Surface flashover sensitivity of silicon in vacuum

Abstract

The high flashover sensitivity of high resistivity silicon in vacuum is discussed. Surface flashover fields of 5 - 30 kV/cm are common in silicon-vacuum systems, even though the intrinsic critical fields of silicon and vacuum are > 300 kV/cm. The influences of the material (bulk quality and surface processing), contact technology, contact geometry and electrode configuration on the preflashover and surface flashover characteristics of wafer samples in vacuum are analyzed.