Studies on MEMS Vacuum Sensor Based on Field Emission of Silicon Tips Array

Author

Wen, Weiren ; Wang, Lingyun ; Gao, Junchuan ; Sun, Daoheng

Author_Institution

Dept. of Mech. Electronical Eng., Xiamen Univ.

fYear

2007

fDate

16-19 Jan. 2007

Firstpage

199

Lastpage

202

Abstract

In this paper, we present our recent works on the fabrication and testing of a novel MEMS (micro electro mechanical systems) vacuum sensor based on field emission of silicon tips array. The prototype vacuum sensor had been fabricated and tested under some conditions. It worked as a diode, having the voltage as the input and field emission current as output, with threshold voltage of approximate 7V and breakdown voltage of about 265V. When the pressure fell from 0.037Pa to 0.0077Pa, the field emission current increased from 80.3muA to 96.3muA. This work suggests a potential application of field emission to vacuum sensor.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; microsensors; silicon; vacuum measurement; 0.0077 Pa; 0.037 Pa; 80.3 muA; 96.3 muA; MEMS fabrication; MEMS testing; field emission; microelectromechanical systems vacuum sensor; silicon tips array; threshold voltage; Fabrication; Mechanical sensors; Mechanical systems; Micromechanical devices; Sensor arrays; Sensor systems; Silicon; System testing; Threshold voltage; Vacuum systems; field emission; silicon tip; vacuum sensor;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Nano/Micro Engineered and Molecular Systems, 2007. NEMS '07. 2nd IEEE International Conference on

Conference_Location

Bangkok

Print_ISBN

1-4244-0610-2

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/NEMS.2007.352261

Filename

4160564