We propose a microlens for improving the coupling efficiency between a Lambertian emitter and an optical fiber with small numerical aperture. The nonimaging lens uses refraction in the central part for light rays emitted at small angles, and reflection in the peripheral part for rays emitted at large angles. In this way, the high numerical aperture of the source can efficiently be converted into the small numerical aperture of the fiber. Arrays of these lenses can be fabricated on a wafer scale using grayscale lithography. Simulation results for the coupling efficiency and alignment tolerances are presented for coupling to a standard multimode fiber with a core diameter of 62.5 µm and numerical aperture of 0.275. For small fiber core diameter to source diameter ratios, improvements in the coupling efficiency very close to the theoretical limit are predicted. For a light-emitting diode (LED) with a diameter of 25 µm, an improvement factor of 6 is observed in comparison to simple butt coupling, and a factor of more than 2 as compared to a standard spherical microlens.
We propose a new process for thin-film surface-textured LEDs that provides uniform current injection for both top and bottom contacts. The structure uses a partially conductive mirror. This eliminates the need for thick epitaxial layers and makes it possible to fabricate very large LEDs. Furthermore, the new process allows to obtain both high external quantum efficiency and high wallplug efficiency. 400 x 400 μm GaInP/AlGaInP LEDs reach maximum external quantum efficiencies of 35% at 12 mA without encapsulation. The wallplug efficiency reaches 34% at 2.6 mA. At an operating current of 60 mA, the devices emit 30 mW of light.
Very high external efficiencies have been reported from surface-textured thin-film light-emitting diodes. We have developed a novel process for the wafer-scale fabrication of surface-textured thin-film LEDs, avoiding the use of wet thermal oxidation and epitaxial lift-off. The LEDs consist of a double-mesa structure with a structured gold reflector serving simultaneously as a p-contact. The light emission occurs on the side of the original GaAs substrate, which is removed by selective etching after glueing the sample with the processed side onto a carrier substrate. The light emission of the devices is fully confined within the diameter of the LED itself. In comparison to our previously reported LEDs, the series resistance has been significantly reduced by the current injection through the mirror. 85(mu) 2m diameter GaAs/AlGaAs LEDs reach maximum external quantum efficiencies of 42% before and 51% after encapsulation. Encapsulated devices reach a maximum wallplug efficiency of 47% at a current of 3.5 mA. At an operating current of 20 mA, they emit 14 mW of light. As a first result on 650 nm GaInP/AlGaInP LEDs we obtained external quantum efficiencies of 28% for un-encapsulated devices with a diameter of 75micrometers . At a drive current of 8 mA the LEDs emit 3.4 mW of light.
We present a high-bandwidth parallel optical link that operates from CMOS chip to CMOS chip, for applications like chip-to-chip, board-to-board and rack-to-rack interconnects. The optical channel is an oversampling imaging fiber bundle of 1.9 mm diameter. The light sources are a 10 X 10 2D array of high-speed, high-efficiency light-emitting diodes, design for flip-chip mounting onto CMOS driver circuits. Detectors and receivers are integrated together in standard CMOS, as an array of 10 X 10 detector/receiver cells.
Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with high efficiencies can be fabricated by a combination of surface texturing and the application of a rear reflector. We demonstrate an external quantum efficiency of 43% for unencapsulated surface-textured thin-film LEDs, which increases to 54% after encapsulation. At low temperatures, the efficiency of unencapsulated devices increases up to 68%. We investigate the light extraction mechanism from such LEDs employing a Monte Carlo simulation of the light propagation inside the LED structure. One essential input parameter for the simulation are the light scattering properties of the textured surface, which have been investigated experimentally. For light incidence below the critical angle of total internal reflection, the transmission through a textured surface is reduced compared to a flat surface. However, due to surface texturing, transmission becomes possible for incident angles above the critical angle. As a result, the internal scattering during internal reflection at the textured surface is not necessary for an efficient extraction of the light generated inside the LED structure. In addition, the Monte Carlo simulation also explains the strong increase of the LED efficiency at low temperatures quantitatively by photon recycling effects. Photon recycling is also demonstrated to be partially responsible for the shift of the emission wavelength in thin- film LEDs, as compared to conventional LEDs.
The external quantum efficiency of planar light-emitting diodes (LED's) can be increased significantly by the approach of a non-resonant cavity (NRC) LED, which consists of texturing the top surface and applying a rear reflector. We demonstrate this approach for the first time on 650-nm InGaP/AlInGaP LED's. The LED's are fabricated using the processing techniques developed previously for 860-nm GaAs/AlGaAs NRC-LED's, which include wet thermal oxidation for the formation of a current aperture. With un-encapsulated NRC- LED's, we report an external quantum efficiency of 24% for an emission wavelength of 655 nm. This is an 11-fold increase of the external quantum efficiency, as compared to conventional devices. Furthermore, the efficiency is demonstrated to increase to 31% by on-wafer encapsulation of the LED's. This results in an optical output power of 4 mW for a drive current of 7 mA.
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