A Three-Terminal Silicon-PMOSFET-Like Light-Emitting Device (LED) for Optical Intensity Modulation

A Si- p-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (PMOSFET)-like LED has been developed for light emission modulation. In contrast to a two-terminal Si-diode LED modulated by current signal, a major advantage of this three-terminal Si-PMOSFET LED is that the optical intensity modulation can be controlled by gate voltage signal, a standard CMOSFET operation to ease both logic circuit implementation and light modulation. The gate applied voltage induces carrier concentration modulation at both channel and source/drain region under the gate, thus modulating electric-field distribution and its light emission. Fabricated in a standard CMOS process technology, this Si-PMOSFET LED ensures its potential on realizing silicon optoelectronic integration.