Fabrication and Characterization of InGaN/GaN

MQWs Blue Light-Emitting Diodes on Sapphire

Substrate
Kuldip Singh, Ashok Chauhan, Sonam Joshi, A.
Sharma, Pawan Kumar, S. Singh, P. Prajapati, B. K.
Kushwaha, S. Johri and C. Dhanavantri

Monika Rana and Meenakshi Chouhan

Electronics Department
Indian School of Mines (ISM)
Dhanbad, 826004, India
rmonika20@gmail.com

Optoelectronic Devices Group

CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute
(CEERI), Pilani, 333031 Rajasthan, India
kuldip@ceeri.ernet.in
Abstract In this paper, we report successful fabrication and
characterization of InGaN/GaN MQWs based blue LEDs on cplane sapphire substrate. The epitaxial material used in the
fabrication of blue LEDs was grown by metal-organic-chemical
vapor deposition (MOCVD) system. The threshold voltage (Vth)
of fabricated InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED on c-plane sapphire
substrate was ~ 3.1 V.
Keywords Multi-Quantum Wells; Reactive Ion Etching;
Electron Beam Evaporation; Transparent Conducting Layer

I.

INTRODUCTION

The III-V nitrides based semiconductor materials like GaN,

InN, AlN, etc. have wurtzite crystal structure and direct band
gap. The wide band gap range from 0.7 eV (InN) to 6.2 eV
(AlN) at room temperature of III-V nitrides semiconductors
make these materials for development of light-emitting diodes
in the short wavelength (ultra violet, blue, green, yellow)
region [1], [2]. Though, III-V nitride based blue and green and
white LEDs are commercial available. These light emitting
diodes are widely used in various applications such as traffic
light signals, full color display, mobile phones, etc. The
development of white LEDs based on GaN material has large
scope in the solid-state-lighting applications. The white LEDs
based source may replace various light sources such as
incandescent bulb whose efficiency is very low (5-10%),
compact fluorescence lamp (CFL), which contains mercury (a
toxic material and hence has environmental issues). Therefore,
replacement of these light sources by LEDs based light
sources may save huge power even at low cost with high
efficiency, long life time (50000-100000 hours) and
environment friendly. In this paper, we present fabrication and
characterization of InGaN/GaN MQWs based blue LEDs on cplane sapphire substrate.

II.

BLUE LIGHT-EMITTING DIODE

MATERIAL STRUCTURE

The LED structure used in the fabrication of blue lightemitting diodes consists of a low temperature (~ 530 0C)
grown ~ 30 nm nucleation layer, Si-doped n-GaN (~ 3 m),
five period unintentionally doped InGaN/GaN MQWs active
region, Mg-doped ~ 20 nm AlGaN electron blocking layer and
~ 100 nm Mg-doped p-GaN. This epitaxial material was
grown on (0001)-oriented sapphire substrate by metal-organicchemical vapor deposition system. The thicknesses of InGaN
quantum wells and GaN barriers were ~ 3 nm and ~ 10 nm,
respectively. The indium fraction in InGaN QW was ~ 0.2 to
achieve the peak emission wavelength ~ 455 nm. The
schematic structure of InGaN /GaN MQWs LEDs on sapphire
substrate is shown in fig. 1.
Ni/Au p-contact
InGaN MQWs
P-GaN (Mg-doped)
AlGaN (Mg-doped)
Ti/Al/Ni/Au ncontact
n-GaN
GaN buffer

Sapphire (0001)

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED

This work was funded by Council of scientific and Industrial Research

(CSIR) network programme PSC-0102.

*978-1-4799-2174-4/13/$31.002013 IEEE*

FABRICATION OF BLUE LIGHT-EMITTING

DIODES

For fabrication of InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LEDs, the pAlGaN electron blocking layer, five InGaN/GaN QWs and
partially n-GaN, using conventional UV photolithography.
The BCl3 and Cl2 chemistry was used to etch epitaxial layers
(p-GaN, p-AlGaN, five periods InGaN/GaN MQWs and
partially n-GaN) using reactive ion etching (RIE) system
(model: SI 590 Sentech, Germany). After mesa etching,
Ti/Al/Ni/Au (30/140/20/100 nm) multilayer metals were
deposited by electron beam system to make n-contact. The
sample was annealed in RTA (model: Annealsys As-One 100,
France) system at 815 0C for 30 s in nitrogen atmosphere to
get n-ohmic contact. After n-contact, Ni/Au (10/100 nm) was
deposited by e-beam as p-contact. The p-contact was annealed
in RTA system in combined atmosphere of nitrogen and
oxygen at 550 0C for 5 minutes to reduce specific contact
resistance. The transparent conducting layer of Ni/Au (5/5 nm)
was deposited for uniform current spreading on p-GaN
surface. Fig. 2 shows the photomicrograph of fabricated
InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LEDs on c-plane sapphire substrate.

IV.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Fig. 3 shows the blue light emission from fabricated LED at

wafer level. The currentvoltage (I-V) characteristics of
fabricated blue LED (chip size ~ 1 x 1 mm2) is shown in fig. 4.
The threshold voltage of LED is ~ 3.1 V. The forward voltage
(Vf) of the blue LED at 90 mA is 5 V. The high p-specific
contact resistance also plays important role in the high
operating forward voltage of the LED. The specific contact
resistance for p-GaN should be less than 10-3 -cm2 for high
brightness LED and low operating forward voltage. The
forward voltage may be further reduced by optimization of
device design structure, epitaxial layer structure such as high
doping in p-GaN, n-GaN and resistances of n and p-contacts.
Current-Voltage (I-V) characteristics of InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
Current (A)

III.

0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0

Voltage (V)

Fig. 4. I-V characteristics of fabricated InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED on

c-plane sapphire substrate

V.

Fig. 2. Photograph of fabricated InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED on

sapphire substrate.

CONCLUSION

The InGaN/GaN MQWs blue light-emitting diodes on cplane sapphire substrate have been successfully designed,
fabricated and demonstrated. The threshold voltage of
fabricated LED was ~ 3.1 V and the forward voltage at 90 mA
was ~5 V.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This work was supported by Council of scientific and
Industrial Research (CSIR) network programme PSC-0102.
The authors are thankful to all members of optoelectronic
devices group for their cooperation. The authors are thankful to
the Director, CSIR-CEERI, Pilani for his support and
encouragement.

REFERENCES
[1]

Fig. 3. Blue light emission of fabricated InGaN/GaN MQWs blue LED on

c-plane sapphire substrate at 5V.

[2]

S. Nakamura, M. Senoh, N Isawa and S. Nagahama, High brightness

blue, green and yellow light emitting diodes with quantum well
structure, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys., vol. 34, pp. L799, July 1995.
W. C. Lai, S. J. Chang M. Yokoyama, J. K. sheu and J. F. Chen,
InGaN/alInGaN light emitting diodes, IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.,
vol. 13, pp. 559-561, June 2001.