SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE FOR ELECTRON BEAM GENERATION

摘要

By providing in a reverse biased junction cathode an intrinsic semiconductor region (5) between the n-type surface region (3) and the p-type zone (4), a maximum field is present over the intrinsic region (5) in the operating condition. The efficiency of the cathode is increased because avalanche multiplication can now occur over a greater distance, whilst in addition electrons to be emitted at a sufficient energy are generated by means of tunnelling.