Jaecheon Han

Near ultraviolet InGaN/AlGaN-based light-emitting diodes with highly reflective tin-doped indium oxide/Al-based reflectors

The enhanced light output power of a InGaN/AlGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) using three different types of highly reflective Sn-doped indium oxide (ITO)/Al-based p-type reflectors, namely, ITO/Al, Cu-doped indium oxide (CIO)/s-ITO(sputtered)/Al, and Ag nano-dots(n-Ag)/CIO/s-ITO/Al, is presented. The ITO/Al-based reflectors exhibit lower reflectance (76 - 84% at 365 nm) than Al only reflector (91.1%). However, unlike Al only n-type contact, the ITO/Al-based contacts to p-GaN show good ohmic characteristics. Near-UV (365 nm) InGaN/AlGaN-based LEDs with ITO/Al, CIO/s-ITO/Al, and n-Ag/CIO/s-ITO/Al reflectors exhibit forward-bias voltages of 3.55, 3.48, and 3.34 V at 20 mA, respectively. The LEDs with the ITO/Al and CIO/s-ITO/Al reflectors exhibit 9.5% and 13.5% higher light output power (at 20 mA), respectively, than the LEDs with the n-Ag/CIO/s-ITO/Al reflector. The improved performance of near UV LEDs is attributed to the high reflectance and low contact resistivity of the ITO/Al-based reflectors, which are better than those of conventional Al-based reflectors.

Polarity dependence of the electrical characteristics of Ag reflectors for high-power GaN-based light emitting diodes

We report on the polarity dependence of the electrical properties of Ag reflectors for high-power GaN-based light-emitting diodes. The (0001) c-plane samples become ohmic after annealing in air. However, the (11–22) semi-polar samples are non-ohmic after annealing, although the 300 °C-annealed sample shows the lowest contact resistivity. The X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) results show that the Ga 2p core level for the c-plane samples experiences larger shift toward the valence band than that for the semi-polar samples. The XPS depth profile results show that unlike the c-plane samples, the semi-polar samples contain some amounts of oxygen at the Ag/GaN interface regions. The outdiffusion of Ga atoms is far more significant in the c-plane samples than in the semi-polar samples, whereas the outdiffusion of N atoms is relatively less significant in the c-plane samples. On the basis of the electrical and XPS results, the polarity dependence of the electrical properties is described and discussed

Highly reliable Ti-based ohmic contact to N-polar n-type GaN for vertical-geometry light-emitting diodes by using a Ta barrier layer

The formation of thermally stable and low resistance Ti/Al-based ohmic contacts to N-polar n-GaN for high-power vertical light-emitting diodes (VLEDs) using a Ta diffusion barrier is presented. Before annealing, both Ti/Al/Au and Ti/Ta/Al/Au contacts reveal ohmic behavior with specific contact resistances of 2.4 × 10⁻⁴ and 1.2 × 10⁻⁴ Ωcm², respectively. However, unlike the Ti/Al/Au samples that are electrically degraded with increasing annealing time at 250 °C, the Ti/Ta/Al/Au samples remain thermally stable even after annealing for 600 min. LEDs fabricated with the Ti/Ta/Al/Au contacts yield 8.3% higher output power (at 300 mA) than LEDs with the Ti/Al/Au contact. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy results show that the Ta layer serves as an efficient barrier to the indiffusion of oxygen toward the GaN. On the basis of the XPS and electrical results, the annealing dependence of the electrical characteristics of Ti/Al-based contacts are described and discussed.