Patterning and electrical testing of field emission arrays with novel emitter geometries

Fabrication technology for Cu microtips with high aspect ratio, where microtip height is /spl sim/6.5-7.5 /spl mu/m and microtip density in the active area is /spl sim/2.88/spl times/10/sup 6/ tips/cm/sup 2/, via lift-off method is experimentally confirmed. We investigated the possibility of increasing emission uniformity though the introduction of a-Si multi-resistors into the microtips. We establish that reduction of fluctuation currents can be achieved with 300-350 A thick SiC coating over the microtips. We looked into emission properties of Cu microtips with dome-shaped Ti apex.