Carbon nanotube-based vacuum microelectronic gated cathode

A vacuum microelectronic device containing carbon nanotube electron field-emitters was developed and tested. The gated cathode was fabricated using conventional microelectronics fabrication techniques and a final, self-aligned, in situ carbon nanotube growth step. To our knowledge, this is the first vacuum microelectronics device with carbon nanotube field-emitters grown in situ with a catalytic growth process. The turn-on voltage of the cathode was less than 20 volts and the emission current density at 50 volts was as high as 9 mA-cm(-2). The fabrication process, device performance, manufacturing issues and cathode applications will be discussed.