ELECTROLUMINESCENT SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE

• US 3,852,797 A
• Filed: 03/07/1973
• Issued: 12/03/1974
• Est. Priority Date: 03/14/1972
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Jacques Lebailly, Jean-Claude Dubois
• Original Assignee: Jacques Lebailly, Jean-Claude Dubois
• Inventors: Lebailly, Jacques, Dubois, Jean-Claude
• Primary Examiner(s): Edlow, Martin H.
• Application Number:
  US05/338,841
• Time in Patent Office: 636 Days
• Field of Search: 317/235N,235AC,235R 250/211J
• US Class Current: 257/85
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 27/00 Devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor or other solid-state components formed in or on a common substrate details thereof H01L23/00, H01L29/00 - H10K10/00; assemblies consisting of a plurality of individual solid state devices H01L25/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/00 Semiconductor devices sensitive to infrared radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof H10K30/00 takes precedence; devices consisting of a plurality of solid state components formed in, or on, a common substrate, other than combinations of radiation-sensitive components with one or more electric light sources, H01L27/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 31/153 formed in, or on, a common substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/00 Semiconductor devices having potential barriers specially adapted for light emission; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof H10K50/00 takes precedence; devices consisting of a plurality of semiconductor components formed in or on a common substrate and including semiconductor components having potential barriers, specially adapted for light emission H01L27/15; semiconductor lasers H01S5/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/0016 having at least two p-n junctions

Abstract

Electroluminescent semiconductor device with brightness control comprising an electroluminescent diode and three transistor regions one of which is made from a material having a forbidden band distance which is smaller than the energy of the radiation emitted by the diode, and one region separates the diode optically from a photoconductive region which is destined to receive radiation other than that of the diode.

Claims

1. A MONOLITHIC SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICE COMPRISING FOUR SUCCESSIVE REGIONS OF ALTERNATELY P AND N CONDUCTIVITY TYPE WHICH TOGETHER CONSITTUTE THREE P-N JUNCTIONS, THE FIRST P-N JUNCTION BEETWEEN FIRST AND SECOND ONES OF SAID REGIONS HAVING ELECTROLUMINSCENT PROPERTIES AND SAID FIRST REGION AND A FOURTH ONE OF SAID REGIONS COMPRISING OHMIC CONTACT ELECTRODES, A SECOND ONE OF SAID REGIONSS COMPRISING AT LEAST TWO ZONES, A FIRST ONE OF SAID ZONES ADJOINING SAID FIRST REGION AND HAVING THE SAME COMPOSITION AS SAID FIRST REGION AND A SECOND ONE OF SAID ZONES ADJOINING A THIRD ONE OF SAID REGIONS AND SUBSTANTIALLY ISOLATING OPTICALLY SAID THIRD REGION FROM THE FIRST JUNCTION, SAID SECOND ZONE CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF A MATERIAL HAVING A FORBIDDEN ENERGY BANDGAP CORRESPONDING TO AN ENERY LEVEL WHICH IS SMALLER THAN THE ENERGY OF THE PHOTONS EMITTED BY SAID FIRST JUNCTION, AND SAID THIRD REGION CONSISTING ESSENTIALLY OF A MATERIAL HAVING PHOTOCONDUCTIVE PROPERTIES AND COMPRISING A SURFACE THAT ADMITS PHOTONS ORIGINATING OUTSIDE THE DEVICE.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein material of said first region and of the first zone of the second region on the one hand and, on the other hand, material of the second zone of the second region and of the third and fourth regions consist essentially of common constituents in different respective concentrations and belong in the same crystal system, said materials having relatively close crystal parameters.

3. A device as claimed in claim 2, wherein said second region further comprises a buffer zone disposed between and adjoining said first and second zones and comprising constituents whose concentrations vary gradually between the values of the respective concentration level in said zones.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the thickness of said second zone is equal to at least three times the absorption distance 1/ Alpha for the radiation emitted by the first junction.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said device comprises a face from which there emanates the radiation emitted by the first junction and said third region surface is disposed opposite to said face, said zones and regions of said device being layers present one above the other, and said fourth region extending across a smaller distance than the other said regions.

6. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said device comprises a face from which there emanates the radiation emitted by Said first junction and said surface is disposed at said face.

7. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said device comprises a face from which there emanates the radiation emitted by said first junction and said surface is disposed beside said face.

8. A device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said first region and said first zone of said second region consist essentially of a highly doped material having a direct band structure, said first zone constituting an absorbing layer for the radiation emitted by the first junction.

9. A device as claimed in claim 1, consisting essentially of both at least one of gallium, aluminum, and indium and at least one of arsenic and phosphorus.

10. A device as claimed in claim 9, wherein said first region comprises a zinc-doped epitaxial deposit consisting of essentially of gallium arsenide having the formula GaAs1 xPx, in which 0 <

x <

0.4, said first zone of said second region comprising a tellurium-doped epitaxial deposit consisting essentially of gallium arsenide phosphide wherein the phosphide proportion varies between x and 9, said second zone of said second region consisting essentially of tellurium-doped gallium arsenide, said third region consisting essentially of zinc-doped gallium arsenide and said fourth region consisting essentially of tin-doped gallium arsenide.