Semiconductor surface lenses and shaped structures
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology, California non-profit organization
InventorsJohn O'Brien, Chuan-Cheng Cheng, Axel Scherer, Amnon Yariv, Yong Xu
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Abstract
A lens is formed out of semiconductor material. The semiconductor produces light which is coupled to the lens. The lens focuses the light and also minimizes refractive reflection. The lens is formed by a graded aluminum alloy, which is oxidized in a lateral direction. The oxidation changes the effective shape of the device according to the grading.
Claims15
A method of forming a lensing device on a semiconductor substrate, comprising:
- forming a semiconductor substrate of a graded material over an active region that emits light, wherein the graded material has a material composition increasing from a position near the active region to a position away from said active region along an axis thereof;
- shaping said graded into a desired shape of a lensing element to modify the emitted light from the active region.
A method of producing electromagnetic radiation using a semiconductor comprising:
- forming a semiconductor substrate that has a specified material that can be changed by a specified process to a changed material, wherein said changed material has different optical property than said specific material, said specific material present in said semiconductor substrate at a predetermined concentration which varies along a dimension of said semiconductor substrate;
- processing said semiconductor substrate using said specified process, to change said specified material to said changed material by an amount based on said concentration;
- and
- producing optical radiation in said semiconductor substrate, and using optical properties of said specified material relative to said unspecified material to optically alter said optical radiation.
A method of producing light with a minimized refractive reflection, comprising:
- forming a semiconductor active layer which emits light;
- epitaxially growing another layer over said semiconductor active layer, said another layer including a varying concentration of a specified material along an axis thereof;
- changing said another layer in a way that changes its optical properties, by an amount dependent on said concentration of said specified material;
- and
- emitting light from said semiconductor active layer, and using said another layer, after said changing, to optically modify said light from said semiconductor active layer, in a way that reduces refractive reflection of said light relative to a way in which light would be emitted without said another layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.