Miniaturised arrays of light-sources based on Silicon technology: A promising approach for novel sensors and Lab-on-a-Chip Systems

The recent progress in the fabrication of silicon-based light sources with a view to their application in miniaturized sensor and Lab-on-a-Chip systems is described. The core of an all-Si light emitting device is a SiO2 film containing ion-beam-synthesized nanoclusters. A brief account is given of the structural, electrical and optical properties of such nanocluster-rich oxide films. A notable feature of the devices so produced is their ability to exhibit intense UV, violet-to-blue or green electroluminescence depending on the ion-implanted species (rare earth elements or group-IV elements like Ge, Sn and Si). The fabrication of the devices is carried out in standard CMOS technology.
The relevance of the all-Si light sources to microarray and miniaturized sensor systems for point-of-care diagnostics and analysis is outlined.