SILICON FIELD-EMISSION TRANSISTORS AND DIODES

Uniform, sharp point, and wedge type field emitter arrays (FEA's) have been fabricated by using orientation dependent etching (ODE) and reoxidation sharpening techniques. This fabrication process results in very sharp and reproducible silicon field emitters which have yielded electron emission currents exceeding 20 muA per tip for the point-like structures with under 90-V turn-on extraction voltages. Collected currents of 5 muA were obtained on wedge arrays at 300 V. Arrays of up to 30 000 pyramidal point type emitters have been fabricated. A process has also been developed for sealing these microtriodes in a vacuum. In this configuration, these devices may be handled like a transistor in air. These devices possess potential applicability to high temperature, transistors, and diodes with high kilowatt power at high frequencies (> 1 GHz), and for high brightness-high resolution displays.