Abstract: This paper describes a novel fabricating method of diamond field emitter array (DFEA) cold cathode and its characteristic of electron emission. Using data analyzing technique,the effective surface work function and the total effective emission area of DFEA are given, and compared with the corresponding parameter of field emission array coated with diamond-containing material deposited by ion beam aassisted deposition （IBAD）. The results show that this fabrication method has a strong application potential for electron emitter.