Improvement of electron emission characteristics of Si field emitter arrays by surface modification

Photoresist-coated Si field emitter array (FEA) was fabricated with a newly developed fabrication process and well demonstrated. The photoresist was s pin-coated on Si EEA and baked at 800 degrees C in a vacuum to evaporate th e solvent. After baking, the thickness of the photoresist reduced to 20 nm from the initial thickness of 110 nm. The SiOx, insulator and the Nb gate e lectrode win deposited in series by electron-beam evaporation. The FEA stru cture was made by back etching. The emission current from the photoresist-c oated FEA increased from the gate voltage of 40 V and reached 0.5 mu A/tip at 65 V. Thr obtained emission current was more stable than conventional Si FEAs. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B,V. All rights reserved.