Integrated Silicon Electron Source for High Vacuum Mems Devices

The article presents a fabrication process and preliminary characterization of an integrated silicon electron source designed for High Vacuum MEMS (HVMEMS) devices, i.e., MEMS electron microscope, MEMS X-ray source. The electron source consists of a silicon tip emitter and a silicon gate electrode integrated on a single glass substrate, in a very close distance from each other. The source generates an electron beam without any carbon nanotube coverage, which was the case in the previous realization of the electron emitters.