NSF Award
9560383
This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project explores the feasibility of a new class of diamond composite field effect, electron emitters, that can be made at a low cost into cold cathodes with high emission uniformity, low threshold fields, and low power consumption. Diamond has many unique properties that are superior to any other known materials. One such property of n-type diamond is a potential for negative electron affinity, possibly enabling its use as a cold cathode electron emitter. However, no verifiable n-type diamond has been produced and electron emission from diamond presently relies on the use of expensive p-type diamond, that must have specific crystal orientations and delicate surface treatments. This project investigate commercially available undoped diamond powder and a variety of electronically conductive matrices to fabricate simple cold cathode materials that can be placed uniformly and in patterns over large area substrates. Preliminary tests on some of these materials have shown that such diamond-based cathodes have good electron field effect properties. These composites have potential utility in many vacuum-microelectronics applications that require a low power-consuming, high transconductance field effect device. Potential applications for diamond composite emitter include flat panel displays, microwave amplifiers, power triodes, and other similar devices.
