Micro-Plasma Field Effect Transistor Operating With DC Plasma

This letter presents the smallest microplasma field effect transistor (MOPFET) reported to date. The MOPFET has a gaseous (atmospheric pressure He) channel and operates in the sub-Paschen breakdown regime, where the channel breakdown voltage depends (nearly) linearly on the channel length. The gate field effect is explained by noting that the channel ionization depends on the primary electron density that is controlled by both V_DS and V_G; negative V_G increased the channel electron density lowering the channel breakdown voltage (V_DS-B), whereas positive V_G attracted the channel electrons and reduced their density for ionization in the channel increasing the V_DS-B. A simple empirical model using Townsend breakdown criteria is developed to include the effect of the gate electric field in V_DS-B.