Recent Progress in Vacuum Breakdown at Nanoscale: Experiment and Simulation

Vacuum breakdown at nanoscale are drawing more and more attractions due to the dramatic shrink of the feature size for the vacuum microelectronic devices in space environment and other fields, which demands a further exploring on the fundamental properties of vacuum breakdown at nanoscale. Hence, in the present paper, recent progress on experimental and simulation work are summarized and presented, involving the published work and our research work. The general methodology, typical experimental techniques and the influence factors are all investigated and summarized. Results show that the combination of scanning electron microscope(SEM), focused ion beam and piezoelectric-driven nanomanipulator demonstrates to be an effective and precise technique for the experimental study, which could be used in the range from 10nm to 500nm. Moreover, the factors of electrode materials types, gap distance, electrode geometries play various roles on the vacuum breakdown behaviors as well. In the aspect of simulation research, the analytical solution is found to be the most used method so far. Consequently, the summary of methodology, influence factors and potential mechanism on vacuum breakdown at nanoscale is very vital to help understand the underlying principle and then paves the way to the insulation evaluation and structure design of vacuum micro devices.