Investigation of field emission characteristics for Si-base materials: titanium silicide, poly-Si, and single crystal Si

In vacuum microelectronics, the stability of emission current and low turn-on voltage are key factors for practical applications. In order to obtain stable and large field emission current, various materials such as molybdenum, silicon, and diamond-like-carbon have been studied for field emitter tips. Among various materials, Si-base materials have attracted a considerable interest due to its compatibility with silicon processing. In this work, we fabricated poly-Si, Si, and Ti-silicide field emitter arrays employing in-situ vacuum encapsulated lateral field emitter structures. We compared the field emission characteristics of these devices to each other focusing on turn-on voltage, emission current density, and stability of emission current.