UK start-up embarks on Si optoelectronics project
Potential applications include IC optical interconnects, Si-OEIC, MEMS, lab-on-a-chip, and sensor systems, with the benefit of significantly reduced manufacturing costs compared with conventional hybrid III/V-Si approaches.
In October 2002, ST Microelectronics announced that it had developed silicon light emitters using a technology in which Si-enriched SiO2 is implanted with rare earth elements. ST expects to have an all-Si optocoupler on the market in 2004.
SLT says that its light emitting devices have efficiencies comparable with those achieved in conventional III-V devices and that in contrast to alternative approaches for fabricating light emitting devices in Si, its devices are robust and highly reliable, requiring low drive potentials and are wavelength tunable.
