An amorphous-silicon (a-Si) field emitter array (FEA) has been fabrica
ted on a glass substrate and characterized. At first, a 0.3-mu m-thick
Cr film was deposited on the glass by vacuum evaporation technique an
d subsequently a 1-mu m-thick Si film was deposited on the Cr film by
conventional RF sputtering technique with an undoped Si target at room
temperature. The sputtered Si film was identified as amorphous from X
-ray diffraction patterns and had a resistivity of 3-5 k Omega-cm. The
FEA consists of 1-mu m-high emitter tips and a gate electrode with 1.
8-mu m-diameter openings, This a-Si FEA with 5 x 5 (= 25) tips exhibit
ed a threshold voltage of 30 V and an emission current of 2 mu A at a
gate voltage of 100 V. Structure and emission characteristics are disc
ussed.