Planar monolithic integration of LED and FET devices on a conductive substrate

This paper describes results of a study on the monolithic integration of AlGaAs light-emitting diodes with GaAs field-effect transistors on a conductive p-GaAs substrate. Using a selective growth technique, a horizontal configuration is fabricated that allows separate optimization of the two types of devices and provides a quasi-planar surface. This approach is compatible with the standard GaAs integrated-circuit technology. By inserting an undoped layer and a p-n junction between the active layer of the FET and the substrate leakage currents below 500 µA for bias voltage up to 9 V are obtained for these insulation structures. The emitted light intensity of the LED, connected in series with the FET, exhibits a nearly linear dependence on the driving gate potential. Temperature or optical crosstalk effects were not observed. Fall and rise times around 20 ns were measured from the pulse response characteristics. This switching time is limited by the LED whereas the FET and isolation layers were found not to affect the switching behavior of the circuit in this time frame.