Emission characteristics of semiconductor cathodes

This paper describes emission characteristics of MOS (metal-oxide-semicondu ctor) electron tunneling cathodes and Si field emitters, and shows that the ir characteristics reflect the energy band structures of the semiconductor and the electron transport in an incorporated semiconductor device. In addi tion, it proposes hybrid electronics combining solid-state device and vacuu m device technologies, and shows that this approach provides highly efficie nt high-frequency devices with coverage from the microwave to the optical w ave regions. (C) 2001 Scripta Technica.