Semiconductor Light-Emitting Device Resonator End Face Cleaving
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Semiconductor light-emitting devices with resonator structures face challenges in achieving smooth and parallel end faces, which are crucial for reducing the oscillation threshold, especially when using hexagonal semiconductor materials grown on semipolar planes, as they can suffer from internal electric field-induced luminous efficiency deterioration compared to c-plane growth.
Innovation Solution
A method involving the formation of linear line electrodes and guide grooves on a semiconductor wafer with a semipolar plane substrate, where guide grooves and scribe grooves are created to facilitate precise cleaving, resulting in resonator end faces with high parallelism and smoothness, thereby reducing the threshold current.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If a semiconductor structure layer is grown on a semipolar plane to reduce internal electric field and improve luminous efficiency, then luminous efficiency is improved, but achieving smooth and parallel resonator end faces becomes more difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by forming guide grooves and scribe grooves on the semiconductor wafer before the cleaving process. These grooves are created in advance to define the exact cleavage paths, ensuring that the resonator end faces will be smooth and parallel after division. The guide grooves extend from the surface toward the substrate, and scribe grooves are formed at the bottom of guide grooves, creating predetermined weak points that guide the cleavage process along the desired path perpendicular to the active layer.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies segmentation by dividing the semiconductor wafer into multiple individual devices through the guide grooves and scribe grooves. The wafer is segmented along predetermined lines that are perpendicular to the active layer, creating separate resonator structures. This segmentation approach allows each device to have its own clean, parallel end faces while maintaining the benefits of wafer-level processing and the improved luminous efficiency of semipolar plane growth.
2Productivity
If the semiconductor wafer is divided to create individual devices, then device fabrication is enabled, but the resonator end faces may become rough or non-parallel increasing threshold current
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-forming guide grooves and scribe grooves that serve as templates for the cleaving process. These grooves are created before division, establishing precise cleavage paths that ensure smooth and parallel end faces. The guide grooves extend from the wafer surface toward the substrate, and scribe grooves are formed at their bottoms, creating predetermined stress concentration points that guide the cleavage front along the exact desired path, resulting in high-precision end faces despite wafer-level processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses the guide grooves and scribe grooves as intermediary structures that mediate between the wafer-level processing and individual device requirements. These grooves act as intermediaries that transfer the precision requirements from the final device level to the manufacturing process level, providing a physical guide that ensures accurate cleavage paths and high-quality end faces during the division process.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional cleaving methods are used without guide grooves, then the manufacturing process is simpler, but the resonator end faces lack the required parallelism and smoothness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by forming guide grooves and scribe grooves before the cleaving operation. These grooves are created in advance to establish precise cleavage paths, ensuring that the resonator end faces achieve the required parallelism and smoothness. The guide grooves extend from the surface toward the substrate, and scribe grooves are formed at their bottoms, creating predetermined weak points that guide the cleavage front along the exact desired path perpendicular to the active layer, thereby ensuring high-precision end faces.
Solution Approach 2:
The guide grooves and scribe grooves serve as intermediary structures that facilitate the cleaving process while ensuring high precision. These grooves act as physical guides and stress concentrators that mediate between the simple mechanical cleaving action and the complex requirement for precise, smooth end faces. The grooves provide a predetermined path that directs the cleavage front, making the simple cleaving process produce high-precision results.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for manufacturing a semiconductor light-emitting device includes: forming a plurality of guide grooves so as to be depressed from a surface of a semiconductor structure layer toward a semiconductor substrate and to align and extend along a direction perpendicular to an extending direction of a plurality of line electrodes; forming, in each of the plurality of guide grooves, a scribe groove so as to be depressed from a bottom surface of the guide groove toward the semiconductor substrate and to extend along an extending direction of the guide groove; and dividing a semiconductor wafer along the plurality of guide grooves. The guide groove and the scribe groove are formed to have end shapes in such a manner that inner walls thereof project toward each other in the extending direction of the scribe groove.