Modulating the Cathode by Back-Gate for Planar Nanoscale Vacuum/Air Channel Electron Tube

• Published in: IEEE transactions on electron devices Vol. 71; no. 11; pp. 7082 - 7086
• Main Authors: Wang, Yuelin, Ying, Wenjing, Li, Tie, Fang, Zebo, Ye, Qiufeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.11.2024; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Anodes; Cathode modulated; Cathodes; Current leakage; Electron density; Electron tubes; Electrons; Etching; Field emission; High temperature; Integrated circuits; Leakage current; Logic gates; Nanoscale devices; planar electron tube; Radiation tolerance; Silicon; Transconductance; Vacuum tubes; Voltage control; Voltage measurement; Working conditions
• ISSN: 0018-9383; 1557-9646
• DOI: 10.1109/TED.2024.3462678

Nanoscale vacuum/air channel electron tubes (VETs) keep emerging owing to their superior performance in high-temperature and high-frequency working environments. However, in VETs the edge field of the gate with inferior modulation efficiency, nonnegligible leakage or accumulation, and poor compatibility with integrated circuits (ICs) technology limits the realization of VET IC. In this work, an original cathode-modulated VET (CMVET) is proposed, which can efficiently control the field emission current of the cathode by directly regulating the electron density of the cathode by back-gate, resulting in regulating the anode current. As a result, we obtain a transconductance of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">4.6 \; \mu </tex-math></inline-formula>S and a suppressed gate leakage current of no more than <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">10^{-{11}} </tex-math></inline-formula> A for the CMVET device, which is completely fabricated by traditional microelectronic process, being compatible with IC processes. On the basis of this strategy, it is promising to realize the CMVET IC with great resistance to high frequency, high temperature, and high radiation.