550

IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 22, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2010

Performance of Flip-Chip Thin-Film GaN

Light-Emitting Diodes With and Without
Patterned Sapphires
Ray-Hua Horng, Hung-Lieh Hu, Mu-Tao Chu, Yu-Li Tsai, Yao-Jun Tsai, Chen-Peng Hsu, and Dong-Sing Wuu

AbstractWe report on improved device performance of

flip-chip (FC) GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) by
combining patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) and thin-film
techniques. It was found that an FC LED grown on a conventional
planar sapphire exhibits a power enhancement factor of only
36.3% after the thin-film processes of substrate removal and surface roughening. In contrast, the as-fabricated FC LED grown on
a PSS showed a power enhancement factor of up to 62.3% without
any postprocess as compared with the light output power of an
original conventional FC LED. Further intensity improvement to
74.4% could be achieved for the FC LED/PSS sample with the
thin-film processes.
Index TermsFlip-chip (FC), patterned sapphire substrate
(PSS), thin-film technique.

I. INTRODUCTION

ALLIUM nitride (GaN)-based light-emitting diodes

(LEDs) with high extraction efficiency and excellent
heat dissipation are essential for high-power applications such
as solid-state lighting. In general, the extraction efficiency is
limited due to total internal reflection originating from large
refractive index contrast between semiconductor and air. In
order to extract the emission light from the active region, one
can randomly roughen the surface or interfacial morphology
[1] to minimize the total internal reflection loss. However,
the disadvantage of this method is related to the difficulty in
controlling the process as well as achieving good repeatability of the roughness. Other approaches to enhance light
extraction efficiency include photonic crystals (PhCs) [2], [3],
Manuscript received November 14, 2009; revised December 31, 2009; accepted February 01, 2010. First published February 22, 2010; current version
published March 19, 2010. This work was supported by the National Science
Council and by the Ministry of Education of Taiwan under Contract 97-ET-7005-003-ET and ATU plane, respectively.
R.-H. Horng is with the Department of Electro-Optical Engineering, National
Cheng Kung University, Tainan City 701, Taiwan, and also with the Institute of
Precision Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan
(e-mail: rhhorng@mail.ncku.edu.tw; huahorng@dragon.nchu.edu.tw).
H.-L. Hu, M.-T. Chu, Y.-L. Tsai are with the Institute of Precision Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan (e-mail:
fredhu@itri.org.tw; cmtjames@itri.org.tw; yulitsai@dragon.nchu.edu.tw).
Y.-J. Tsai and C.-P. Hsu are with the Electronics and Opto-Electronics Research Laboratories, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Hsinchu 310,
Taiwan (e-mail: tsaiyaojun@itri.org.tw; CPHsu@itri.org.tw).
D.-S. Wuu is with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung 402, Taiwan (e-mail: dsw@dragon.
nchu.edu.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this letter are available online
at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/LPT.2010.2042590

nanopyramid [4], and micro-lenses [5]. But the largest light

extraction enhancements reported in the literature are approximately twice, which are largely below theoretical expectations,
indicating that the PhCs still require further optimization in
the choices of crystal lattice and vertical structure. Another
simple approach for light extraction enhancement is to grow
a GaN-based LED on a patterned sapphire [6], [7]. However,
these sapphire-based LEDs still have an inevitable problem of
thermally induced performance deterioration at high current
injection due to poor thermal conductivity of sapphire. An
approach that can simultaneously satisfy thermal management
and light extraction is flip-chip (FC) technology [8], [9]. An FC
LED provides a sapphire-free thermal path for the generated
device heat to efficiently dissipate from contacting solders to
the underlying heat sink. Recently, improved output flux in
InGaNGaN LEDs by a thin-film FC scheme has been reported
[10]. To our knowledge, almost all of the current GaN-based
FC LEDs are constructed on planar sapphire substrates. Few
reports have addressed the results of GaN-based FC LEDs on
the patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) despite the advantage of
efficient light scattering on the PSS surface. In this letter, we
combine the PSS and the thin-film techniques to fabricate the
GaN-based FC LEDs and compare device performance of the
LEDs with that of the conventional FC LEDs.
II. EXPERIMENTS
470 nm) were grown on planar and PSSs
InGaN LEDs (
by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition, where sapphire
substrates were patterned with a protruded rod-like morphology
by photolithography and a dry etching process. The dimensions
of the protruded rod in this study were 3 m in diameter and 1
m in height. The interval between the rods was also 3 m. After
the epitaxial growth, the wafers were then processed to form FC
LEDs with a chip size of 1 1 mm by standard procedures.
The TiPtAu (0.2 m/0.2 m/2.0 m) metals were deposited
on the SiO Si substrate for the cathode and anode of FC circuits. The Au studs with 70- to 80- m diameter were bumped on
the above electrodes. Then, the thermosonic was used to form
the interconnection between Au pads of LEDs and Au studs of
AuPtTiSiO Si. Finally, the FC samples were dispensed underfill glue and cured.
For simplicity, we refer to the FC LED grown on conventional planar sapphire as the C-FC LED and that grown on
PSS as the PSS-FC LED. The schematic device structures of
the C- and PSS-FC LEDs are shown in Fig. 1(a). To further enhance light extraction, we applied the thin-film scheme to the

1041-1135/$26.00 2010 IEEE

HORNG et al.: PERFORMANCE OF FC THIN-FILM GaN LEDs WITH AND WITHOUT PATTERNED SAPPHIRES

551

Fig. 3. I V characteristic of the C-FC and PSS-FC LEDs before and after
LLO. Inset presents the leakage behavior for these samples.

Fig. 1. Schematic fabrication procedures for the C- and PSS-FC LEDs, where
(a)(c) represent the device structures after the processes of standard FC, substrate removal, and surface roughening, respectively.

Fig. 2. Surface morphologies of the C-FC LED after the processes of (a) substrate removal and (b) surface roughening by a NaOH solution; surface images
of the PSS-FC LED after the processes of (c) substrate removal and (d) surface
roughening. The inset of (b) is the cross section of the C-FC LED.

C- and PSS-FC LEDs. In Fig. 1(b), the sapphire substrate was

removed by the laser lift-off (LLO) process, and the residual
gallium metal on the exposed GaN surface was removed using
HCl etching solution. In Fig. 1(c), the exposed GaN surface was
roughened by dipping the sample in a NaOH solution (4M) at
80 C for 6 min to achieve a maximum light output.
The surface morphology of an LED sample was examined
by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The currentvoltage
( ) characteristic of an LED was measured using an Agilent
4155B semiconductor parameter analyzer at room temperature.
Light output power of an LED was measured by an integration
sphere detector (CAS 140B, Instrument Systems). All measured
data were the average from the 100 chips.
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Fig. 2(a) and (b) shows typical surface images of the C-FC
LED after the processes of LLO and subsequent surface
roughening, respectively. Obviously, the surface of the C-FC

LED just after the LLO process is still too smooth to enhance
light extraction via scattering of light. With the employment
of chemical etching in the NaOH solution, the surface of the
device becomes roughened; as it will be shown later, the roughened surface remarkably increases output power of the device.
In contrast, the surface morphology of the PSS-FC LED after
the thin-film processes (LLO and roughening) is quite different
from that of the C-FC LED. As shown in Fig. 2(c), the surface
of the PSS-FC LED just after the LLO process has become a
periodically roughened morphology. The flat mesas in Fig. 2(c)
can further be roughened to maximize light extraction by dipping the exposed GaN surface in the NaOH etching solution.
As shown in Fig. 2(d), surface roughening occurs not only on
the top mesa area but also on the bottom surface of the array.
This double surface roughening is expected to result in the best
light extraction efficiency of all the other postprocesses used in
this study.
It is important to evaluate the characteristic of the
C-FC and PSS-FC LEDs before and after LLO, and shown
in Fig. 3. The inset of Fig. 3 presents the leakage behavior
for these samples. It is worth mentioning that the leakage
current for the PSS-FC is larger than the other FC LEDs. Even
though, the leakage current is still in the reasonable range.
Obviously, the electrical properties were almost the same for
these samples. It suggests that the LLO processing does not
damage the LEDs. Fig. 4(a) and (b) compares light output
power versus injection current for the C- and PSS-FC LEDs
before and after the thin-film processes. As shown in Fig. 4,
the C- and PSS-FC LEDs show a power decrement just after
the LLO process. The power decrement reason should not be
the result of LLO-induced process damage because the
curve of the LLO-treated LED is almost the same as that of the
original LED as shown in Fig. 3. The power decrement could
be mainly attributed to reduced escape cone, which is the result
of refractive index ( ) contrast change from the original sap)/GaN (
) interface to air (
)/ GaN
phire (
) interface. The corresponding critical angle is 45 and
(
25 for the light from GaN to sapphire and air, respectively.
To improve the light output, surface roughening is employed
subsequently. As shown in Fig. 4(a), a power enhancement is
observed for the LED with the surface roughening treatment,

552

IEEE PHOTONICS TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, VOL. 22, NO. 8, APRIL 15, 2010

which is helpful for random scattering of emission light, thus

enhancing light extraction.
One can notice from Fig. 4 that although the output power
of the PSS-FC LED after the thin-film processes is larger than
that of the C-FC LED with the same processes, the power en) seems to be much
hancement factor of 12.1% (
) of the C-FC LED. The
smaller than the 36.3% (
smaller enhancement factor for the PSS-FC LED is related to
the employment of the PSS approach; that is, growth of a GaN
layer on a PSS results in the formation of the layer with an inherently roughened surface morphology [Fig. 2(c)] in the absence
of any postprocesses.

Fig. 4. Light output power versus injection current for (a) the C-FC LED and
(b) the PSS-FC LED before and after the thin-film processes.

TABLE I
POWER ENHANCEMENT FACTOR (%) AT INJECTION CURRENT OF 350 mA FOR
THE C- AND PSS-FC LEDS. ENHANCEMENT FACTOR IS CALCULATED WITH
RESPECT TO THE LIGHT OUTPUT POWER OF THE AS-FABRICATED C-FC LED

and the enhancement factor at injection current of 350 mA is

about 36.3%. This power enhancement is due to light scattering
on the roughened GaN surface. In contrast, the light output
performance of the PSS-FC LED is obviously superior to that
of the C-FC LED. As shown in Fig. 4(b), the power enhancement factor at injection current of 350 mA is already up to
62.3% for the as-fabricated PSS-FC LED (without any process
treatment). With the employment of thin-film processes, the
PSS-FC LED shows a power increment to 74.4% at the same
driven current when compared with the as-fabricated C-FC
LED. Table I summaries the power enhancement factors for
the C- and the PSS-FC LEDs. The enhancement factor is
calculated with respect to the light output power of the as-fabricated C-FC LED. The physical origin for this superior power
improvement than C-FC LED is related to the following two
factors: reduction of defect density and scattering of light by
the PSS. As mentioned in our previous paper [7], a PSS enables
a GaN layer to be grown via epitaxial lateral overgrowth, thus
decreasing dislocation density of the film. In addition, the PSS
also geometrically provides a periodically etched interface,

IV. CONCLUSION
Device performance of an FC GaN LED with PSS and
thin-film techniques was compared with that of a conventional
FC LED. It was shown that the power enhancement factor at
an injection current of 350 mA is already up to 62.3% for the
as-fabricated PSS-FC LED without any postprocess, which is
much better than the 36.3% of the C-FC LED with the thin-film
processes. The output power of the PSS-FC LED could further
be increased to 74.4% at the same driven current by subsequent
roughening treatment.
REFERENCES
[1] W. C. Peng and Y. C. S. Wu, Improved luminance intensity of
InGaNGaN light-emitting diode by roughening both the p-GaN
surface and the undoped-GaN surface, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no.
4, pp. 041116-1041116-3, Jul. 2006.
[2] A. David, B. Moran, K. McGroddy, E. Matioli, E. L. Hu, S. P. DenBaars, S. Nakamura, and C. Weisbuch, GaN/InGaN light emitting
diodes with embedded photonic crystal obtained by lateral epitaxial
overgrowth, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 92, no. 11, pp. 113514-1113514-3,
Mar. 2008.
[3] D. H. Kim, C. O. Cho, Y. G. Roh, H. Jeon, Y. S. Park, J. Cho, J. S. Im, C.
Sone, Y. Park, W. J. Choi, and Q. H. Park, Enhanced light extraction
from GaN-based light-emitting diodes with holographically generated
two-dimensional photonic crystal patterns, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 87,
no. 20, pp. 203508-1203508-3, Nov. 2005.
[4] J. Q. Xi, H. Luo, A. J. Pasquale, J. K. Kim, and E. F. Schubert, Enhanced light extraction in GaInN light-emitting diode with pyramid reflector, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 18, no. 22, pp. 23472349,
Nov. 2006.
[5] H. W. Choi, C. Liu, E. Gu, G. McConnell, J. M. Girkin, I. M. Watson,
and M. D. Dawson, GaN micro-light-emitting diode arrays with
monolithically integrated sapphire microlenses, Appl. Phys. Lett.,
vol. 84, no. 13, pp. 22532255, Mar. 2004.
[6] S. J. Chang, Y. C. Lin, Y. K. Su, C. S. Chang, T. C. Wen, S. C. Shei,
J. C. Ke, C. W. Kuo, S. C. Chen, and C. H. Liu, Nitride-based LEDs
fabricated on patterned sapphire substrates, Solid-State Electron., vol.
47, no. 9, pp. 15391542, Sep. 2003.
[7] W. K. Wang et al., Near-ultraviolet InGaN/GaN light-emitting diodes
grown on patterned sapphire substrates, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 44,
no. 4B, pp. 25122515, Apr. 2005.
[8] J. Y. Kim, M. K. Kwon, I. K. Park, C. Y. Cho, S. J. Park, D. M. Jeon, J.
W. Kim, and Y. C. Kim, Enhanced light extraction efficiency in flipchip GaN light-emitting diodes with diffuse ag reflector on nanotextured indium-tin oxide, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 93, no. 2, pp. 0211211021121-3, Jul. 2008.
[9] M. Koike, N. Shibata, H. Kato, and Y. Takahashi, Development of
high efficiency GaN-based multiquantum-well light-emitting diodes
and their applications, IEEE J. Sel. Topics Quantum Electron., vol.
8, no. 2, pp. 271277, Mar./Apr. 2002.
[10] O. B. Shchekin, J. E. Epler, T. A. Trottier, T. Margalith, D. A. Steigerwald, M. O. Holcomb, P. S. Martin, and M. R. Krames, High performance thin-film flip-chip InGaNGaN light-emitting diodes, Appl.
Phys. Lett., vol. 89, no. 7, pp. 071109-1071109-3, Aug. 2006.