The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Feb. 03, 2004
Filed:
Jan. 13, 2003
Jonathan L. Shaw, Springfield, VA (US);
David S. Y. Hsu, Alexandria, VA (US);
The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy, Washington, DC (US);
Abstract
An apparatus and method for regulating the emission current from a single (macroscopic) field emitter, from groups of emitters within a large (microscopic) array, or from each cell within an array is described. The apparatus includes an additional aperture, fabricated at each field emitter array cell, to create and electron energy filter. The filter aperture of the electron energy filter is similar to the gate aperture but located above or in front of the gate aperture, and is held at a positive potential lower than the gate. The filter allows only those electrons with energy greater than some minimum (the cutoff energy) to pass through. A current-limiting circuit is placed in series with the gate aperture, limiting the total current of electrons that do not pass through the filter. Thus, emission from low energy states is limited without limiting emission from states near the Fermi level.