Fabrication of Cold Cathode Ionization Gauge Using Screen-Printed Carbon Nanotube Field Electron Emitter

We fabricated a Bayard–Alpert-type ionization gauge using a screen-printed field electron emitter with carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as an electron source. Vertically aligned CNTs grown on Si substrates by thermal chemical vapor deposition was used as the source material for CNT paste to make the screen-printed field emitter. The fabricated gauge responded linearly to the pressure in the range from 10-4 to 10-8 Torr, and exhibited a sensitivity of 13 Torr-1, which is competitive with the commercial gauge using a hot-filament electron source. The ion current of the gauge also showed good stability for more than 15 h, indicating the high quality of the electron emitter. This work demonstrated the feasibility of the vacuum electronic device using the CNT field emitter.