Fabrication and characterization of individually ballasted carbon nanotube field emitter arrays using doped silicon resistor

In this study, individually ballasted carbon nanotube (CNT) field emitter arrays (FEAs) using a doped silicon ballast resistor are designed and fabricated. Each CNT field emitter is in series with an n-type doped silicon resistor with 10μm in length, a doping concentration of 10
¹⁴
cm
^-3
and a cross section area of 1 μm
²
to limit FE current from a single emitter no more than 1.2 μA. A systematic study and discussion are described by fabricating and characterizing A CNT FEA with 8260 CNT emitters in a 1 mm
²
octagonal area with an inter-emitter distance of 10 μm and a 10×10 CNT FEA. Benefitting from the saturation of drift velocity in doped silicon, the FE current can be successfully limited at a high current level without sacrificing the sensitivity and efficiency of electron extracting. The proposed approach is able to improve our CNT cathode reliability and stability for practical applications.