Abstract
III-nitride semiconductor-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have superior physical properties, such as high thermal stability and brightness, for application to solid-state lighting sources. With the commercialization of GaN-based LEDs, improving LED reliability is important because they can be affected by electrostatic discharge, reverse leakage, and breakdown. However, research on the reverse bias characteristics of GaN-based LEDs is insufficient. We studied the reverse breakdown mechanism and demonstrated that a local breakdown can form a conductive channel in GaN-based LEDs, which can be expanded to a novel planar-type LED structure without an n-contact electrode. Furthermore, we found that this approach can be applied to AC-controllable light-emitting devices without any AC–DC converter.
Highlights
Light-emitting devices (LEDv’s) have become one of the most widely used and most outstanding form of semiconductor diodes available today[1,2,3,4]
We demonstrated the effectiveness of the p–n–p GaN-based LEDv when paired with a breakdown-induced conductive channel (BCC) obtained by using the local breakdown phenomenon, which can operate the p–n–p LEDv without an n-type electrode under DC and AC conditions
We studied the local breakdown phenomenon and its applications for an n–p and p–n–p GaN-based LEDv’s by applying the critical bias to the p-type layers
Summary
In order to understand the local breakdown mechanism to form a BCC, we measured the temperature-dependent breakdown voltage of the GaN-based LED. It indicates that the p1*-layer plays a role in the supplemental path of electrons as a parallel resistance under cathode-injection conditions, as shown in the inset of Fig. 4a For these reasons, we believe that the injected electrons move from the p1*-layer to the p2-layer through the n-layer in the p1*–n–p2 LEDv. For these reasons, we believe that the injected electrons move from the p1*-layer to the p2-layer through the n-layer in the p1*–n–p2 LEDv This leads to similar L–I–V characteristics to an n-p LED like a low turn-on voltage and strong EL emissions from the p2 region of the p1*–n–p2 LEDv. Figure 5a shows the I–V curves of the p1*–n–p2, p1–n–p2*, and p1*–n–p2* LEDv’s, which were obtained by using only p-type electrodes as the anode and cathode currents without the n-type electrode. This indicates that the p1*–n–p2* LEDv without an n-electrode can be used for AC lighting sources without an AC–DC converter
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