Abstract
It is argued that the key factor required to make vacuum
microelectronics successful is closely related to an understanding and
control of the physics, materials and microfabrication technology for
field emitter arrays (FEAs). The topics discussed are the optimization
and theoretical limit of the FEA; thermal stability of the FEA and the
mesoscopic FEA; fabrication and materials of FEAs; and characteristics
of FEAs. The author examines basic characteristics, limits and
capabilities of FEAs from the viewpoint of optimizing the concept of the
most current for the least voltage
