Effect of emitter tip spacing on Si vacuum field emitter arrays

This paper presents a qualitative and quantitative analysis of close-packed vacuum field emitter arrays. Through a combination of computational simulations and experimental verifications, the relationship between emitter spacing and electric field screening is studied. In order to obtain a uniform electron emission and large current densities from a field emitter array, it is essential to minimize the screening effect between the adjacent field emitters. As previously demonstrated, sharpening the emitter tips, reducing the background doping concentration of the emitters, and reducing the anode–cathode distance can suppress the screening effect. Field emitter arrays with different sizes and emitter spacings are fabricated and characterized. Decreasing the array size and increasing emitter spacing lead to a larger average current per emitter (19 nA/tip at an anode voltage of 250 V). However, larger current densities (up to 3.3 A/cm2) are observed in close-packed arrays. In very large arrays with a small emitter spacing, the current is scaled with the emitter area (∼4.2 nA/emitter at an anode voltage of 250 V), indicating a small current contribution from the sides of the array.