AVS 46th International Symposium
    Flat Panel Displays Topical Conference Tuesday Sessions
       Session FP-TuM

Paper FP-TuM3
Progress and Performance of FEAs using Zirconium Carbide Field Emitters

Tuesday, October 26, 1999, 9:00 am, Room 604

Session: Novel Materials for Field Emission Displays and Technologies for Flexible Displays
Presenter: W.A. Mackie, Linfield Research Institute
Authors: W.A. Mackie, Linfield Research Institute
T. Xie, Linfield Research Institute
P.R. Davis, Linfield Research Institute
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Field emission arrays are finding many and varied applications from the present use in flat video displays to potential uses in microwave devices, and spacecraft charge dissipation and propulsion systems. Many of these proposed uses would require high currents per tip and operation in adverse vacuum conditions. These requirements necessitate robust cathode materials. Our work focuses on the use of transition metal carbides for field emission sources. Here, we report on vapor deposition of zirconium carbide emitter cones in the conventional field emission array geometry. Generally, we have used array blanks provided by others with 50,000 gates. We deposit these carbide emitters via physical vapor deposition from crystalline zirconium carbide sources. Use of this material has required changes in the array fabricating technique used by others due to the high temperature needed for evaporation. We will report on results of studies using several new materials for the lift-off layer and the processing steps needed for proper cone formation using zirconium carbide. The emission properties of arrays formed in this was will also be reported. In general, zirconium carbide has an electronic work function approximately 1 eV lower than molybdenum, a common FEA emitter material. This has translated into a measured lowering of turn-on voltages by 45% and an increase in emission stability. Extraction voltages in the 35-65 volt range are reported for solid carbide emitter cones in the FEA geometry. Emission at relatively high individual tip currents and at poor vacuum levels will also presented and discussed. These carbide cone arrays could lead to extremely robust electron sources and open the use of FEAs to a variety of applications. Work supported in part by DARPA High Definition Systems Initiative under ONR Grant No. N00014-96-1-1011.