Applications of Nanowire Transistors for Driving Nanowire LEDs

Operation of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) can be improved by monolithic integration of the pixel transistors with light emitting diodes (LEDs) on a single substrate. Conventional LCDs make use of filters to control the backlighting which reduces the overall efficiency. These LCDs also utilize LEDs in series which impose failure and they require high voltage for operation with a power factor correction. The screen of small hand-held devices can operate from moderate brightness. Therefore, III-V nanowires that are grown along with transistors over Silicon substrates can be utilized. Control of nanowire LEDs with nanowire transistors will significantly lower the cost, increase the efficiency, improve the manufacturing yield and simplify the structure of the small displays that are used in portable devices. The steps to grow nanowires on Silicon substrates are described. The vertical n-type and p-type nanowire transistors with surrounding gate structures are characterized. While biased at 0.5 V, nanowire transistors with minimum radius or channel width have an OFF current which is less than 1pA, an ON current more than 1 ${\mu}A$, a total delay less than 10 ps and a transconductance gain of more than 10 ${\mu}A/V$. The low power and fast switching characteristics of the nanowire transistor make them an ideal choice for the realization of future displays of portable devices with long battery lifetime.