Abstract:
Gated p-type Si-tips have great potential for providing stable and reliable field electron emission. The emission current of a gated p-type Si-tip array is supplied from the generation current in the depletion region in the substrate, which transports to each tip in the array via the inversion layer. The current supply uniformity in the p-type Si-tip array is a crucial factor to affect the tip-to-tip uniformity of the emission current intensity. In this work, finite element simulation of the current supply distribution in gated p-type Si-tip was carried out based on the physical model of diffusion current in the inversion layer. It was found that in a regular densely arranged p-type Si-tip array, the tips at the edge of the array received more current supply than the tips inside the array, inducing nonuniform current supply. Several arrangements were designed for achieving uniform current supply in the array. Firstly, the tips were dispersedly arranged on the gate electrode, which made the current supply for the tips at the edge and inside of the array the same. Secondly, geometric symmetry was employed to construct p-type Si-tips with equivalent position for uniform current supply. Si-tip array in ring and line arrangement were demonstrated, which realized dense arrangement of the p-type Si-tip in one geometric dimension. Both the ring array and line array can be dispersedly arranged on the gate electrode to expand to large-scale multi-ring and multi-line p-type Si-tip array. Lastly, a densely arranged p-type Si-tip array with separate lead wires was proposed, in which the inversion current uniformly transports to each tip through the corresponding lead wire. High-density p-type Si-tip array can be achieved by decreasing the width and separation of the lead wires. The work provides new methods to achieve field emitter array with uniform current supply and high current emission.