Journal of Crystal Growth 189/190 (1998) 808—811

Effects of high electrical stress on GaN/InGaN/AlGaN

single-quantum-well light-emitting diodes
Marek Osiński*, Daniel L. Barton1, Piotr Perlin2,3, Jinhyun Lee
Center for High Technology Materials, University of New Mexico, 1313 Goddard SE, Albuquerque, NM 87131-6081, USA

Abstract

We report on high-electrical-stress testing of Nichia GaN/InGaN/AlGaN single-quantum-well (SQW) light-emitting

diodes. In contrast to our earlier experiments with double-heterostructure LEDs, the present SQW devices have been
improved to the point that the encapsulating plastic fails under high electrical stress earlier than the diode itself. ( 1998
Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Gallium nitride; Light-emitting diodes; Diode lasers; Electrical stress; Degradation; Device lifetime

1. Introduction diodes (LEDs), single-quantum-well (SQW) blue,

For the last three years, we have witnessed
remarkable progress in the development of group-
III nitride optoelectronic devices, resulting in
commercial availability of blue double-heterostr-
ucture (DH) GaN/InGaN/AlGaN light-emitting
* Corresponding author. Tel.: #1 505 272 7812; fax:
#1 505 272 7801; e-mail: osinski@chtm.unm.edu.
1 Also at: Sandia National Laboratories, P.O. Box 5800, Al-
buquerque, NM 87185-1081, USA.
2 On leave from: High Pressure Research Center “Unipress”,
Soko"owska 29/37, PL-01142 Warsaw, Poland.
3 Present address: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory,
1 Cyclotron Road, Mail stop 2-200, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
blue—green and green LEDs, and white LEDs [1].
Similarly, development of group-III nitride diode
lasers proceeded with a breathtaking speed during
1996, from the first demonstration of pulsed lasing
to cw operation at room temperature [1]. The first
cw lasers reported in October 1996 lived only for
a few seconds. By December 1996, the laser lifetime
was extended to 35 h [2]. Yet, this rapid progress
seemed to have been stalled since then, and no
further improvement of device lifetime was re-
ported for more than six months. This situation
started resembling that in the II—VI diode lasers,
where the maximum lifetime of &100 h has
not increased since early 1996. It was therefore
important to conduct experiments aimed at eluci-
dating the degradation processes in group-III ni-
tride devices.

0022-0248/98/$19.00 ( 1998 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII S 0 0 2 2 - 0 2 4 8 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 2 9 9 - 1
 M. Osin& ski et al. / Journal of Crystal Growth 189/190 (1998) 808–811
2. Degradation of double-heterostructure blue
LEDs under high electrical stress
Already in 1994, we have performed high electri-
cal stress tests of Nichia NLPB-500 DH LEDs,
aimed at determining prospects for forthcoming
development of nitride diode lasers. At that time, we
identified an important failure mechanism associa-
ted with a high density of extended defects present
in group-III nitrides grown on sapphire substrates.
Namely, at about 1.8—2 A pulsed current ampli-
tude, the high voltage required to drive high-cur-
rent pulses would cause the metal to migrate from
the top semi-transparent contact to down defect
clusters, ultimately resulting in a short [3]. In this
context, it was symptomatic that formation of
a short circuit was reported to cause the break-
down of the longest-lived Nichia GaN/InGaN/
AlGaN multiple-quantum-well (MQW) diode
lasers after 35 h of cw operation [4].
3. High-electrical-stress experiments with SQW
nichia LEDs
Our present study was aimed at determining the
effects of high electrical stress in Nichia SQW
LEDs and to compare their behavior to that of
early DH devices, with the main goal of updating
our understanding of high-current degradation
mechanisms in present-day state-of-the-art sam-
ples. The LEDs were stressed using rectangular
forward current pulses of 100 ns duration with
a small (0.01%) duty cycle (1 kHz repetition rate)
to minimize heating. The average power dissipa-
tion for pulses with 5 A amplitude was only
25 mW. Initial tests were performed on packaged
devices.
We have determined earlier in this study [5] that
the LEDs would degrade almost instantaneously
when they were subjected to current pulses with
amplitudes between 6 and 7.5 A. The degradation
took about 1 s to occur and was accompanied by
a visible electrical discharge between the electrodes.
At these currents, the voltage drop across the diode
was between 70 and 80 V. It should be noticed that
the corresponding current densities were three
times larger than those sustainable by the DH
809
LEDs, which indicated that a considerable progress
had been achieved at Nichia in improving the ma-
terial quality and device resilience to high current
pulses.
While investigating the effects of longer-term ex-
posure to reduced currents, we found that using
pulsed current amplitudes between 4 and 6 A
would result in a much slower degradation, allow-
ing the LED to continue working for between 24
and 90 h. Several LEDs were then stressed at a for-
ward current of &5 A. Some of them were allowed
to fail, while others were removed from the test
prior to failure.
An example of such a stress test is illustrated in
Fig. 1, showing the time evolution of output light
intensity from a green SQW LED subjected to high
current pulses between 4.5 and 5.8 A. Two different
regions can be distinguished in this figure. First,
for times shorter than &5 h, a relatively fast degra-
dation is observed with the slope of !0.17%/h.
This is followed by a second region, for times
longer than 5 h, where the slope is only !0.03%/h.
Similar behavior was also observed in the I—»
characteristics, with most of the change shown
in Fig. 2 occurring in the initial stage of the stress
test.
Fig. 1. Light output of a stressed Nichia NSPG-500 green SQW
LED as a function of time. Notice a sudden failure without any
prior warning after 86 h of operation. Resistance after degrada-
tion was 138 ).
810 M. Osin& ski et al. / Journal of Crystal Growth 189/190 (1998) 808–811
Fig. 2. I—» characteristics of a Nichia NSPG-500 green SQW
LED taken prior to and during the high-current stress test. Most
of the change in the I—» curve occurred during the first few
hours of the operation. Note that the sign of current value is
reversed in the negative voltage region.
4. Failure analysis
Failure analysis of devices degraded at currents
exceeding 6 A revealed a massive damage to the top
semitransparent p-type contacts and the plastic en-
capsulation material. The damage was, however,
too extensive to identify its roots. The I—» charac-
teristics of degraded devices were all linear, with
slopes indicating that the LEDs had resistive shorts
in the 18 to 140 ) range.
Using a simple extrapolation of the data shown
in Fig. 1 prior to the point of failure, the LED
lifetime under high-current stress should be as long
as 1000—1500 h (note that this translates into
6—9 min of real operation time). In reality, however,
the devices failed suddenly after 24—90 h of test.
Neither electrical nor optical characteristics pro-
vided any advance warning that the catastrophic
degradation was about to occur. Analysis of de-
graded samples showed the same type of damage as
found in LEDs subjected to pulsed currents with
amplitudes higher than 6 A. Again, it was imposs-
ible to pinpoint the origin of the extensive damage
observed.
The most useful information was extracted from
devices that were removed from the test before the
point of failure. Significantly, some of the plastic
packaging material became carbonized during the
stress test, to the point that it could not be removed
during the decapsulation. Thus, even though there
were no apparent changes in the light output or
I—» characteristics, there was a change in the plas-
tic composition. Optical micrograph images also
revealed several black spots, mostly at the edges of
the semi-transparent metallization on the p-contact
layer. We interpret these spots as damaged plastic
areas created when the junction below went into
a non-permanent breakdown under the electrical
stress. Under continued stress, more damaged plas-
tic sites will form, eventually creating a conductive
path that leads to a short circuit across the LED.
5. Discussion and conclusions
In contrast to our earlier experiments with DH
LEDs, the present SQW devices have been im-
proved to the point that the encapsulating plastic
fails under high electrical stress earlier than the
diode itself. In order to eliminate the encapsulating
material from consideration, we are now conduct-
ing further tests on de-encapsulated LEDs. The
results of these test will be reported elsewhere.
Very recently, a significant improvement in the
Nichia GaN/InGaN/AlGaN multiple-quantum-
well (MQW) diode laser lifetime has been reported,
with the best devices operating at a constant output
power of 2 mW per facet for as long as 300 h [6].
While this result is in itself remarkable and leaves
behind the ZnSe-based lasers with their lifetime of
100 h [7], it should again be noticed that the end of
lasing was marked with creation of a short circuit,
consistent with the metal migration degradation
mechanism identified in our early experiments [3].
Lower operating voltage (&4 V) in the 300 h laser
would indeed extend the time necessary for the
top-contact metal to migrate down towards the
p—n junction along the defect clusters. However, as
long as such defect clusters remain within the active
volume of the device, they may continue to act as
life-limiting agents in GaN-based diode lasers.
Thus, it should remain a high priority to reduce the
threading dislocation density to levels comparable
to other III—V optoelectronic materials.
 M. Osin& ski et al. / Journal of Crystal Growth 189/190 (1998) 808–811
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by DARPA under the
Optoelectronic Materials Center program. Part of
this work performed at Sandia National Laborato-
ries was also supported by the U.S. Department of
Energy under contract DE-AC04-94AL8500. One
of the authors (M.O.) would like to express his
gratitude to Professor Shiro Sakai of the University
of Tokushima for his hospitality and support.
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