High-performance AlGaInP light-emitting diodes integrated on silicon through a superior quality germanium-on-insulator

Abstract

High-performance GaInP/AlGaInP multi-quantum well light-emitting diodes (LEDs) grown on a low threading dislocation density (TDD) germanium-on-insulator (GOI) substrate have been demonstrated. The low TDD of the GOI substrate is realized through Ge epitaxial growth, wafer bonding, and layer transfer processes on 200 mm wafers. With O 2 annealing, the TDD of the GOI substrate can be reduced to ∼1.2 × 10 6 cm −2 . LEDs fabricated on this GOI substrate exhibit record-high optical output power of 1.3 mW at a 670 nm peak wavelength under 280 mA current injection. This output power level is at least 2 times higher compared to other reports of similar devices on a silicon (Si) substrate without degrading the electrical performance. These results demonstrate great promise for the monolithic integration of visible-band optical sources with Si-based electronic circuitry and realization of high-density RGB (red, green, and blue) micro-LED arrays with control circuitry.

Effects of Current, Temperature, and Chip Size on the Performance of AlGaInP-Based Red Micro-Light-Emitting Diodes with Different Contact Schemes

“…The two non-radiative recombination could release the energy from close to the bandgap. 29,43 Consequently, the generation of defects could be stimulated (due to thermal energy), increasing non-radiative recombination. 52 The second can be related to self-heating, which is associated with current crowding at high current density.…”

“…[25][26][27] On the other hand, AlGaInPbased red LEDs were found to exhibit good performance. [28][29][30][31] However, one drawback of AlGaInP-based LED is related to thermal-droop (T-droop). 32,33 In other words, with increasing temperature, red LEDs underwent significant reduction in the radiative recombination efficiency as a result of Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) recombination and carrier leakage.…”

GaAs Compounds Heteroepitaxy on Silicon for Opto and Nano Electronic Applications

“…As germanium material has lattice parameter and thermal expansion coefficient close to those of the GaAs, a common strategy is to benefit from all the Ge heteroepitaxy on silicon developments to reduce the structural defects in the GaAs layer [31,41,[51][52][53]. This way, we avoid additional threading dislocation nucleation.…”

Performance of AlGaInP LEDs on silicon substrates through low threading dislocation density (TDD) germanium buffer layer

“…The epitaxial Ge films were grown on 200 mm (001) Si substrates with a 6°off-cut towards the [110] direction using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The growth and fabrication details of these Ge/Si substrates are summarized in table 1 [8][9][10][11]. The quality, in terms of TDD, root-mean-square surface roughness of these Ge/Si substrates are summarized in table 2.…”

“…Our group work intensively towards engineered Ge/Si substrate, such as two-step growth approach Ge/Si, As-doped Ge/Si, and GOI substrates, with threading dislocation density (TDD) in the range of low-10 6 -low-10 7 cm −2 [8][9][10][11]. To access the material quality of these substrates, in this work, AlGaInP LEDs are grown and fabricated on these substrates.…”