A theoretical study on field emission array for microsensors

Abstract

The authors present results on the analysis of two generic cone-shaped and wedge-shaped emitter-array diodes. The effects of the variations in device geometrical structure on the potential distribution, electric field, and emission current are discussed. The main geometric design parameters considered are the tip-to-collector distance, the emitter tip radius of curvature, and the intertip spacing. Pressure sensors based on these diode structures with one electrode fabricated on a pressure sensitive thin diaphragm were studied. The analysis shows that a cone-shaped emitter array has a larger emission current per emitter tip, but the wedge-shaped array has better pressure sensitivity.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>