Monolithic GaAs/Si Integration

Abstract

AbstractThe recent demonstrations of room-temperature cw operation of diode lasers fabricated in GaAs/AlGaAs layers grown on Si wafers have encouraged efforts to develop monolithic GaAs/Si integration technology for applications such as optical interconnects between VLSI subsystems. This paper summarizes our current work in this area, which is focused on the development of a highspeed, MSI-scale monolithic GaAs/Si test chip that integrates Si MOSFET circuits with diode lasers, LEDs, photoconductive detectors, and MESFET logic circuits fabricated in GaAs/AlGaAs layers grown by molecular beam epitaxy. Growth issues and processing considerations that affect device and circuit performance are addressed, and the characteristics of LEDs monolithically integrated with Si driver circuits and of GaAs microwave MESFETs fabricated on high-resistivity Si substrates are reported.