摘要 |
A field emitter cell (10) includes a thin film emitter (22) normal to the gate layer (18). The field emitter cell (10) may include a conductive substrate layer (12), and insulator layer (16) having a perforation (30), a gate layer (18) having a perforation, an emitter layer (22), and other optional layers. The perforation in the gate layer (18) is larger and concentrically offset with respect to the perforation (30) in the insulating layer (16) and may be of a tapered construction. Alternatively, the perforation of the gate layer (18) may be coincident, or larger or smaller than, the perforation (30) in the insulating layer (16), provided that the gate layer (18) is shielded from the emitter (22) from a direct line-of-sight by a nonconducting standoff layer. Optionally, the thin-film-edge emitter (22) may include incorporated nanofilaments (50). The field emitter cell (10) has a low gate current, useful for various applications such as field emitter displays, high voltage power switching, RF amplification and other applications that require high emission currents. |