High efficiency light emission out of silicon (HELIOS) (TEL.6159)

Project nummer: tel6159

Omschrijving van het onderzoek

Although semiconductor opto-electronics have been realized in the past years, and even found a considerable market, opto-electronics cannot be fabricated
in standard Silicon technology. Therefore low-cost and high-volume manufacturing of opto-electronic systems is still impossible. The key-missing
element is an efficient and fast light source. Several routes are presently
being pursued to realize such a device using standard materials and fabrication methods.
In this project it is proposed to realize Silicon Light Emitting Diodes (Si-LED's) on high-quality SOI (silicon-on-insulator) material to circumvent
certain disadvantages of electro-luminescent devices fabricated in standard
(bulk) silicon technology. These disadvantages are lack of electron-hole confinement and its disability for fast optical switching by electrical means. Good LEDs are being fabricated with III-V semiconductors. However a commercially viable realization in silicon is not known.
We propose to make light emitting devices in silicon by thinning down the upper silicon layer of SOI wafers to 5-10 nm. Light emission is expected
through electron-hole recombination, and the quantum efficiency of this
process will be increased by band-gap engineering (due to strain and the
ultra-thin SOI of 5-10 nm) and defect engineering by implantation.
Utilisation
Several businesses show interest in light-emitting silicon devices. First, there are the light emitting diode manufacturers. These manufacturers are presently constrained to the use of direct-bandgap semiconductors such as GaN. Application of silicon can result in tremendous cost reduction, wider applicability, and System-On-Chip solutions. The optical semiconductor market showed a rapid growth in recent years, with an annual turnover of 7.7 billion USD in 2001. Secondly, light-emitting silicon devices are attractive for optical communication inside integrated circuits and between them, particulary interesting for digital logic ICs. This clearly illustrates the urgency and industrial relevance of the topic. The digital logic IC market had a turnover of 28 billion USD in 2001. The business impact of an IC-process compatible silicon LED can therefore be enormous. Thirdly, light out of silicon devices has a high potential in sensor microdevices for sensing mechanical and chemical signals based on Mach-Zehnder interferometry. A few smaller companies in the Netherlands produce such optical devices as well as opto-electronic devices for communication. With the presence of representatives of these three industrial segments in our user committee, our research can maintain a utilization focus. Moreover, a transfer of ideas as well as manufacturing and characterization techniques can easily be established.

Gebruikers

Four companies and one other university are involved in this project.

Projectleider

Dr. J. Holleman

Universiteit Twente
Elektrotechniek Wiskunde en Informatica
MESA+ Research instituut

Postbus 217
7500 AE Enschede

Status van het project

Gestart	: 01-10-2003
Einddatum	: 01-10-2007

Trefwoorden

Antifuse, Dislocations, LED, Opto-elektronica, Strain.

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