Radiation emitting semi-conductor element

• US 7,692,204 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2004
• Issued: 04/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/29/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OSRAM OLED GMBH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Original Assignee: OSRAM GmbH (Ams-Osram AG)
• Inventors: Wirth, Ralph, Windisch, Reiner, Pietzonka, Ines, Stein, Wilhelm
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran; Minh-Loan T
• Assistant Examiner(s): YEUNG LOPEZ, FEIFEI
• Application Number:
  US10/567,883
• Publication Number:
  US 20070181894A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,076 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 257/98
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/02 characterised by the semiconductor bodies
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/40 Materials therefor

Abstract

A radiation-emitting semiconductor component with a semiconductor body, including a first principal surface (5), a second principal surface (9) and a semiconductor layer sequence (4) with an electromagnetic radiation generating active zone (7), in which the semiconductor layer sequence (4) is disposed between the first and the second principal surfaces (5, 9), a first current spreading layer (3) is disposed on the first principal surface (5) and electrically conductively connected to the semiconductor layer sequence (4), and a second current spreading layer (10) is disposed on the second principal surface (9) and electrically conductively connected to the semiconductor layer sequence (4).

Claims

1. A radiation-emitting semiconductor component comprising:

a semiconductor body that includes a first principal surface, a second principal surface and an epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence with an electromagnetic radiation generating active zone, said epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence forming the semiconductor body and being disposed between the first and the second principal surfaces;

a carrier supporting the semiconductor body;

a first non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer disposed on said first principal surface and positioned between the semiconductor body and the carrier, and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence;

a second non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer disposed on said second principal surface and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence; and

a mirror layer disposed on a side of the first current spreading layer that faces away from the semiconductor layer sequence,

wherein the first current spreading layer comprises a first material and the second current spreading layer comprises a second material different from the first material and

at least one of said two principal surfaces comprising said current spreading layers has a microstructure.

2. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said current spreading layers contains a material that is transparent to the generated radiation.

3. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein both current spreading layers contain a material that is transparent to the generated radiation.

4. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 2 wherein-said radiation-transparent material contains an oxide.

5. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 4, wherein said oxide is a metal oxide.

6. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 2, wherein said radiation-transparent material contains ITO and/or InO.

7. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 2, wherein-said radiation-transparent material contains ZnO.

8. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 2, wherein said radiation-transparent material contains SnO.

9. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said current spreading layers contains Al, Ga, In, Ce, Sb and/or F.

14. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor layer sequence contains at least one n- and/or p-conductive layer.

15. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 14, wherein the thickness of said n-conductive and/or said p-conductive layer is in the range of a monolayer to 1000 nm.

16. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 14 wherein the current spreading layer on the side comprising the p-conductive layer of the semiconductor layer sequence contains ZnO.

17. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 14, wherein the current spreading layer on the side comprising the n-conductive layer of the semiconductor layer sequence contains SnO.

18. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein said carrier contains GaAs.

19. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein said radiation-emitting semiconductor component is affixed to said carrier by means of a solder metallization.

20. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein a solder metallization is disposed on said mirror layer to affix said radiation-emitting semiconductor component to said carrier.

21. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein disposed on at least one of the first current spreading layer and the second current spreading layer is a contact surface for electrical contacting.

22. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 21, wherein said contact surface is disposed on the side of said semiconductor layer sequence opposite to said carrier.

23. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 21, wherein said contact surface has on the side facing said semiconductor layer sequence a layer that reflects the generated radiation.

24. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein at least one of said current spreading layers comprises a recess.

25. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 24, wherein disposed in said recess is an electrically conductive contact surface.

26. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 25, wherein the electrical contacting of said radiation-emitting semiconductor component takes place via said contact surface.

27. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 26, wherein disposed on the side of said current spreading layer facing said semiconductor layer sequence and provided with said recess and said contact surface is a jacket layer or a jacket layer sequence.

28. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 27, wherein said jacket layer or jacket layer sequence is poorly electrically conductive with respect to said contact surface, such that the current partially flows into said current spreading layer.

29. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein said semiconductor layer sequence contains a III/V semiconductor, preferably In_xGa_yAl_l-x-yP, where 0≦

x≦

1, 0≦

y≦

1 and x+y≦

1, In_xGa_yAl_l-x-yN, where 0≦

x≦

1, 0≦

y≦

1 and x+y≦

1, or In_xGa_yAl_l-x-yAs, where 0≦

x≦

1, 0≦

y≦

1 and x+y≦

1.

30. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein said first current spreading layer contains ZnO and on the side nearest said semiconductor body adjoins a p-conductive AlGaAs-containing layer.

31. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 15, wherein the thickness of said n-conductive and/or said p-conductive layer is less than 400 nm.

32. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 31, wherein the thickness of said n-conductive and/or said p-conductive layer is between 150 nm and 400 nm.

33. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 14, wherein the current spreading layer on the side comprising the n-conductive layer of the semiconductor layer sequence contains SnO and Sb.

34. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein the first current spreading layer and the second current spreading layer contain an oxide.

35. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein the first current spreading layer and the second current spreading layer are sputtered layers.

36. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1 comprising a lattice mismatch at the first principal surface between the epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence and the first non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer, and further comprising a lattice mismatch at the second principal surface between the epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence and the second non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer.

38. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 1, wherein the first current spreading layer contains ZnO and the second current spreading layer contains SnO.

10. A radiation-emitting semiconductor component comprising:

a semiconductor body that includes a first principal surface, a second principal surface and an epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence with an electromagnetic radiation generating active zone, said epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence forming the semiconductor body and being disposed between the first and the second principal surfaces;

a carrier supporting the semiconductor body;

a first non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer disposed on said first principal surface and positioned between the semiconductor body and the carrier, and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence;

a second non-epitaxially formed current spreading layer disposed on said second principal surface and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence; and

a mirror layer disposed on a side of the first current spreading layer that faces away from the semiconductor layer sequence,

wherein the first current spreading layer comprises a first material and the second current spreading layer comprises a second material different from the first material, and said mirror layer is electrically conductive.

11. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 10 wherein said mirror layer contains a metal.

12. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 10 wherein said mirror layer contains Au, Ag, Al and/or Pt.

13. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 10 wherein said principal surface has a microstructure on the side of said semiconductor layer sequence facing away from said mirror layer.

37. A radiation-emitting semiconductor component comprising:

a semiconductor body that includes a first principal surface, a second principal surface and an epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence with an electromagnetic radiation generating active zone, said epitaxially formed semiconductor layer sequence forming the semiconductor body and being disposed between the first and the second principal surfaces;

a carrier supporting the semiconductor body;

a first non-epitaxially formed metal oxide current spreading layer disposed on said first principal surface and positioned between the semiconductor body and the carrier, and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence;

a second non-epitaxially formed metal oxide current spreading layer disposed on said second principal surface and electrically conductively connected to said semiconductor layer sequence; and

a mirror layer disposed on a side of the first current spreading layer that faces away from the semiconductor layer sequence,

wherein the first current spreading layer comprises a first material and the second current spreading layer comprises a second material different from the first material.

39. The radiation-emitting semiconductor component as in claim 37, wherein the first current spreading layer contains ZnO and the second current spreading layer contains SnO.