Patent ID: 11955306
Assignee: MICRO-X LIMITED
Field: Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  C  B | IPC B  C  H

Claim 14:
15. A field emission electron source device comprising:
an electrode integrated into a substrate or an electrode bonded to a substrate;
an emitter surface comprised of a plurality of individual nanoscale field emitters;
a current sharing matrix layer matrix material located between the plurality of individual nanoscale field emitters and the substrate or incorporated into the substrate;
wherein
the current sharing matrix layer comprises a plurality of series resistive pathways between the plurality of individual nanoscale field emitters and the electrode to force current sharing among the plurality of individual nanoscale field emitters, and
the plurality of individual nanoscale field emitters, current sharing matrix material, and substrate, are configured to form a plurality of structures such that the structures form electric field enhancement features at a plurality of scales from a macroscopic scale down to the nanoscopic scale wherein the structures are fractal, geometrically repeating, and/or randomly distributed; and
in use, the field emission electron source device emits electrons with a spatially even distribution across an emitter region of the emitter surface having an area of at least one square millimeter and delivers stable electron emission with a current density greater or equal to one milliampere per square millimeter.