Due to its many-sided, principle-originated preeminent natures, the field emission technique probably predominates over the field of flat panel display in the future. Among all of the field emission cathodes, the silicon-based field emission cathode has been hoped much because of its easily-realized integration with the surrounding drive circuits. Based on summarizing the recent progress of silicon-based field emission cathode materials, a review on the facing problems, the possible solutions, and the development tendency in the future are presented.