III–V Semiconductor Materials on Silicon

Abstract

GaAs- and InP-based lasers on Si substrates are highly desirable for the realization of OEICs and applications in long-range optical data transmission, in optical interconnects, and in optical computing. GaAs, InP, and related compound materials on Si are also interesting for the realization of very fast photoreceiver circuits. In particular, effective light emitters and very fast photoreceivers consisting of III–V materials can be combined with VLSI or ULSI silicon circuits in hybrid OEICs. This combination seems advantageous due to the following aspects: III–V materials and technologies are not as highly developed as silicon material and silicon technologies. Only 10⁴–10⁵ transistors can be integrated on one III–V chip compared to 10⁸ and even more transistors on Si chips. III–V light emitters are much more effective and faster than Si-based light emitters. III–V photodetectors allow much higher data rates than Si photodetectors.