field-emission electron source using an external regulation circuit. The electron source was realized with an array of silicon (Si) nanowhiskers on the top of elongated pillar structures, a mica spacer, and an extraction grid made of Si. As for most applications, the emitted electron current from the cathode is not as crucial as the transmitted electron flux through the extraction grid toward the anode. We investigated a method which allows the regulation directly by the emitted electron flux and not merely on the cathode current. By using this method, we were able to stabilize the emitted electron flux of our electron source down to values below 1%. Simultaneously, it was shown that there is the possibility to stabilize the influencing value in the real application as well. The effectiveness of this method was demonstrated successfully with an X-ray source setup. The measured X-ray photon count rate was stabilized to a standard deviation of 0.30% at a pressure of 1 × 10 -7 mbar. Even in harsh environment of 2 × 10 -5 mbar, a stabilization of the X-ray photon count rate down to a value of 0.63% was achieved.
The homogeneity of emitters is very important for the performance of field emission (FE) devices. Reactive-ion etching (RIE) and oxidation have significant influences on the geometry of silicon tips. The RIE influences mainly the anisotropy of the emitters. Pressure has a strong impact on the anisotropic factor. Reducing the pressure results in a higher anisotropy, but the etch rate is also lower. A longer time of etching compensates this effect. Furthermore an improvement of homogeneity was observed. The impact of uprating is quite low for the anisotropic factor, but significant for the homogeneity. At low power the height and undercut of the emitters are more constant over the whole wafer. The oxidation itself is very homogeneous and has no observable effect on further variation of the homogeneity. This modified fabrication process allows solving the problem of inhomogeneity of previous field emission arrays.
Precisely aligned arrays of sharp tip structures on top of elongated pillars were realized by using an improved fabrication process including an additional inductively-coupled-plasma reactive-ion etching step. Arrays of n-type and p-type silicon with 271 tips have been fabricated and investigated. Those structures have a total height of 5–6 µm and apex radii less than 20nm. Integral field emission measurements of the arrays yielded low onset-fields in the range of 8–12V=µm and field enhancement factors between 300 and 700. The I-E curves of n-type structures showed the usual Fowler-Nordheim behaviour, whereas p-type structures revealed a significant saturation region due to the limited number of electrons in the conduction band and a further carrier depletion effect caused by the pillar. The maximum integral current in the saturation region was 150 nA at fields above 30V=µm. An excellent stability of the emission current of less than ± 2% fluctuation was observed in the saturation region. For n-type Si a maximum integral current of 10 µA at 24V=µm and an average current stability with a fluctuation of ± 50% were measured.
Silicon tip arrays were fabricated by means of reactive ion etching followed by oxidation for final sharpening and molybdenum thin film coating. The field-emission (FE) properties of these Mo-coated p-Si tip arrays were systemically investigated by different measurement techniques. Integral measurements in diode configuration yielded a turn-on field (for 1 nA) of 22 V/μm and nearly stable FE currents up to 6.6 μA at 38 V/μm. The effective field enhancements factor extracted from the FN plots is about 180. Detailed investigations of these FE arrays were also performed by means of field emission scanning microscopy combined with electron microscopy. A rather limited efficiency of the tips (50% at 1500 V) and FE homogeneity (180 nA at 700 V) might be correlated with the varying morphology of the tips and the presence of oxides. Local I-V measurements of selected single tips revealed both activation and deactivation effects, which finally resulted in nearly reproducible I-V curves. Current stability measurements at a constant voltage showed rather large fluctuations (0.1-1 μA) of the FE current, which could be reduced up to 1.7% by using of a PID-regulated voltage source. SEM images showed unchanged tip shape after the current processing.
In this contribution we report on field emission (FE) cathodes based on thin-film LED-technology and surface texturing. The FE cathode can be used both as an n-GaN cathode with an electrical contact at the top side metallization as well as a pn-GaN diode contacting only the p-GaN layer at the bottom side of the structure. The local and integral FE properties of the textured surface of the LED structure were investigated. For n-GaN an integral emission current up to 1.0 μA at an electric field of 19 V/μm was achieved. The pn-GaN diode measurements showed an integral current saturation behavior with two orders of magnitude lower FE currents. Regulated voltage scans obtained by FE scanning microscopy revealed a well-distributed emission over the whole cathode area. Measurements under pulsed tunable laser illumination and moderate electric fields indicated charge carrier generation in the buried double-heterostructures at photon energies below 3.5 eV besides normal photoemission above 4.1 eV.
Aligned square arrays of black silicon (b-Si) on top of pillars were fabricated on p-type silicon substrate by a deep-etching step combined with a b-Si process. Two 10×10 arrays with pillar heights of 8 μm and 20 μm and one b-Si reference sample without pillars were investigated. Integral field emission (FE) measurements of the arrays yielded rather low onset-fields between 6.4 V/μm and 13.5 V/μm and field enhancement factors between 430 and 800. The I-V curves showed typical Fowler-Nordheim behavior for low fields, whereas a saturation region was observed at higher fields. The maximum integral current in the saturation region was 8 μA at a field of 20 V/μm. The stability of the emission current was investigated over 3 hours and revealed moderate fluctuations of ± 8% in the saturation region. Voltage scans showed well-aligned FE from nearly all pillars.
We report on the simulation and fabrication of nanostructured silicon surfaces for field emission (FE) applications, e.g. ionization sensors and x-ray tubes. For the design and optimization of field-emitting silicon structures, the influence of the geometric parameters like tip height, apex radius, aperture angle and curvature shape on the field enhancement factor was investigated by simulation using finite element method. A universal geometric model which describes the real geometry of our silicon structures sufficiently accurate was taken for modeling a variety of different silicon tip structures as well as ridge structures. While a high dependency of the field enhancement on the aspect ratio and the aperture angle was found, the simulations show that the elliptic curvature affects the field enhancement only marginally. Finally, an improved process for fabrication of such silicon structures on n-type as well as p-type substrate is described, using reactive ion etching with adjustable anisotropy, wet thermal oxidation and wet etching.
The homogeneity of emitters is very important for the performance of field emission (FE) devices. Reactive-ion etching (RIE) and oxidation have significant influences on the geometry of silicon tips. The RIE influences mainly the anisotropy of the emitters. Pressure has a strong impact on the anisotropic factor. Reducing the pressure results in a higher anisotropy, but the etch rate is also lower. A longer time of etching compensates this effect. Furthermore an improvement of homogeneity was observed. The impact of uprating is quite low for the anisotropic factor, but significant for the homogeneity. At low power the height and undercut of the emitters are more constant over the whole wafer. The oxidation itself is very homogeneous and has no observable effect on further variation of the homogeneity. This modified fabrication process allows solving the problem of inhomogeneity of previous field emission arrays.
We have investigated the properties of single n- and p-type black silicon (b-Si) pillars with a height of 20 μ m under strong electric field and halogen lamp or laser illumination. For both type of b-Si pillar structures, I-V measurements revealed strong activation effects, which consisted in sudden current increases during the first up/down voltage sweeps. The maximum reproducible emission current from a single n-type b-Si pillar structure was about 15 μ A. A pronounced saturation region at 240 nA was observed for a single p-type b-Si pillar. The current fluctuation over time showed a standard deviation of 28% and 2.5% for n- and p-type single b-Si pillar structures, respectively. Optical switching under halogen lamp illumination resulted in at least 3 times higher saturation currents and showed a linear dependence of the FE current on the laser power.
Microrods and microlines by three-dimensional epitaxially grown GaN for field emission cathodes
(2017)
The three-dimensional epitaxial technique allows the realization of gallium nitride lines in addition to the rods. To optimize the properties of GaN-based field emission cathodes further investigations and an improvement of the epitaxial process were performed. The microrods and microlines consist of a one-order higher n-doped gallium nitride in comparison to the gallium nitride layer on the sapphire substrate. The typical height of the microrods and -lines is about 5 μm. The field emission properties of these structures were investigated in diode configuration by integral field emission measurements at pressures below 10 -9 mbar. For the microrods (microlines) a voltage of 1100 V (2000 V) was measured for a field emission current of about 0.5 μA with an onset field of about 12 MV/m (24 MV/m). Furthermore, the field enhancement factors for microrods and -lines are in the range of 300 and 200, respectively.
Photosensitivity of single lightly p-doped, highly p-doped, with an integrated p/n junction and intrinsic high-aspect-ratio (HAR) silicon tips was investigated in an ultra-high vacuum environment. The current-voltage characteristics (I-V) of the lightly doped p-type HAR tips showed a characteristic current saturation at around 10-12 nA, whereas the HAR Si tips with p/n junction showed similar saturation phenomena, however, at much smaller current values starting at ~20-30 pA. Optical switching under a halogen lamp illumination resulted in at least 2-4 times higher saturation currents and showed a linear dependence between the illumination power and the FE current, for both types of structures. In case of the highly p-doped HAR tips optical current switching effects, i. e. current saturation, were observed at rather low current levels 1-2 pA. Intrinsic HAR Si-tips showed relative unstable field emission behavior without a clear evidence of the photosensitivity.
We investigated two different field emitter arrays consisting of 10×10 p-type and 10×10 undoped Au-coated high aspect ratio silicon tips. The I-V characterization of the p-type sample showed a pronounced saturation for voltages higher than 500 V and a maximum emission current of 39 nA. The metallized sample revealed a FN-like emission up to several μA. The metallized and the p-type sample operating below the saturation region showed high current fluctuations of ±16%. Whereas, the metallized sample with current regulation and the p-type sample in the saturation yielded a current stability of ±0.4% and ±0.3%, respectively. Investigations in the frequency domain revealed the for field emission typical 1/f-noise. By operating in the saturation region (p-type sample) or using an emission current regulation (metallized sample) the noise level was reduced by at least 20 dB. Finally, the p-type sample was illuminated by a light emitting diode to increase and modulate the emission current in the saturation region. The emission current was increased by a factor of 3.7 to 145 nA. With this configuration we emulated an unstable emission behavior and evaluated the performance of our emission current regulation circuit.