Arcing and voltage breakdown in vacuum microelectronics microwave devices using field emitter arrays: Causes, possible solutions, and recent progress

There is growing interest in high current field emitter arrays (FEAs) capable of delivering high current density and high conductance electron beams, particularly for microwave applications. Large, high packing density molybdenum and silicon FEAs have been placed in ultrahigh vacuum chambers, carefully conditioned, and tested for maximum performance and have yielded total FEA currents of 20–200 mA and beam current densities of $5–2000 A/cm2$ at gate voltages of 80–150 V. However similar Mo and Si FEAs, and GaAs edge arrays, when placed in a prototype 10 GHz klystrode amplifier, have failed at 1–4 mA, even for pulsed operation at a low duty factor. Hence, the current must be increased by 25–50 in order to meet klystrode design objectives. We compare the intrinsic FE stable current limits of various materials: Mo, Si, GaAs, ZrC, and ZrC films on Mo emitters. We conclude that Mo FEAs have a high FE current limit but demand an extremely clean environment, Si or GaAs FEAs are more tolerant of a poorer environment but have a relatively low FE current limit, while ZrC/Mo FEAs have at least as equally high a FE current limit as Mo FEAs but are much more robust and tolerate a much poorer environment. We hypothesize that failures of high density Mo FEAs at relatively low current levels (below 1 μA per tip) in a microwave tube are due to ion bombardment of the FEA creating sharp nanoprotrusions on the sides of the emitters, which emit intense, focused electron beams directed at the gate, leading to a vacuum arc. Binh’s recent study presents strong evidence for the ongoing creation and destruction of nanoprotrusions on Mo FEAs. A ZrC thin film coating protects and passivates the Mo FEA surface, thus minimizing nanoprotrusion formation and allowing more stable operation at higher current levels and/or in more degraded environments. Studies of carbide (ZrC, HfC) film coatings on W, Mo, and Si single tips and on Mo and Si FEAs show that indeed the carbide film reduces the work function and operating voltage (by about 25% and 40%, respectively) and increases stability. Other studies still in progress show that blunt ZrC or ZrC/Mo single tips can operate for reasonable periods $(∼1 h)$ at currents averaging 400 μA in ultrahigh vacuum or 200 μA in $10−5 Torr$ air. More extensive studies are planned to verify and to quantify the advantages of carbide film coatings for producing lower voltage, higher current, environment tolerant, and long life FEAs for various applications.