Fabrication of Glass Sealed X-ray Tube with High Performance Carbon Nanotube Electron Beam (C-Beam)

We developed a vacuum-sealed X-ray tube with glass envelope using carbon nanotube electron beam (C-beam). The C-beam was fabricated with resist-assisted patterning (RAP)-grown carbon nanotube (CNT) emitters. The CNT emitters grown on silicon wafer were bonded with metal carrier on cathode to reduce outgassing. The C-beam show very stable electron emission current after 600 degrees C vacuum annealing, with more than 90% of electrons from cathode transmission passing through gate electrode. With the C-beam modules, we fabricated an X-ray tube with vacuum sealing technique and confirmed its performance with imaging of high-resolution printed circuit board. Micron-scale metal lines were well resolved with the tube.