3835 results about "Nitride semiconductors" patented technology

PCT No. PCT/JP98/01640 Sec. 371 Date Dec. 9, 1998 Sec. 102(e) Date Dec. 9, 1998 PCT Filed Apr. 9, 1998 PCT Pub. No. WO98/47170 PCT Pub. Date Oct. 22, 1998A method of growing a nitride semiconductor crystal which has very few crystal defects and can be used as a substrate is disclosed. This invention includes the step of forming a first selective growth mask on a support member including a dissimilar substrate having a major surface and made of a material different from a nitride semiconductor, the first selective growth mask having a plurality of first windows for selectively exposing the upper surface of the support member, and the step of growing nitride semiconductor portions from the upper surface, of the support member, which is exposed from the windows, by using a gaseous Group 3 element source and a gaseous nitrogen source, until the nitride semiconductor portions grown in the adjacent windows combine with each other on the upper surface of the selective growth mask.

An inventive semiconductor laser diode includes a Group III nitride semiconductor layered structure having a major crystal growth plane defined by a non-polar or semi-polar-plane. The Group III nitride semiconductor layered structure includes: a p-type cladding layer and an n-type cladding layer; an In-containing p-type guide layer and an In-containing n-type guide layer held between the p-type cladding layer and the n-type cladding layer; and an In-containing light emitting layer held between the p-type guide layer and the n-type guide layer.

A light-emitting device includes a group III nitride semiconductor layer of a multilayer structure consisting of a group III nitride semiconductor having a major surface defined by a nonpolar plane or a semipolar plane and having at least an n-type layer and a p-type layer. A surface of the group III nitride semiconductor layer on a light extraction side is a mirror surface. The light-emitting device may further include a transparent electrode in contact with the surface of the group III nitride semiconductor layer on the light extraction side. In this case, a surface of the transparent electrode on the light extraction side is preferably a mirror surface.

A method for producing a nitride semiconductor, comprising controlling temperature and pressure in a autoclave containing a seed having a hexagonal crystal structure, a nitrogen element-containing solvent, a raw material substance containing a metal element of Group 13 of the Periodic Table, and a mineralizer so as to put said solvent into a supercritical state and/or a subcritical state and thereby ammonothermally grow a nitride semiconductor crystal on the surface of said seed, wherein the crystal growth rate in the m-axis direction on said seed is 1.5 times or more the crystal growth rate in the c-axis direction on said seed. By the method, a nitride semiconductor having a large-diameter C plane or a nitride semiconductor thick in the m-axis direction can be efficiently and simply produced.

This semiconductor light emitting device includes an optical cavity made of a group III nitride semiconductor having a major growth surface defined by a nonpolar plane and including a pair of cavity end faces parallel to c-planes, and a reflecting portion made of a group III nitride semiconductor having a major growth surface defined by a nonpolar plane and having a reflective facet opposed to one of the pair of cavity end faces and inclined with respect to a normal of the major growth surface. The optical cavity and the reflecting portion may be crystal-grown from the major surface of the substrate. The substrate is preferably a group III nitride semiconductor substrate having a major surface defined by a nonpolar plane.

A semiconductor laser device has a semiconductor laser diode structure made of group III nitride semiconductors having major growth surfaces defined by nonpolar planes or semipolar planes. The semiconductor laser diode structure includes a p-type cladding layer and an n-type cladding layer, a p-type guide layer and an n-type guide layer held between the p-type cladding layer and the n-type cladding layer, and an active layer containing In held between the p-type guide layer and the n-type guide layer. The In compositions in the p-type guide layer and the n-type guide layer are increased as approaching the active layer respectively. Each of the p-type guide layer and the n-type guide layer may have a plurality of In_xGa_1-xN layers (0≦x≦1). In this case, the plurality of In_xGa_1-xN layers may be stacked in such order that the In compositions therein are increased as approaching the active layer.

A nitride semiconductor substrate having properties preferable for the manufacture of various nitride semiconductor devices is made available, by specifying or controlling the local variation in the off-axis angle of the principal surface of the nitride semiconductor substrate. The substrate, being misoriented, is manufactured to have an off-axis angle distribution across its principal surface such that variation Δθ in the off-axis angle is continuous within a predetermined angular range.

A group III nitride semiconductor light emitting device according to the present invention includes an immediate layer formed of Al_xGa_1-x-yIn_yN (0<x<1, 0<y<1, x+y<1) between an active layer and a cladding layer and an electron blocking layer formed of p-type group III nitride semiconductor having a smaller electron affinity than that of the intermediate layer so as to be in contact with the intermediate layer. The semiconductor light emitting layer may be a laser diode or a LED.

A nitride semiconductor light-emitting device includes an emission layer (103) formed on a substrate (100), and the emission layer includes a quantum well layer of GaN_1-x−y−zAs_xP_ySb_z (0<x+y+z≦0.3) containing Al.

A method of producing a nitride semiconductor laser device includes: forming a wafer including a nitride semiconductor layer of a first conductivity type, an active layer of a nitride semiconductor, a nitride semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type, and an electrode pad for the second conductivity type stacked in this order on a main surface of a conductive substrate and also including stripe-like waveguide structures parallel to the active layer; cutting the wafer to obtain a first type and a second type of laser device chips; and distinguishing between the first type and the second type of chips by automatic image recognition. The first type and the second type of chips are different from each other in position of the stripe-like waveguide structure with respect to a width direction of each chip and also in area ratio of the electrode pad to the main surface of the substrate.

A method and apparatus for growing low defect, optically transparent, colorless, crack-free, substantially flat, single crystal Group III nitride epitaxial layers with a thickness of at least 10 microns is provided. These layers can be grown on large area substrates comprised of Si, SiC, sapphire, GaN, AlN, GaAs, AlGaN and others. In one aspect, the crack-free Group III nitride layers are grown using a modified HVPE technique. If desired, the shape and the stress of Group III nitride layers can be controlled, thus allowing concave, convex and flat layers to be controllably grown. After the growth of the Group III nitride layer is complete, the substrate can be removed and the freestanding Group III nitride layer used as a seed for the growth of a boule of Group III nitride material. The boule can be sliced into individual wafers for use in the fabrication of a variety of semiconductor structures (e.g., HEMTs, LEDs, etc.).

A masking material 13, which includes stripe-like openings 12 parallel to the [1-100] direction of a nitride semiconductor thin film, is formed on a substrate. Nitride semiconductor thin films 11 doped with Mg are grown on the openings 12 by selective-area growth. The nitride semiconductor thin films 11 are composed of a portion 14 formed as a result of the growth in the direction perpendicular to a (0001) principal plane, and a portion 15 formed as a result of the growth of {11-2x} facets (x=0, 1, 2). The Mg concentration of the portion 15 is made lower than that of the portion 14.

The present invention relates to a method for producing a modified surface of a substrate that stimulates the growth of epitaxial layers of group-III nitride semiconductors with substantially improved structural perfection and surface flatness. The modification is conducted outside or inside a growth reactor by exposing the substrate to a gas-product of the reaction between hydrogen chloride (HCl) and aluminum metal (Al). As a single-step or an essential part of the multi-step pretreatment procedure, the modification gains in coherent coordination between the substrate and group-III nitride epitaxial structure to be deposited. Along with epilayer, total epitaxial structure may include buffer inter-layer to accomplish precise substrate-epilayer coordination. While this modification is a powerful tool to make high-quality group-III nitride epitaxial layers attainable even on foreign substrates having polar, semipolar and nonpolar orientation, it remains gentle enough to keep the surface of the epilayer extremely smooth. Various embodiments are disclosed.

Disclosed is a semiconductor micro-emitter array for use in a full-color microdisplay. Each pixel includes three vertically-stacked red, green, and blue micro-emitters which minimizes pixel size. The microdisplay may be exclusively based on Group III-nitride semiconductors, with differing indium concentrations in three respective InGaN/GaN active regions for emitting the three RGB colors. Alternatively the microdisplay may be based on hybrid integration of InGaN based III-nitride semiconductors for blue and green emissions, and AlGaInP based (e.g., Group III-V) semiconductors for red emissions.