Seminar on Light Emitting Diodes

Mohsin Khan SG NO:194872 Electronics & Telecommunication

Outline

Basics of Light Emitting Diodes (Electrical) Basics of Light Emitting Diodes (Optical) High internal efficiency designs High extraction efficiency structures Visible Spectrum LEDs WhiteWhite-Light LEDs The promise of solid state lighting

LEDLED-Electrical Properties-PN junctions Properties PN junction diode in

forward bias, the electronelectron-hole recombination leads to photon emission

I = Is(eeV/kT-1) Threshold voltage

Vth = Eg/e

I = IseeV/ kT
where is the ideality factor
Double Heterostructure is used to confine the carriers, improving the radiative recombination rate From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Electrical Properties-Hetero junctions Properties-

Grading of the heterojunction is done to reduce the resistance seen by carriers From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Electrical Properties-Hetero junctions Properties-

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Electrical Properties-Carrier loss Properties-

The confinement barriers are typically several hundred

meV (>>kT) Due to Fermi-Dirac distribution of carriers in the active Fermiregion, some carriers will have energy higher than that of the barriers In AlGaAs/GaAs and AlGaN/GaN the barriers are high In AlGaInP/GaInP the barriers are lower resulting in higher leakage currents

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Electrical Properties-Blocking layers Properties-

Electron Blocking Layers are required to prevent electron

escape at high injection current densities
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Optical Properties-Efficiency Properties

int

= # of photons emitted from active region per second # of electrons injected in to LED per second = Pint / (h ) I/e

extr

= # of photons emitted into free space per second # of photons emitted from active region per second

= P / (h ) Pint / (h )
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Optical Properties-Emission Spectrum Properties-

The linewidth of an LED emitting in the visible range is

relatively narrow compared with the entire visible range (perceived as monochromatic by the eye) Optical fibers are dispersive, limiting the bit rate X distance product achievable with LEDs Modulation speeds achieved with LEDs are 1Gbit/s, as the spontaneous lifetime of carriers in LEDs is 1-100 ns 1From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Optical Properties-Light Escape Cone Properties-

Total internal reflection at the semiconductor air interface

reduces the external quantum efficiency. The angle of total internal reflection defines the light escape cone. sin c = nair/ns Area of the escape cone = 2r2(1-cos c) 2 (1 Pescape / Psource = (1-cos c)/2 = c2/4 = (nair2/ns2)/4 (1-

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Optical Properties-Emission Spectrum Properties Light intensity in air

(Lambertian emission pattern) is given by Iair = (Psource/4r2) X /4 (nair2/ns2) cos

Index contrast
between the light emitting material and the surrounding region leads to nonnonisotropic emission pattern

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

LEDLED-Optical Properties-Epoxy encapsulants Properties-

Light extraction efficiency can be increased by using dome

shaped encapsulants with a large refractive index. Efficiency of a typical LED increases by a factor of 2-3 upon 2encapsulation with an epoxy of n = 1.5. The dome shape of the epoxy implies that light is incident at an angle of 90o at the epoxy-air interface. Hence no total internal epoxyreflection. From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Temperature dependence of emission intensity

Emission intensity decreases with increasing temperature. Causes include non-radiative recombination via deep levels, nonsurface recombination, and carrier loss over heterostucture barriers.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

High internal efficiency LED designs

Radiative recombination probability needs to be increased and non-radiative nonrecombination probability needs to be decreased. High carrier concentration in the active region, achieved through double heterostructure (DH) design, improves radiative recombination. R=Bnp DH design is used in all high efficiency designs today.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

High internal efficiency designs

Doping of the active regions and that of the cladding regions
strongly affects internal efficiency. Active region should not be heavily doped, as it causes carrier spillspill-over in to the confinement regions decreasing the radiative efficiency Doping levels of 1016-low 1017 are used, or none at all. P-type doping of the active region is normally done due to the larger electron diffusion length. Carrier lifetime depends on the concentration of majority carriers. In low excitation regime , the radiative carrier lifetime decreases with increasing free carrier concentration. Hence efficiency increases with doping. At high concentration, dopants induce defects acting as recombination centers.
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

P-N junction displacement

Displacement of the P-N junction causes significant change in Pthe internal quantum efficiency in DH LED structures. Dopants can redistribute due to diffusion, segregation or drift.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Doping of the confinement regions

Resistivity of the confinement regions should be low so that heating is minimal. High p-type conc. in the cladding region keeps electrons in the active region pand prevents them from diffusing in to the confinement region. Electron leakage out of the active region is more severe than hole leakage.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Non radiative recombination

The concentration of defects
which cause deep levels in the active region should be minimum. Also surface recombination should be minimized, by keeping all surfaces several diffusion lengths away from the active region. Mesa etched LEDs and lasers where the mesa etch exposes the active region to air, have low internal efficiency due to recombination at the surface. Surface recombination also reduces lifetime of LEDs.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Lattice matching

Carriers recombine non-radiatively at misfit dislocations. non Density of misfit dislocation lines per unit length is proportional to
lattice mismatch. Hence the efficiency of LEDs is expected to drop as the mismatch increases. From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

High extraction efficiency structures

Shaping of the LED die is critical to improve their

efficiency. LEDs of various shapes; hemispherical dome, inverted cone, truncated cones etc have been demonstrated to have better extraction efficiency over conventional designs. However cost increases with complexity.
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

High extraction efficiency structures

The TIP LED employs
advanced LED die shaping to minimize internal loss mechanisms. The shape is chosen to minimize trapping of light. TIP LED is a high power LED, and the luminous efficiency exceeds 100 lm/W. TIP devices are sawn using beveled dicing blade to obtain chip sidewall angles of 35o to vertical.
Krames et. al, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 75, No. 16, 18 October 1999

Visible spectrum LEDs

The plot charts the gains made in luminous efficiency till date. From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Visible spectrum LEDs

The emission spectrum of the blue, green and red LEDs indicate that the green LED has a wider spectrum. Alloy broadening leads to spectral broadening that is greater than 1.8 kT linewidth.
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

WhiteWhite-light LEDs
White light can be generated in several different ways. One way is to mix to complementary colors at a certain power
ratio. Another way is by the emission of three colors at certain wavelengths and power ratio. Most white light emitters use an LED emitting at short wavelength and a wavelength converter. The converter material absorbs some or all the light emitted by the LED and re-emits at a longer wavelength. reTwo parameters that are important in the generation of white light are luminous efficiency and color rendering index. It is shown that white light sources employing two monochromatic complementary colors result in highest possible luminous efficiency.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

WhiteWhite-light LEDs
Wavelength converter materials include phosphors,
semiconductors and dyes. The parameters of interest are absorption wavelength, emission wavelength and quantum efficiency. The overall energy efficiency is given by = ext( 1/ 2) Even if the external quantum efficiency is 1, there is always an energy loss associated with conversion. Common wavelength converters are phosphors, which consist of an inorganic host material doped with an optically active element. A common host is Y3Al5O12. The optically active dopant is a rare earth element, oxide or another compound. Common rare earth elements used are Ce, Nd, Er and Th.
From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

WhiteWhite-light LEDs
Phosphors are stable
materials and can have quantum efficiencies of close to 100%. Dyes also can have quantum efficiencies of close to 100%.

Dyes can be encapsulated

in epoxy or in optically transparent polymers. However, organic dyes have finite lifetime. They become optically inactive after 104-106 optical transitions.

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

White LEDs based on phosphor converters

A blue GaInN/GaN LED and a phosphor wavelength converter suspended in a epoxy resin make a white Light LED. The thickness of the phosphor containing epoxy and the concentration of the phosphor determine the relative strengths of the two emission bands

From Light-Emitting Diodes, Fred Schubert. Light-

Promise of Solid State Lighting

The use of solid state lighting devices promises huge savings in
energy consumption. The electricity for lighting needs is 60GW, over 24 hrs. About 24 GWyear is consumed by incandescent lamps with a luminous intensity of 15lm/W. 36 GWyear is consumed by FL/HID lamps with a luminous intensity of 75lm/W. Assuming that by year 2020, they are replaced by LEDs with luminous intensity of 150 lm/W, energy savings are 40 GWyear. That translates to $40 billion in savings. At 4Mtons / GWyear of coal consumption, net savings lead to 25% less coal consumption, leading to lesser emissions of green house gases. Global savings are projected to be about $140B.
Roland Haitz, Adv. in Solid State Physics