Method for manufacturing gallium and nitrogen bearing laser devices with improved usage of substrate material

• US 9,755,398 B2
• Filed: 06/03/2016
• Issued: 09/05/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 02/10/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera SLD Laser Incorporated (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Soraa Laser Diode, Inc. (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Sztein, Alexander, McLaurin, Melvin, Hsu, Po Shan, Raring, James W.
• Primary Examiner(s): Karimy, Timor
• Application Number:
  US15/173,441
• Publication Number:
  US 20160359294A1
• Time in Patent Office: 459 Days
• Field of Search: 438 33, 438 68, 438113, 438460, 438458, 438 91, 438237
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0202 Cleaving
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0203 Etching
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0205 during growth of the semiconductor body
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0215 Bonding to the substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0217 Removal of the substrate
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0234 Up-side down mountings, e.g. Flip-chip, epi-side down mountings or junction down mountings
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/2201 in a specific crystallographic orientation
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/3202 grown on specifically orientated substrates, or using orientation dependent growth
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/320275 semi-polar orientation
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/34333 with a well layer based on Ga(In)N or Ga(In)P, e.g. blue laser
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/34346 characterised by the materials of the barrier layers

Abstract

In an example, the present invention provides a method for manufacturing a gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device. The method includes providing a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate having a surface region and forming epitaxial material overlying the surface region, the epitaxial material comprising an n-type cladding region, an active region comprising of at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active layer region. The method includes patterning the epitaxial material to form a plurality of dice, each of the dice corresponding to at least one laser device, characterized by a first pitch between a pair of dice, the first pitch being less than a design width. The method includes transferring each of the plurality of dice to a carrier wafer such that each pair of dice is configured with a second pitch between each pair of dice, the second pitch being larger than the first pitch corresponding to the design width.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing an article using a gallium and nitrogen containing laser diode device, the method comprising:

providing a gallium and nitrogen containing substrate having a surface region;

forming epitaxial material overlying the surface region, the epitaxial material comprising an n-type cladding region, an active region comprising of at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active layer region;

patterning the epitaxial material to form a plurality of dies, each of the dies corresponding to at least one laser device, characterized by a first pitch between a pair of dies, the first pitch being less than a design width;

transferring at least a portion of the plurality of dies to a carrier wafer such that each pair of transferred dies is configured with a second pitch between each pair of dies, the second pitch being larger than the first pitch and corresponding to the design width, the transferring comprising;

selectively removing at least a portion of a release region of one or more dies while leaving an anchor region intact between the one or more dies and the gallium and nitrogen containing substrate,

selectively bonding the one or more dies to the carrier wafer,

releasing the one or more dies from the gallium and nitrogen containing substrate by separating the anchor region associated with each of the one or more dies while a portion of the epitaxial material remains bonded to the carrier wafer; and

using at least one of the dies in an application selected from at least one of a laser display or a light.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each die is shaped as a mesa, and each pair of dies having the first pitch ranging between 1 μ

m and 10 μ

m or between 10 μ

m and 50 μ

m wide or between 50 μ

m and 3000 μ

m long;

the patterning comprising an etching process; and

the second pitch on the carrier wafer is between 100 μ

m and 200 μ

m or between 200 μ

m and 300 μ

m.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the second pitch on the carrier wafer is between 2 times and 50 times larger than the first pitch.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising processing each of the dies to form at least one laser device on each die after the transferring or further comprising forming one or multiple laser diode cavities on each die of epitaxial material.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each pair of dies overlying the carrier wafer is defined by the second pitch;

and further comprising forming one or more components overlying a space defined by the second pitch, the one or more components being selected from a contact region or a bonding pad.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the carrier wafer is characterized by a conductive material for a contact region or contact regions;

wherein each of the laser devices is characterized by a wavelength ranging between 200 and 2000 nm; and

wherein each of the laser device comprising a pair of facets configured from a cleaving process or an etching process, the etching process being selected from inductively coupled plasma etching, chemical assisted ion beam etching, or reactive ion beam etching.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising singulating each of the dies by separating each pair of dies at a space defined by the second pitch;

wherein the epitaxial material contains GaN, AlN, InN, InGaN, AlGaN, InAlN, and/or InAlGaN; and

wherein the carrier wafer comprises at least one of silicon, gallium arsenide, sapphire, silicon carbide, diamond, gallium nitride, AlN, indium phosphide, or metallic.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectively bonding comprises bonding each of the one or more dies to a bonding pad on the carrier wafer.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring is repeated N times to transfer one or more other dies to the carrier wafer, where N is an integer between 1 and 50.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring is repeated N times to transfer one or more other dies to the carrier wafer, where N is an integer between 1 and 50 to remove each of the dies to be bonded to the carrier wafer;

whereupon the carrier wafer has a larger diameter than a diameter of the gallium and nitrogen containing substrate.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the transferring is repeated N times to transfer one or more other dies to the carrier wafer, where N is an integer between 1 and 50 to remove each of the dies to be bonded to the carrier wafer;

whereupon the carrier wafer has a larger diameter than a diameter of the gallium and nitrogen containing substrate;

whereupon bonds between each of the one or more dies and the carrier wafer comprise at least one of metal-metal pairs, oxide-oxide pairs, spin-on-glass, soldering alloys, polymers, photoresists, and/or wax.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring is repeated N times to transfer one or more other dies to the carrier wafer, where N is an integer between 1 and 50 to remove each of the dies to be bonded to the carrier wafer;

whereupon the carrier wafer has a larger diameter than a diameter of the gallium and nitrogen containing substrate;

whereupon bonds between each of the one or more dies and the carrier wafer comprise at least one of metal-metal pairs, oxide-oxide pairs, spin-on-glass, soldering alloys, polymers, photoresists, and/or wax; and

wherein the selectively removing uses a bandgap selective photo-electrical-chemical (PEC) etching to remove the portion of the release region.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the PEC etching selectively removes substantially all of the release region while leaving intact a portion of the release region to provide structure during the selectively bonding, the portion of the release region forming the anchor region.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein the PEC etching selectively removes the release region while leaving the anchor region in tact to support the dies during the selective bonding, and wherein each of the one or more dies comprises a passivation region for protection from PEC etching.

15. The method of claim 12, wherein the PEC etching selectively removes the release region while leaving the anchor region intact to support the dies during the selective bonding, the anchor region comprising a defect pillar, a static force, or a Van der Waals force.

16. The method of claim 12, further comprising an additional PEC etching process to completely remove remaining portions of the release region on the one or more dies while the one or more dies are bonded to the carrier wafer.

17. The method of claim 12, further comprising forming a metal material overlying the one or more dies before transferring, while leaving exposed one or more anchor regions, which are configured to selectively break and separate from each of the dies after selectively bonding.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the release region is composed of a material with a smaller bandgap than an adjacent epitaxial layer.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the release region is composed of InGaN, InN, InAlN, or InAlGaN.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the selectively removing forms an undercut region within a vicinity of each of the one or more dies to enable selective release of each of the one or more dies.