Monolithic Integration of GaN Nanowire Light-Emitting Diode With Field Effect Transistor

Gallium nitride (GaN)-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are being investigated for the next generation display technology. The persistent issue, however, has been the lack of ability to integrate transistors with LEDs for control. Here, a novel vertical integration scheme is utilized to fabricate nanowire LEDs with nanowire field effect transistors (FETs) for the first time. This approach utilizes the unintentionally doped GaN template layer which is common to LED growth for the fabrication of nanowire FETs. The demonstrated voltage-controlled light-emitting unit provides area savings, scaling, and easier fabrication due to the vertical integration. For these initial nanowire devices, light modulation is demonstrated with LED turn OFF at -10 V. Due to the nanowire approach, these devices show over two times improvement in the ION to I_OFF ratio compared with the alternative integration schemes.