Lateral field emitter arrays with higher emission currents and wider operation region by high field activation

Lateral-type polysilicon field emission triode, consisting of two symmetric gate tips aligned by an angle of 70/spl deg/ with respect to the sharp cathode tips was fabricated by using local oxidation of polysilicon (LOCOS) process. The fabricated device has the electrical characteristics of a low turn-on voltage of 13 V and the emission anode current of 150 /spl mu/A/50tips at V/sub AC/ = 50 V and V/sub GC/ = open. After high field activation treatment, the turn-on voltage was down to 2 V and the emission current increased up to 525 /spl mu/A/50tips at V/sub AC/ = 50 V and V/sub GC/ = open. Furthermore, the emission current versus gate biases indicated a dramatic change of emission currents from gate tip-end resulting in an interesting operational behavior.