Patent ID: 7439085

Claim:
A method of causing electroluminescence by combining a plurality of first charge types and a plurality of second charge types in a device including a gate providing a gate voltage, a charge trapping structure controlled by the gate voltage, a body region having a first dopant type such that the body region has the plurality of first charge types as majority carriers and the plurality of second charge types as minority carriers and including a contact region having a second dopant type such that the contact region has the plurality of second charge types as majority carriers and the plurality of first charge types as minority carriers, comprising: reverse biasing the contact region with respect to the body region to 1) provide the plurality of first charge types from the contact region, through at least the body region, to the charge trapping structure and 2) combine the plurality of first charge types provided from the contact region and the plurality of second charge types in the charge trapping structure, thereby generating photons from the charge trapping structure.