Method for producing semiconductor laser elements and semi-conductor laser element

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9608401-B2
Application number	US-201314653698-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 17, 2013
Priority date	Dec 18, 2012
Publication date	Mar 28, 2017
Grant date	Mar 28, 2017

Abstract

Method for producing semiconductor laser elements ( 1 ) comprises A) providing a carrier composite ( 20 ) having a plurality of carriers ( 2 ) for the semiconductor laser elements ( 1 ), B) providing a laser bar ( 30 ) having a plurality of semiconductor laser diodes ( 3 ) which comprise a common growth substrate ( 31 ) and a semiconductor layer sequence ( 32 ) grown thereon, C) generating predetermined breaking points ( 35 ) on a substrate underside ( 34 ) of the growth substrate ( 31 ), said substrate underside facing away from the semiconductor layer sequence ( 32 ), D) attaching the laser bar ( 30 ) to a carrier upper side ( 23 ) of the carrier composite ( 20 ), wherein the attachment is performed at an elevated temperature and is followed by cooling, and E) singulating into the semiconductor laser elements ( 1 ), wherein steps B) to E) are performed in the indicated sequence.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for producing semiconductor laser elements comprising the steps of:
A) providing at least one carrier composite having a plurality of carriers for the semiconductor laser elements;
B) providing at least one laser bar having a plurality of semiconductor laser diodes which comprise a common growth substrate and a semiconductor layer sequence grown thereon, wherein the semiconductor layer sequence comprises an n-type side, a p-type side and an active zone located therebetween and the n-type side faces towards the common growth substrate;
C) generating predetermined breaking points on a substrate underside of the common growth substrate, said substrate underside facing away from the semiconductor layer sequence;
D) attaching the laser bar to a carrier upper side of the carrier composite, wherein the substrate underside of the common growth substrate faces towards the carrier upper side and wherein the attachment is performed at an attachment temperature and is followed by a cooling process, by which a temperature of the laser bar and of the carrier composite is reduced below the attachment temperature; and
E) singulating into the semiconductor laser elements, wherein steps B) to E) are performed in the indicated sequence,
wherein the carrier composite is manufactured from silicon, the common growth substrate is a GaAs substrate, the semiconductor layer sequence is based on AlInGaAsP, wherein in step D) the laser bar is attached to the carrier composite by soldering, the predetermined breaking points are produced in the common growth substrate in step C) by means of scribing, during the cooling process in step D) the temperature of the laser bar and of the carrier composite is reduced by at least 200° C., and prior to step E) during cooling in step D) the laser bar is simulated at least partially into the semiconductor laser diodes, wherein the carrier composite is retained.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after step D) further predetermined breaking points are formed between the carriers of the carrier composite by means of coherent radiation, and wherein in subsequent step E) the carrier composite is singulated into the carriers by means of breaking.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in subsequent step E) the carrier composite is singulated into the carriers by means of breaking and the breaking is effected via a breaking edge which is applied to a carrier underside facing away from the semiconductor layer sequence.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein after step D) further predetermined breaking points are formed between the carriers of the carrier composite, and the further predetermined breaking points extend between 25% and 75% inclusive through the carrier composite, in the direction perpendicular to the carrier upper side.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a quotient from a thickness, which is equal to a sum of a thickness of the carriers and a thickness of the growth substrate, and from a width of the carriers is at least 0.8, and wherein a quotient from a length of the carriers and from the width of the carriers is at least 1.2.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein finished semiconductor laser elements each comprise precisely one of the semiconductor laser diodes, wherein the semiconductor laser elements have a width between 100 μm and 350 μm inclusive, a length between 175 μm and 700 μm inclusive and a thickness between 125 μm and 450 μm inclusive, and wherein the laser bars in step D) have a length between 5 mm and 20 mm inclusive.

7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the common growth substrate and the semiconductor layer sequence are fragmented in singulation regions along the predetermined breaking points and wherein after step E) lateral surfaces of the fragmented common growth substrate, of the semiconductor layer sequence and of the carriers are oriented in parallel with one another and the carriers, the fragmented common growth substrate and the semiconductor layer sequence have equal widths and terminate flush with one another, each with a tolerance of at the most 6 μm.

8. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the carrier composite protrudes beyond the laser bar in the direction perpendicular to and on a rear side opposite to an end side and a holding strip of the carrier composite is hereby formed, and wherein in or after step E) the holding strip is partially or completely removed and wherein a laser radiation is emitted at the end side during operation of the finished semiconductor laser diodes.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the growth substrate comprises a thermal expansion coefficient which is at least twice as large as a thermal expansion coefficient of the carrier composite.

10. The method according to claim 1 , wherein metallisations on the carrier upper side or on the substrate underside are each limited to precisely one of the semiconductor laser diodes, and wherein the metallisations are spaced apart from a singulation region between adjacent semiconductor laser diodes.

11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein a quotient from the length of the laser bar and a bend of the carrier composite is less than a value of 1200.

12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the laser bar in step D) comprises between 10 and 60 semiconductor laser diodes inclusive.

13. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in each case precisely one of the semiconductor laser diodes is allocated to precisely one of the carriers of the carrier composite.

14. A semiconductor laser element which is produced by a method according to claim 1 , comprising:
a carrier having an end side and having an upper side oriented perpendicularly with respect thereto, and
a semiconductor laser diode having a growth substrate and having a semiconductor layer sequence on the upper side for generating laser radiation,
wherein the carrier and the semiconductor laser diode have equal widths and lateral surfaces of the carrier and of the semiconductor laser diode terminate flush with one another, each with a tolerance of at the most 6 μm, and
wherein the lateral surfaces are oriented in parallel with one another and comprise singulation tracks.

15. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined breaking points are formed in the growth substrate between the carrier composite and the semiconductor layer sequence.

16. A method for producing semiconductor laser elements comprising the steps of:
A) providing at least one carrier composite having a plurality of carriers for the semiconductor laser elements;
B) providing at least one laser bar having a plurality of semiconductor laser diodes which comprise a common growth substrate and a semiconductor layer sequence grown thereon, wherein the semiconductor layer sequence comprises an n-type side, a p-type side and an active zone located therebetween and the n-type side faces towards the common growth substrate;
C) generating predetermined breaking points on a substrate underside of the common growth substrate, said substrate underside facing away from the semiconductor layer sequence;
D) attaching the laser bar to a carrier upper side of the carrier composite, wherein the substrate underside of the common growth substrate faces towards the carrier upper side and wherein the attachment is performed at an attachment temperature and is followed by cooling process, by which a temperature of the laser bar and of the carrier composite is reduced below the attachment temperature; and
E) singulating into the semiconductor laser elements, wherein steps B)

Assignees

• Osram Opto Semiconductors Gmbh

Inventors

• Enzmann Roland
• Horn Markus
• Graul Markus
• Veit Thomas
• Dachs Juergen
• Listl Stefan
• Arzberger Markus

Classifications

• H01S5/0206

  Substrates, e.g. growth, shape, material, removal or bonding; (specific crystal orientation H01S5/3202) · CPC title

• H01S5/0201 Primary

  Separation of the wafer into individual elements, e.g. by dicing, cleaving, etching or directly during growth · CPC title

• H01S5/32333

  based on InGaAsP · CPC title

• H01S5/323

  in AIIIBV compounds, e.g. AlGaAs-laser, {InP-based laser} · CPC title

• H01S5/0202

  Cleaving · CPC title