III-V Device Integration on Silicon Via Metamorphic SiGe Substrates

A range of high performance minority carrier devices have been successfully fabricated on Si “virtual” substrates where threading dislocation densities (TDDs) as low as 1x10 cm are routinely achieved. Minority carrier lifetime data achieved on GaAs-on-Si layers exploiting this novel SiGe buffer approach to monolithic integration (τp = 10.5 ns and τn = 1.7ns) verifies the high III-V material quality. Single junction GaAs solar cells with high efficiencies for GaAs/Si of 18.1% under AM1.5-G illumination were demonstrated. Further exploiting the novel GaAs/Si material quality, even more complex minority carrier devices including dual-junction solar cells and LEDs were fabricated, yielding high performance consistent with the high III-V/Si mobilities. In both cases, certain device metrics on SiGe outperformed identical GaAs monolithic devices. Finally, a visible laser on Si was achieved, demonstrating the success and further potential of this III-V/Si integration methodology.