US Patent 7675071 - Nanorod BJT light emitter

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/7675071.html

This patent from Samsung teaches an optical switching transistor using nanorods to enhance light emission efficiency. Claim 1 reads:

1. A light emitting transistor comprising:

a first conductivity-type collector layer formed on a substrate;

a second conductivity-type base layer formed on the collector layer; and

a first conductivity-type emitter layer formed on the base layer,

wherein at least one of the collector layer, the base layer, and the emitter layer has a nanorod structure with a plurality of nanorods as low-dimensional nanostructure,

wherein the light emitting transistor has a bipolar junction structure, and is amplified or is switched in accordance with a bias direction of each layer.