Nanoscale field emission structures for ultra-low voltage operation at atmospheric pressure

1997 ◽  
Vol 71 (21) ◽  
pp. 3159-3161 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. G. Driskill-Smith ◽  
D. G. Hasko ◽  
H. Ahmed
2001 ◽  
Vol 685 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Hajra ◽  
N.N. Chubun ◽  
A.G. Chakhovskoi ◽  
C.E. Hunt ◽  
K. Liu ◽  
...  

AbstractArrays of p-type silicon micro-emitters have been formed using a subtractive tip fabrication technique. Following fabrication, the emitter surface was coated with GaN nanoparticles and nanocrystalline diamond by a dielectrophoresis deposition technique. The emitters were evaluated and compared before and after the surface treatment using I-V measurements in the diode configuration. The phosphor screen, used as the anode, was spaced nominally about 70 µm from the cathode. The field emission characteristics were measured in a high vacuum chamber at a pressure range between 10−5and 10−8Torr. The results suggest that the emitters benefit from coating the surface with nanocrystalline diamond in terms of reduction in the turn on voltage, GaN coating increase the turn on voltage. Both diamond and GaN improved the emission uniformity in the region of the low voltage operation.


Author(s):  
W.W. Adams ◽  
D.L. Vezie ◽  
E.L. Thomas

The ability to visualize detailed 3-dimensional surface topology with SEM at low voltage and high resolution holds profound promise for analyzing liquid crystal textures, both in polymers and other macromolecular forms. Director textures, domain boundaries, and defects such as inversion walls, disclinations and dislocations can now be easily visualized with this technique. Studies concerning the effects of shear flow and magnetic fields on these defects are currently under way.Resolution of 4.0 nm at 1.0 keV is now possible with commercial SEM's, which incorporate the latest advances in lens design optimized for low voltage operation, and use high brightness, low energy spread field emission electron guns. The low energy spread of the field emission gun reduces chromatic aberration effects and facilitates successful operation at low keV. Low voltage operation provides dramatically improved image contrast due to the smaller beam/sample interaction volume and also greatly reduces sample charging artifacts. By operating at near crossover conditions, the need for coating nonconducting specimens with a conducting layer of metal or carbon is greatly reduced or eliminated.


1996 ◽  
Vol 424 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. G Chakhovskoi ◽  
M. E Malinowski ◽  
A. A Talin ◽  
T. E Felter ◽  
J. T. Trujillo ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe spectral response and outgassing characteristics of the three new, low-voltage phosphors combustion synthesized and electrophoretically deposited for application in field-emission flatpanel displays, are presented. The phosphors, forming a candidate Red-Blue-Green (RGB) triplet are YAG:Eu, YAG:Tb and Y2SiO5:Ce. These cathodoluminescent materials are tested with electron-beam excitation at currents up to 50 x03BC;A within the 200-2000V (eg. "low-voltage") and 3000-8000V (eg. "medium voltage") ranges. The spectral coordinates, as compared with industrially-manufactured P22 phosphors in low voltage operation, are reasonable; however, there is considerable difference in the green coordinates, and the red and green materials show significant satellite intensities. Phosphor outgassing, as a function of time, is measured by a residual gas analyzer at fixed 50 gA beam current in the low-voltage range. We find that after two hours of excitation, levels of outgassed CO, CO2 and H2 stabilize to low values.


Author(s):  
T. Miyokawa ◽  
S. Norioka ◽  
S. Goto

Field emission SEMs (FE-SEMs) are becoming popular due to their high resolution needs. In the field of semiconductor product, it is demanded to use the low accelerating voltage FE-SEM to avoid the electron irradiation damage and the electron charging up on samples. However the accelerating voltage of usual SEM with FE-gun is limited until 1 kV, which is not enough small for the present demands, because the virtual source goes far from the tip in lower accelerating voltages. This virtual source position depends on the shape of the electrostatic lens. So, we investigated several types of electrostatic lenses to be applicable to the lower accelerating voltage. In the result, it is found a field emission gun with a conical anode is effectively applied for a wide range of low accelerating voltages.A field emission gun usually consists of a field emission tip (cold cathode) and the Butler type electrostatic lens.


Author(s):  
N. F. Ziegler

A high-voltage terminal has been constructed for housing the various power supplies and metering circuits required by the field-emission gun (described elsewhere in these Proceedings) for the high-coherence microscope. The terminal is cylindrical in shape having a diameter of 14 inches and a length of 24 inches. It is completely enclosed by an aluminum housing filled with Freon-12 gas at essentially atmospheric pressure. The potential of the terminal relative to ground is, of course, equal to the accelerating potential of the microscope, which in the present case, is 150 kilovolts maximum.


Author(s):  
Klaus-Ruediger Peters

A new generation of high performance field emission scanning electron microscopes (FSEM) is now commercially available (JEOL 890, Hitachi S 900, ISI OS 130-F) characterized by an "in lens" position of the specimen where probe diameters are reduced and signal collection improved. Additionally, low voltage operation is extended to 1 kV. Compared to the first generation of FSEM (JE0L JSM 30, Hitachi S 800), which utilized a specimen position below the final lens, specimen size had to be reduced but useful magnification could be impressively increased in both low (1-4 kV) and high (5-40 kV) voltage operation, i.e. from 50,000 to 200,000 and 250,000 to 1,000,000 x respectively.At high accelerating voltage and magnification, contrasts on biological specimens are well characterized1 and are produced by the entering probe electrons in the outmost surface layer within -vl nm depth. Backscattered electrons produce only a background signal. Under these conditions (FIG. 1) image quality is similar to conventional TEM (FIG. 2) and only limited at magnifications >1,000,000 x by probe size (0.5 nm) or non-localization effects (%0.5 nm).


Author(s):  
Arthur V. Jones

With the introduction of field-emission sources and “immersion-type” objective lenses, the resolution obtainable with modern scanning electron microscopes is approaching that obtainable in STEM and TEM-but only with specific types of specimens. Bulk specimens still suffer from the restrictions imposed by internal scattering and the need to be conducting. Advances in coating techniques have largely overcome these problems but for a sizeable body of specimens, the restrictions imposed by coating are unacceptable.For such specimens, low voltage operation, with its low beam penetration and freedom from charging artifacts, is the method of choice.Unfortunately the technical dificulties in producing an electron beam sufficiently small and of sufficient intensity are considerably greater at low beam energies — so much so that a radical reevaluation of convential design concepts is needed.The probe diameter is usually given by


Author(s):  
William P. Wergin ◽  
Eric F. Erbe ◽  
Terrence W. Reilly

Although the first commercial scanning electron microscope (SEM) was introduced in 1965, the limited resolution and the lack of preparation techniques initially confined biological observations to relatively low magnification images showing anatomical surface features of samples that withstood the artifacts associated with air drying. As the design of instrumentation improved and the techniques for specimen preparation developed, the SEM allowed biologists to gain additional insights not only on the external features of samples but on the internal structure of tissues as well. By 1985, the resolution of the conventional SEM had reached 3 - 5 nm; however most biological samples still required a conductive coating of 20 - 30 nm that prevented investigators from approaching the level of information that was available with various TEM techniques. Recently, a new SEM design combined a condenser-objective lens system with a field emission electron source.


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