A field emitter cell includes a thin-film-edge emitter normal to the gate layer. The field emitter cell may include a conductive substrate layer, an insulator layer having a perforation, a gate layer having a perforation, an emitter layer, and other optional layers. The perforation in the gate layer is larger and concentrically offset with respect to the perforation in the insulating layer and may be of a tapered construction. Alternatively, the perforation in the gate layer may be coincident with, or larger or smaller than, the perforation in the insulating layer, provided that the gate layer is shielded from the emitter from a direct line-of-sight by a nonconducting standoff layer. Optionally, the thin-film-edge emitter may include incorporated nanofilaments. The field emitter cell has low gate current, making it useful for various applications such as field emitter displays, high voltage power switching, microwave, RF amplification and other applications that require high emission currents.