Imec announces important breakthrough in silicon photonics

The Belgian Microelectronics Research Center (Imec) announced on January 9 that they have made an important breakthrough in the field of silicon photonics. They have successfully fabricated a GaAs-based electrically driven multi-quantum well nano-ridge laser diode on a 300mm silicon wafer. The threshold current of this diode is as low as 5mA and the output power exceeds 1mW, demonstrating the potential of direct epitaxial growth of high-quality III-V materials on silicon.