Diamond electron emitter
US5952772A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 21, 1998 |
| Grant date | Sep 14, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 21, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01J2201/30457
- WIPO fieldElectrical machinery, apparatus, energy
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
An electron emitter (2) has a semiconductor substrate (20) doped with an n-type region (21). A diamond layer (24) is doped by ion implantation with a p-type dopant to form a graded dopant profile region (27) that increases away from the upper surface of the diamond layer (24) and a thin insulating region (28) separating the p-type region (27) from the n-type region (21). The emitter (2) has a first electrical contact (23) on a lower surface of the substrate (20) and a second electrical contact (25) on the upper surface of the diamond layer (24) such that a voltage can be applied across the emitter (2) to cause tunneling of electrons from the n-type region (21) through the insulating region (28) into the p-type region (27), causing emission of electrons from an exposed surface (29). A lamp or display (1) includes several such electron emitters (2) and contains gas at reduced pressure, which is ionized by the emitted electrons, thereby generating UV radiation, which causes a fluorescent layer (5) on a transparent window (3) to produce visible light.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.