MONOLITHICALLY INTEGRATED VLSI OPTOELECTRONIC CIRCUITS AND A METHOD OF FABRICATING THE SAME

摘要

A monolithically integrated, optoelectronic VLSIcircuit is fabricated by growing optical devices on thecompound semiconductor surface of a VLSI chip or waferhaving pre-existing electronic devices formed thereon. Inaccordance with an illustrative embodiment of the presentinvention, a large array of surface normal opticalmodulating devices such as multiple quantum well modulatorsis grown on an impurity free surface of a VLSI chip havingan array of FETs already provided thereon. The growth ofsuch devices takes place at temperatures below 430°C on acompound semiconductor surface which has a highly orderedatomic structure. An optoelectronic switch constructed inthis manner is capable of addressing electronic chips insystems handling 10,000 or more input/output optical beams.