Higher efficiency silicon CMOS light emitting devices (450nm-750nm) using current density and carrier injection techniques

In this paper we report on the dependency of quantum efficiency of an avalanching light emitting junction on current density and on the injection current from an adjacent lying forward biased junction. In particular, we report on the interpretation of results and modelling of the physical processes responsible for the light emission. The phenomenon was observed in a three terminal silicon bipolar junction CMOS light emitting device (Si BJ CMOS LED). Our observations show that the overall quantum efficiency and light emission from these type of devices can be improved to the 10 ^-3 regime. The optical emissions is about four orders higher than the low frequency detectivity for silicon CMOS detectors of comparable dimension. The three terminal device also enable modulation of the light emission by a third terminal contact. The device has the potential of being fully integratable with standard CMOS integrated circuitry with no adaptation to the CMOS design and processing procedures.