Identification of aging mechanisms in the optical and electrical characteristics of light-emitting diodes

We report new methods of identifying the effects of aging on the light–current (L–I) and current–voltage (I–V) characteristics of AlInGaP light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We believe that these methods are also applicable to other III–V compound semiconductors. We observe a broadening of the nonlinear range of the L–I characteristic accompanied by a shift to higher currents in the I–V characteristic. These features can be attributed to an increase of nonradiative recombination processes in the active layer. A second process, however, can lead to an increase of the LED output power. We conclude from an analysis of the current dependence that this process is due to a different mechanism.