Methodology for Analysis of Electrical Breakdown In Micrometer gaps in Tip-To-Plane Configuration

Better understanding of the electrical behavior of miniaturized electrical devices is largely supported by the need to reduce losses and to prevent operational failure caused by electrical breakdown or electrical discharge. In large scale electrode separation, the breakdown voltage is well described by the Paschen's law. However, when the inter-electrode gaps are below 10 μm a departure from the Paschen's law is observed. The current research is focused on development of methodology for analysis of the electrical breakdown behavior in micrometer gaps and the description of the underlying mechanisms. The experiments were performed for interelectrode gaps from 1 μm to 10 μm by using piezoelectric system to control the separation in tip-to-plane configuration for which a divergence of the electric field is imposed. The obtained results show that the field electron emission enhanced by the thermionic emission becomes the main mechanism for electrical breakdown under the above conditions.