A surface-conduction electron-emitter (SCE) with a raised structure in the middle of the conductive film is proposed in this paper. With this new structure, the formation position of the nanoscale fissure can be controlled easily during the electro-forming process, and this will help to improve the uniformity of SCEs. In contrast to typical methods of SCE preparation, a SiO2 strip layer is deposited in the middle of the electrode gap before the conductive film is sputtered. The conductive film over the SiO2 strip can accumulate more joule heat during the electro-forming process, and this subsequently causes the nanoscale fissure to be formed at the region along the step area of the SiO2 film and conductive film. Experiment results reveal that the new structure increases electron emission efficiency from 0.191% to 0.779%. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.