Avalanche breakdown in silicon devices for contactless logic testing and optical interconnect

摘要

A silicon p–n junction that is biased in avalanche breakdown mode emits visible light. Although the efficiency of such silicon emitters is poor, their ability to modulate at GHz frequencies make them a good choice for many applications including optical interconnect and optical contactless logic testing. Results demonstrate the feasibility of an all silicon optical interconnect system and an all silicon contactless testing methodology using the silicon light emitter and standard silicon detectors. The development of truly efficient silicon light emitting would enable many new applications.