The disclosure relates to a light-emitting device (LED), a light-emitting apparatus, a display device, and a lighting equipment.
With the development of Mini-LED backlighting in the display technology, Mini-LEDs, especially wide-angle (WA) Mini-LEDs, have captured the public's attention. Since the WA Mini-LEDs can emit light with a broader range of light-emitting angles, the WA Mini-LEDs have improved light-emission uniformity. As compared to conventional LEDs, the WA Mini-LEDs, when used in applications such as a backlight panel, may be arranged in fewer numbers and eliminate the need for additional elements for light distribution, thereby reducing manufacturing cost. Notwithstanding, control of light-emitting angle is critical and challenging for Mini-LED manufacturing. In order to achieve a broad range of light-emitting angle, current WA Mini-LEDs generally include a metal layer and a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) structure that are disposed on an emission surface of the current WA Mini-LEDs, so as to control light-emission from lateral sides of the current WA Mini-LEDs. In such configuration, however, due to light-absorption by an epitaxial structure, the metal layer, and the like during multiple times of reflection, luminous efficiency of the current WA Mini-LEDs is greatly reduced. On the other hand, during manufacturing of semiconductor light-emitting devices, laser stealth dicing is generally conducted to obtain separate and final products of the semiconductor light-emitting devices. In regard to a small-size light-emitting device that has a thin substrate with a thickness, particularly, not greater than 80 μm, an entire laminate of the to-be formed semiconductor light-emitting devices, before dicing, tends to warp due to having the thin substrate. Therefore, when stealth dicing is performed, problems usually occur since dicing laser (with wavelength ranging from 1000 nm to 1300 nm) cannot accurately target the desired depth within the substrate, thereby resulting in failure of stealth dicing.
Therefore, an object of the disclosure is to provide a light-emitting device that can alleviate at least one of the drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the disclosure, the light-emitting device includes a light-emitting laminate and a first insulating reflective structure. The first insulating reflective structure includes n pairs of dielectric layers stacked on the light-emitting laminate. Each of the n pairs of dielectric layers includes a first material layer and a second material layer. The first material layer has a first refractive index, and the second material layer has a second refractive index that is greater than the first refractive index of the first material layer. For each pair of dielectric layers among m1 pairs of dielectric layers out of the n pairs of dielectric layers, the first material layer has an optical thickness that is greater than an optical thickness of the second material layer, where 0.5n≤m1≤n, and n and m1 are natural numbers greater than 0.
Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent in the following detailed description of the embodiment(s) with reference to the accompanying drawings. It is noted that various features may not be drawn to scale.
Before the disclosure is described in greater detail, it should be noted that where considered appropriate, reference numerals or terminal portions of reference numerals have been repeated among the figures to indicate corresponding or analogous elements, which may optionally have similar characteristics.
It should be noted herein that for clarity of description, spatially relative terms such as “top,” “bottom,” “upper,” “lower,” “on,” “above,” “over,” “downwardly,” “upwardly” and the like may be used throughout the disclosure while making reference to the features as illustrated in the drawings. The features may be oriented differently (e.g., rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative terms used herein may be interpreted accordingly.
The present disclosure provides a semiconductor light-emitting device that includes a DBR structure having a special design. The semiconductor light-emitting device according to the disclosure may be a flip chip semiconductor light-emitting device.
In one embodiment, the light-emitting device 200 may further include a substrate 201 that is disposed between the semiconductor light-emitting laminate 202 and the first insulating reflective structure 100. The substrate 201 has a front side adjacent to the semiconductor light-emitting laminate 202, and a back side adjacent to the first insulating reflective structure 100. The substrate 201 may be a transparent substrate and allows light emitted from the light-emitting laminate 202 to pass through the substrate 201 and reach a surface of the first insulating reflective structure 100.
In one embodiment, the substrate 201 may be a sapphire substrate, and more specifically, a patterned sapphire substrate. The light-emitting laminate 201 may include a plurality of layers, for example, at least the first semiconductor layer 2021, the light-emitting layer 2022, and the second semiconductor layer 2023 which are formed and laminated in the above described order on the front side of the substrate 201.
The first semiconductor layer 2021 may be a nitride semiconductor layer that includes an n-type InxAlyGa1-x-yN (where 0≤x<1, 0≤y<1, and 0≤x+y<1) and an n-type dopant such as silicon (Si). For example, the first semiconductor layer 2021 may include an n-type gallium nitride (GaN). The second semiconductor layer 2023 may be a nitride semiconductor layer that includes a p-type InxAlyGa1-x-yN (where 0≤x<1, 0≤y<1, and 0≤x+y<1) and a p-type dopant such as magnesium (Mg). In certain embodiments, the second semiconductor layer 2023 may be a single-layered structure, or a multi-layered structure that includes layers with different components. The light-emitting layer 2022 may have a multiple quantum well (MQW) structure, where quantum well layers and quantum barrier layers are alternately stacked. For example, the quantum well layers and the quantum barrier layers may be composed of different InxAlyGa1-x-yN (where 0≤x≤1, 0≤y≤1, and 0≤x+y≤1) materials. For example, the quantum well layers may include InxGa1-x-yN, where 0<x≤1, and the quantum barrier layers may include GaN or AlGaN. The light-emitting layer 2022 is not limited to the MQW structure, and may have a single quantum well (SQW) structure.
The semiconductor light-emitting device 200 may further include a buffer layer (not shown) that is located between the first semiconductor layer 2021 and the substrate 201. The buffer layer may includes InxAlyGa1-x-yN, where 0≤x≤1 and 0≤y≤1. For example, the buffer layer may include GaN, AlN, AlGaN, or InGaN. For example, the buffer layer may be formed by a plurality of layers, or has a gradient variation in its components.
In one embodiment, the first semiconductor layer 2021 may be an n-type GaN layer and the second semiconductor layer 2023 may be a p-type GaN layer. The light-emitting layer 2022 may be a multi-layered structure having alternately stacked InxGa1-x-yN (where 0<x≤1) and GaN or alternately stacked InxGa1-x-yN (where 0<x≤1) and AlGaN. The light-emitting layer 2022 emits light with a single peak emission wavelength. For example, depending on application fields of the light emitting device, e.g., luminous lighting or liquid crystal displays (LCDs), the peak emission wavelength may be designed to be ranged from 420 nm to 460 nm.
In the embodiment shown in
In this embodiment, each of the first material layers 1011 has a first refractive index, and each of the second material layers 1012 has a second refractive index that is greater than the first refractive index. The first material layers 1011 and the second material layers 1012 may be independently formed by, for example, oxide or nitride, such as SiO2, SiN, SiOxNy, TiO2, Si3N4, Al2O3, TiN, AlN, ZrO2, TiAlN, or TiSiN. For example, the first material layers 1011 may be formed of SiO2 that has a refractive index of 1.48, and the second material layers 1012 may be formed of TiO2 that has a refractive index of 2.64.
In this embodiment, the first insulating reflective structure 100 has n pairs of the dielectric layers 101, and n is a natural number ranging from 3 to 25.
To achieve wide light emitting angle and improve brightness of the light-emitting device 200, the first insulating reflective structure 100 according to the present disclosure is designed to be capable of reflecting and transmitting light at the same time. Specifically, by virtue of the first insulating reflective structure 100, light at a specific range of incident angles is reflected and light at another range of incident angles is transmitted. That is to say, when the light emitted from the light-emitting laminate 202 enters the first insulating reflective structure 100, the first insulating reflective structure 100 may: (1) cause total internal reflection of light at smaller incident angle, thereby enhancing side-emission of the light-emitting device 200 and reducing light leakage from a front side of the light-emitting device 200; (2) cause total transmission for light at larger incident angle, thereby reducing absorption of the light at larger incident angle, so as to improve light-extraction efficiency of the light-emitting device 200. To this end, for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among at least half of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101 in the first insulating reflective structure 100, an optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 is greater than that of the second material layer 1012.
In other words, for m1 pairs of dielectric layers out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 is greater than that of the second material layer 1012, where 0.5n≤m1≤n, and n and m1 are natural numbers greater than 0.
Furthermore, as shown in
In certain embodiments, for m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of each of the first material layers 1011 is not necessarily equal to that of the others and may be appropriately adjusted according to desired optical reflectance or desired optical transmittance. In certain embodiments, among m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thicknesses of at least two of the first material layers 1011 are not equal to each other. For example, the optical thicknesses of the first material layers 1011 may gradually increase or gradually decrease from layer to layer sequentially along a stacking direction from the first side of the light-emitting laminate 202 to the second side of the light-emitting laminate 202, or the optical thicknesses of the first material layers 1011 may irregularly vary from one to another. Among m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thicknesses of at least two of the second material layers 1012 may not be equal to each other. For example, the optical thicknesses of the second material layers 1012 may gradually increase or gradually decrease from layer to layer sequentially along the stacking direction from the first side of the light-emitting laminate 202 to the second side of the light-emitting laminate 202, or the optical thicknesses of the second material layers 1012 may irregularly vary from one to another.
In certain embodiments, for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of each of the first material layers 1011 is greater than α/4, and the optical thickness of each of the second material layers 1012 is smaller than λ/4, where λ is a peak emission wavelength of light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 and λ ranges from 420 nm to 460 nm. If the optical thickness of the first material layer is too great or the optical thickness of the second material layer is too small, the transmission for light at large incident angle may be decreased.
In one embodiment, the optical thickness of each of the first material layers 1011 ranges from 80 nm to 220 nm, and the optical thickness of each of the second material layer 1012 ranges from 20 nm to 70 nm.
Given that there is a difference in optical thickness between the first material layers 1011 and the second material layers 1012 in the first insulating reflective structure 100 as mentioned above, when the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 enters the first insulating reflective structure 100, the first insulating reflective structure 100 causes total internal reflection for light at small incident angle, thereby enhancing the side-emission of the semiconductor light-emitting device 200, as shown in FIG.7. Therefore, the range of light-emitting angle of the light-emitting device 200 is increased, the side-emission is improved, and light leakage from front-side is reduced. Meanwhile, the first insulating reflective structure 100 also causes total transmission for light at large incident angle, thereby reducing the absorption of the light at large incident angle, so that the light efficiency of the light-emitting device 200 may be increased.
Referring to
In the present embodiment, the first electrode 204 and the second electrode 205 of the semiconductor light-emitting device 200 may include one or more of materials such as silver (Ag), aluminum (Al), nickel (Ni), chromium (Cr), and transparent conductive oxides (TCO).
The first electrode pad 206 and the second electrode pad 207, that are connected to the first electrode 204 and the second electrode 205, respectively, are used as external connection terminals for the semiconductor light-emitting device 200, and may include gold (Au), silver (Ag), aluminum (Al), titanium (Ti), tungsten (W), copper (Cu), tin (Sn), nickel (Ni), platinum (Pt), chromium (Cr), NiSn, TiW, AuSn, or eutectic alloys thereof. The first electrode pad 206 and the second electrode pad 207 may be connected, according to a bonding process for flip chips, to a circuit board formed with conductive traces thereon.
Referring back to
In one embodiment, the second insulating reflective structure 203 has a thickness that is greater than that of the first insulating reflective structure 100. The second insulating reflective structure 203 has more pairs of dielectric layers than those of the first insulating reflective structure 100. The first insulating reflective structure 100 has a thickness generally ranging from 0.5 μm to 3 μm and includes 3 to 5 pairs of dielectric layers 101. The second insulating reflective structure 203 has a thickness generally ranging from 1.5 μm to 6 μm, and includes 10 to 25 pairs of dielectric layers. The second insulating reflective structure 203 is configured to reflect the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 at either small or large incident angle to a fullest extent, so that the light is emitted out of the back side of the substrate 201. On the other hand, the first insulating reflective structure 100 only reflects a part of the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202. Accordingly, the second insulating reflective structure 203 may have an absolute thickness greater than that of the first insulating reflective structure 100 and have more pairs of dielectric layers than the first insulating reflective structure 100 (i.e. x is greater than n). Furthermore, since the first insulating reflective structure 100 is thinner and has fewer pairs of dielectric layers 101, the light-emitting device 200 with such a configuration may have a reduced risk of chip cracking, particularly when the first insulating reflective structure 100 is formed on the back side of the substrate 201.
In certain embodiments, the substrate 201 has a thickness not greater than 100 μm, specifically, not greater than 80 μm.
With the configuration of the first insulating reflective structure 100 and the second insulating reflective structure 203 as described above, the light transmitted through the first insulating reflective structure 100 and emitted outwardly from the first region (S1) is less than that emitted outwardly from the second region (S2). As shown in
The present disclosure provides a second embodiment of the light-emitting device 200 according to the disclosure. The light-emitting device 200 of the second embodiment has a structure similar to that of the first embodiment except for the first insulating reflective structure 100 (i.e., the DBR structure) on the back side of the substrate 201.
In the second embodiment, in addition to reflecting and transmitting the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 with the peak emission wavelengths as previously described, the first insulating reflective structure 100 is designed to capable of reflecting a certain portion of an additional light having a wavelength different from that of the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202. In certain embodiments, the wavelength of the additional light is longer than the peak wavelength of the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202.
In order to overcome the failure of the stealth dicing caused by dicing laser not accurately targeting the desired depth within the substrate, an auxiliary laser is used in a process of stealth dicing to aid the dicing laser in targeting accurately. The auxiliary laser has a wavelength longer than the peak wavelength of the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 and shorter than a wavelength of the dicing laser. In this embodiment, in addition to reflecting and transmitting the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202, the first insulating reflective structure 100 is capable of reflecting a certain portion of the auxiliary laser so as to overcome the failure of the stealth dicing caused by dicing laser not accurately targeting the desired depth within the substrate.
To be specific, in the first insulating reflective structure 100 of this embodiment, for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101, the first material layer 1011 has an optical thickness that is greater than that of the second material layer 1012, where 0.5n≤m1<n, n is a natural number ranging from 3 to 15, and m1 is a natural number greater than 1. In addition, among the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101 are designed to reflect the auxiliary laser. In this embodiment, for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101, the first material layers 1011 has an optical thickness that is smaller than that of the second material layer 1012, where m2 is a natural number not smaller than 1, for example, 2≤m2≤0.4n.
In one embodiment, the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 are successively and continuously laminated in the first insulating reflective structure 100. In certain embodiments, the m1 pairs of dielectric layers (101) are discontinuously stacked. For each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of first material layer 1011 is greater than that of the second material layer 1012 by at least 60 nm, for example, ranging from 60 nm to 150 nm. In one embodiment, for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 ranges from 80 nm to 200 nm, and the optical thickness of the second material layer 1012 is smaller than 70 nm, for example, ranging from 20 nm to 70 nm.
In certain embodiments, for at least one pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 ranges from 80 nm to 200 nm, and the optical thickness of the second material layer 1012 is not smaller than 200 nm, for example, ranging from 200 nm to 700 nm, or ranging from 300 nm to 600 nm.
Given that for each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the second material layer 1012 has an optical thickness that is significantly greater than that of the first material layer 1011, the first insulating reflective structure 100 may effectively reflect the auxiliary laser.
In one embodiment, at least two adjacent pairs of dielectric layers 101 among the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 are spaced apart from each other. In one embodiment, the at least two adjacent pairs of dielectric layers 101 among the m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 in the first insulating reflective structure 100 are spaced apart by at least one pair of dielectric layers 101 among the m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101.
In this embodiment, the auxiliary laser has a wavelength ranging from 600 nm to 700 nm and is used for aiding the process of stealth dicing. The first insulating reflective structure 100 of the embodiment shown in
Referring to
As described above, the first insulating reflective structure 100 on the back side of the semiconductor light-emitting device of the present embodiment may not only cause total internal reflection for the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 at small incident angle, but also cause total transmission for the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 at large incident angle. With the thickness configuration of the m2 pairs of dielectric layers, the first insulating reflective structure 100 may further effectively reflect the auxiliary laser used for stealth dicing. Therefore, when the stealth dicing is conducted by the dicing laser, reflection of the auxiliary laser by the first insulating reflective structure 100 may aid the targeting of the dicing laser, thereby achieving accurate stealth dicing.
In this embodiment, similar to the first embodiment, the semiconductor light-emitting device 200 may further include a second insulating reflective structure 203 on the second side of the light-emitting laminate 202. As previously described, the second insulating reflective structure 203 likewise includes x pairs of dielectric layers 101 that are stacked one on top of another. Each pair of dielectric layers among the x pairs of dielectric layers 101 includes a first material layer 1011 and a second material layer 1012 that are alternately stacked one on top of another. Each of the first material layers 1011 and the second material layers 1012 has an optical thickness that is designed such that the second insulating reflective structure 203 may cause total internal reflection for the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202.
In addition, the second insulating reflective structure 203 in some embodiments has an absolute thickness that is greater than that of the first insulating reflective structure 100. The second insulating reflective structure 203 has more pairs of dielectric layers 101 than those of the first insulating reflective structure 100. The first insulating reflective structure 100 has a thickness generally ranging from 0.5 μm to 3 μm and includes 3 to 5 pairs of dielectric layers 101. The second insulating reflective structure 203 has a thickness generally ranging from 1.5 μm to 6 μm and includes 10 to 25 pairs of dielectric layers 101. The second insulating reflective structure 203 is configured to reflect the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 at either small or large incident angle to the fullest extent, so that the light is emitted from the back side of the substrate 201 and the semiconductor light-emitting device 200. On the other hand, the first insulating reflective structure 100 only reflects the part of the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202. Accordingly, the second insulating reflective structure 203 may have the absolute thickness greater than that of the first reflective structure 100 and have more pairs of the dielectric layers 101 than those of the first insulating reflective structure 100 (i.e. x is greater than n). Furthermore, since the first insulating reflective structure 100 is thinner and has fewer pairs of dielectric layers 101, the semiconductor light-emitting device 200 with such a configuration may have the reduced risk of chip cracking, particularly when the first insulating reflective structure 100 is formed on the back side of the substrate 201.
In one embodiment, the substrate 201 has a thickness not greater than 100 μm, specifically, not greater than 80 μm.
The semiconductor light-emitting device 200 according to the embodiments of the disclosure may have various applications.
Referring to
The light-emitting apparatus 300 including the semiconductor light-emitting device 200 according to the first embodiment or the second embodiment of the disclosure has improved side-emission and brightness.
The semiconductor light-emitting device 200 according to the disclosure may be applied to an lighting equipment in one embodiment.
As described above, the semiconductor light-emitting device, the semiconductor light-emitting apparatus, and the display device according to the present disclosure include the above-mentioned DBR structure, and therefore, may alleviate drawbacks of the prior art and deliver beneficial effects.
Specifically, the semiconductor light-emitting device 200 of the present disclosure includes the light-emitting laminate 202 and the first insulating reflective structure 100. The first insulating reflective structure 100 includes n pairs of dielectric layers 101, and each pair of dielectric layers 101 among the n pairs of dielectric layers 101 includes the first material layer 1011 and the second material layer 1012. The first refractive index of the first material layer 1011 is greater than the second refractive index of the second material layer 1012. For each pair of dielectric layers 101 among m1 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, the optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 is greater than that of the second material layer 1012, where n≥m1≥0.5n. The first insulating reflective structure 100 of the above configuration may reflect the light emitted by the light-emitting laminate 202 at small incident angle (for example, ranging from 0° to 20°, or from 0° to 30°), and may transmit the light at large incident angle (for example, ranging from 45° to 90°).
Since the light at small incident angle that exits from the front side of the semiconductor light-emitting device is significantly reduced, side-emission of the semiconductor light emitting device is increased, thereby increasing range of light-emitting angle of the semiconductor light emitting device. Furthermore, because the light at large incident angle is allowed to be emitted from the front side of the semiconductor light-emitting device, absorption of light by the epitaxial layer, the metal layer, and the like is reduced, and the luminous efficiency of the chip is improved. In addition, there are, in the first insulating reflective structure 100, m2 pairs of dielectric layers 101 out of the n pairs of dielectric layers 101, in which the optical thickness of the first material layer 1011 is smaller than that of the second material layer 1012 for each pair of dielectric layers 101, as described above. In such configuration, the first insulating reflective structure 100, in addition to causing total internal reflection for light at small incident angle and total transmission for light at large incident angle, may reflect at least 50% of light with a wavelength ranging from 600 nm to 700 nm. For example, the first insulating reflective structure 100 may have a reflectivity of at least 50% for the auxiliary laser with the wavelength of 650 nm. Therefore, with the aiding of the auxiliary laser with such wavelength, a laser dicing machine may benefit from the above configuration of the semiconductor light-emitting device according to the disclosure for dicing operation.
In the description above, for the purposes of explanation, numerous specific details have been set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the embodiment(s). It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art, that one or more other embodiments may be practiced without some of these specific details. It should also be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to “one embodiment,” “an embodiment,” an embodiment with an indication of an ordinal number and so forth means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic may be included in the practice of the disclosure. It should be further appreciated that in the description, various features are sometimes grouped together in a single embodiment, figure, or description thereof for the purpose of streamlining the disclosure and aiding in the understanding of various inventive aspects; such does not mean that every one of these features needs to be practiced with the presence of all the other features. In other words, in any described embodiment, when implementation of one or more features or specific details does not affect implementation of another one or more features or specific details, said one or more features may be singled out and practiced alone without said another one or more features or specific details. It should be further noted that one or more features or specific details from one embodiment may be practiced together with one or more features or specific details from another embodiment, where appropriate, in the practice of the disclosure.
While the disclosure has been described in connection with what is(are) considered the exemplary embodiment(s), it is understood that this disclosure is not limited to the disclosed embodiment(s) but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretation so as to encompass all such modifications and equivalent arrangements.
This application is a continuation-in-part (CIP) of International Application No. PCT/CN2021/102433, filed on Jun. 25, 2021, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | PCT/CN2021/102433 | Jun 2021 | US |
Child | 18509965 | US |