Light emission from hot carriers in Si MOSFETS
Visible light emission from short-channel silicon MOSFETS biased deep into saturation is studied. A group of peaks is observed in the range of 1.3 to 2.3 eV. Devices from different manufacturers are all found to have similar luminescence features. Neither of the current models for light emission from MOSFETs, electron-hole pair recombination and bremsstrahlung emission, appears to be able to explain the observed spectra. The authors suggest that the luminescence arises from radiative transitions between conduction bands in the silicon.