Low voltage silicon field emitters with gold gates

Gated silicon field emission cathodes have been fabricated by the self-aligned lift-off method. The addition of a gold gate not only simplifies processing, but also facilitates easy packaging and allows the placement of many devices on a single chip. Currents have been measured on 2500 tip arrays which follow Fowler-Nordheim characteristics over several decades. Field emission from these arrays begins at less than 20 V. Low frequency noise measurements exhibit spectral power density indices from 1.18 to 1.55. Single tip and small array devices are being characterized.