Parallel electron beam micro-column with self-aligned carbon nanotube emitters

Author

Tsai, C.H. ; Ho, J.Y. ; Ono, T. ; Esashi, M.

Author_Institution

Tohoku Univ., Sendai

fYear

2008

fDate

13-17 Jan. 2008

Firstpage

355

Lastpage

358

Abstract

In this paper, we have proposed, fabricated and characterized a parallel electron beam micro-column with single-stranded carbon nanotube (CNT) filed emitters. The integrated micro-column consists of a self-aligned CNT field emitter array (FEA), and a multi-layered electrostatic Si focusing lens array. In our design, the emitters, gate and electrostatic lens array are electrically isolated, and each source can be controlled individually. Electron emission performance of the fabricated CNT/Si emitter was characterized. The best turn-on fields, defined as the field required to generate an emission current of 1 nA, were approximately 6 V. When applying a gate voltage of 100 V, a 110 nA anode current is measured. It is seen that CNT/Si emitter showed low threshold voltage; however, the emission current fluctuation was high during high voltage operation.

Keywords

anodes; carbon nanotubes; current fluctuations; electrostatic lenses; elemental semiconductors; field emitter arrays; micromechanical devices; nanotube devices; silicon; Si; anode current measurement; current 1 nA; current 110 nA; electron emission performance; emission current fluctuation; high voltage operation; low threshold voltage values; multilayered electrostatic focusing lens array; parallel electron beam microcolumn fabrication; self-aligned carbon nanotube emitters; turn-on fields characterization; voltage 100 V; Anodes; Carbon nanotubes; Current measurement; Electron beams; Electron emission; Electrostatics; Field emitter arrays; Lenses; Optical design; Threshold voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, 2008. MEMS 2008. IEEE 21st International Conference on

Conference_Location

Tucson, AZ

ISSN

1084-6999

Print_ISBN

978-1-4244-1792-6

Electronic_ISBN

1084-6999

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/MEMSYS.2008.4443666

Filename

4443666