Wafer-Scale Fabricated On-Chip Thermionic Electron Sources Based on a Suspended Y₂O₃/TiN Filament

On-chip electron emission sources are indispensable for developing miniature and integrated vacuum electronic devices on a chip. Here, a new on-chip electron source based on thermionic electron emission from a suspended Y<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>O<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub>/TiN filament is reported. These thermionic electron sources are fabricated in batches on silicon wafers by microfabrication technologies. Benefit from the low work function of Y<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sub>O<sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sub>, our on-chip thermionic sources exhibit an emission current of up to 1 mA and an emission density of up to 19.3 A/cm<sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> at temperature of just 1990 K, much lower than those of previously-reported on-chip thermionic sources of W and carbon nanomaterials filaments with similar emission performances.