Silicon Cold Field Emission Electron Sources for Electron Microscopy Inspection Systems

Next generation electron beam inspection tools will require a high brightness electron source. We have designed, microfabricated and tested arrays of metal coated silicon cold field emitters that have high current density and high reduced brightness, offering a promising alternative to thermal field emitters. One of the main challenges that must be addressed with cold field emitters is achieving stable emission current. Using current pulsing, we have been able to improve the stability of field emission currents and have demonstrated beam currents with less than 1 % noise.