Temperature effects on gated silicon field emission array performance

Abstract

Silicon field emitter arrays (Si FEAs) are being explored as an electron source for vacuum channel transistors for high temperature electronics. Arrays of 1000 × 1000 silicon tip based gated field emitters were studied by measuring their electrical characteristics up to 40 V of DC gate bias with a 1.3 mA emission current at different temperatures from 25 to 400 °C. At ∼350 °C, residual gas analyzer measurements show that water desorption and carbon dioxide partial pressures increase significantly, the gate to emitter leakage current decreases by more than ten times, and the collector current increases by more than ten times. These improvements remained after heat-treatment but were then lost once the device was exposed to the atmosphere for several days. The improvements could be recovered upon additional baking suggesting that adsorbates (primarily water) on the surface affected field emission and surface leakage. It was also found that after heat-treatment, the electrical characteristics of the devices exhibited <3% variation in collector current at 40 V, which (without exposure to the atmosphere) can be termed as a weak temperature dependence. These results suggest that Si FEAs could be viable as a high temperature transistor.

Simulation Modelling of Silicon Gated Field Emitter Based Electronic Circuits

“…A Keysight B2902A source measurement unit was used to carry out the experiments. Elaborated test chamber setup and experimental details can be found in our previous works [7,19].…”

“…Currently, nano-and microscale vacuum channel devices are being fabricated to realize new generations of vacuum transistors (VT) with highfrequency response [6]. VT devices have proven to be insusceptible to high temperatures (400 • C) [7] and ionizing radiation (1 krad proton and 100 krad g radiation) [8,9]. A planar nanoscale vacuum channel transistor (NVCT) with a dimension that can be compared with a modern-day field effect transistor was demonstrated recently [10].…”

Регистрация Зависимости Числа Эмиссионных Центров От Времени Как Инструмент Анализа Токовых Флуктуаций Полевых Катодов

“…Реже встречаются регистрация и анализ гистерезиса ВАХ [9,10], расчет эффективной работы выхо-да [11], анализ стабильности уровня тока при скачках напряжения (переходные процессы) [9,12], регистрация масс-спектрометрических данных о составе летучих продуктов в межэлектродном пространстве (источник адсорбатов и ионного тока) [13], регистрация спектров распределения свободных электронов по энергиям [14], а также регистрация и анализ флуктуаций эмиссионного тока [15,16].…”