The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Aug. 29, 2000
Filed:
Sep. 26, 1997
University of Pretoria, Pretoria, ZA;
Abstract
An optoelectronic device (10) formed in a chip of an indirect bandgap semiconductor material such as silicon is disclosed and claimed. The device comprises a visibly exposed highly doped n.sup.+ region (16) embedded at the surface of an oppositely doped epitaxial layer (14), to form a first junction region (15) closed to the surface of the epitaxial layer. When the junction region is reverse biased to beyond avalanche breakdown, the device acts as a light emitting device to the external environment. When it is reversed biased to just below avalanche breakdown it acts as a light detector. The device may further include a further junction region for generating or providing additional carriers in the first junction region, thereby to improve the performance of the device. This further junction can be multiplied to facilitate multi-input processing functions where the light emission from the first junction is a function of the electrical signals applied to the further junctions.