LED epitaxial structure and fabrication method thereof

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9520538-B2
Application number	US-201514748195-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 23, 2015
Priority date	Apr 19, 2013
Publication date	Dec 13, 2016
Grant date	Dec 13, 2016

Abstract

An LED epitaxial structure includes a substrate; a GaN nucleating layer; a superlattice buffer layer comprising a plurality pairs of alternately stacked AlGaN/n-GaN structures; an n-GaN layer; a MQW light-emitting layer, a p-GaN layer and a p-type contact layer. Al(n) represents Al composition value of the n th AlGaN/n-GaN superlattice buffer layer pair; N(n) represents n-type impurity concentration value of the n th AlGaN/n-GaN superlattice buffer layer pair; variation trend of Al(n) is from gradual increase to gradual decrease, and for N(n) is from gradual increase to gradual decrease. The structure can effectively and sufficiently release the lattice stress due to lattice mismatch between the sapphire substrate and GaN at the bottom layer growth section, thereby greatly reducing wrapping of the epitaxial wafer throughout high-temperature growth process, improving wavelength concentration and yield of the epitaxial wafer, improving GaN lattice quality, reducing lattice dislocation density and improving stability of photoelectric characteristics.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An LED epitaxial structure, from bottom to up, comprising: a substrate; a GaN nucleating layer; a superlattice buffer layer comprising a plurality pairs of alternately stacked AlGaN/GaN structures; an n-type GaN layer; a MQW light-emitting layer, a p-type GaN layer, and a p-type contact layer; wherein an Al composition value of an n th AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pair is represented by Al(n); an n-type impurity concentration value of the n th AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pair is represented by N(n); a variation trend of Al(n) is from gradual increase to gradual decrease, and a variation trend of N(n) is from gradual increase to gradual decrease.

2. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein the variation trends of Al(n) and N(n) satisfy a relational expression: Al(n)=Yn*Al(n−1) and N(n)=Yn*N(n−1), wherein Yn follows a parabolic linear equation

Yn
=

-

a
⁡

(

n
-

N
+
1

2

)

2

+

a
⁡

(

N
+
1

)

2

4

,

wherein a is a fixed constant; n represents an n th superlattice buffer layer, in which 1<n≦≦ a total number of pairs of superlattice buffer layers, and 0<a≦18.

3. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein each group of lattice buffer layer pair comprises a plurality of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pairs, in which, Al(m) represents an Al composition value of an m th group AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pair; N(m) represents an n-type impurity concentration value of the m th group AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pair; the variation trends of Al(m) and N(m) satisfy a relational expression: Al(m)=Ym*Al(m−1) and N(m)=Ym*M(m−1), wherein, Ym follows a parabolic linear equation

Ym
=

-

a
⁡

(

m
-

M
+
1

2

)

2

+

a
⁡

(

M
+
1

)

2

4

,

wherein a is a fixed constant; M represents a total number of groups comprising a plurality pairs of superlattice buffer layers; and m represents an m th group superlattice buffer layer pair, in which 1<m≦M and 0<a≦18.

4. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein a number of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layer pairs varies from 3 to 40.

5. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein the substrate comprises at least one of sapphire (Al 2 O 3 ), silicon carbide (SiC), silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), gallium nitride (GaN), aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN), or aluminum nitride (AlN).

6. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein in each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers, an n-type doping impurity in the n-type GaN layer is Si, and a p-type doping impurity in the p-type GaN layer is Mg.

7. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein Al composition of the AlGaN layer of each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers varies from 0% to 40%.

8. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein an n-type impurity concentration of the n-type GaN layer of each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers varies from 5×10 16 cm −3 to 1×10 19 cm −3 .

9. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the AlGaN layer of each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers varies from 0.1 nm to 40 nm.

10. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein a thickness of the n-type GaN layer of each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers varies from 0.3 nm to 120 nm.

11. The LED epitaxial structure of claim 1 , wherein a thickness ratio of the AlGaN layer and corresponding n-type GaN layer of each pair of AlGaN/GaN superlattice buffer layers is 1:5-1:1.

Assignees

• Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics Technology Co Ltd

Inventors

• Nan Qi
• Hsieh Hsiang-Pin
• Qiao Nan
• Zhang Wenyan
• Zhou Hongmin
• Li Lan
• Cheng Wei
• Xu Zhijun
• Wu Honghao

Classifications

• H10P14/3416

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10P14/3252

  Alternating layers, e.g. superlattice · CPC title

• H10P14/3254

  Graded layers · CPC title

• H10P14/3216

  Nitrides · CPC title

• H10H20/036

  of packages · CPC title