Hewlett-packard Company

Other

Virginia M Robbins

Frank Michael Steranka

John Julian Uebbing

Dennis C DeFevere

Fred A Kish, Jr

Michael David Camras

Chihping Kuo

Robert M Fletcher

Timothy D Osentowski

Louis W Cook

Fred A Kish

A method of forming a light emitting diode (LED) includes providing a temporary growth substrate that is selected for compatibility with fabricating LED layers having desired mechanical characteristics. For example, lattice matching is an important consideration. LED layers are then grown on the temporary growth substrate. High crystal quality is thereby achieved, whereafter the temporary growth substrate can be removed. A second substrate is bonded to the LED layers utilizing a wafer bonding technique. The second substrate is selected for optical properties, rather than mechanical properties. Preferably, the second substrate is optically transparent and electrically conductive and the wafer bonding technique is carried out to achieve a low resistance interface between the second substrate and the LED layers. Wafer bonding can also be carried out to provide passivation or light-reflection or to define current flow.

Wafer bonding of light emitting diode layers

An electro-optical device with a transparent substrate is produced by epitaxially first growing the active device layers, followed by growth of the transparent substrate layer on an opaque wafer. The opaque wafer is subsequently removed. The active device layers have dopants with sufficiently low diffusivities that their electronic characteristics are not adversely affected by long exposure to elevated temperature during the growth of the transparent substrate layer. In a liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method, a repeated temperature cycle technique is used where the temperature is repeatedly raised each time after cooling to provide a large cooling range for growing a sufficiently thick substrate layer or a series of device layers. In between growths and during the temperature heat-up periods, the device is stored within the LPE reactor. When a epitaxial layer is oxidizable, a non-oxidizable cap is temporarily grown on it in between growths and during the temperature heat up periods. The cap is subsequently removed by melting back at an elevated temperature just prior to the growth of a next layer. The technique may also be used for growing a transparent substrate which is lattice mismatched with the active deivce layers.

Electro-optical device with inverted transparent substrate and method

A light-emitting diode has a semiconductor substrate underlying active p-n junction layers of AlGaInP for emitting light. A transparent window layer of semiconductor different from AlGaInP overlies the active layers and has a lower electrical resistivity than the active layers and a bandgap greater than the bandgap of the active layers, for minimizing current crowding from a metal electrical contact over the transparent window layer. The active layers may be epitaxially grown on a temporary GaAs substrate. A layer of lattice mismatched GaP is then grown on the active layers with the GaP having a bandgap greater than the bandgap of the active layers so that it is transparent to light emitted by the LED. The GaAs temporary substrate is then selectively etched away so that the GaP acts as a transparent substrate. A transparent window layer may be epitaxially grown over the active layers on the face previously adjacent to the GaAs substrate.

Light-emitting diode with an electrically conductive window

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Mountain View, CA, United States of America

Virginia M Robbins