Uniform High Current Field Emission of Electrons from Si and CNF FEAs Individually Controlled by Si Pillar Ungated FETs

We report the demonstration of the first dense (10⁶ emitters / cm²), high current (10 mA) array of individually ballasted field emitters that use vertical ungated field effect transistors (FETs) as current limiters. Each silicon or carbon nanofiber (CNF) emitter is individually connected in series with a silicon pillar ungated FET or current limiter (Fig. 1). The ungated FET takes advantage of the saturation of carrier velocity in silicon to obtain current source-like behavior - required for uniform and high current operation with small power dissipation.