Materials development and current transport in vacuum microelectronic devices

Author

Rack, Philip D. ; Li, Jie ; Ostdiek, Paul ; Peterson, Jeffrey J. ; Li, Linh ; Rogelstad, Terrance

Author_Institution

Dept. of Microelectron. Eng., Rochester Inst. of Technol., NY, USA

fYear

2001

fDate

6/23/1905 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

140

Lastpage

143

Abstract

A simple vacuum diode structure has been fabricated using standard microelectronic processing and the electron transport has been investigated. Tungsten and tungsten-carbon thin films have been evaluated and the work function of the tungsten-carbon emitter material was determined to be ~3.6 eV. A sharpened emitter structure was also fabricated which had a significantly lower turn-on field due to a geometric enhancement in the emitter tip. The electron transport was found to conduct along the surface of the device, which was attributed to dielectric loading of the underlying SiO₂ layer. Other contributions which affect the electron trajectory were suggested such as electron-electron Coulomb repulsion as well as dynamic surface charging

Keywords

electric current; electron field emission; integrated circuit technology; vacuum microelectronics; work function; 3.6 eV; SiO₂; W; WC; current transport; dielectric loading; dynamic surface charging; electron device surface conduction; electron trajectory; electron transport; electron-electron Coulomb repulsion; emitter tip; geometric enhancement; materials development; sharpened emitter structure; standard microelectronic processing; tungsten thin films; tungsten-carbon emitter material; tungsten-carbon thin films; turn-on field; underlying SiO₂ layer; vacuum diode structure; vacuum microelectronic devices; work function; CMOS technology; Electron guns; Etching; Microelectronics; Semiconductor diodes; Space technology; Surface charging; Testing; Tungsten; Vacuum technology;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

University/Government/Industry Microelectronics Symposium, 2001. Proceedings of the Fourteenth Biennial

Conference_Location

Richmond, VA

ISSN

0749-6877

Print_ISBN

0-7803-6691-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/UGIM.2001.960316

Filename

960316