III-NITRIDE SEMICONDUCTOR LIGHT-EMITTING DEVICE AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF

• US 20090121214A1
• Filed: 11/11/2008
• Published: 05/14/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Advanced Optoelectronic Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Advanced Optoelectronic Technology, Inc.
• Inventors: Wu, Peng Yi, Lin, Wen Yu, Chan, Shih Hsiung, Tu, Po Min, Huang, Shih Cheng, Yeh, Ying Chao, Hsu, Chih Peng
• Application Number:
  US12/268,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20090121214A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 257/13
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02658 Pretreatments cleaning in general H01L21/02041
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/06 within the light emitting region, e.g. quantum confinement structure or tunnel barrier
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/22 Roughened surfaces, e.g. at the interface between epitaxial layers
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/32 containing nitrogen

Abstract

A semiconductor light-emitting device comprises a substrate, a buffer layer, an n-type semiconductor layer, a conformational active layer and a p-type semiconductor layer. The n-type semiconductor layer includes a first surface and a second surface, and the first surface directly contacts the buffer layer. The second surface has a plurality of recesses, and a conformational active layer formed on the second surface and within the plurality of recesses. Therefore, the stress between the n-type semiconductor layer and the conformational active layer can be released with the recesses.

Claims

1. A III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device, comprising:

a substrate;

a first type semiconductor layer including a first surface and a second surface, wherein the first surface is disposed adjacent to the substrate, and the second surface has a plurality of recesses and is opposite to the first surface;

a conformational active layer formed on the second surface and within the plurality of recesses; and

a second type semiconductor layer formed on the conformational active layer.

2. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a buffer layer disposed between the substrate and the first type semiconductor layer.

3. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material of the substrate is sapphire, SiC, Si, ZnO, MgO or GaAs.

4. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein depths of the accesses are larger than a depth of a single quantum well in the active layer, and smaller than the depth of the first type semiconductor layer.

5. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein widths of upper portions of the recesses range from 0.1 um to 10 um, and widths of upper portions of the recesses are larger than widths of lower portions of the recesses.

6. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the plurality of recesses have different sizes, and the distribution of the plurality of recesses is substantially uniform or non-uniform.

7. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the conformational active layer is a single quantum well structure or a multiple quantum well structure.

8. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the multiple quantum well structure comprises two to thirty light-emitting layers and barrier layers, wherein the materials of the light-emitting layers and the barrier layers are InGaN and GaN.

9. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 7, wherein the multiple quantum well structure comprises two to thirty light-emitting layers and barrier layers, wherein the light-emitting layers are made of Al_XIn_YGa_1-X-YN, and the barrier layers are made of Al_IIn_JGa_1-I-JN, wherein 0≦

X<

1, 0≦

Y<

1, X+Y<

1, 0≦

I<

1, 0≦

J<

1, I+J<

1, and when X, Y, I, J>

0, X≠

I and Y≠

J.

10. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first type semiconductor layer is an n-type III-nitride semiconductor layer, and the second type semiconductor layer is a p-type semiconductor layer.

11. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first type semiconductor layer is an n-type Si-doped GaN layer, and the second type semiconductor layer is formed as Mg-doped GaN and InGaN multi-layers, or a superlattice structure of Mg-doped AlGaN/GaN and a Mg-doped GaN layer.

12. The III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a first type electrode and a second type electrode, wherein the first type electrode is disposed on the first type semiconductor layer, and the second type electrode is disposed on the second type semiconductor layer.

13. A method for manufacturing a III-nitride semiconductor light-emitting device, comprising the steps of:

providing a substrate;

forming a first type semiconductor layer on the substrate, wherein the first type semiconductor layer includes a first surface and a second surface, the first surface is disposed adjacent to the substrate, and the second surface opposite to the first surface has a plurality of recesses;

forming a conformational active layer on the first type semiconductor layer; and

forming a second type semiconductor layer on the conformational active layer.

14. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the plurality of recesses are formed by etching the second surface of the first type semiconductor layer.

15. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the plurality of recesses are cavities formed on the second surface by controlling a flow rate of supply gas or organometallic compound applied to the formation of the first type semiconductor layer, wherein the supply gas is nitrogen, ammonia, hydrogen, TMGa, TEGa, TMIn or TEIn.

16. The method as claimed in claim 13, further comprising at least one buffer layer directly formed on the substrate.

17. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein widths of upper portions of the recesses ranges from 0.1 um to 10 um, and depths of accesses are larger than a depth of a single quantum well in the conformational active layer, and are smaller than a depth of the first group semiconductor layer.

18. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the conformational active layer is formed to have a single quantum well structure or a multiple quantum well structure.

19. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the first type semiconductor layer is an n-type semiconductor layer, and the second type semiconductor layer is a p-type semiconductor layer.

20. The method as claimed in claim 13, wherein the first type semiconductor layer is an n-type Si-doped GaN layer, and the second type semiconductor layers are formed as Mg-doped GaN and InGaN multi-layers, or a superlattice structure of Mg-doped AlGaN/GaN and a Mg-doped GaN layer.