Abstract :
In this paper, I have presented an overview of research activities on vacuum microelectronics in Japan. First, I have introduced various structures and materials of field emitter arrays (FEAs) recently developed such as vertical, lateral, n/p-junction and diamond tips. Beam focusing results obtained with double-gated and in-plane-lens-structured FEAs have also been mentioned. Next, I have introduced various application devices of FEAs such as field emission displays (FEDs) and magnetic sensors. Then, I have presented evaluation techniques of FEA performances, especially pointing out the effectiveness of scanning Maxwell-stress microscopy (SMM) for the nano-scale evaluation of the structures and work function of the tips. Finally, I have discussed attempts made in the past few years to develop a new generation FEA capable of actively controlling and stabilizing the emission current. I have introduced a new Si FEA with a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (MOSFET) structure recently developed. The current stabilization effects of resistor connections and tip integration have also been discussed with clear experimental results.
