Cargando…

Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder

Field emission air-channel (FEAC) devices can work under atmospheric pressure with a low operation voltage when the electron channel is far less than the mean free path (MFP) in the air, thereby making them a practical component in circuits. Forward and reverse electron emissions of the current FEAC...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Chang, Wen-Teng, Cheng, Ming-Chih, Chuang, Tsung-Ying, Tsai, Ming-Yen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7760484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33260308
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10122378
_version_ 1783627343445622784
author Chang, Wen-Teng
Cheng, Ming-Chih
Chuang, Tsung-Ying
Tsai, Ming-Yen
author_facet Chang, Wen-Teng
Cheng, Ming-Chih
Chuang, Tsung-Ying
Tsai, Ming-Yen
author_sort Chang, Wen-Teng
collection PubMed
description Field emission air-channel (FEAC) devices can work under atmospheric pressure with a low operation voltage when the electron channel is far less than the mean free path (MFP) in the air, thereby making them a practical component in circuits. Forward and reverse electron emissions of the current FEAC devices demonstrated symmetric Fowler–Nordheim (F–N) plots owing to the symmetric cathode and anode electrodes. This research aimed to demonstrate the arithmetic application of the FEAC devices, their substrate effect, and reliability. A voltage adder was composed of two FEAC devices whose two inputs were connected to two separate function generators, and one output was wire-connected to an oscilloscope. The devices were on a thin dielectric film and low-resistivity silicon substrate to evaluate the parasitic components and substrate effect, resulting in frequency-dependent impedance. The results show that the FEAC devices possessed arithmetic function, but the output voltage decreased. The FEAC devices were still capable of serving as a voltage adder after the reliability test, but electric current leakage increased. Finite element analysis indicated that the highest electrical fields and electron trajectories occur at the apices where the electrons travel with the shortest route less than the MFP in the air, thereby meeting the FEAC devices’ design. The modeling also showed that a sharp apex would generate a high electric field at the tip-gap-tip, enhancing the tunneling current.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7760484
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher MDPI
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-77604842020-12-26 Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder Chang, Wen-Teng Cheng, Ming-Chih Chuang, Tsung-Ying Tsai, Ming-Yen Nanomaterials (Basel) Article Field emission air-channel (FEAC) devices can work under atmospheric pressure with a low operation voltage when the electron channel is far less than the mean free path (MFP) in the air, thereby making them a practical component in circuits. Forward and reverse electron emissions of the current FEAC devices demonstrated symmetric Fowler–Nordheim (F–N) plots owing to the symmetric cathode and anode electrodes. This research aimed to demonstrate the arithmetic application of the FEAC devices, their substrate effect, and reliability. A voltage adder was composed of two FEAC devices whose two inputs were connected to two separate function generators, and one output was wire-connected to an oscilloscope. The devices were on a thin dielectric film and low-resistivity silicon substrate to evaluate the parasitic components and substrate effect, resulting in frequency-dependent impedance. The results show that the FEAC devices possessed arithmetic function, but the output voltage decreased. The FEAC devices were still capable of serving as a voltage adder after the reliability test, but electric current leakage increased. Finite element analysis indicated that the highest electrical fields and electron trajectories occur at the apices where the electrons travel with the shortest route less than the MFP in the air, thereby meeting the FEAC devices’ design. The modeling also showed that a sharp apex would generate a high electric field at the tip-gap-tip, enhancing the tunneling current. MDPI 2020-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC7760484/ /pubmed/33260308 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10122378 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Chang, Wen-Teng
Cheng, Ming-Chih
Chuang, Tsung-Ying
Tsai, Ming-Yen
Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title_full Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title_fullStr Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title_full_unstemmed Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title_short Field Emission Air-Channel Devices as a Voltage Adder
title_sort field emission air-channel devices as a voltage adder
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7760484/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33260308
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano10122378
work_keys_str_mv AT changwenteng fieldemissionairchanneldevicesasavoltageadder
AT chengmingchih fieldemissionairchanneldevicesasavoltageadder
AT chuangtsungying fieldemissionairchanneldevicesasavoltageadder
AT tsaimingyen fieldemissionairchanneldevicesasavoltageadder