LIGHT EMITTING DIODE DEVICES AND MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF
A light emitting diode (LED) device includes a stacked epitaxial structure, a heat-conductive plate and a seed layer. The stacked epitaxial structure sequentially includes a first semiconductor layer (N—GaN), a light emitting layer, and a second semiconductor layer (P—GaN). The heat-conductive plate is disposed on the first semiconductor layer, and the seed layer is disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the heat-conductive plate. Also, the present invention discloses a manufacturing method thereof including the steps of: forming at least one temporary substrate, which is made by a curable polymer material, on an LED device, and forming at least a heat-conductive plate on the LED device.
This application is a Divisional of co-pending application Ser. No. 12/068,554 filed on Feb. 7, 2008, which claims priority to application No. 96125039 filed in Taiwan, on Jul. 10, 2007. The entire contents of all of the above applications are hereby incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a light emitting diode device and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A light emitting diode (LED) device is a semiconductor luminescent device, providing many advantageous features such as low power consumption, long lifetime, short response time, and so on. The sizes of LED devices are so small that they are easily manufactured to very small devices. Thus, with the continuous improvement of the technology recently, applications of LED devices have been applied in indicator lights of computers or home appliances, back light units of liquid crystal display device, traffic signals, or indicator lights of cars.
According to the prior art, in order to improve luminescence efficiency of LED devices, metal reflective substrates are disposed on LED devices reflecting light to improve luminescence efficiency. However, there are some problems with such LED devices which need to be solved.
The LED device is formed by bonding the first reaction layer 802 with the second reaction layer 804 through the transparent bonding layer 803 and bonding the metal reflective substrate 801 with the first reaction layer 802. However, since the transparent bonding layer 803 is made of plastic materials, the heat generated from the LED device can not transfer to the metal reflective substrate 801 and dissipate effectively. As a result, the efficiency of the LED device dramatically decreases when the heat inside the LED device continuously accumulates.
Additionally, in the dicing process, a plurality of LED devices are obtained by dicing the metal reflective substrate 801 and the stacked structure. However, the metal particle produced in the dicing process can adhere to the sidewalls of the stacked structure and thus increase the leakage current of the stacked structure.
The two conventional LED devices above are both fabricated by forming the stacked epitaxial structure on an epitaxial substrate, then disposing the stacked epitaxial structure on a glass substrate or an electroplating substrate through a replacement process, and then dicing into individual LED devices. Thus, while an additional dicing process is needed for the method described, the probability of metal particles adhering to the sidewalls of the stacked structure is high.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF INVENTIONAn object of the invention is to provide an LED device having an electric forged heat-conductive plate with low residual stress and heat corrosion resistance. The LED device can be formed without any dicing process, thus allowing costs and the leakage current to be reduced.
Thus, to achieve the above objective, the invention provides a light emitting diode device including a stacked epitaxial structure, a heat-conductive plate, and a seed layer. The stacked epitaxial structure includes a first semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer, and a second semiconductor layer. The heat-conductive plate is disposed with respect to the first semiconductor layer and the seed layer is disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the heat-conductive plate. Therein, the first semiconductor layer is an n-type epitaxial layer and the second semiconductor layer is a p-type epitaxial layer. For example, the first semiconductor layer is an N—GaN layer and the second semiconductor layer is a P—GaN layer.
The invention further provides a method for manufacturing a light emitting diode device, wherein the method includes: forming at least a temporary substrate on a light emitting diode device, and forming at least a heat-conductive plate on the light emitting diode device.
Therein, the temporary substrate is a curable polymer material. Because the finished LED device can be obtained by removing the temporary substrate after removing the epitaxial substrate by etching or laser ablation, dicing is not required and the probability of the metal particle adhering to the sidewalls of the stacked epitaxial structure can be reduced. In addition, the heat-conductive plate of the invention has low residual stress and heat corrosion resistance which can prevent the separation between the stacked epitaxial structure and the heat-conductive plate or the damage of the stacked epitaxial structure. The advantageous features of the invention include that product yield can be improved and costs can be reduced.
As mentioned above, the method for manufacturing a light emitting diode device according to the invention is featured by forming a temporary substrate on a light emitting diode device, and forming at least a heat-conductive plate on the light emitting diode device. Compared with prior art methods, the invention takes advantage of the characteristics of curable polymer material such as its removability, expandability, and ductility to separate the devices naturally to form a plurality of LED devices after easily removing the temporary substrate. Thus, the problem of leakage current generated from the dicing process can be prevented and thus reduce the costs of the dicing process and improve product yield.
The invention can be more fully understood by reading the subsequent detailed description and examples with references made to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
The following description is of the best-contemplated mode of carrying out the invention. This description is made for the purpose of illustrating the general principles of the invention and should not be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the invention is best determined by reference to the appended claims.
As shown in
In the embodiment, the first semiconductor layer 404 and the second semiconductor layer 405 are an n-type epitaxial layer and a p-type epitaxial layer, respectively. However, the type of the first and the second semiconductor layers can be exchanged.
As shown in
Then, a plurality of electrodes 410 are formed on the epitaxial structure (step S304). The electrodes 410 are disposed on the second semiconductor layer 406 to form an LED device 40. Because the electrodes are defined first in this step instead of forming the electrodes after adhering the structure to a temporary substrate, product yield is efficiently improved and manufacturing is simplified.
As shown in
As shown in
As shown in
A patterned photoresist layer 402 is formed on the seed layer 401 to expose a portion of the seed layer 401, wherein the patterned photoresist layer 402 defines a plurality of confined areas CA with the seed layer 401 exposed (step S308).
Then, as shown in
As shown in
In the embodiment, the heat-conductive plate is formed on the first semiconductor layer 404. Because the resistance of the n-type epitaxial layer (N—GaN) is lower, it is not necessary to use a transparent conductive layer in the structure of the seed layer 401 between the first semiconductor layer 404 and the heat-conductive plate 407 to achieve good current diffusion.
Moreover, because a dicing process to the heat-conductive plate 407 to obtain the LED devices in the embodiment of the invention is not required, the problem of leakage current generated from the dicing process can be prevented. In addition, the insulating protective layer 408 disposed on the sidewalls of the stacked epitaxial structure E also has an electric isolation function and can assist in reducing leakage current.
What should be noted here specially is that the steps are not limited to the sequence mentioned above. The sequence of each step can be exchanged according to manufacturing process requirements.
As described above, the manufacturing method for an LED device according to the embodiment of the invention uses a curable polymer material to directly form a temporary substrate on an LED device, and forms at least a heat-conductive plate on the LED device. Compared with prior art methods, the invention not only reduces the step of using a bonding layer to adhere the semiconductor structure to another substrate but also naturally separates the device into a plurality of LED devices after easily removing the temporary substrate due to the characteristics of the curable polymer material used such as its removability, expandability, ductility and so on. Thus, the problem of leakage current generated from the dicing process can be prevented. Further, the costs of the dicing process can be saved and product yield can be improved.
Moreover, the heat-conductive plate in the embodiment of the invention is formed by electroplating, electric forging, electroforming or electrochemical deposition and so on. Thus, the problems in the prior art such as low heat conductivity of the transparent bonding layer made of a plastic material or diffusion inside the LED device caused by the manufacturing process with high temperature and high pressure can be prevented, thus, improving the heat conductivity and the product yield. In addition, the heat-conductive plate of the invention has low residual stress and heat corrosion resistance which can prevent the separation between the stacked epitaxial structure and the heat-conductive plate or the damage of the stacked epitaxial structure, thus, increasing product yield and decreasing manufacturing costs. Moreover, the presence of the insulating protective layer can further reduce leakage current.
While the invention has been described by way of example and in terms of preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited thereto. To the contrary, it is intended to cover various modifications and similar arrangements (as would be apparent to those skilled in the art). Therefore, the scope of the appended claims should be accorded the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and similar arrangements.
Claims
1. A light emitting diode device comprising:
- a stacked epitaxial structure comprising a first semiconductor layer, a light emitting layer, and a second semiconductor layer;
- a heat-conductive plate disposed on the first semiconductor layer; and
- a seed layer disposed between the first semiconductor layer and the heat-conductive plate.
2. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first semiconductor layer and the second semiconductor layer are an n-type epitaxial layer and a p-type epitaxial layer, respectively, or are a p-type epitaxial layer and an n-type epitaxial layer, respectively.
3. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the heat-conductive plate comprises at least, Ni, Cu, Co, Au, Al or a heat-conductive metal, or the heat conductive plate comprises a Cu—Ni—Cu or Ni—Cu—Ni layer.
4. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seed layer sequentially comprises a reflective layer, an ohmic contact layer, and a metal bonding layer.
5. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 4, wherein the material of the reflective layer comprises Pt, Au, Ag, Cr/Al, Ni/Al, Pd, Ti/Al, Ti/Ag, Cr/Pt/Au a dielectric material, a metal or any combination thereof, and the ohmic contact layer comprises Ni/Au, ITO, IZO, or AZO.
6. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the seed layer is an ohmic contact layer with a function of reflective metal layer, wherein the material of the seed layer comprises Al, Ge, Cr, Pt, Au, Ag, Ni/Cr, Cr/Au, Ni/Ag, Pd, Ti/Au, Ti/Ag, Cr/Pt/Au, Ti/Al/Ti/Au, Au/Ge/Ni, Ti/Pt/Au, Ti/Al/Pt/Au or any combination thereof.
7. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising an insulating protective layer covering a portion of the second semiconductor layer and a sidewall of the stacked epitaxial structure, and the material of the insulating protective layer is an insulating dielectric material, oxide, nitride, or silicon carbide.
8. The light emitting diode device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a plurality of electrodes on the second semiconductor layer.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 23, 2011
Publication Date: Jan 19, 2012
Inventors: Ching-Chuan Shiue (Taoyuan Hsien), Shih-Peng Chen (Taoyuan Hsien), Chao-Min Chen (Taoyuan Hsien), Huang-Kun Chen (Taoyuan Hsien)
Application Number: 13/243,952
International Classification: H01L 33/60 (20100101);