Metal‐Air Field Emission Devices – Nano Electrode Geometries Comparison of Performance and Stability (Small 47/2022)

Vacuum Tunneling Transistor with Nano Vacuum Chamber for Harsh Environments

“…In a diode structure, the current can include the leakage current especially the surface leakage at low voltage region . Recently, the analysis of direct tunneling which appeared in the low voltage region has been studied . However, it is still difficult to separate surface leakage present in current characteristics.…”

“…Old vacuum tube technology can point toward a direction to resolve these issues. , A vacuum is one of the ideal tunneling barriers, and it is almost free from defects. Due to the absence of trap sites and electron interference in the ideal vacuum, the vacuum device exhibits ballistic transport properties. ,, Therefore, the vacuum device can have high-speed switching with high stability. , Additionally, a vacuum tunneling device can be more robust in harsh environmental conditions such as a wide driving temperature or radiation conditions due to the empty channel. ,, In the past, vacuum tubes were dominantly used as a key component of electronic circuits. − However, despite these advantages, the old vacuum tubes have some limitations. They are difficult to use in large-scale integrated circuits due to the large sealing volume and poor durability of glass sealing and consequently were replaced by semiconductor devices and integrated circuit (IC) design.…”

“…However, this method is difficult to use in compatibility with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication. As an alternative solution, other researchers fabricated a vacuum device with an ultranarrow gap that was less than the electron mean free path (MFP) in air. ,, Therefore, if the tunneling gap size is less than the MFP, vacuum tunneling can be possible in air conditions. Although this is theoretically possible, a reliability issue is anticipated to impede realization and commercialization.…”