Transfer mold FEA using the new fabrication and evaluation method through vacuum in-situ process

The new system for both evaluation and fabrication, which consists of a sputtering system with multi targets, a CVD system, a evaluation chamber combined with the gas ion radical irradiation system for field emission characteristics, and a high vacuum transportation chamber between sputtering/CVD system chamber and evaluation chamber, have been developed to realize the exact evaluation of emission characteristics for FEAs and field emission materials. The FEAs were fabricated using Transfer Mold Method, which has advantages of good uniformity and reliability. In this study, nickel was used as the emitter material. It is adequate for the fabrication of large area field emitter by using the super precision plating method. It is possible for nickel to be affected and oxidized by the exposure in air environment during the fabrication and evaluation process. Using the newly developed system for the in-situ vacuum process, Transfer Mold Ni FEAs were loaded through the load-lock chamber and transferred into the sputtering system chamber for Ni thin film coating to get a clean surface of Ni-FEAs without exposure in air. They were transferred through transportation chamber with 1x10^-6 Pa, and then were loaded into the evaluation chamber in order to measure the field emission characteristics. At the pressure of 1x10^-7 Pa, whole process was carried out within in-situ vacuum conditions.