High Optical Power Density Forward-Biased Silicon LEDs in Standard CMOS Process

This letter presents three low-operating-voltage silicon-based light-emitting devices (Si-LEDs) designed and made in a commercial standard 0.18-μm CMOS process without any modification. The Si-LEDs with a new threeterminal and wedge-shaped forward-biased carrier-injection-type p<sup>+</sup>-n junction structure, have high optical powers. The output power increases by two orders of magnitude up to 1.78 μW without saturation when the forward current is increased from 20 mA to 200 mA. The light-emitting area is the n-type drift region between the n<sup>+</sup> region and p<sup>+</sup> region. When the forward current increases to 200 mA, the optical power density exceeds 30 nW · μm<sup>-2</sup> the power conversion efficiency and external quantum efficiency are ~2 × 10<sup>-6</sup> and 8.3 × 10<sup>-6</sup>, respectively, higher than all other forward-biased Si-LEDs previously reported to have used CMOS processes without any modification.

[1]  M. Green,et al.  Efficient silicon light-emitting diodes , 2001, Nature.

[2]  Thomas Dekorsy,et al.  Origin of anomalous temperature dependence and high efficiency of silicon light-emitting diodes , 2003 .

[3]  B. Jayant Baliga,et al.  Material Properties and Transport Physics , 2018, Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices.

[4]  E. Seevinck,et al.  An efficient low voltage, high frequency silicon CMOS light emitting device and electro-optical interface , 1999, IEEE Electron Device Letters.

[5]  D. Leong,et al.  A silicon/iron-disilicide light-emitting diode operating at a wavelength of 1.5 μm , 1997, Nature.

[6]  M. du Plessis,et al.  Low-operating-voltage integrated silicon light-emitting devices , 2004, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[7]  Beiju Huang,et al.  Monolithic Integrated Silicon Photonic Interconnect With Perfectly Vertical Coupling Optical Interface , 2013, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[8]  R. Newman,et al.  Visible Light from a Silicon p − n Junction , 1955 .

[9]  Hee-Chul Lee,et al.  MSM Photodetector on a Polysilicon Membrane for a Silicon-Based Wafer-Level Packaged LED , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[10]  Chel-Jong Choi,et al.  Enhancement of Performance of Si Nanocrystal Light-Emitting Diodes by Using Ag Nanodots , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[11]  H. Aharoni,et al.  A dependency of quantum efficiency of silicon CMOS n/sup +/pp/sup +/ LEDs on current density , 2005, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[12]  Wei Wang,et al.  Multifunctional silicon-based light emitting device in standard complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor technology , 2011 .

[13]  S. Koester,et al.  A 15-Gb/s 2.4-V Optical Receiver Using a Ge-on-SOI Photodiode and a CMOS IC , 2006, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[14]  G. Shao,et al.  An efficient room-temperature silicon-based light-emitting diode , 2001, Nature.

[15]  B. Jayant Baliga,et al.  Fundamentals of Power Semiconductor Devices , 2008 .

[16]  M. Helm,et al.  Efficient silicon light emitting diodes by boron implantation: the mechanism , 2005 .

[17]  Lukas W. Snyman,et al.  Injection-Avalanche-Based n+pn Silicon Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor Light-Emitting Device (450–750 nm) with 2-Order-of-Magnitude Increase in Light Emission Intensity , 2007 .

[18]  Cheng-Kuang Liu,et al.  Si-based current-density-enhanced light emission and low-operating-voltage light-emitting/receiving designs , 2005 .

[19]  J. Holleman,et al.  A high efficiency lateral light emitting device on SOI , 2004, 12th International Symposium on Electron Devices for Microwave and Optoelectronic Applications, 2004. EDMO 2004..

[20]  Wei Wang,et al.  CMOS monolithic optoelectronic integrated circuit for on-chip optical interconnection , 2011 .

[21]  Kei May Lau,et al.  Investigation of Forward Voltage Uniformity in Monolithic Light-Emitting Diode Arrays , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[22]  J. R. Haynes,et al.  New Radiative Recombination Processes Involving Neutral Donors and Acceptors in Silicon and Germanium , 1967 .

[23]  Beiju Huang,et al.  A low-voltage two-wavelength light emitter in standard CMOS technology , 2010, 7th IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics.