AlGaInP thin-film LED with omni-directionally reflector and ITO transparent conducting n-type contact

Abstract

In this paper a novel AlGaInP thin-film light-emitting diode (LED) with omni-directionally reflector (ODR) and transparent conducting indium tin oxide (ITO) n-type contact structure is proposed, and fabrication process is developed. This reflector is realized with the combination of a low-refractive-index dielectric layer and a high reflectivity metal layer. This allows the light emitted or internally reflected downwardly towards the GaAs substrate at any angle of incidence to be reflected towards the top surface of the chip. ITO n-type contact is used for anti-reflection and current spreading layers on the ODR-LED with ITO. The sheet resistance of the ITO films (95 nm) deposited on n-ohmic contact of ODR-LED is of the order 23.5Ω/□ with up to 90% transmittance (above 92% for 590–770 nm) in the visible region of the spectrum. The optical and electrical characteristics of the ODR-LED with ITO are presented and compared to conventional AS-LED and ODR-LED without ITO. It is shown that the light output from the ODR-LED with ITO at forward current 20 mA exceeds that of AS-LED and ODR-LED without ITO by about a factor of 1.63 and 0.16, respectively. A favourable luminous intensity of 218.3 mcd from the ODR-LED with ITO (peak wavelength 620 nm) could be obtained under 20 mA injection, which is 2.63 times and 1.21 times higher than that of AS-LED and ODR-LED without ITO, respectively.