Screen-printed carbon nanotube (CNT) emitter arrays were prepared by using slurry of mixture of multiwall CNTs, organic vehicles, and inorganic binder, i.e., silicon dioxide sol. The composition of the slurry was optimized by varying the CNT content in the mixture. It was found that only the cathode with appropriate, CNT contents had low turn-on field and high emission current density. A post-treatment process was introduced to further improve the field emission properties which selectively etches away the silicon dioxide binder by inductively coupled plasma etching. The results show that the selective etching process could effectively remove the inorganic binder layer from screen-printing CNT emitters and improve field emission performances. (c) 2007 American Vacuum Society.