Ching-Ho Tien

Performance of GaN-based light-emitting diodes fabricated using GaN epilayers grown on silicon substrates

Light extraction of GaN-based light-emitting diodes grown on Si(111) substrate (GaN-on-Si based LEDs) is presented in this study. Three different designs of GaN-on-Si based LEDs with the lateral structure, lateral structure on mirror/Si(100) substrate, and vertical structure on mirror/Si(100) substrate were epitaxially grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition and fabricated using chemical lift-off and double-transfer techniques. Current-voltage, light output power, far-field radiation patterns, and electroluminescence characteristics of these three LEDs were discussed. At an injection current of 700 mA, the output powers of LEDs with the lateral structure on mirror/Si(100) substrate and vertical structure on mirror/Si(100) substrate were measured to be 155.07 and 261.07 mW, respectively. The output powers of these two LEDs had 70.63% and 187.26% enhancement compared to that of LED with the lateral structure, respectively. The result indicated this vertical structure LED was useful in improving the light extraction due to an enhancement in light scattering efficiency while the high-reflection mirror and diffuse surfaces were employed.

High performance GaN-based flip-chip LEDs with different electrode patterns

A high-performance flip-chip light-emitting diode (FCLED) with a Ni/Ag metallic film as high reflectivity mirror (92.67%) of p-type electrode was successfully fabricated. The effect of geometric electrode patterns on the blue InGaN/GaN LEDs was investigated and analyzed qualitatively its current spreading in the active region. With different electrode patterns, these devices were experimented and simulated by simple electrical circuits in order to confirm its current-voltage characteristics and light emission pattern. It was found that the forward voltages of these FCLEDs were about 3.6 V (@350 mA). The light output power of FCLEDs with circle-round type electrode was 368 mW at an injection current of 700 mA. From these optoelectronic measurement and thermal infrared images, we proposed some design methodologies for improved current spreading, light output power, droop efficiency and thermal performance.

Enhanced light output power of thin film GaN-based high voltage light-emitting diodes

The characteristics of high-voltage light-emitting diodes (HVLEDs) consisting of a 64-cell LED array were investigated by employing various LED structures. Two types of HVLED were examined: a standard HVLED with a single roughened indium tin oxide (ITO) surface grown on a sapphire substrate and a thin-film HVLED (TF-HVLED) with a roughened n-GaN and ITO double side transferred to a mirror/silicon substrate. At an injection current of 24 mA, the output powers of the HVLEDs fabricated using a sapphire substrate and those fabricated using a mirror/silicon substrate were 170 and 216 mW, respectively. Because the TF-HVLED exhibited improved thermal dissipation and light extraction, it produced a greater output power than the HVLED fabricated using the sapphire substrate did.

External stress effects on the optical and electrical properties of flexible InGaN-based green light-emitting diodes.

Flexible InGaN-based green light emitting diodes (LEDs) were fabricated by transferring epilayer to a flexible polyimide substrate with laser lift-off (LLO) and double-transfer technologies. We present a method of increasing light output power in flexible LEDs without modifying their epitaxial layers. These improvements are achieved by reducing the quantum-confined Stark effect by reducing piezoelectric polarization that results from compressive stress in the GaN epilayer. The compressive stress is relaxed due to the external stress induced by increasing bending displacement of flexible substrate. The light output power of the flexible LED at an injection current of 150 mA is increased by approximately 42.2%, as the external bending went to the case of effective length of 15 mm. The experimental results demonstrated that applying external tensile stress effectively compensates for the compressive strain and changes the piezoelectric field in the InGaN/GaN MQWs region, thereby increases the probability of radiative recombination.

Effects of Mesa Size on Current Spreading and Light Extraction of GaN-Based LEDs

The mesa size effect on light extraction efficiency (LEE) of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) was studied in this work. The mesa area size of three kinds of LEDs that were evaluated include: 350×950 μm2 (small-size embedded electrodes: GaN LED, S-LED), 500×950 μm2 (medium-size embedded electrodes: GaN LED, M-LED), 950×950 μm2 (large-size embedded electrodes : GaN LED, L-LED). This paper not only discusses LEE, but current density and heat dissipation performance as well. The output power and light extraction efficiency at 700 mA/mm2 for S-LED, M-LED, and L-LED are 555, 485, and 432 mW and 38.1%, 33.4%, and 29.7%, respectively. The best output power and LEE of S-LED is due to the electron-hole recombination rate increasing. This phenomenon is caused by the greatest current spread and heat dissipation potential.

Fabrication and Improved Performance of GaN LEDs With Finger-Type Structure

This paper demonstrates that vertical gallium nitride (GaN) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a finger-type current spreading structure (referred as F-LEDs), and wing-type vertical LEDs with embedded contact (W-LEDs) exhibit improved performance in output power and current spreading compared with conventional LED (C-LED). Although W-LED and F-LED designs allow improved light shading and current crowding, the extra finger-type structure promotes a better current spread, resulting in performance superior to that of C-LEDs and W-LEDs. Under an injection current of 350 mA, 329.39 mW of output power is obtained in F-LEDs corresponding to a performance enhancement of 39.3% and 20.3% compared with C-LEDs and W-LEDs, respectively. When the driving current was increased to 700 mA, the finger-type structure increased output power and efficiency droop reduction benefits were clearly observed. The F-LEDs exhibited 24% enhanced power and 23% improved droop in comparison with W-LEDs.

Performance of Cu-Plating Vertical LEDs in Heat Dissipation Using Diamond-Like Carbon

Performance in heat dissipation of Cu-plating type vertical GaN light-emitting diodes (CVLEDs) with a diamond like carbon (DLC) layer was investigated at various injection current levels. Through the incorporation of DLC, the CVLED with DLC exhibits a high heat dissipating ability, where the DLC-CVLEDs can be handled at an ultrahigh injection current of 2000 mA and reach an output power of 620 mW. In addition, the thermal resistance of the CVLED with DLC calculated by surface temperature data at 1400 mA injection current was 34% lower than that of CVLED without DLC, which clearly indicated that the benefit of using DLC layer on improvement of heat dissipation will be more significant as a higher current is injected.

White thin-film flip-chip LEDs with uniform color temperature using laser lift-off and conformal phosphor coating technologies

We fabricated a phosphor-conversion white light emitting diode (PC-WLED) using a thin-film flip-chip GaN LED with a roughened u-GaN surface (TFFC-SR-LED) that emits blue light at 450 nm wavelength with a conformal phosphor coating that converts the blue light into yellow light. It was found that the TFFC-SR-LED with the thin-film substrate removal process and surface roughening exhibits a power enhancement of 16.1% when compared with the TFFC-LED without a sapphire substrate. When a TFFC-SR-LED with phosphors on a Cu-metal packaging-base (TFFC-SR-Cu-WLED) was operated at a forward-bias current of 350 mA, luminous flux and luminous efficacy were increased by 17.8 and 11.9%, compared to a TFFC-SR-LED on a Cup-shaped packaging-base (TFFC-SR-Cup-WLED). The angular correlated color temperature (CCT) deviation of a TFFC-SR-Cu-WLED reaches 77 K in the range of -70° to + 70° when the average CCT of white LEDs is around 4300 K. Consequently, the TFFC-SR-LED in a conformal coating phosphor structure on a Cu packaging-base could not only increase the luminous flux output, but also improve the angular-dependent CCT uniformity, thereby reducing the yellow ring effect.

Slow Electron Making More Efficient Radiation Emission

In conventional emitting devices, the mobility of electron is much higher than that of hole, which increases the non-recombination rate. To generate slow electrons, we demonstrate an electron retarding n-electrode (ERN) on the n-GaN layer of InGaN blue light emitting diode (LED), making more efficient radiation emission. Transparent conductive oxides are estimated to be more suitable for ERN materials. However, for ERN materials used in InGaN LEDs, three requirements should be satisfied, i.e., Ohmic contact to n-GaN, dilute magnetic doping, and good electrical conductivity. The pulsed-laser deposited cobalt-doped ZnO film prepared at 400 °C was chosen as the ERN. The electron retarding of 120-nm-thick ERN/n-GaN reached 19.9% compared to the n-GaN. The output powers (@350 mA) of LEDs with and without the ERN were 246.7 and 212.9 mW, while their wall-plug efficiencies were 18.2% and 15.1%, respectively. Moreover, owing to the efficient filling of electrons in the quantum wells by inserting the ERN, the bandgap of quantum wells was enlarged, inducing the blue-shift in the emission wavelength of LED. The slow electron generated from the ERN technique paves the way to solve the problem of large difference between electron and hole velocities and improve the optoelectronic performance of emitting devices.

A Low-Temperature External Electron Retarding Electrode for Improving Vertical Green LED Performance

To alleviate the mismatch between electron/hole velocities and improve the quantum efficiencies, the cobalt-doped ZnO (CZO) dilute magnetic films grown by pulsed-laser deposition at a low temperature of 100 °C were served as the external electron retarding n-electrodes for vertical InGaN light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The retardation of the electron mobility is owing to the scatter of electrons via the spin-orbit interaction of Co2+ ions and their corresponding ferromagnetic properties. A 150-nm-thick CZO film was chosen as the n-electrode for the vertical green LED (530 nm). In comparison to conventional lateral LED, the vertical LEDs without and with the CZO n-electrode had 21.3% and 39.6% improvements in the output power (at 350 mA), respectively. The vertical LED with the CZO n-electrode showed an increment in the light output power (at 350 mA) by 15.1% as compared with the vertical LED without the CZO n-electrode. Obviously, after inserting the CZO n-electrode, the excessively large mobility difference between the electron and hole carriers in the conventional vertical LED is reduced significantly, which can decrease the nonradiative recombination rate and improve the emission characteristic. The results also reveal the CZO film served as an external electron retarding electrode is highly potential for vertical LED applications.