Influence of fill gases on the failure rate of gated silicon field emitter arrays

The influence of a variety of background gases on the failure rate of gated field emitter arrays has been investigated. The effects of argon, helium, nitrogen, and xenon were investigated, with pressures ranging from 1X10(-8) to 1X10(-4) Torr. The gated field emitter arrays were operated in dc and pulsed emission modes. The failure rate of gated field emitters is a very strong function of the type of background gas, its pressure, and whether the array was operated in a pulsed or dc bias mode. As expected, the failure rate for all gases increased rapidly as the background pressure increased, but was substantially different for the various gases. The failure rate of arrays increased rapidly as the electron impact ionization cross section of the background gas decreased. The large reduction in failure rates due to operation in a pulsed mode as compared to a de mode of operation, as previously seen for experiments without a background gas, was also evident for all background gases tested. (C) 1996 American Vacuum Society.