Manufacturable RGB laser diode source

• US 9,871,350 B2
• Filed: 06/13/2016
• Issued: 01/16/2018
• 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: McLaurin, Melvin, Sztein, Alexander, Hsu, Po Shan, Goutain, Eric, Raring, James W., Rudy, Paul, Novotny, Vlad
• Primary Examiner(s): Karimy, Timor
• Application Number:
  US15/180,737
• Publication Number:
  US 20160372893A1
• Time in Patent Office: 582 Days
• Field of Search: 438 33, 438 68, 438113, 438460, 438 91, 438237, 438458
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/16225 the item being non-metallic, e.g. insulating substrate with or without metallisation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/45099 Material
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48091 Arched
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2224/48465 the other connecting portion not on the bonding area being a wedge bond, i.e. ball-to-wedge, regular stitch
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/83 using a layer connector
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 24/95 at chip-level, i.e. with connecting carried out on a plurality of singulated devices, i.e. on diced chips
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00 Indexing scheme for arrangements or methods for connecting or disconnecting semiconductor or solid-state bodies as covered by H01L24/00
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/00014 the subject-matter covered by the group, the symbol of which is combined with the symbol of this group, being disclosed without further technical details
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 2924/16152 Cap comprising a cavity for hosting the device, e.g. U-shaped cap
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/0045 the devices being superluminescent diodes
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 33/0075 comprising nitride compounds
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0203 Etching
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/0216 using an intermediate compound, e.g. a glue or solder
• 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 5/32341 blue laser based on GaN or GaP
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/4025 Array arrangements, e.g. constituted by discrete laser diodes or laser bar H01S5/42 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/4093 Red, green and blue [RGB] generated directly by laser action or by a combination of laser action with nonlinear frequency conversion

Abstract

A multi-wavelength light emitting device is manufactured by forming first and second epitaxial materials overlying first and second surface regions. The first and second epitaxial materials are patterned to form a plurality of first and second epitaxial dice. At least one of the first plurality of epitaxial dice and at least one of the second plurality of epitaxial dice are transferred from first and second substrates, respectively, to a carrier wafer by selectively etching a release region, separating from the substrate each of the epitaxial dice that are being transferred, and selectively bonding to the carrier wafer each of the epitaxial dice that are being transferred. The transferred first and second epitaxial dice are processed on the carrier wafer to form a plurality of light emitting devices capable of emitting at least a first wavelength and a second wavelength.

Claims

1. A method for manufacturing an integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device, the method comprising:

providing a first substrate having a first surface region;

forming a first epitaxial material overlying the first surface region, the first epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a first active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the first active region being configured for emission at a first wavelength;

providing a second substrate having a second surface region;

forming a second epitaxial material overlying the second surface region, the second epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a second active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the second active region being configured for emission at a second wavelength;

patterning the first epitaxial material and the second epitaxial material to form a plurality of first epitaxial dice and a plurality of second epitaxial dice overlying the first substrate and the second substrate, respectively, each of the plurality of first epitaxial dice and the plurality of second epitaxial dice corresponding to at least one light emitting device;

transferring at least one of the first plurality of epitaxial dice and at least one of the second plurality of epitaxial dice from the first substrate and the second substrate, respectively, to a carrier wafer by selectively etching the release region, separating from the substrate each of the epitaxial dice that are being transferred, and selectively bonding to the carrier wafer each of the epitaxial dice that are being transferred; and

processing the transferred first epitaxial dice and the second epitaxial dice on the carrier wafer to form a plurality of light emitting devices capable of emitting at least the first wavelength and the second wavelength.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of the epitaxial dice formed on the first substrate and the second substrate is characterized by a first pitch and a second pitch between each pair of adjacent epitaxial dice, the first pitch and the second pitch being less than a design width;

and wherein each of the transferred epitaxial dice is characterized by a third pitch and a fourth pitch between each pair of adjacent epitaxial dice, the third and fourth pitch being larger than the first pitch and the second pitch, respectively, and corresponding to the design width.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the epitaxial dice is shaped as a mesa, each of the first pitch and the second pitch is between 1 μ

m and 10 μ

m, or between 10 micron and 50 microns, or between 50 μ

m and 100 μ

m, or between 100 μ

m and 500 μ

m with a length of 50 μ

m to 3000 μ

m; and

the patterning comprises an etching process.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein each of the third pitch and the fourth pitch is between 50 microns and 200 microns, or between 200 microns and 500 microns, or between 500 microns and 1000 microns, or greater than 1000 microns.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the carrier wafer is selected from AlN, SiC, sapphire, Si, GaN, GaAs.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first substrate and the second substrate are gallium and nitrogen containing materials.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein each of the first wavelength and the second wavelength is in the blue wavelength range to form at least a dual blue wavelength integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the light emitting device is configured as a laser diode device or a SLED device.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the first wavelength is selected from a blue wavelength and the second wavelength is selected from a green wavelength to form at least a blue and green light emitting integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the light emitting device is configured as a laser diode device or a SLED device.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the first substrate is a gallium and nitrogen containing material and the second substrate is a gallium and arsenic containing material.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

providing a third substrate having a third surface region;

forming a third epitaxial material overlying the third surface region, the third epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a third active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the third active region being configured for emission at a third wavelength;

patterning the third epitaxial material to form a plurality of third epitaxial dice overlying the third substrate, each of the third epitaxial dice corresponding to at least one light emitting device;

transferring at least one of the plurality of third epitaxial dice from the third substrate to the carrier wafer by selectively etching the release region, separating from the substrate the epitaxial dice that are being transferred, and selectively bonding to the carrier wafer the epitaxial dice that are being transferred; and

processing the transferred first epitaxial dice, the second epitaxial dice, and the third epitaxial dice on the carrier wafer to form a plurality of light emitting devices capable of emitting at least the first wavelength, the second wavelength, and the third wavelength.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the first substrate and second substrate are gallium and nitrogen containing materials and the first wavelength is a blue wavelength and the second wavelength is a green wavelength;

and wherein the third substrate is a gallium and arsenic containing material and the third wavelength is selected from a red wavelength such that the integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device is configured to emit a first blue wavelength, a second green wavelength, and a third red wavelength to form an RGB light emitting device.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising processing at least one of the first transferred epitaxial dice, the second transferred epitaxial dice, or the third transferred epitaxial dice to form an RGB laser diode device.

15. The method of claim 13, further comprising processing at least one of the first transferred epitaxial dice, the second transferred epitaxial dice, or the third transferred epitaxial dice to form an RGB SLED device.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the carrier wafer is comprised of a gallium and arsenic containing material with a third surface region;

forming a third epitaxial material overlying the third surface region, the third epitaxial material comprising an n-type cladding region, a third active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the third active region being configured for emission at a third wavelength; and

processing the gallium and arsenic epitaxial material to form light emitting devices emitting the third wavelength such that the integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device emits a first wavelength, a second wavelength, and a third wavelength.

17. The method of claim 16 wherein the first wavelength is a blue wavelength, the second wavelength is a green wavelength, and the third wavelength is a red wavelength such that the integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device is an RGB device capable of emitting a red wavelength, green wavelength, and blue wavelength.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the optical emission comprising one or more of the wavelengths emitted from the integrated multiple-wavelength light emitting device is optically coupled to one or more optical element such as a lens, a reflector, an aperture, a fiber optic cable, or a waveguide element.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the first epitaxial material and second epitaxial material comprise at least one of GaN, AlN, InN, InGaN, AlGaN, InAlN, InAlGaN, AlAs, GaAs, GaP, InP, AlP, AlGaAs, AlInAs, InGaAs, AlGaP, AlInP, InGaP, AlInGaP, AlInGaAs, or AlInGaAsP.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the transferring comprises selectively bonding each of the epitaxial dice that are being transferred to the carrier wafer, each of the transferred epitaxial dice being coupled to a bonding pad on the carrier wafer by one of the plurality of bonds;

whereupon each of the plurality of bonds is at least one of metal-metal pairs, oxide-oxide pairs, spin-on-glass, soldering alloys, polymers, photoresists, or wax, and wherein a portion of the epitaxial material remains intact following the selective etching of the release region.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein the selective etching uses a bandgap selective photo-electrical-chemical (PEC) etching of the release region and/or a compositionally selective wet etching of the release region.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein the selective etching selectively removes the release region while leaving an anchor region in tact to support the epitaxial dice during the selective bonding, and the anchor region separates after the selective bonding.

23. The method of claim 1, further comprising forming a metal material overlying the plurality of epitaxial dice before the transferring, while leaving exposed one or more anchor regions, which are configured to selectively break and separate from each of the epitaxial dice after the selective bonding.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and/or second substrate is reclaimed and prepared for reuse after transferring each of epitaxial dice to one or more carrier wafers.

25. The method of claim 1 wherein forming the multi-wavelength light emitting device comprises forming a ridge to provide a lateral waveguide region in an epitaxial mesa and comprises forming facet regions at ends of an epitaxial mesa to form a laser diode device or SLED device.

26. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-wavelength light emitting device is configured as a multi laser diode device or a multi SLED device and comprises a pair of facets configured from a cleaving process or an etching process on each of the multi laser diode devices or SLED devices;

wherein the etching process being selected from inductively coupled plasma etching, chemical assisted ion beam etching, or reactive ion beam etching;

wherein at least one of the pair of facets on the multi laser diode devices or SLED devices is configured as an emitting aperture to output a beam light.

27. The method of claim 1, wherein the multi-wavelength light emitting device is configured as a multi laser diode device or a multi SLED device and comprises multiple emitting apertures;

wherein at least one of the multiple emitting apertures is configured to emit each of the multi wavelengths; and

wherein the multiple emitter apertures are configured within 1 mm, within 500 um, within, 200 um, within 100 um, or within 50 um of each other such that the output beams are closely spaced.

28. The method of claim 27 wherein the multi-wavelength light emitting device is applied to a projection display system apparatus including a micro-display selected from a MEMS scanning mirror, DLP, or LCOS micro-display.

29. The method of claim 28 wherein at least one of the collimation or the beam combination of the multiple wavelength emission is achieved with a single optical element.

30. The method of claim 28 wherein an image correction method is applied to correct distortions that may result from the spatial displacement of the multiple-wavelength emission sources.

31. The method of claim 30 wherein the image correction method comprises an optical camera to capture displaced and rotated color images and determine displacement and rotation of images of different color with respect to each other;

and wherein a video processor applying corrections to the standard video stream in order to increase the spatial resolution of displayed images to eliminate misalignment of color images and adjust timing and modulation of the light source drivers in synchronization with the motion of the scanning mirror.

32. The method of claim 30 wherein the image correction method comprises the capturing of multiple color images at simultaneously and wherein one of these color images is selected as the reference image;

wherein a calibration or measurement of displacement and rotation of the color images with respect to reference color image is performed, and applying, using the calibration or measurement, an algorithmic modification of the video streams to modulate timing and intensity of multiple light sources by the electronic processor and continuous application of modified driving waveforms to light sources to each subsequent video or static image.

33. A method for manufacturing an integrated multi-wavelength light emitting device, the method comprising:

providing a first gallium and arsenic containing substrate having a first surface region;

forming a first gallium and arsenic containing epitaxial material overlying the first surface region, the first epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a first active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the first active region being configured for emission at a first red wavelength

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

forming a second gallium and nitrogen containing epitaxial material overlying the second surface region, the second epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a second active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the second active region being configured for emission at a second green wavelength

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

forming a third gallium and nitrogen containing epitaxial material overlying the third surface region, the third epitaxial material comprising a release region, an n-type cladding region, a third active region comprising at least one active layer overlying the n-type cladding region, and a p-type cladding region overlying the active region, the third active region being configured for emission at a third blue wavelength

patterning the first epitaxial material, the second epitaxial material, and the third epitaxial material to form a plurality of first epitaxial dice, a plurality of second epitaxial dice, and a plurality of third epitaxial dice overlying the first substrate, the second substrate, and the third substrate, respectively, each of the-epitaxial dice corresponding to at least one light emitting device;

transferring at least one of the first plurality of epitaxial dice, the second plurality of epitaxial dice, and the third plurality of epitaxial dice from the first substrate, the second substrate, and the third substrate to a carrier wafer by selectively etching the release region, separating from each of the first substrate, the second substrate, and the third substrate each of the first epitaxial dice, the second epitaxial dice, and the third epitaxial dice that is being transferred, and selectively bonding to the carrier wafer each of the first epitaxial dice, the second epitaxial dice, and the third epitaxial dice that is being transferred; and

processing the transferred first epitaxial dice, the second epitaxial dice, and the third epitaxial dice on the carrier wafer to form an RGB emitting devices capable of emitting a red wavelength, a green wavelength, and a blue wavelength.

34. The method of claim 33, wherein the integrated multiple wavelength light emitting device is an RGB laser diode device comprising a red laser diode, a green laser diode, and a blue laser diode.

35. The method of claim 33 wherein the integrated multiple wavelength light emitting device is an RGB SLED device comprising a red SLED, a green SLED, and a blue SLED.

36. The method of claim 33, wherein the optical emission comprising a red wavelength, a green wavelength, and a blue wavelengths emitted from the integrated multiple-wavelength light emitting device is optically coupled to a micro-display such as a MEMS scanning mirror, DLP, or LCOS.