LED:What’s inside?

A packaged LED Different parts of an LED

epoxy
dome

bond wires

“silver cup”
reflector
semiconductor
chip

electrodes
Process flow:
Design Growth Processing Packaging Characterization
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Diffusion and recombination

strong recombination

dn p dpn
J   qDn J  qD p
dx dx
 D p ni2 D n 2   qV • Ideal p-n junction (no series resistance)

J f  Je  Jh  q   n i   e kT 1 • No defects in the material
 L p N D Ln N A   
  • No recombination in space charge region
 qV kT  • No surface recombination
 J 0  e 1
 
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 LED layer design: Homo and heterojunction
• Problems with homojunction LEDs:
– Light emitting junction should be as near the surface as possible
to avoid significant absorption. This is a problem since due to the
surface state related issues
– The minority carriers are distributed on each side of the junction
over a few diffusion length and their recombination is not
efficient
• Problems are solved using double heterojunction because
– The wider bandgap material on both sides of the smaller
bandgap material does not absorb light so junctions can be deep
inside the material
– The carriers will be confined much better due to the conduction
and valence band offsets in a double heterostructure design
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Carrier confinement in double heterostructure
P – i – N double heterostructure • In double heterostructure the
recombination takes place in the
narrow band gap material (active
region)
• Emitted quanta hn are not
absorbed in wide bandgap layers,
and so the recombination does not
have to be near the surface

With sufficient Ec, the

escape of carriers from
the active region can be
minimized, and carrier
recombination can be
enhanced

J f  J R  e nkT 1
 eV
1 < n < 2 ideality factor
 
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Abrupt and graded double heterostructures
Band diagram of double
P-I-N heterostructure
with abrupt interfaces

• Depletion at the
interface reduces the
carrier flow into narrow
band gap material
(active region)

Band diagram of double

P-I-N heterostructure
with graded interfaces

• Depletion at the
interface is decreased by
the composition grading

ELECT 871 11/12/03

 Double Heterostructure or Quantum Well

For single quantum well the

Multiple quantum wells should be used to
prevent carrier overflow from the well
emission intensity is limited by
carrier capture into the well and
by carrier escape and overflow
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 Electron blocking layer
• The electron blocking
layer enhances internal
quantum efficiency
• The electrons are blocked
as electron leakage current
is more due to larger
diffusion coefficient
• For undoped structure
there is a barrier for the
holes as well. But for
doped structure the barrier
is very thin and the holes
can tunnel through the
barrier Electron blocking layer in AlxGa1-xN/GaN/InyGa1-yN P-I-N
MQW LED (built-in electric field not considered for
simplicity)

ELECT 871 11/12/03

 LED efficiency I
I act
inj  Injection efficiency
I tot Current in active region / total applied current

Rrad
int  Internal quantum efficiency (of radiative recombination)
Rtot Radiative recombination rate / total recombination rate

Phout Extraction (escape) efficiency

esc  Number of photons escaped from the LED / total number of photons
Phgen generated

External quantum efficiency is given as:

I a Rrad Pout Pout
ext inj int esc    
I Rtot Pgen  e I
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 LED efficiency II
• Non-radiative recombination processes
– Auger
– Surface trap assisted recombination
– Interface and bulk trap assisted recombination
• Radiative recombinations
– Band to band
Internal quantum efficiency,
– Band to impurity
1 r
– Excitonic int 
– Donor-acceptor 1  r  1  nr
P hn photons “out”
ext   electrons “in” This is LED external quantum efficiency
I q
P optical power
 wp   electrical power
This is LED wall plug efficiency
VI
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Escape cone and total internal reflection
c Critical angle for transmission:
 nout 
nout
 c  sin 
1

 ns 
ns The photons will only escape
through a cone with half-angle c

TIR
GaN (n = 2.3) / air interface: c = 25.7 o
Sapphire (n = 1.75) / air interface: c = 34.8 o

Schematic diagram for loss due to total internal reflection

Each subsequent
reflection results in
light loss

ELECT 871 11/12/03

 Fresnel loss
2 c
1
c
esc 
4 0 d 0 T   sin  d
nout  T() – angle dependent transmission coefficient
ns through semiconductor/outside material interface
(averaged over polarization)

T    T
4ns nout
T  GaN / air: 84.5 %
ns  nout  Sapphire / air: 92.6 %
2

2 c  n 
2 

T  d  sin   d   1  1   out  

1 T GaN / air: 4.2 %
esc 
4 2  ns   Sapphire / air: 8.3 %
0 0
 

It is obvious that the efficiency will be extremely low for unpackaged

devices in spite of very good internal quantum efficiency
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Enhancement of efficiency by encapsulation
air epoxy
(n = 1.5)
GaN c 25.7 o 40.7 o
GaN T 84.5 % 95.6 %
GaN esc 4.2 % 11.5 %
sapphire c 34.8 o 59 o
sapphire T 92.6 % 99.4 %
sapphire 8.3 % 24.1 %
esc
Note the improvement of transmission efficiency with epoxy R.I. Also
note that the efficiency improves if the light is extracted through the
bottom i.e. through the sapphire substrate
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Photon recycling (absorption and re-emission)
Schnitzer et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 62, 131 (1993)

Photon recycling is the re-emission of

photons absorbed in the active area
It demands very high internal efficiency

ELECT 871 11/12/03

 Electro-optic effects
Franz-Keldysh effect (3D) Quantum Confined Stark effect (QCSE)
QW QW
no electric field in electric field

The absorption edge red shifts due to Radiative efficiency reduces

electric field ELECT 871 11/12/03
 GaN/InGaN MQW purple LEDs
• The top contact is usually p-type due to
– The current crowding problem (with side
contacts) will be less due to higher conductivity
of n-GaN layer
– Reduced memory effect during growth
– n-type nature of the GaN buffer layer leading to
lower contact resistance between that and the n-
AlGaN layer
• p-AlGaN and n-AlGaN layers are the
blocking layers to prevent the carrier escape
and increase efficiency
• Light does not get absorbed in the GaN
layer, so extraction possible from the back
• The contact cannot be formed in the back
layer and side contact can give rise to
current crowding
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Purple LED vs. UV LED

• Use of AlInGaN in MQW reduces strain (helps in increasing quantum

efficiency), as well as helps to go to smaller wavelength
• For purple emission, light can be extracted from the bottom or top, however, for
UV emission, the light is extracted from the sides
• The light could also be extracted from the sapphire if the buffere layer is AlGaN
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 GaN/InGaN MQW LEDs I-V curves

• The output power increases a lot after proper packaging

• The output power drops at very large input current due to heating
and carrier overflow from the QW
• The differences between packaged and unpackaged LEDs clearly
shows the importance of packaging
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 AlInGaN/InGaN and GaN/InGaN LEDs

• For higher input current the AlInGaN/InGaN LED shows better

performance due to the following reasons
– Strain balancing due to the reduction of the built-in polarization field
– For GaN/InGaN well there is enhanced recombination due to localized states
caused by In fluctuations
– Band to band recombination in AlInGaN/InGaN quantum ELECT wells 871 11/12/03
 Other LED structures
• Doped short period
GaN buffer free LED with
superlattice (SPASL) is
higher extraction
used to provide carriers by
efficient doping without
too much band gap
narrowing
• The GaN buffer layer
avoided to reduce
absorption
• Light is extracted from the
bottom through the Nishida et al., APL vol. 82, (2003)
sapphire
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Effect of dislocations on LED performance
• The ELOG and GaN Comparison of LED performance
substrates have dislocation on ELOG and sapphire
densities of 7x106 cm-2 and
1x1010 cm-2
• The effect of dislocations
is much smaller in the
InGaN active layer LED as
there is effective radiative
recombination due to
carrier trapping due to
states created by In
fluctuations Mukai et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 13, 7089 (2001)

ELECT 871 11/12/03

Evolution of LEDs and comparison with
other sources of solid state light

ELECT 871 11/12/03

 High power LED design
• Reliabiltiy is much
higher for LEDs
than incandescent
light
• Normal human
activities require
Kilolumens of light
whereas LED gives
less than a
lumen/mm LUMILED LUXEON
• LUMILED
LUXEONS
packaged to have
more reliability,
efficiency and heat
sinking
ELECT 871 11/12/03
High power LED chip design

• Flip chip designs have lower

thermal resistance and lower
absorption and so favorable for
integration
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 LED spectral width
Iph
• The LED
linewidth is ~kT
which translates kBT
into spectral
width on the kBT
order of 100 Å Eg
hn


Analytically, I h  ~  2 h  E g 
1/ 2
  
exp  h  Eg / kT

Due to the problem of large spectral width LEDs cannot be used for
transferring information through optical fiber cables over long
distances. This is because of the distortion of the signal due to
various speeds of the constituent wavelengths
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 LED temporal response
nx   2 n x 
The rate if change of excess carriers:   Rsp  Dn
t x 2
Assuming Rsp= n(x)/ we have, n  x  
n  x   Dn
 2
nx   = Minority
t  x 2 carrier lifetime
Now, in case of small signal modulation, the excess carirers will have a
steady state, and a frequency-dependent component as,
nx, t   n0 x   n1 x e jt
Therefore, separating into dc and ac parts the equations are:
 2 n0 x  n0 x   2 n1 x  n1 1  j 
Dn  0 Dn  0
x 2
 x 2
 1
 De  2
Thus by analogy, the ac diffusion length Le() is given as  
1  j 
Considering injection of only electrons in the p-type region, the

frequency response of the LED r () can be written as r    1
J1 / q
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 LED temporal response
Also, n p x   n p 0e  x / Ln  

The photon flux is given by

d  Ln
n p 0 Ln  
1     n p x dx 
1
 0

n p x  n p 0
J1    qDn  qDn
x Ln   1
Now,  r 
Br n0  p0  n 
The frequency response r() is then
given as 1 which will depend on the
1    
2 2 1/ 2 background impurity and the level
of injection
For laser, the frequency response also depends on the lifetime of photon
inside the cavity, in addition to  and injection current ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Spontaneous and stimulated emission
• Spontaneous emission takes place in absence of any
photon in the active volume
• Stimulated emission takes place in presence of photon
in the active volume. The emitted photons are in phase
with the incident photons

Wst    Wsp h   n ph   Spontaneous Emission Stimulated emission

E E

Wsp   and Wst   Photons

No present
are the spontaneous and photons
stimulated emission
ħ   Eg k ħ   Eg k
rates respectively.

In LEDs, the stimulated emission cannot get started as the photons

either get reabsorbed or leave the structure ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Basic laser operation
• Emission rate equal to or higher than absorption rate
due to population inversion
• Creation of a optical cavity so that photons with well
defined energy are selectively confined in the cavity
• As the density of photons with a particular energy
increases the emission rate also increases
I p-type
• Main emission surfaces are Smooth region
Active
polished for light extraction surface
region
• The other surface are
n-type
roughened to prevent lasing region
• The optical cavity is Roughened
usually a MQW very similar surface (also
to the LED structure other side)
ELECT 871 11/12/03
 Spontaneous and stimulated emission summary
• Spontaneous emission is caused by “vacuum
state” energy that in absence of any visible
photons. This energy is like an uncorrelated
noise and hence the spontaneous emission has
random phase
• Stimulated emission is caused by photons of a
particular energy and the emitted photons have
exactly the same phase and energy as the
perturbing photons
• The rate of emission of the photons is
proportional to the number of photons present
ELECT 871 11/12/03