Microelectronic applications for RF sources and accelerators

Lithographic microfabrication techniques have been applied to the development of cathodes. In this paper, we limit the discussion of microfabricated cathodes to gated field-emitter arrays, ferroelectric and microminiature therm-ionic vacuum cathodes. These cathodes have made significant advancements in the last few years. They share in common the potential of being temporally and spatially modulated at high frequencies by low voltages with low input power requirements. These properties not only provide opportunities to improve rf power sources and accelerators, but also provide opportunities to make new commercial products.