Increased Efficiency of Silicon Light-Emitting Device in Standard Si-CMOS Technology

Light emission has been observed from silicon devices in the reverse avalanche mode. Compared with Si-diode light-emitting device (LED) (a two-terminal device), Si-pMOSFET LED (a three-terminal device) in which the optical emission power emitted from the device is controlled by the insulated-gate terminal's voltage Vghas been discussed. Being similar to Si-diode LED, Si-pMOSFET LED can also be monolithically integrated into optical-electro integrated circuit that is fully compatible with the silicon CMOS process technology. Light emission efficiency enhancement observed at lower electric driving power in the Si-pMOSFET LED is presented, and the reverse-biased junction configuration of the silicon LED emit light in a broad spectrum from 450 to 800 nm with characteristic peaks around ~650 nm.