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FIGURE 4.1. The Spindt microfabricated field emitter array. A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPINDT CATHODE 107program to develop microfabricated vacuum integrated circuits [3]. As a part of these activities he proposed a thin display tube based on matrix-addressed arrays of microfabricated field emitters -the field emission display, now commonly known as an FED [4]. This was the genesis of the VME technology that is presently being researched in essentially every industrial country in the world. As a part of Shoulder's program, Capp Spindt developed a process for microfabricating arrays of miniature metal field emitter cones in micron-size cavities with an integrated extraction electrode (gate). These structures were shown to produce detectable electron emission to an external anode with 20 V applied between the gate and the cones, and several microamperes of emission with 100 V applied between the cones and the gate. These results were first reported at the 1966 IEEE Conference on Tube Techniques [5], and in the open literature in 1968 [6]. Shoulders left SRI in 1968 to pursue other interests, and the emitter array development work continued at a low level, with internal funding by SRI until 1973. In 1973, support for development of a cold cathode for microwave tubes based on this microfabricated FEA technology was received from the NASA Lewis Research Center under the direction of Dr. Ralph Forman. At the same time Ivor Brodie, a well-known vacuum-tube expert, joined SRI as Director of the Applied Physics Laboratory, where the work was being done. One of Brodie's first acts was to initiate publication of the significant advances that had been made in the technology up to that time [7]. These two events, along with the concurrent development of large-area silicon emitter arrays at Westinghouse by Thomas and coworkers [8], were critical in taking the technology to the point that others began to take notice. In particular Richard Greene and Henry Gray at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), where thermionic vacuum integrated circuits developed at SRI by Geppert [9] were being evaluated, became interested in the technology and actively promoted it within the government as well as initiating NRL in-house work. In 1985 the French group at LETI, led by Robert Meyer, announced preliminary results with their efforts to produce a flat panel, field emission display (FED) based on the Spindt cathode [10]. The enormous commercial potential for such a product was immediately recognized by many throughout the world, and activity in the field (which by now was known as Vacuum Microelectronics) accelerated virtually overnight. SRI had also been working on a FED panel, and in 1987 Chris Holland, who was leading the panel fabrication effort at SRI, reported the first three-color FED panel [11]. At this time it became clear that many teams throughout the world were independently researching VME technology, but most were working in isolation and even innocent ignorance of others that were active in the field. Recognizing this, Richard Green...

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