Miniaturized liquid gallium field emission electron sources for vacuum microelectronics

Miniaturized liquid gallium field emission electron sources have been fabricated for the purpose of developing a new cathode for vacuum microelectronics. Gallium is evaporated on the base emitter which was fabricated by wet etch of silicon wafer, followed by deposition of tungsten thin film in order to improve wettability. Electron emission characteristics were measured, and both lowered threshold voltage and lower noise as compared with those of tungsten deposited emitters were observed.