Efficiency and Stability Issues of MOSLED´s made by RE Ion Implantation

Combining silicon-based electronic circuits with optoelectronic functionality is one of the key challenges for the future semiconductor technology. Such work must not only be devoted to the wavelength of 1.54 µm because there are more applications needing light sources from all the UV to IR wavelength range. In our work we employed ion beam processing to embed different rare earth (RE) luminescent centers (Gd3+, Ce3+, Tm3+, Tb3+, Eu3+, Er3+) into the silicon dioxide layer of a purpose-designed Metal-Oxide-Silicon-based Light Emitting Diodes (MOSLEDs) with advanced electrical performance. Efficient electroluminescence was obtained from UV to infrared with a transparent top electrode made of indium-tin oxide. The distinct differences in efficiency of the various rare earth atoms will be discussed as well as problems of electrical stability of such devices due to hot electron injection and charge trapping phenomena. Several developments for improving the device stability will be proposed related to charge compensation and elimination of the defects in SiO2.