[Big Bad Bob]

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2012...rn-vacuum-tube

quote
The new device is a cross between today's transistors and the vacuum
tubes of yesteryear. It's small and easily manufactured, but also fast
and radiation-proof. Meyyappan, who co-developed the "nano vacuum tube,"
says it is created by etching a tiny cavity in phosphorous-doped
silicon. The cavity is bordered by three electrodes: a source, a gate,
and a drain. The source and drain are separated by just 150 nanometers,
while the gate sits on top. Electrons are emitted from the source thanks
to a voltage applied across it and the drain, while the gate controls
the electron flow across the cavity. In their paper published online
today in Applied Physics Letters, Meyyappan and colleagues estimate that
their nano vacuum tube operates at frequencies up to 0.46 terahertz€”some
10 times faster than the best silicon transistors.
/quote

cool stuff. Seems to work without a heated cathode. not sure if voltage
"across the source and the drain" is in any way responsible for
thermionic emission or some other mechanism...


--
(aka 'Bombastic Bob' in case you wondered)

'Feeling with my fingers, and thinking with my brain' - me

'your story is so touching, but it sounds just like a lie'
"Straighten up and fly right"