External Quantum Efficiency (EQE)

 The ratio of the number of photons emitted from the LED

to the number of electrons passing through the device -
in other words, how efficiently the device coverts
electrons to photons and allows them to escape
 EQE = [Injection efficiency] x [Internal quantum
efficiency] x [Extraction efficiency]
 Wall-plug efficiency is the ratio of the radiant flux (i.e the
total radiometric optical output power of the device,
measured in watts) and the electrical input power i.e the
efficiency of converting electrical to optical power.
 Wall-Plug Efficiency = [EQE] x [Feeding efficiency]

External Quantum Efficiency

 3 main loss mechanisms for emitted photons:
 (1) Re-absorbed by creating an electron-hole pair
 (2) A fraction of photons will be reflected back at the semiconductor-air
interface
 (3) Some photons impinge upon surface with angles greater than critical
angle thus suffering total internal reflection
 To minimize absorption photons must be emitted near the surface so that
photons do not have to travel long distances
Refractive index- cause of reflection and TIR
 A fundamental optical parameter of a material relates to
how fast light travels in it
 Upon entering a dielectric or non-conducting medium a
light wave slows down and now travels at a speed s,
which is characteristics of the material and is less than c
 The ratio of the speed of light in a vacuum to that in
matter is known as the refractive index n [ n = c / s ]
 n (air) = 1.00, n (water) = 1.33
 Material with larger n is said to be optically denser

Reflection
 Described by coefficient of reflection R
 Depends on the refractive indices of the 2 medium
2
n n 
R   i t 
 ni  nt 

 Is a function of wavelength (eg silver metal)

 This is called Fresnel loss. For a GaN LED, the loss is ~17%.
 R + T = 1 (where T is coefficient of transmission)
Total Internal Reflection

n2
Critical angle for TIR: sinc 
n1

Example of TIR

Fibre Optics
External Quantum Efficiency in GaN LEDs
 Internal quantum efficiency mainly determined by material quality
 Light extraction efficiency determined by critical angle (refractive
index)
 Can be improved by smart design of LED structure and the use of
index matching encapsulating materials

n2
sinc  ;c  24.6o
n1

Micro-patterning
 To increase the surface area for light extraction and to
minimize losses due to internal reflections and re-
absorption
Surface Roughening
Destroy the flatness of surfaces to
promote scattering and prevent
reflections

Anti-reflection coating
 An AR coating is a structure formed from multiple layers of
alternating materials with varying refractive index, or by periodic
variation of some characteristic (such as height) of a dielectric
waveguide, resulting in periodic variation in the effective refractive
index in the guide
 Each layer boundary causes a partial reflection of an optical wave
Fabrication of LEDs
 Involves photolithography, etching and metallization

LED is designed so that photons

are emitted close to the top layer
and not in the buried layer, so that
they are not re-absorbed
Usually top layer is p-type, and for
photons to be emitted in this layer
the diode current must be
dominated by the electron current

The p and n contact layers must

be exposed for metal contact
deposition

For GaN grown on non-

conducting sapphire substrates,
etching is required to expose the
n-contact layer

Process Sequence
Chip on wafer
 Multiple devices are arrayed across an LED wafer (batch
processing)
 Depending on die sizes, there can be thousands or tens
of thousands of LEDs on a single 2-inch wafer
 After fabrication the chips are randomly picked and
tested on wafer using a probe station

Chip Separation
 To separate chips from each other for individual use
 Traditional Method: Wafer Sawing
 Modern approach: Laser Micromachining
 Makes use of focused (high density) laser energy to
ablate material for separation
 Typically uses high energy photons (UV)

LED packaging
 Bond LED chip onto package
 Serve as heat sink
 Improve robustness of LED
chip
Complete Packaging Process Flow

Equipment
Die attach
 Pick and place process: place chip onto package

 Choice of epoxy important for heat sinking

Types of packages
 Conventional 5 mm and advanced ceramic packages

 5 mm packages for low power chips

 Ceramic packages for high power chips
 Types of die bonding
 Conventional vs flip-chip

Types of wire bonding

 Wire bonding is the method by which a length of small diameter soft
metal wire is attached to a compatible metallic surface without the
use of solder, flux, and in some cases with the use of heat above
150 degrees Celsius. Soft metals include Gold (Au), Copper (Cu),
Silver (Ag), Aluminum (Al) and alloys such as Palladium-Silver
(PdAg) and others.

Wedge bond
and ball bond
Dispensing: Dielectric Encapsulation
 To avoid losses, device is
encapsulated in a dielectric
dome. The dielectric has a
refractive index of ~1.6, and
this allows greater fraction of
photons to emerge.

White-light LEDs
 How do LEDs emit white light?
 There are two main types of white-light LEDs, both of
which rely heavily on a blue-light LED
 White light can be produced by exciting phosphors with a
shorter wave light source
 YAG (yellow) phosphor coating is applied to a blue-light
LED to generate yellow-green light, and the combination
of blue and yellow-green appears cool-white to the eye
 Such white-light LEDs are most commonly found in the market.
These devices, containing a significant component of green
wavelengths which the human is most sensitive too, are now
capable delivering luminous efficacies of beyond 100 lumens per
watt, nearly twice as efficient as fluorescent lamps
 However, the discontinuous spectrum associated with phosphor-
converted white-LEDs, together with the shortage of spectral
components at longer wavelengths (phosphors fluorescing at longer
wavelengths are highly inefficient!), emit with poor colour-rendering
indices, making them less desirable illumination sources

Incorporating Red Phosphors

 Efficiency of red phosphors usually lower due to large
Stokes shift
 However high CRI can be achieved
RGB white LEDs
 White light can also be produced by combining emission from three
(or more) discrete LED chips each emitting the three primary colours
 Such devices are commonly known as RGB LEDs; red, green and
blue discrete chips are mounted side-by-side onto a common
package, and can typically be individually driven to produce a colour
tuning effect
 Due to the presence of red in the emission, RGB LEDs offer higher
CRI indices, although the luminous efficacy will suffer as a result
 However emission is non-uniform due to spatial distribution of chips

RGB stacked LED

LED lifetime and reliability
 Vertical conductivity along dislocations had been
identified as one of the major causes of breakdown in
LEDs, and in p-n junctions in general
 Reduction of dislocation density is crucial for improving
device reliability
 Characterized by L70 lifetime

Issues: Efficiency “Droop”

 As the injection current increases, the efficiency
decreases gradually
 LED efficiency generally highest at low currents
Issues: The “Green” Gap

 Green LEDs are less efficient than blue or red

 However green is a primary, essential for generating
“white”