Technology and Physics of Light Emitting Diodes

Department of Electronics and Radio Engineering Kyung Hee University Prof. Jae Su Yu 2010. 12. 15.

Contents
Introduction History of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) Theory of Radiative Recombination Electrical and Optical Properties of LEDs Temperature Characteristics of LEDs High Internal Efficiency Design Light Extraction Efficient Structures Packaging Summary
1

Applications of LEDs
Mobile & displays LED TVs Light generation

Traffic signals

Car LEDs Signs LED Plant growth using LEDs

Cost of Light
Cost of Light Incorporates Lifetime Source efficiency Energy cost Replacement cost of lamp/fixture Labor cost

Source: PHILIPS

Metric Incandescent Halogen CFL LED Lamp

Cost $0.59 $4.97 $3.97 $50.00

Lumens 630 700 800 800

Power 60W 60W 14W 11.4W

Lifetime 1000hrs 3000hrs 6000hrs 25000hrs

Cost of Light $34.26 $18.57 $5.70 $5.14

3

History of LEDs
1907 Electroluminescence observed in Carborundum (SiC) H.J. Round 1923-1930 Comprehensive study of SiC electroluminescence and discussion of application for communications -O.V. Losev 1947 Discovery of transistor Bardeen and Brattain 1951 Explanation of SiC electroluminescence as carrier injection across a p/n junctionK. Lehovec, et al. 1955 Visible electroluminescence inGaPG.A. Wolff, et al. 1962 Demonstration of coherent visible light emission from direct bandgap GaAsP alloy semiconductors N. Holonyak and S.F. Bevacgua 1962-Present Continuing development and optimization of various direct bandgap ternary (GaAsP, AlGaAs) and quarternary (AlInGaP, AlInGaN) material systems for high performance LEDs RCA Monsanto, Hewlett Packard, Stanley, Toshiba, Toyoda Gosei, Nichia, and others
4

RGB LEDs

Source: Light-emitting diodes, Fred Schubert

Red LED: AlGaAs (660 nm), AlInGaP (644 nm) Green LED: GaP (555 nm, 570 nm), AlInGaP (562 nm), InGaN (525 nm) Blue LED: InGaN (450 nm) Cf. Orange LED: GaAsP (610 nm), AlInGaP (612 nm) Yellow LED: GaAsP (585 nm), AlInGaP (590 nm) UV LED: AlInGaN ( < 350 nm)
6

White LEDs
Commercialization - Blue LED + Yellow phosphors (YAG:Ce) - Red LED + Blue LED + Green LED - ZnSe blue LED + ZnSe substrate In progress - UV LED + White phosphors - One chip solution (monolithic white LED)

Source : LG Innotek

Efficiency of LEDs

Cree

- 2009, Nichia, 249 lm/W @20 mA, room temp. - 2010. 2. 4, Cree, 208 lm/W @ 350 mA, room temp. Color temp.: 4579 K

LED evolution
High power >1,000 lm, High luminous efficiency >100 lm/W, Low cost < $20/klm 1970 - 1992 Red LED 1993 - 1996 RGB LED 1997 - 2008 White LED 2009 ~ General Lighting Years

GaAsP, AlGaAs 20 Signal

Full Color Display InGaN, AlGaInP 40

InGaN, AlGaInP 80

Digital Convergence 120 Lighting Lm/W

Mobile Phone

Back Light Unit, Car LED

Progress in Technology
Blue active UV active

Tunability
Multi-color

Color

Bandgap eng Micro-phosphor Micro-pattern Nano-phosphor Nano-pattern Quantum dot 2D Photonic crystal - N non-sapphire Lift-off Wafer bonding

Efficiency

Quantum well

Energy saving
Resonant cavity - N Hybrid

Epitaxy

Surface roughening - Hetero Flip-chip

Integration

Functionality Cost down

One-chip Array

Chip

Power

Large chip

Array

Flexibility
Discrete PKG Chip-on-board Ceramic/Metal PKG Plastic optics Module PKG

Integration

Design

Organic PKG

2007

2009

2011
Source: Samsung Electro-Mechanics
10

LED Structure
LED module/system Car headlight/lamp, BLU, displays, etc Optic apparatus, system controller Package White LED
Packaging

RGB-UV LED
Packaging

LED chip
Chip Fabrication

Chip

Epi-wafer (In,Al)GaN (blue, green, UV), InAlGaP(red, yellow), AlGaAs(red, IR)

Epitaxial growth

Epitaxy

Wafer Sapphire, GaN, SiC, Si, GaAs

11

GaN-based LED Fabrication Process

Substrate
SiC Sapphire Silicon Bulk GaN Composite substrates

Epitaxy Buffer Layer

AlN Low TGaN AlN/GaN sandwich

Epitaxy Active Layer

GaN LED epi-wafer

Back-End level 0
LED dies Back-grinding Dicing, Flip-chip Laser Lift-Off : LLO Die shaping LED dies-on-wafer

Front-End Litho./etching/metallization
Lateral LED structure Vertical LED structure

Back-End level 1
Bonding, Pick-and place Phosphor coating Packaging, Housing Source: Yole Development 12 Packaged LED LED lamp

High efficiency LED

Chip Extraction Efficiency p-GaN roughening Chip shaping LED on patterned sapphire substrate Vertical chip Photonic crystal

High efficiency LED

Micro/Nanostructure Patterned substrate Lateral overgrowth Homo epitaxy Non-polar epi Epilayer Internal Quantum Efficiency Heat dissipation design Optics design Package materials Phosphor Packaging/module efficiency PKG Efficiency

13

Semiconductor materials
High-purity single crystal semiconductor materials cf) 10 angstroms thick, 12 inch wafer for Si Semiconductor: Semiconductor conductivity between those of metals and insulators Conductivity change over several orders of magnitude by adding controlled amounts of impurity atoms Development of the vast semiconductor industry

ZnO

Zinc oxides

GaN Gallium nitrides

Ex) AlxGa1-xAs: x is the fraction of the lower atomic number element component

14

Energy band theory

15

Energy band theory

For n=3 energy levels In n=3, begin to interact initially, then n=2, n=1 If the equilibrium interatomic distance is r0, then we have bands of allowed energies that the electrons may occupy separated by bands of forbidden energies

At absolute zero degrees, electrons in the lower energy states (full: valence band), electrons in the upper energy states (empty: conduction band) Bandgap, Eg: between the top of the valence band and the bottom of the conduction band is the width of the forbidden energy band

16

Energy band theory

Si: 1s 2s 2p 3s 3p N atoms
2 2 6 2 6

2N, 2N, 6N, 2N, 6N states of type 1s, 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p: 2N, 6N states of type 3s, 3p

4 N electrons in the original isolated n=3 shells (2N in 3s states and 2N in 3p states) As the interacting spacing decreases, this band of 3s-3p levels contains 8N states As the distance between atoms approaches equilibrium interatomic spacing of silicon, this band splits into two band contains N states, as does the lower (valence) band Qualitatively how and why bands of allowed and forbidden energies formed in a crystal

17

Metals, insulators, semiconductors

18

Doping and energy levels

Dopant atoms and energy levels Conductivity of a semiconductor varies over approximately 10 orders of magnitude by controlling the concentration of specifies in the material Doping impurity intentionally introduced into the semiconductor intrinsic material

T=0K

T=0K (doping of phosphorus)

T=0K a donor electron

T>0K

Group V (eg. phosphorus atom) : five valence electrons

The phosphorus atom without the donor electron is positively charged The donor atoms add electrons to the conduction band without creating holes in the valence band Donor impurity atom n-type semiconductor

T=0K

T=0K (doping of boron)

T=0K an acceptor electron

T>0K

Group III (eg. boron atom) : three valence electrons

The boron atom without the donor electron is negatively charged The acceptor atoms generate holes in the valence band without generating electrons in the conduction band Acceptor impurity atom p-type semiconductor

Adding controlled amounts of dopant atoms, either donors or acceptors, creates a material semiconductor

extrinsic

19

Operation principle of LEDs

Direct bandgap

Indirect bandgap

Energy conservation/Momentum conservation

Source: An introduction to semiconductor devices, Donald A, Neamen

20

Radiative electron-hole recombination

- Electrons and holes in semiconductors recombine either radiatively, i.e. accompanied by the emission of a photon, or non-radiatively ( maximization of radiative process and minimization of the non-radiative process. - Any undoped or doped semiconductor has two types of free carriers, electrons and holes. Under equilibrium conditions, i.e. without external stimuli such as light or current, the law of mass action teaches that the product of the electron and hole concentrations is, at a given temperature, a constant, i.e. Law of mass action where n0 and p0 are the equilibrium electron and hole concentrations and ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration. - Excess carriers in semiconductors can be generated either by absorption of light or by an injection current. The total carrier concentration is then given by the sum of equilibrium and excess carrier concentrations, i.e.

where n and p are the excess electron and hole concentrations, respectively.
21

Recombination of carriers
- The recombination per unit time per unit volume can be written as

Rnp
Bimolecular rate equation The proportionality constant B is called the bimolecular recombination coefficient (typical values of 1011109 cm3/s for direct-gap IIIV semiconductors) - The recombination rate (R) at which the carrier concentration decreases

22

Non-radiative recombination in the bulk

In a radiative recombination event, one photon with energy equal to the bandgap energy of the semiconductor is emitted During non-radiative recombination, the electron energy is converted to vibrational energy of lattice atoms, i.e. phonons. Thus, the electron energy is converted to heat. For obvious reasons, non-radiative recombination events are unwanted in light-emitting devices.
23

Defects include unwanted foreign atoms, native defects, dislocations, and any complexes of defects, foreign atoms, or dislocations deep levels or traps (luminescence killers) within the forbidden gap of the semiconductor

24

Auger recombination
Auger recombination
Energy becoming available through electronhole recombination (approximately Eg), is dissipated by the excitation of a free electron high into the conduction band, or by a hole deeply excited into the valence band. The highly excited carriers will subsequently lose energy by multiple phonon emission until they are close to the band edge

In the high-excitation limit in which the non-equilibrium carriers have a higher concentration than equilibrium carriers, the Auger rate equations reduce to

where C is the Auger coefficient

band structure of the semiconductor)

(a quantum mechanical calculation that takes into account the

C: typically 10281029 cm6/s for IIIV semiconductors

Auger recombination reduces the luminescence efficiency in semiconductors only at very high excitation intensity or at very high carrier injection currents. At lower carrier concentrations, the Auger recombination rate is very small and can be neglected for practical purposes. 25

Non-radiative recombination at surface

Substantial non-radiative recombination can occur at semiconductor surfaces. Surfaces are a strong perturbation of the periodicity of a crystal lattice. This modification includes the addition of electronic states within the forbidden gap of the semiconductor Some of the valence orbitals do not form a chemical bond. These partially filled electron orbitals, or dangling bonds, are electronic states that can be located in the forbidden gap of the semiconductor where they act as recombination centers acceptor-like or donor-like states

reconstruction: Surface reconstruction: dangling bonds may also rearrange themselves and
form bonds between neighboring atoms in the same surface plane. This can lead to a locally new atomic structure with state energies different from bulk atomic states.

Assume that the illumination causes a uniform steady state generation rate G. The continuity equation for electrons is given by

where Jn is the current density caused by electrons flowing to the surface.

26

Luminescence decreases in the near surface region Note that unipolar regions of a semiconductor device, e.g. the confinement regions, are not affected by surface recombination due to the lack of minority carriers. Several passivation techniques have been developed to reduce the surface recombination in semiconductors, including treatments with sulfur, and other chemicals
27

Competition between radiative and non-radiative recombination

Just as for surface recombination, non-radiative bulk recombination (ShockleyRead) and Auger recombination can never be totally avoided. Any semiconductor crystal will have some native defects. It is difficult to fabricate materials with impurity levels lower than the parts per billion (ppb) range. T even the purest semiconductors contain impurities in the 1012 cm3 range. Some elements may form deep levels and thus reduce the luminescence efficiency. If the radiative lifetime is denoted as r and the non-radiative lifetime is denoted as nr, then the total probability of recombination is given by the sum of the radiative and non-radiative probabilities:

Probability of radiative recombination or internal quantum efficiency is given by

Internal quantum efficiency: the ratio of the number of light quanta emitted inside the semiconductor to the number of charge quanta undergoing recombination 28

Overall LED Performance

Epitaxy Front-end Back-end Packaging

Substrate Internal Quantum Efficiency : int. Electron-hole recombination Photon generation rate

LED epi-wafer

Die-on-wafer

LED die

LED lamp Packaging Losses : pack. pack.

Electrical Losses: elect. elect.

Extraction Efficiency: extr. extr.

total = int. x elect. x extr. x pack.

84% 92% 75% 90% 60% 70% total= 23% total= 52%

Present: 60% Expectation: 90% Internal quantum efficiency Injection efficiency

- Ni/Au, ITO

- MQW optimization, n/p-AlGaN/GaN superlattices, low defect epi growth (ELO, PSS, GaN, ZnO, AlN sub.), nonpolar LED ohmic improvement, electron mobility improvement material growth, flip-chip
Cf. Internal quantum efficiency x light extraction efficiency= External quantum efficiency

Extraction efficiency Packaging efficiency

- LED die shaping, LLO, flip-chip, highly reflecting mirrors, TCO - Phosphor material efficiency improvement, lens/optics improvement
Source: Yole Development 29

Internal, extraction, external, and power efficiency

The active region of an ideal LED emits one photon for every electron injected Thus the ideal active region of an LED has a quantum efficiency of unity The internal quantum efficiency is defined as

where Pint is the optical power emitted from the active region and I is the injection

current.

Photons emitted by the active region should escape from the LED die. In an ideal LED, all photons emitted by the active region are also emitted into free space. Such an LED has unity extraction efficiency. However, in a real LED, not all the power emitted from the active region is emitted into free space. Loss mechanism: 1. Reabsorbed in the substrate of the LED or by a metallic contacts, 2. Total internal reflection, also referred to as the trapped light phenomenon

reduces the ability of the light to escape from the semiconductor.

The light extraction efficiency is defined as

where P is the optical power emitted into free space

30

The external quantum efficiency is defined as

The external quantum efficiency gives the ratio of the number of useful light particles to the number of injected charge particles. The power efficiency is defined as where IV is the electrical power provided to the LED. Informally, the power efficiency is also called the wall-plug efficiency.

31

Loss Mechanism in LEDs

Three loss mechanism i) Photon absorption within the semiconductor
- Photons in any direction with h > Eg reabsorbed within semiconductor

i)

ii)

iii)

ii) Fresnel loss at semiconductor-air interface

n n1 - Reflection coefficient: = 2 n + n : Fresnel loss 1 2 33% are reflected back into the semiconductor

iii) Critical angle loss at semiconductor-air interface

Snell's law

c = sin 1

n1 n2
32

Any photon that is incident at an angle greater than 15.9 will be back into the semiconductor

Emission Spectrum
The emission intensity as a function of energy is proportional to the product

of

and

Using the requirement that electron and hole momenta are the same, the photon energy can be written as the joint dispersion relation

Using the joint dispersion relation, the joint density of states can be calculated and one obtains The distribution of carriers in the allowed bands is given by the Boltzmann 33 distribution, i.e.

The maximum emission intensity occurs at

The full-width at half-maximum of the emission is

For example, the theoretical room-temperature linewidth of a GaAs LED emitting at 870 nm is E = 46 meV or = 28 nm.
34

Diode current-voltage characteristics

ND
The space charge region produces a potential that is called the diffusion

voltage, VD.
Barrier that free carriers must overcome in order to reach the neutral region of opposite conductivity type where NA and ND are the acceptor and donor concentrations, respectively, and ni is the intrinsic carrier concentration of the semiconductor.

NA
Depletion region

The depletion layer width is given by

where = r0 is the dielectric permittivity of the semiconductor and V is the diode bias voltage

The Shockley equation for a diode with cross-sectional area A is given by

where Dn,p and n,p are the electron and hole diffusion constants and the electron and hole 35 minoritylifetimes, minority-carrier lifetimes respectively.

Under reverse-bias conditions, the diode current saturates and the saturation current is given by the factor preceding the exponential function in the Shockley equation. The diode IV characteristic can be written as

Under typical forward-bias conditions, the diode voltage is V >> kT / e, and thus [exp (eV/kT) 1] exp (eV/kT).

The exponent of the exponential function illustrates that the current strongly increases as the diode voltage approaches the diffusion voltage, i.e. V VD. The voltage at which the current strongly increases is called the threshold voltage and

this voltage is given by Vth VD.

36

The difference in energy between the Fermi level and the band edges can be inferred from

Boltzmann statistics and is given by

In highly doped semiconductors, the separation between the band edges and the Fermi level is small compared with the bandgap energy, i.e. (EC EF) << Eg on the n-type side and (EF EV) << Eg on the p-type side. Furthermore, these quantities depend only weakly (logarithmic dependence) on the doping concentration as inferred. Thus, the third and fourth summand can be neglected and the diffusion voltage can be approximated by the bandgap energy divided by the elementary charge

The energy gap and the threshold voltage indeed

agree reasonably well

37

Deviations from the ideal I-V characteristics

Expected theoretical IV characteristic of a p-n junction p where nideal is the ideality factor of the diode. For a perfect diode, the ideality factor diode. has a value of unity (nideal = 1.0). For real diodes, the ideality factor assumes values of typically nideal = 1.11.5. However, values as high as nideal = 2.0 for IIIV arsenide and phosphide diodes. Values as high as nideal = 7.0 for GaN/GaInN diodes. Parasitic resistances:
A series resistance can be caused by excessive contact resistance or by the resistance of the neutral regions. A parallel resistance can be caused by any channel that bypasses the p-n junction, caused by damaged regions of the p-n junction or by surface imperfections.

The diode IV

characteristic needs to be modified in order to take into account parasitic resistances.

38

Assuming a shunt with resistance Rp(parallel to the ideal diode) and a series

resistance Rs(in series with the ideal diode and the shunt)

For Rp and Rs 0, this equation

reduces to the Shockley equation.

39

Efficiency Droop
Light emission intensity not linear with current At high driving current, reduction of efficiency: Efficiency droop Physical causes of droop still unexplained (many theories and research developed worldwide by all LED manufacturers) Current solution: One LED package multiple chip LED array Or large area chip Light output decreases and colour change with Heating: Thermal management necessary
40

Research Institute
Samsung/RPI

Causes of LED Droop

Polarization field Auger recombination

Solutions

- Polarization matching -> AlGaInN & EBL - Low carrier density for low Auger recombination -> DH (single QW) - Phononor defect-assisted Auger recombination -> Loss channel -> Thick SQW/MQW - Non-polar GaN LED - Hole mobility improvement -> Thin p-barrier - New structure -> GaN nanowire Radiative recombination reduction by In clustering -> Reduction of In clustering - In source treatment
41

Philips Lumileds Loss-channel Carrier overflow Electron overflow, Auger recombination Poor hole transport

Osram UCSB Virginia CU Leti Hanyang Univ.

Intrinsic property Reduction of radiative recombination

Temperature dependence of emission intensity

The emission intensity of LEDs decreases with increasing temperature. Due to several temperature-dependent factors including (i) non-radiative recombination via deep levels, (ii) surface recombination, and (iii) carrier loss over heterostructure barriers. the phenomenological equation for LEDs where T1 is the characteristic temperature. A high characteristic temperature, temperature. implying a weak temperature dependence, is desirable. the phenomenological equation for lasers where Ith is the threshold current of the laser. Blue LED has the highest T1 and the red LED has the lowest T1. IIIV

nitride LEDs have deeper wells so that carrier confinement is

more effective in IIIV nitride structures than in the IIIV phosphide structures
42

Light Escape Cone

Escape efficiency of chip (ns= 2.5 for GaN) : 8% for air (no=1) : 11% for epoxy (no=1.5) : 16% for sapphire (no=1.77)

Source: KETI
43

Total internal reflection reduces the external efficiency significantly, in particular for LEDs consisting of high-refractive index materials. Assume that the angle of incidence in the semiconductor at the semiconductorair interface is given by . Then the angle of incidence of the refracted ray, , can be inferred from Snells law

where ns and nair are the refractive indices of the semiconductor and air,

respectively. The critical angle for total internal reflection is obtained using = 90 90

n1 n2 Light source
c

The refractive indices of semiconductors are usually quite high. For example, GaAs has a refractive index of 3.4. Thus, the critical angle for total internal reflection is quite small. In this case, we can use the approximation sinc c. The angle of total internal reflection cone. defines the light escape cone. 44

Surface area of the spherical cone with radius r in order to determine the total fraction of light that is emitted into the light escape cone.

Let us assume that light is emitted from a point-like source in the semiconductor with a total power of Psource. Then the power that can escape

from the semiconductor is given by

where 4r2 is the entire surface area of the sphere with radius r.

Because the critical angle of total internal reflection for high-index materials is relatively small, the cosine term can be expanded into a power series. Neglecting higher-thansecond-order terms yields

45

Radiation Pattern and Lambertian Emission Pattern

All LEDs have a certain radiation pattern or far-field pattern. The intensity, measured farpattern. in W/cm2, depends on the longitudinal and azimuth angle and the distance from the LED. The total optical power emitted by the LED is obtained by integration over the area of a sphere.

where I() is the spectral light intensity (measured in W per nm per cm2) and A is the surface area of the sphere. The integration is carried out over the entire surface area. The index contrast between the light-emitting material and the surrounding material leads to a non-isotropic emission pattern. For high-index light-emitting materials with a planar surface, a lambertian emission pattern is obtained.

46

Lambertian emission pattern given by

The total power emitted into air can be calculated by integrating the intensity over the entire hemisphere. The total power is then given by

By using the lambertian emission pattern for Iair and using cos sin=(1/2)sin(2), the integral can be calculated to yield

semiconductor Fresnel reflection at the semiconductorair interface has been neglected. At normal incidence, the Fresnel
power transmittance is given by

be identical to the power in air (Pair).

47

Light power that escapes from the semiconductor (Pescape) must

Epoxy Encapsulants
The light extraction efficiency can be enhanced by using dome-shaped encapsulants with a large refractive index. As a result of the encapsulation, the angle of total internal reflection through the top surface of the semiconductor is increased (Nuese et al., 1969) Ratio of extraction efficiency with and without epoxy encapsulant is given by where c,epoxy and c,air are the critical angles for total internal reflection at the semiconductorepoxy and semiconductorair interface, respectively
Inspection of the figure yields that the efficiency of a typical semiconductor LED increases by a factor of 23 upon encapsulation with an epoxy having a refractive index of 1.5.

light is incident at an angle of approximately 90at the epoxyair interface due to the dome-shape of the epoxy No total internal reflection losses at the epoxyair interface.
48

MOCVD System
Exhaust Scrubbing system Glove box Vacuum system

Reactor with heated suscepter Gas mixing unit

Gas flow control

Control Unit

Gas supply

49

Horizontal Reactor vs. Vertical Reactor

Simple

Turbulent flow

Laminar flow

Horizontal reactor: Hot/cold side walls - Heterogeneous reaction hot side walls - Condensation: cold side walls

Vertical reactor - No reagent pre-reaction - Uniform flow of homogenous mixed reagents - Heater zone temp.: Linear temp. profile - Excellent growth uniformity - Large scale production - High precursor utilization efficiency

Two flow MOCVD: Vertical reactor S. Nakamura et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 58, 2021 (1991) 50

Growth of GaN with/without Buffer Layer

Reduction of interface energy Nucleation

Without buffer layer

With buffer layer

Ref. I. Akasaki et al. J. Cryst. Growth 98, 209 (1989) 51

GaN growth on sapphire (0001)

500-600 oC

LT buffer layer

Strain absorption layer Nucleation layer AlN, GaN, InGaN, SiN, SiC etc.

Crystallization at high temp. 1000-1100 oC

Nucleation layer theory by Akasaki

52

Growth Process of GaN Epilayer

GaN on Sapphire substrate: defect density of108 cm-2 Three step for MOVPE GaN Layer on sapphire

1) High temperature preparation of the sapphire surface 2) Deposition of a low-temperature nucleation layer 3) High temperature epilayer growth

1)

3)

2)

53

GaN : Low Defects

Epitaxy: GaN (Al2O3)

Defects

nonradiative centers
: Sandia National Lab

SiO2 mask GaN

GaN (threading dislocation) (epitaxial lateral overgrowth: ELO ELO)

Dislocations

Substrate
Jastrzebski, 1983: ELO Microchannel epitaxy (MCE), 1996 54

Electron Blocking Layer (EBL)

Electron overflow
- Poor p-doping of p-AlGaN layer (Ea~ 400 meV) - Increasing Al mole % in p-AlGaN greatly increases Ea - Small Ec offsets between InGaN/GaN QW/barrier - Piezoelectric fields reduce p-AlGaN barrier height

Solution: EBL (Carrier injection efficiency]

EBL EC EF EV AlGaN EC p-type EF EV Doped structure
Source : Light-emitting diodes, Fred Schubert

Cf. Hole Blocking layer n-AlGaN

Prevent the carrier overflow

Confinement layer MQW Active region

Confinement layer

Undoped sturucture GaN GaInN AlGaN AlGaN

Prevent the injection of hole into active region Highly doped p-AlGaN (difficult) [Solution) Superlattices

i-type n-type

55

Polar/Non-polar GaN substrate

Non-polar or semi-polar substrate
a or m-plane

Polarizations electrostatic field QCSE Internal eff. , redshift of spectrum,

Vth , blueshift with increasing current
Band bending

solution

GaN
Ga N

Ga-faced

N-faced

Spontaneous polarization

Wurtzite [1000]

Ref. P. Waltereit et al. Nature 406, 865 (2000)

Heterostructure Piezoelectric polarization (Large lattice mismatch in group III) 56

Patterned Sapphire Substrate (PSS)

Nichia AlInGaN patterned substrate and meshed electrode LED
Nichia

PSS

(0001) Sapphire Substrate

PSS GaN - Conventional: ext: ~ 28% - Strip pattern: ext: ~ 40% (1.43 ) - Rectangular pattern: ext: ~ 58% (2.1 ) - Hemispherical pattern: ext: ~ 63% (2.25 )

Wet etching based on H3PO4 at 300 oC Dry etching

Ni

pyramidal PSS

57

Why Vertical LEDs ?

1st Generation (Lateral) 2nd Generation (Flip Chip)
Sapphire substrate
n-contact p-reflector Solder n-GaN p-GaN QW(s)

3rd Generation (Vertical)

n-pad n-GaN p-GaN QW(s) p-reflector

p-pad

P-electrode QW(s) n-pad

(+) ESD Structure

p-GaN n-GaN

(-) ESD

Sapphire substrate

p-contact

Base material

Metal alloy

Loss in mesa etched area Local current crowding Low reliability Low thermal conductivity of sapphire Low power LED

Uniform current distribution Improved ESD Thermal conductivity High power LED

58

Photolithography Process
Softbake Hotplate or oven
Photoresist (Spin coater) Oxide layer Silicon PR UV Light Photomask patterns

GaN with oxides

1) PR coating 2) Exposure HMDS (hexamethyldisilane) adhesion Patterned oxides Hardbake Development of Etching region ITO Hotplate or oven patterns p-GaN

p-metal contact

InGaN/GaN MQW n-GaN

n-me ntact tal co

u-GaN

3) Development

4) Oxides etching 5) Photoresist removal

p-metal contact

n-metal contact
Sapphire substrate

Transparent ITO contact

59

Dry Etching for Mesa

Mesa etching Sapphire: nonconductive substrate - Etching gases: Cl/Ar/BCl3 plasma, Mask: SiO2 or Si3N4
Plasma defect (Additional wet etching in HCl:H2O (1:1))
Current spreading layer

Top confinement Active Bottom confinement Ohmic contact

p-contact
p type GaN
pn junction

n-contact

n type GaN Current flow Insulating substrate

Emission region

GaN LED
Ion +
R Volatile

product

Conventional LED
Wafers

RF signal Insulator Upper electrode Plasma Lower electrode waf er holder

Ion bombardment + Chemical reaction

Diffuser nossles Gas Pump Gas ICP (Oxford Plasmalab system 100) 60

Overview of Vertical LED Process using LLO

Scribing or

PR

PR

Si or GaN GaN GaN

Sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire

Sapphire

Spin coating

epi

PR

scribing Si or scribing

Si or Si or

GaN (3.3 eV)

Excimer laser Lift-off

(9.9 eV)
Sapphire 248 nm

Laser pulse -> vaporization in interface (GaN/Sapphire) -> increasing Ionized vapor-> temporal evolution of plasma ->explosive shock wave ->separation

248 nm excimer Laser (5 eV)

61

Chip Shaping (I)

Lumileds TIP (truncated inverted pyramid) chip

n-GaN p-GaN AlGaInp

: .
M. O. HOLCOMB et al., Compound Semicinductor 7, 59 (2001) 62

Chip Shaping (II)

OSRAM OSRAM
scribing . : , . Thin GaN sapphire InGaN Ge sapphire lift-off

OSRAM Opto Semiconductors 63

Flip Chip LED + Texture

air

light
~ ~

Sapphire ~ ~ n-GaN MQW p-GaN Ni/Ag

Ti/Al

Non textured

Filp-chip LED light Flip-chip LED

~ ~
n-GaN MQW p-GaN Ni/Ag Ti/Al

~ ~

Sapphire , 400 nm .

Flip-chip LED

64

: (2008)

LED with Nanostructures

1. Cr or SiO2 PR 2. PR nano patterning
3. Cr or SiO2 PR

Resist Cr or SiO2 p-GaN QW active layer n-GaN Sapphire

Resist Cr or SiO2 p-GaN QW active layer n-GaN Sapphire

Cr or SiO2 p-GaN QW active layer n-GaN Sapphire

4. p-GaN mask

p-GaN QW active layer n-GaN Sapphire

Daniel L. Barton et al., 17 April 2006, SPIE Newsroom 65

LED Packaging
LED package
Plastic dome pn junction

SMD type

Lamp type

Electrodes

Lamp type

SMD type

: , , ,
(: Si) E-beam, X, (, , )

LED : , , , Lamp type: (mold) LED SMD (surface mount device) type : (PCB) , : , , TEC, : heatsink, slug
, Nov. 2008, pp. 16-21
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LED Grinding/Lapping/Polishing/Dicing
LED grinding/lapping/polishing

: LOGITECH LED dicing: GaN scribing and substrate cutting - GaN scribing with high precision by laser or diamond techniques - Substrate cutting with less precision by diamond saws and (laser or diamond), break techniques Diamond saws

Laser
: JPSA

Laser Scriber (diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) laser)

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LED Package
LED: dissipation thermal stress degradation, , , , / reliabilty,

Cf. AlN 180 W/mK Cu 393 W/mK SiC 270 W/mK Si 140 W/mK Al 240 W/mK In 87 W/mK AnSn 57 W/mK

: OSRAM

68

Thank you for your attention