Characterization of Gated Cold Cathode Fabrication Using Standing Thin-Film Technique

We have proposed a novel process of fabricating a high-aspect-ratio tip structure, which utilizes the bending of a cantilever made of a sputter deposited WSi₂ film induced by ion irradiation. We demonstrated high-current field-electron emission from a gated field emitter array (FEA) fabricated by using the thin-film standing technique. In this paper, characterization of the FEA particularly in terms of emission stability and uniformity is reported. We find an ac-driving is more suitable than a dc-driving in order to decrease the required number of tips in a pixel and to meet the requirement of FED application.