Silicon avalanche cathode (SAC) is a kind of important cold cathode in which the electron emission is caused by device's internal electrical field. In this paper a quasi-planar self-aligned silicon avalanche electron emission array is designed and fabricated. The device surface processing step is only about 10 nm at the edge of electron emission region and is much lower than that in traditional fabrication processing. A 3 mum short current channel is formed by self-aligned technology. Its I-V characteristic shows larger linear region and lower series resistance than that of previous SAC devices. Some electron emission features are investigated also. These results are useful for the research and development of planar cold cathode display. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.