Vacuum Microelectronics

Expert coverage of vacuum microelectronics-principles, devices, and applications The field of vacuum microelectronics has advanced so swiftly that commercial devices are being fabricated, and applications are being developed in displays, wireless communications, spacecraft, and electronics for use in harsh environments. It is a rapidly evolving, interdisciplinary field encompassing electrical engineering, materials science, vacuum engineering, and applied physics. This book surveys the fundamentals, technology, and device applications of this nascent field. Editor Wei Zhu brings together some of the world's foremost experts to provide comprehensive and in-depth coverage of the entire spectrum of vacuum microelectronics. Topics include: * Field emission theory * Metal and silicon field emitter arrays * Novel cold cathode materials * Field emission flat panel displays * Cold cathode microwave devices Vacuum Microelectronics is intended for practitioners in the display, microwave, telecommunications, and microelectronics industries and in government and university research laboratories, as well as for graduate students majoring in electrical engineering, materials science, and physics. It provides cutting-edge, expert coverage of the subject and serves as both an introductory text and a professional reference.

Field emission is a phenomenon described by quantum mechanics. Its emission capability is millions times higher than that of any other known types of electron emission. Nowadays this phenomenon is experiencing a new life due to wonderful applications in the atomic resolution microscopy, in electronic holography, and in the vacuum micro- and nanoelectronics in general. The main field emission properties, and some most remarkable experimental facts and applications, are described in this book.

The 31 papers, about half of the symposium's presentations, were selected to provide a representative sampling of the present status of materials used in vacuum microelectronics. They range across all aspects of electron field emission from theory and physical mechanisms to device structure, but many focus on the fabrication, characterization, and modeling of electron emissive materials. The sections cover field-emitter arrays and applications, carbon and wide-bandgap cathodes, and other cathode materials. Reproduced from typescripts. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Advances in Electronics and Electron Physics

This book gives an overview of modern cathodes and electron emitters for vacuum tubes and vacuum electron devices in general. It covers the latest developments in field emission theory as well as new methods towards improving thermionic and cold cathodes. It addresses thermionic cathodes, such as oxide cathodes, impregnated and scandate cathodes, as well as photocathodes and field emitters – the latter comprising carbon nanotubes, graphene and Spindt-type emitter arrays. Despite the rise and fall of the once dominant types of vacuum tubes, such as radio valves and cathode ray tubes, cathodes are continually being improved upon as new applications with increased demands arise, for example in electron beam lithography, high-power and high-frequency microwave tubes, terahertz imaging and electron sources for accelerators. Written by 17 experts in the field, the book presents the latest developments in cathodes needed for these applications, discussing the state of the art and addressing future trends.

Written at the graduate level, Generation and Application of High Power Microwaves discusses the basic physics of the generation of microwave and radiofrequency waves in the megawatt power range and the application of these ideas to a range of devices such as klystrons, gyrotrons, and free electron lasers. The book also contains chapters covering the transmission of the power through waveguides and the problems associated with mode conversion in transmission lines. The main application area covered is the heating and current drive in tokamaks and other devices for research into controlled nuclear fusion. Other applications of high power microwave technology are not neglected, and among those discussed are multiple charged ion and soft x-ray sources, electron spin resonance spectroscopy, advanced materials processing, millimeter wave radar, and supercolliders.