Lifetime and Breakdown Mechanisms in Double-Gated Si FEAs

We demonstrate the lifetime and breakdown mechanisms in dense (10
¹²
m
⁻²
) self-aligned double-gated Si field emitter arrays. We perform measurements at relatively low currents of 10 nA for over 300 hrs but found that increasing the current to 50 nA causes catastrophic breakdown in less than 100 hrs. Over the lifetime measurements, we observe charge accumulation that could be between the two gates, causing noisy current-voltage characteristics. In addition we assess additional mechanisms that could lead to early breakdown in such devices.