Near milliwatt power AlGaN-based ultraviolet light emitting diodes based on lateral epitaxial overgrowth of AlN on Si(111)

We report on the growth, fabrication, and device characterization of AlGaN-based thin-film ultraviolet (UV) (λ ∼ 359 nm) light emitting diodes (LEDs). First, AlN/Si(111) template is patterned. Then, a fully coalesced 7-μm-thick lateral epitaxial overgrowth (LEO) of AlN layer is realized on patterned AlN/Si(111) template followed by UV LED epi-regrowth. Metalorganic chemical vapor deposition is employed to optimize LEO AlN and UV LED epitaxy. Back-emission UV LEDs are fabricated and flip-chip bonded to AlN heat sinks followed by Si(111) substrate removal. A peak pulsed power and slope efficiency of ∼0.6 mW and ∼1.3 μW/mA are demonstrated from these thin-film UV LEDs, respectively. For comparison, top-emission UV LEDs are fabricated and back-emission LEDs are shown to extract 50% more light than top-emission ones.