Enhancement of Light Extraction Efficiency of Gallium Nitride Flip-Chip Light-Emitting Diode With Silicon Oxide Hemispherical Microlens on its Back

Silicon oxide (SiO₂) hemispherical microlens with the density of 8.2 times 10⁸ cm^-2 has been formed on a sapphire substrate of gallium nitride (GaN) light-emitting diode (LED) by liquid phase deposition to enhance the light extraction efficiency. For flip-chip LED, the SiO₂ microlens exhibits 1.25 times enhancement of optical output power. In comparison of the conventional LED, there is 61% enhancement for flip-chip LED with a SiO₂ microlens.     

Comparison of InGaN-Based LEDs Grown on Conventional Sapphire and Cone-Shape-Patterned Sapphire Substrate

To improve the external quantum efficiency, a high-quality InGaN/GaN film was grown on a cone-shape-patterned sapphire substrate (CSPSS) by using metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The surface pattern of the CSPSS seems to be more helpful for the accommodative relaxation of compressive strain related to the lattice mismatch between GaN and a sapphire substrate because the growth mode of GaN on the CSPSS was similar to that of the epitaxial lateral overgrowth. The output power of a light-emitting diode (LED) grown on the CSPSS was estimated to be 16.5 mW at a forward current of 20 mA, which is improved by 35% compared to that of a LED grown on a conventional sapphire substrate. The significant enhancement in output power is attributed to both the increase of the extraction efficiency, resulted from the increase in photon escaping probability due to enhanced light scattering at the CSPSS, and the improvement of the crystal quality due to the reduction of dislocation.     

Microwatt MOSLED Using ${hbox {SiO}}_{rm x}$ With Buried Si Nanocrystals on Si Nano-Pillar Array

Microwatt light emission from a metal-oxide-semiconductor light-emitting diode (MOSLED) made by using SiOx film with buried Si nanocrystals on Si nano-pillar array is demonstrated. The Si nano-pillar array obtained by drying the rapidly self-aggregated Ni nano-dot-masked Si substrate exhibit size, aspect ratio, and density of 30 nm, 10, and 2.8times10¹⁰ cm^-2, respectively. These high-aspect-ratio Si nano-pillar array helps to enhance the Fowler-Nordheim tunneling-based carrier injection and to facilitate the complete relaxation on total internal reflection, thus increasing the quantum efficiency by one order of magnitude and improving the light extraction from the nano-roughened device surface by three times at least. The light-emission intensity, turn-on current and power-current slope of the MOSLED are 0.2 mW/cm² , 20-30 muA, and 3plusmn0.5 mW/A, respectively. At a biased current of 400 muA, the highest external quantum efficiency is over 0.2% to obtain the maximum EL power of > 1 muW. Compared with the same device made on smooth Si substrate under a power conversion ratio of 1 times 10^-4 , such an output power performance is enhanced by at least one order of magnitude.     

Stress Reduction and Enhanced Extraction Efficiency of GaN-Based LED Grown on Cone-Shape-Patterned Sapphire

High-quality InGaN–GaN film was grown on a cone-shape-patterned sapphire substrate (CSPSS) by using metal–oganic chemical vapor deposition. The growth mode of GaN on CSPSS was similar to that of the epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELOG), because the growth, in the initial stage, proceeds only on flat basal sapphire substrate and there is no preferential growth plane on the cone region. An analysis of X-ray diffraction showed a shorter lattice constant of 5.1877 Å along the $c$-axis for the GaN thin films grown on CSPSS, compared to 5.1913 Å for the samples grown on a conventional sapphire substrate (CSS). This is because the ELOG-like mode of the GaN layer over the cone-shaped region results in less lattice mismatch and incoherency between the GaN layer and the sapphire substrate. The output power of a sideview light-emitting diode (LED) grown on CSPSS was estimated to be 7.3 mW at a forward current of 20 mA, which is improved by 34% compared to that of an LED grown on CSS. The significant enhancement in output power is attributed to both the increase of the extraction efficiency, resulted from the increase in photon escaping probability due to enhanced light scattering at the CSPSS, and the improvement of the crystal quality due to the reduction of dislocation.      

High-Efficiency 808-nm InGaAlAs–AlGaAs Double-Quantum-Well Semiconductor Lasers With Asymmetric Waveguide Structures

The InGaAlAs-AlGaAs double-quantum-well semiconductor lasers grown by molecular beam epitaxy show high quantum efficiency and high power conversion efficiency at continuous-wave power output using asymmetric waveguide structures. The threshold current density and slope efficiency of the device are 180 A/cm² and 1.4 W/A, respectively. The internal loss and the internal quantum efficiency are 1.1 cm^-1 and 97%, respectively. The 75% maximum power conversion efficiency is achieved in 100-mum stripe widths 808-nm-emitting laser diodes with 1000-mum cavity length.     

Enhancing the Near-Infrared Spectral Response of Silicon Optoelectronic Devices via Up-Conversion

A silicon-based optoelectronic device that exhibits an enhanced response to subbandgap light is described. The device structure consists of a bifacial silicon solar cell with an up- converting (UC) layer attached to the rear. Erbium-doped sodium yttrium fluoride (NaY_0.8F₄ : Er_0.2 ³⁺) phosphors are the optically active centers responsible for the UC luminescence. The unoptimized device is demonstrated to respond effectively to wavelengths (lambda) in the range of 1480-1580 nm with an external quantum efficiency (EQE) of 3.4% occurring at 1523 nm at an illumination intensity of 2.4 W/cm² (EQE = 1.4 times 10^-2 cm²/W). An analysis of the optical losses reveals that the luminescence quantum efficiency (LQE) of the device is 16.7% at 2.4 W/cm² of 1523-nm excitation (LQE = 7.0 times 10^-2 cm²/W), while further potential device improvements indicate that an EQE of 14.0% (5.8 times 10^-2 cm²/W) could be realistically achieved.     

Enhancing the output power of GaN-based LEDs grown on wet-etched patterned sapphire substrates

GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with emitting wavelength of 450 nm were grown on patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs) fabricated by chemical wet etching. The crystallography-etched facet was {1-102} R-plane with a 57/spl deg/ against {0001} C-axis and had superior capability for enhancing light extraction efficiency. The light output power of the PSS LED was 1.15 times higher than that of the conventional LED at an injection current of 20 mA. The output power and external quantum efficiency were estimated to be 9 mW and 16.4%, respectively. The improvement was attributed not only to geometrical shapes of {1-102} crystallography-etched facets that efficiently scatter the guided light to find escape cones, but also to dislocation density reduction by adopting the PSS growth scheme.     

High Light-Extraction GaN-Based Vertical LEDs With Double Diffuse Surfaces

High light-extraction (external quantum efficiency ~40%) 465-nm GaN-based vertical light-emitting diodes (LEDs) employing double diffuse surfaces were fabricated. This novel LED structure includes one top transmitted diffuse surface and another diffuse omnidirectional reflector (ODR) on the bottom of a LED chip. The diffusive ODR consists of a roughened p-type GaN layer, an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) low refractive index layer, and an Al layer. The surface of the p-type GaN-layer was naturally roughened while decreasing the growth temperature to 800 degC. After flip-bonding onto a Si substrate by AuSn eutectic metal and laser lift-off processes to remove the sapphire substrate, an anisotropic etching by dilute potassium hydroxide (KOH) was employed on the N-face n-GaN layer to obtain transmitted diffuse surfaces with hexagonal-cone morphology. The double diffused surfaces LEDs show an enhancement of 56% and 236% in light output power compared to single side diffused surface and conventional LEDs, respectively. The devices also show a low leakage current in the order of magnitude of 10 ^-8 A at -5 V and a calculated external quantum efficiency of about 40%. The high scattering efficiency of double diffused surfaces could be responsible for the enhancement in the device light output power     

Surface Leakage in GaN/InGaN Double Heterojunction Bipolar Transistors

We report a study on the surface-leakage current in GaN/InGaN double heterojunction bipolar transistors (DHBTs) that are grown on a sapphire substrate. Surface-leakage-current densities on an unpassivated DHBT are 9.6 times 10^-5 - 5.8 times 10^-4 A/cm for JC = 0.5-50 A/cm². A fabricated n-p-n GaN/InGaN DHBT shows the common-emitter dc current gain of 42, the collector-current density of 5.2 kA/cm², and the common-emitter breakdown voltage (BV_CEO) of 75 V.     

Fabrication of vertical thin-GaN light-emitting diode by low-temperature Cu/Sn/Ag wafer bonding

Vertical thin-GaN LED was successfully fabricated on the GaN LED epi-layers grown on the patterned-sapphire substrate with the pyramidal pattern by low-temperature Cu/Sn/Ag wafer bonding at 150 °C. An inverted pyramidal pattern formed on the n-GaN surface after the GaN epi-layer was transferred onto Si wafer, which resulted from the pyramidal pattern on the patterned-sapphire substrate. The inverted pyramidal pattern has an equivalent function with roughening the n-GaN surface. With higher inverted pyramidal pattern coverage, the light extraction efficiency can be greatly enhanced. In addition, we found that the 4-fold increase (from 13.6% to 53.8%) in the pyramidal pattern coverage on patterned-sapphire substrate only gives the GaN LED epi-layer about 5.7% enhancement in the internal quantum efficiency.     

Investigation of light output performance for gallium nitride-based light-emitting diodes grown on different shapes of patterned sapphire substrate

GaN-based blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on various patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs) are investigated in detail. Hemispherical and triangular pyramidal PSSs have been applied to improve the performance of LEDs compared with conventional LEDs grown on planar sapphire substrate. The structural, electrical, and optical properties of these LEDs are investigated. The leakage current is related to the crystalline quality of epitaxial GaN films, and it is improved by using the PSS technique. The light output power and emission efficiency of the LED grown on triangular pyramidal PSS with optimized fill factor show the best performance in all the samples, which indicates that the pattern structure and fill factor of the PSS are related to the capability of light extraction.     

晶片键合在AlGaInP发光二极管中的应用

(AlxGa1-x)0.5In0.5P高亮度发光二极管是在GaAs衬底上匹配外延的，它的外量子效率受限于吸收光线的GaAs衬底。LED晶片键合技术可以把LED外延片和GaP透明衬底、金属镜面衬底或蓝宝石衬底结合以提高出光效率。本文对上述三种晶片键合的器件制备过程和器件特点进行了描述。     

Improved Light Extraction of Nitride-Based Flip-Chip Light-Emitting Diodes Via Sapphire Shaping and Texturing

A novel flip-chip structure of GaN-sapphire light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was developed to improve the external quantum efficiency, where the sapphire substrate was textured and shaped with beveled sidewalls using a wet etching technique. The forward voltage of the conventional flip-chip and shaped flip-chip GaN LEDs were 2.84 and 2.85 V at 20 mA, respectively. This indicates that the GaN LED was not destroyed during the sapphire wet etching process. It was found that the output power increased from 9.3 to 14.2 mW, corresponding to about 52% increases in the external quantum efficiency. The results agree well with the simulation data that the shaped flip-chip GaN LED can provide better light extraction efficiency than that of the conventional flip-chip sample     

Improved Light Output Power of GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes Using Double Photonic Quasi-Crystal Patterns

The enhancement of light extraction from GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a double 12-fold photonic quasi-crystal (PQC) structure using nanoimprint lithography is presented. At a driving current of 20 mA on a transistor-outline-can package, the light output power of an LED with a nanohole patterned sapphire substrate (NHPSS) and an LED with a double PQC structure are enhanced by 34% and 61%, compared with the conventional LED. In addition, the higher output power of the LED with the double PQC structure is due to better reflectance on NHPSS and higher scattering effect on p-GaN surface using a 12-fold PQC structure pattern. These results provide promising potential to increase the output powers of commercial light-emitting devices.      

Efficiency improvement of near-ultraviolet InGaN LEDs using patterned sapphire substrates

The use of conventional and patterned sapphire substrates (PSSs) to fabricate InGaN-based near-ultraviolet (410 nm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was demonstrated. The PSS was prepared using a periodic hole pattern (diameter: 3 /spl mu/m; spacing: 3 /spl mu/m) on the (0001) sapphire with different etching depths. From transmission-electron-microscopy and etch-pit-density studies, the PSS with an optimum pattern depth (D/sub h/=1.5 /spl mu/m) was confirmed to be an efficient way to reduce the thread dislocations in the GaN microstructure. It was found that the output power increased from 8.6 to 10.4 mW, corresponding to about 29% increases in the external quantum efficiency. However, the internal quantum efficiency (@ 20 mA) was about 36% and 38% for the conventional and PSS LEDs, respectively. The achieved improvement of the output power is not only due to the improvement of the internal quantum efficiency upon decreasing the dislocation density, but also due to the enhancement of the extraction efficiency using the PSS. Finally, better long-time reliability of the PSS LED performance was observed.     

Enhanced Light Extraction From Triangular GaN-Based Light-Emitting Diodes

This study investigated the characteristics of a triangular light-emitting diode (LED) and compared it to a standard quadrangular LED. The total radiant flux from the packaged triangular LED increased by 48% and 24% at input currents of 20 and 100 mA, respectively, compared to that of a quadrangular LED which was grown on patterned sapphire substrate. In light far-field beam distribution, the light extraction in the horizontal direction of the LED was much higher than that of the quadrangular LED due to the enhancement of light emission from the side walls of the triangular LED.     

Carrier transport related analysis of high-power AlGaN/GaN HEMTstructures

Shubnikov-de Haas (SdH) oscillation and Hall measurement results were compared with HEMT DC and RF characteristics for two different MOCVD grown AlGaN-GaN HEMT structures on semiinsulating 4H-SiC substrates. A HEMT with a 40-nm, highly doped AlGaN cap layer exhibited an electron mobility of 1500 cm²/V/s and a sheet concentration of 9×10¹² cm at 300 K (7900 cm²/V/s and 8×10¹² cm^-2 at 80 K), but showed a high threshold voltage and high DC output conductance. A 27-nm AlGaN cap with a thinner, lightly doped donor layer yielded similar Hall values, but lower threshold voltage and output conductance and demonstrated a high CW power density of 6.9 W/mm at 10 GHz. The 2DEG of this improved structure had a sheet concentration of n_SdH=7.8×10¹² cm^-2 and a high quantum scattering lifetime of τ_q=1.5×10^-13 s at 4.2 K compared to n_SdH=8.24×10¹² cm^-2 and τ_q=1.72×10^-13 s for the thick AlGaN cap layer structure, Despite the excellent characteristics of the films, the SdH oscillations still indicate a slight parallel conduction and a weak localization of electrons. These results indicate that good channel quality and high sheet carrier density are not the only HEMT attributes required for good transistor performance     

Miniaturized high-temperature superconductor microstrip patchantenna

Experimental as well as computational results are presented for 2.4 GHz microstrip antennas which are miniaturized (total length, 6 mm) by both a new, stepped impedance patch shape and a relatively high substrate permittivity. The antennas investigated were fabricated from YBa₂Cu₃O_7-δ thin films epitaxially grown on single-crystalline LaAlO₃ substrates by pulsed excimer laser ablation or by high-pressure oxygen DC sputtering and, for comparison, from copper on the same substrate material. It is shown that the radiation efficiency of this antenna structure is only about 1% to 6% for copper at 77 K but is increased to values between 35% and 65% for HTS films. From experimental investigations of the power dependence of the antenna gain at 77 K, nonlinearities, especially a sharp drop at a current density of about 2×10⁶ A/cm², were observed     

Nitride-based cascade near white light-emitting diodes

An InGaN-GaN blue light-emitting diode (LED) structure and an InGaN-GaN green LED structure were grown sequentially onto the same sapphire substrate so as to achieve a nitride-based near white LED. In order to avoid thyristor effect, we choose a large 2.1×2.1 mm² LED chip size, which was six times larger than that of the normal LED. It was found that we could observe a near white light emission with Commission International de l'Eclairage color coordinates x=0.2 and y=0.3, when the injection current was lower than 200 mA. It was also found that the output power, luminous efficiency and color temperature of such a cascade near white LED were 4.2 mW, 81 l m/W, and 9000 K, respectively     

High-performance long-wavelength (λ~1.3 μm) InGaAsPNquantum-well lasers

We demonstrate high-performance InGaAsPN quantum well based long-wavelength lasers grown on GaAs substrates, nitrogen containing lasers emitting in the λ=1.2- to 1.3-μm wavelength range were grown by gas source molecular beam epitaxy using a RF plasma nitrogen source. Under pulsed excitation, lasers emitting at λ=1.295 μm exhibited a record low threshold current density (J_TH) of 2. 5 kA/cm². Lasers grown with less nitrogen in the quantum well exhibited significantly lower threshold current densities of J_TH =1.9 kA/cm² at λ=1.27 μm and J_TH=1.27 kA/cm² at λ=1.2 μm. We also report a slope efficiency of 0.4 W/A and an output power of 450 mW under pulsed operation for nitrogen containing lasers emitting at 1.2 μm