Gated diamond field emitter array with ultra low operating voltage and high emission current

Gated Diamond Field Emitter Array with ultra low operating voltage and high emission current has been reported for the first time. Two types of built-in gated diamond field emitter have been successfully fabricated: a volcano gated structure by self-align technique and a cap gated structure by electrostatic bonding. Diamond was deposited by PECVD on a silicon inverted pyramidal mold. The mold was then etched away. To construct the gated volcano emitter, a 2 /spl mu/m-thick SiO and a 1 /spl mu/m-thick Al were deposited on the diamond tips. Self-align technique was then performed to obtain the gated volcano structure with SiO as a gate dielectric and Al as a gate. To construct the cap gated emitter, an anode comprised of heavily doped silicon was electrostatically bonded to the substrate with a SiO/sub 2/ dielectric spacer between, forming an emitter-anode spacing of 2 /spl mu/m.