III-nitride light emitting device with a region including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary III-nitride layers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10304997-B2
Application number	US-201113882744-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 27, 2011
Priority date	Nov 2, 2010
Publication date	May 28, 2019
Grant date	May 28, 2019

Abstract

A device includes a substrate ( 10 ) and a III-nitride structure ( 15 ) grown on the substrate, the III-nitride structure comprising a light emitting layer ( 16 ) disposed between an n-type region ( 14 ) and a p-type region ( 18 ). The substrate is a RA0 3 (MO) n where R is one of a trivalent cation: Sc, In, Y and a lanthanide; A is one of a trivalent cation: Fe (III), Ga and Al; M is one for a divalent cation: Mg, Mn, Fe (II), Co, Cu, Zn and Cd; and n is an integer≥1. The substrate has an inplane lattice constant a substrate . At lease one III-nitride layer in the III-nitride structure has a bulk lattice constant a layer such that [(|a substrate −a layer |)/a substrate ]*100% is no more than 1%.

First claim

What is being claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
growing a III-nitride structure grown on a substrate, the III-nitride structure comprising a light emitting layer disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region, wherein the III-nitride structure comprises a region including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary III-nitride layers and the region including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary IIInitride layers is thicker than 2 μm and growing a base region disposed between the substrate and the light emitting layer, the base region comprising a first layer proximate the substrate and a second layer proximate the light emitting layer wherein the net polarization-induced charge at the interface of the first layer and the second layer is zero, the first layer is a quaternary layer AlxInyGa1-x-yN between 3 and 1000 nm, and the second layer is a quaternary layer AlxInyGa1-x-y N of a different composition than the first layer;
attaching the III-nitride structure to a mount; and
removing the substrate, wherein:
the substrate is RA03(MO) n , where R is one of a trivalent cation, Sc, In, Y, and a lanthanide; A is one of a trivalent cation, Fe (III), Ga, and AI; M is one of a divalent cation, Mg, Mn, Fe (II), Co, Cu, Zn and Cd; and n is an integer≥1;

the substrate has an in-plane lattice constant a substrate ;
at least one III-nitride layer in the III-nitride structure has a bulk lattice constant a layer ; and
[(1 a substrate −a layer |)/a substrate ]*100% is no more than 1%.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the substrate is ScA1Mg0 4 .

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the III-nitride structure includes at least one layer that is lattice matched to the substrate.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the III-nitride structure includes a first layer in direct contact with a second layer, wherein an interface between the first and second layers has no polar charge.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the first layer is Al 0.06 In 0.17 /Ga 0.77 N and the second layer is In 0.14 Ga 0.86 N.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein growing comprises growing a base region disposed between the substrate and the light emitting layer, the base region comprising a first layer proximate the substrate and a second layer proximate the light emitting layer, wherein the first layer has a smaller band gap than the second layer.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein:
the substrate is ScA1Mg0 4 ;
the first layer is one of In 0.14 Ga 0.86 N and quaternary Al x In y Ga 1-x-y N with a composition x and y that satisfies the relationship y=0.136+0.228*x, x+y≤; 1, that is lattice-matched to the substrate; and
the second layer is one of Al 0.06 In 0.17 Ga 0.77 N, Al 0.6 In 0.18 Ga 0.27 N, and a quaternary layer Al x In y Ga 1-x-y N with an indium composition y between 0.14 and 0.32 that satisfies x=2*y−0.28.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the n-type region has a graded composition.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the light emitting layer is part of a multi quantum well light emitting region comprising at least two light emitting layers and at least one barrier layer disposed between the at least two light emitting layers; and
a composition of at least one of the light emitting layers and a composition of the at least one barrier layer are selected such that net strain in the light emitting region is zero.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein:
the light emitting layer is part of a multi quantum well light emitting region comprising at least two light emitting layers and at least one barrier layer disposed between the at least two light emitting layers; and
a composition of the at least one barrier layer is one of a quaternary layer that is lattice-matched to the substrate, GaN, and lnyGa 1-y N with an indium composition between 0 and YLEL−0.08, where YLEL is an indium composition of at least one of the light emitting layers.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the semiconductor structure further comprises a distributed Bragg reflector.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein the distributed Bragg reflector comprises alternating AllnN and InGaN layers.

13. A device comprising:
a substrate;
a III-nitride structure on the substrate, the III-nitride structure comprising a light emitting layer disposed between an n-type region and a p-type region, wherein the IIInitride structure comprises a region including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary IIInitride layers and the region including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary III-nitride layers is thicker than 2 μm; and
a base region disposed between the substrate and the light emitting layer, the base region comprising a first layer proximate to the substrate and a second layer proximate to the light emitting layer, wherein the net polarization-induced charge at the interface of the first layer and the second layer is zero, the first layer is a quaternary layer Al x In y Ga 1-x-y N between 3 and 1000, and the second layer is a quaternary layer Al x In y Ga 1-x-y N of a different composition than the first layer;
wherein the substrate is RA03(MO) n , where R is one of a trivalent cation, Sc, In, Y, and a lanthanide; A is one of a trivalent cation, Fe (III), Ga, and Al; M is one of a divalent cation, Mg, Mn, Fe (II), Co, Cu, Zn and Cd; and n is an integer≥1;

the substrate has an in-plane lattice constant a substrate ;
at least one III-nitride layer in the III-nitride structure has a bulk lattice constant a layer ; and
[(|a substrate −a layer )/a substrate ]*100% is no more than 1%.

14. The device of claim 13 wherein:
the light emitting layer is configured to emit light having a peak wavelength greater than 440 nm.

15. The device of claim 14 wherein:
strain for each layer in the region of including only ternary, quaternary,
and/or quinary III-nitride layers is defined as [(|a bulk −a in-plane |)/α bulk ]*100%, where a bulk is a lattice constant of a layer of the same composition as each layer when fully relaxed and a in-plane is a lattice constant of each layer as grown in the device; and
the strain in each layer in the region of including only ternary, quaternary, and/or quinary III-nitride layers is less than 0.8%.

16. The device of claim 13 further comprising a base region disposed between the substrate and the light emitting layer, the base region comprising a first layer proximate the substrate and a second layer proximate the light emitting layer, wherein the first layer has a smaller band gap than the second layer.

17. The method of claim 1 , further comprising depositing a smoothing layer between the base region and the light emitting layer, the smoothing layer comprising a band gap larger than a band gap of the light emitting layer.

18. The method of claim 1 , further comprising depositing a spacer layer between the base region and the light emitting layer, the spacer layer comprising a band gap larger than a band gap of the light emitting layer.

Assignees

• Grundmann Michael Jason
• Gardner Nathan Frederick
• Goetz Werner Karl
• Mclaurin Melvin Barker
• Epler John Edward
• Leon Francisco Alexander
• Lumileds Llc

Inventors

• Grundmann Michael Jason
• Gardner Nathan Frederick
• Goetz Werner Karl
• Mclaurin Melvin Barker
• Epler John Edward
• Leon Francisco Alexander

Classifications

• H10P14/3416

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/3216

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/2921

  being crystalline insulating materials · CPC title

• H10P14/2901

  Materials · CPC title

• H01S5/18361

  Structure of the reflectors, e.g. hybrid mirrors · CPC title