Effect of Process Variation on Field Emission Characteristics in Surface-Conduction Electron Emitters

Author

Hsiang-Yu Lo ; Yiming Li ; Chih-Hao Tsai ; Hsueh-Yung Chao ; Fu-Ming Pan

Author_Institution

Dept. of Commun. Eng., Nat. Chiao Tung Univ., Hsinchu

Volume

7

Issue

4

fYear

2008

fDate

7/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

434

Lastpage

439

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the effect of process variation on field emission characteristics in surface-conduction electron emitters. The structure of Pd thin-film emitter is fabricated on the substrate and the nanometer scale gap is formed by the focused ion beam technique. Different shapes of nanogaps due to the process variations are investigated by the experiment and three-dimensional Maxwell particle-in-cell simulation. Four deformation structures are examined, and it is found that the type 1 exhibits high emission efficiency due to a stronger electric field around the apex and larger emission current among structures. The electron emission current is dependent upon the angle of inclination of surface. Hydrogen plasma treatment is also used to increase the edge roughness of the nanogap and thereby dramatically improve the field emission characteristics. For the nanogap with a separation of 90 nm, the turn-on voltage significantly reduces from 60 to 20 V after the hydrogen plasma treatment.

Keywords

field emitter arrays; palladium; plasma materials processing; Pd; edge roughness; electron emission current; field emission; focused ion beam technique; hydrogen plasma treatment; surface-conduction electron emitters; three-dimensional Maxwell particle-in-cell simulation; Electron emission; Electron guns; Hydrogen; Ion beams; Plasma properties; Rough surfaces; Shape; Substrates; Surface roughness; Transistors; Angle of inclination of surface; Maxwell equations; Nanogap; Pd; angle of inclination of surface; field emission; hydrogen plasma; nanogap; palladium; particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation; particle-in-cell simulation; process variations; shape; surface conduction electron-emitters; surface-conduction electron emitters (SCEs); thin-film emitter; turn-on voltage;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Nanotechnology, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1536-125X

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/TNANO.2008.926347

Filename

4531756