Blue light-emitting diodes with a roughened backside fabricated by wet etching

The InGaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with a roughened patterned backside on the N-face GaN surface were fabricated through a crystallographic etching process to increase light-extraction efficiency. After laser decomposition, laser scribing, and a lateral crystallographic wet etching process at the GaN/Al2O3 interface, stable crystallographic etching planes were formed as the GaN {1011¯} planes that included an angle with the top GaN (0001) plane measured at 58°. The GaN buffer layer acted as the sacrificial layer for the laser decomposition process and the lateral wet etching process with a 26 μm/min etching rate. The LED with the inverted pyramidal N-face GaN surface close to the GaN/Al2O3 interface has a larger light-scattering process than the conventional LED. The light-output power of the LED with the backside roughened surface had a 47% enhancement when measured in LED chip form.