Optical Power Efficiency Versus Breakdown Voltage of Avalanche-Mode Silicon LEDs in CMOS

Satadal Dutta, Gerard J.M. Wienk, Raymond J.E. Hueting, Jurriaan Schmitz, Anne-Johan Annema

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

12 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

We report on the dependency of the optical power efficiency η on the breakdown voltage VBR of avalanche-mode (AM) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) in silicon. Lateral p + -n-n + LEDs have been designed in a 65-nm bulk CMOS technology, where VBR is varied between 2 and 9 V. This tunes both the magnitude and the spatial distribution of the reverse electric field, which governs AM electroluminescence. Experiments show that a maximum η of ~1.7 × 10 -6 is obtained for V BR ~ 6 V. For V BR <; 6 V, non-local avalanche results in a lower η, while for V BR > 6 V, a gradual reduction in η with increasing VBR is obtained. This trend is compared with two recently proposed opto-electronic models. A maximum in η at relatively low voltages is attractive for monolithic opto-electronic integration in silicon.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)898-901
Number of pages4
JournalIEEE electron device letters
Volume38
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 23 Jun 2017

Keywords

  • Avalanche breakdown
  • Silicon
  • Electroluminescence
  • LED
  • Power efficiency
  • Internal quantum efficiency (IQE)
  • 2023 OA procedure

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