Design of field emission based magnetic sensors

In this study we analyze a new vacuum microelectronics (VM) magnetic field sensor based on a simple configuration with a single-gated wedge emitter wi th a split anode current as detection system. The actuation of such a devic e has been simulated using different numerical approaches including a full determination of electrostatic potentials with an accurate description of t he fields at the wedge-like emitter, the propagation of electrons inside th e device, and the evaluation of the current density distributions at the an ode detector screen. This device presents sensor sensitivities higher than those of conventional magnetic field sensors, and similar to other VM doubl e-gated sensors. The dependence of the sensitivity on the geometric paramet ers and control voltages is discussed. (C) 2000 American Vaccum Society. [S 0735-211X(00)06102-3].