Three terminal n/sup +/ppn silicon CMOS light emitting devices (450 nm - 750 nm) with three order increase in quantum efficiency

We report on the dependency of quantum efficiency of an avalanching silicon n/sup +/p light emitting junction on current density and on the injection current from an adjacent lying forward biased pn junction. The phenomenon was observed in a three terminal silicon bipolar junction CMOS light emitting device (Si BJ CMOS LED). The total increase in power and quantum conversion efficiency is about three orders of magnitude when compared to earlier published results. The optical emissions are about four orders higher than the low frequency detectivity for silicon CMOS detectors of comparable dimension. Because of its small spot size fabrication capability (1 micron diameter), high speed capability (up to 1 GHz), the devices have numerous potential applications in future CMOS integrated circuitry, hybrid micro-systems and MOEMS.