Poly-silicon light-emitting-device based electro-optical interfaces in standard silicon-CMOS integrated circuitry

Abstract A silicon-based light source using simple manufacturing process and having excellent luminous efficiency is significantly desired for the development of optoelectronic integrated circuits. In this paper, an integrated poly-silicon avalanche mode light-emitting-device (poly-SiAMLED) is fabricated using a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) process. It utilizes the poly-silicon p-n junctions in avalanche breakdown to achieve illumination and employs the carrier injection technology to achieve about 2.9 × 10−7 external quantum efficiency and about 2.2 × 10−8 power conversion efficiency. Moreover, it is easy to fabricate because the process is compatible with the existing integrated circuit process. The proposed device can be used as one of the components of the optoelectronic interface in optoelectronic integrated circuits.