Hafnium carbide films and film-coated field emission cathodes

Author

Mackie, W.A. ; Xie, Tianbao ; Blackwood, J.E. ; Williams, S.C. ; Davis, P.R.

Author_Institution

Linfield Res. Inst., McMinnville, OR, USA

fYear

1996

fDate

7-12 Jul 1996

Firstpage

240

Lastpage

244

Abstract

We have previously reported on field emission improvements in turn on voltages and emission stability using ZrC films. However, during our emission studies of bulk carbides, HfC was found to be slightly superior. We now report on work in progress investigating HfC films and HfC film coated field emission cathodes. Uses for arrays of these field emission cathodes range from video displays to microwave applications. This paper deals with physical vapor deposition of HfC, absolute work function measurements, and electron emission properties of these film surfaces. This work demonstrates improvements by using HfC films over films of ZrC and an associated surface work function lowering of more than 1 eV in some instances

Keywords

cathodes; electron field emission; hafnium compounds; vacuum microelectronics; vapour deposited coatings; work function; HfC; electron emission stability; film-coated field emission cathode; hafnium carbide film; microwave application; physical vapor deposition; surface work function; turn on voltage; video display; Cathodes; Field emitter arrays; Hafnium; Hybrid fiber coaxial cables; Microelectronics; Stability; Substrates; Surface cleaning; Thermionic emission; Voltage;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Vacuum Microelectronics Conference, 1996. IVMC'96., 9th International

Conference_Location

St. Petersburg

Print_ISBN

0-7803-3594-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IVMC.1996.601816

Filename

601816