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

Author

Rong Xie ; Luhong Mao ; Weilian Guo ; Sheng Xie ; Shilin Zhang ; Lei Han ; Fan Zhao

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron. & Inf. Eng., Tianjin Univ., Tianjin, China

Volume

27

Issue

2

fYear

2015

fDate

Jan.15, 15 2015

Firstpage

121

Lastpage

124

Abstract

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⁺-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⁺ region and p⁺ region. When the forward current increases to 200 mA, the optical power density exceeds 30 nW · μm^-2 the power conversion efficiency and external quantum efficiency are ~2 × 10^-6 and 8.3 × 10^-6, respectively, higher than all other forward-biased Si-LEDs previously reported to have used CMOS processes without any modification.

Keywords

light emitting diodes; low-power electronics; optical materials; p-n junctions; silicon; Si; commercial standard CMOS process; current 20 mA to 200 mA; external quantum efficiency; forward current; forward-biased Si-LED; high optical power density forward-biased silicon LED; light-emitting area; low-operating-voltage silicon-based light-emitting devices; n-type drift region; n⁺ region; output power; p⁺ region; power 1.78 muW; power conversion efficiency; terminal; wedge-shaped forward-biased carrier-injection-type p⁺-n junction structure; Density measurement; Electric fields; Junctions; Light emitting diodes; Optical saturation; Silicon; Stimulated emission; Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process without any modification; forward-biased carrier-injection-type; optical power density; p+-n junction; silicon-based light-emitting devices (Si-LEDs);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2014.2362983

Filename

6923455