A silicon transconductance light emitting device (TRANSLED)

A novel multi-terminal silicon light emitting device (TRANSLED) is describe d where both the light intensity and spatial light pattern of the device ar e controlled by an insulated MOS gate voltage. This presents a major advant age over two terminals Si-LEDs, which require direct modulation of the rela tively high avalanche current. It is found that, depending on the bins cond itions, the light intensity is either a linear or a quadratic function of t he applied gate voltage. The nonlinear relationship facilitates new applica tions such as the mixing of electrical input signals and modulating the opt ical output signal, which cannot readily be achieved with two terminal Si-L EDs, since they exhibit a linear relationship between diode avalanche curre nt and light intensity. Furthermore, the control gate voltage can also modu late the emission pattern of the light emitting regions, for example, chang ing the TRANSLED from an optical line source to two point sources. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.