Vacuum microelectronic integrated differential amplifier

Author

Hsu, S.H. ; Kang, W.P. ; Davidson, Jennifer L. ; Huang, J.H. ; Kerns, D.V.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Vanderbilt Univ., Nashville, TN, USA

Volume

48

Issue

19

fYear

2012

Firstpage

1219

Lastpage

1220

Abstract

Reported is a novel vacuum field emission transistor (VFET) differential amplifier (diff-amp) utilising nanocrystalline diamond emitters with self-aligned gate partitions. The integrated VFET diff-amp was fabricated by a dual-mask self-aligned mould transfer method in conjunction with chemical vapour deposited nanodiamond. Identical pairs of devices with well-matched field emission transistor characteristics were obtained, realising a negligible common-mode gain, high differential-mode gain, and large common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) of 55 dB. The emission current was validated by a modified Fowler-Nordheim equation in transistor configuration, and the CMRR was modelled by an equivalent half-circuit with the calculated result found to agree well with the experimental value.

Keywords

chemical vapour deposition; diamond; differential amplifiers; field effect transistors; nanostructured materials; vacuum microelectronics; CMRR; VFET diff-amp; chemical vapour deposited nanodiamond; common-mode gain; common-mode rejection ratio; differential-mode gain; dual-mask self-aligned mould transfer method; emission current; equivalent half-circuit; modified Fowler-Nordheim equation; nanocrystalline diamond emitters; self-aligned gate partitions; transistor configuration; vacuum field emission transistor; vacuum microelectronic integrated differential amplifier;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Electronics Letters

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0013-5194

Type

jour

DOI

10.1049/el.2012.1245

Filename

6317248