The company claims this is a ‘major breakthrough’ since it shows advanced photonic devices can be made to work at room temperature in a form of silicon that is compatible with today's mass-produced chips, and more importantly, future silicon electronics technology nodes.

The work on EL is part of a broader project Translucent (Palo Alto, Calif.) is working on through funding from contract from DARPA, dubbed the Electronics and Photonics Integrated Circuits (EPIC) project.

"Demonstration of electroluminescence at telecommunication wavelengths and room temperature in this new class of silicon-based semiconductors is a significant achievement, and represents a materials science breakthrough for both electronic and photonic applications", said Dr Petar Atanackovic, Translucent CEO. "This is an important step forward in our optical silicon integration program. The ultimate objective is to develop optically active devices, including an electrically driven silicon laser, which can be integrated with mainstream silicon chips," he added.

Translucent says demonstration of EL is a critical pre-requisite to the integration of electronic and optical functionality in silicon.

Previous demonstrations of EL in silicon by other groups have been reported at cryogenic temperatures, but the company stresses these were in forms of silicon that are not compatible with today's silicon chips or future technology nodes.

The DARPA contract, which commenced in January this year, is aimed at developing proprietary silicon-based “optical gain” devices. The company revealed late 2003 that it achieved room temperature optical gain in silicon.

Translucent said it is also making good progress in another project targeted at the development of advanced materials such as Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) and High-k substrates.

It said it is currently focused on optimizing its SOI material in preparation for industry validation early in 2006. Translucent says the advanced SOI substrate will represent its first commercial offering, and since the company has taken out numerous patents during the development, this is likely to be offered on a license basis.