In-situ vacuum-sealed lateral FEAs with low turn-on voltage and high transconductance

We have fabricated a new lateral field emitter array, in-situ vacuum-sealed, which exhibits a low turn on voltage and a high transconductance value without any additional vacuum sealing process. The vacuum-sealed lateral FEA (VLFEA) is encapsulated during the fabrication process, so that field emission characteristics can be measured without any additional vacuum environments. Experimental current-voltage (I-V) characteristics show that the anode current is field emission current obeying the linearity of the Fowler-Nordheim (F-N) plot. The experimental turn-on voltage of about 9 V is in good agreement with the extracted one from the F-N plot. In order to verify the integrity of the vacuum sealed micro-cavity, we have measured the anode current of the VLFEA both in a high vacuum chamber and in an atmospheric environment and found that the structure is well sealed. The anode currents as a function of gate voltage of the Mo-sealed VLFEA are analyzed and transconductance is extracted. The experimental results show that the VLFEA has superior field emission characteristics, such as low turn-on voltage and high transconductance, and does not require any additional troublesome vacuum sealing