Wafer-bonded AlGaInP/Au/AuBe/SiO2/Si light-emitting diodes

An AlGaInP light-emitting diode (LED) with a Au/AuBe/SiO2/Si mirror substra te has been successfully fabricated by the wafer bonding technique. The mir ror-substrate LED is capable of emitting luminous intensity of 90 mcd under 20 mA injection. It is clearly far superior to the conventional absorbed-s ubstrate LED with a distributed Bragg reflector structure (less than or equ al to 1 mcd). This device exhibits normal p-n diode behavior with a forward voltage of less than 2 V operating at 20 mA. The leakage current is about 3 nA under a 36V reverse bias. This result indicates that the wafer bonding technique does not adversely affect the I-V characteristic of the LED devi ce. Moreover, the emission wavelength of the bonded LED was independent of the injection current. The low forward series resistance and the Si substra te providing a good heat sink solve the joule heating problem inherent in c onventional LEDs.