Silicon Emitting Device Will Knock Down Communication Bottleneck?

One of the best goal that nowadays research in the field of fast electronics could reach is the knock down of wire communication bottleneck. A possible solution is to build fast optical communication links. Light emitting devices (LED) and array of LED's are investigated for intraboard communications but, until now, commercial LED devices are well down to work at frequencies up to 100 MHz. In this paper we present, analyze and investigate the frequency response of a bright, stable reliable Al-Porous Silicon Schottky device. The stability of this light intensity emission of 10 devices was verified for more than one month of continuous operation at high bias level. The device exhibits a white light emission, visible in normal daylight, when it is reverse biased in junction breakdown conditions. The emission mechanism is supposed to be the radiative transition of hot electrons generated in the breakdown process. It was possible to achieve the modulation of the optical signal up to 200 MHz. An electrical model of the device is presented to explain its dynamic behavior. According to this model the device speed seems to be limited by the device capacitance rather than from an intrinsic physical limit in the emission mechanism