An electron conduction emitter of Al-AlN granular films was proposed for surface conduction electron emission device in this paper. The Al-AlN granular films with thickness of 30 nm were prepared between two co-planar electrodes with gap of 10 mu m by magnetron sputtering. After electroforming the Al-AlN granular films, the films' structure could be recovered by applying the periodic device voltage (V-f). Stable and uniform electron emission was observed with turn-on voltage of 5.3 V and threshold voltage of 9 V. The emitter emission current (I-e) of 4.84 mu A for 36 cells was obtained with the anode voltage of 2.5 kV and the device voltage of 12 V. In addition, Fowler-Nordheim plots for I-e-V-f properties showed that the electron emission mechanism should be field emission. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.