Surface flashover in silicon-vacuum systems

The properties of the prebreakdown response of silicon-vacuum systems under HV excitation are presented. The most frequent case of system breakdown by surface flashover is treated. The particular properties of the system response in the high-field pulsed regime demonstrate the essential differences between the silicon-vacuum and solid-insulator-vacuum systems. The main ideas of a new physical model of surface flashover in silicon-vacuum systems are presented. The properties of the surface flashover response are discussed in terms of the proposed model. A concept called system surface flashover sensitivity is introduced to provide a better understanding of the surface flashover physical process in silicon-vacuum systems. >