An efficient 3-dimensional CAD tool for field-emission devices

An efficient 3-D numerical tool for modeling and simulating field-emission devices (FED) is presented. This tool uses an accelerated boundary-element-method (BEM) electrostatics solver and an adaptive explicit integration method. The typical CPU time for a complete electrostatics and trajectory simulation is less than 1 hour, versus a few hours/days for 3-D finite-element-methods (FEM). The simulated results of a single-gate field emitter array (FEA) are in excellent agreement with experimental results. Simulation examples of proximity focusing FEDs and integrated-focus-electrode (IFE) focusing FEDs are also presented. The results provide good guidelines for device design and operation.