Study of porous silicon, silicon carbide and DLC coated field emitters forpressure sensor application

This paper is a revue of our experimental data regarding field emitter arra y fabrication, various field emission materials and application in pressure sensors domain. Silicon emitter's arrays of different sizes and geometrica l shapes were realised using micromachining technologies. Some important as pects as control in etch rate, emitter profile, selectivity and surface mor phology were investigated, The emitter surface was modified or was covered by different materials in order to improve the emission properties. The mos t usual materials investigated for FED applications were: Si, diamond-like carbon layers, silicon carbide, and porous silicon. The main application wh ich is present in our attention is the field emission pressure sensor. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.