阅读说明：本技术 一种基于大面积衬底剥离的深紫外led及其制备方法 (Deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping and preparation method thereof ) 是由 尹以安 曾妮 王幸福 李锴 于 2019-08-26 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明属于半导体及其制造的技术领域,提供一种基于大面积衬底剥离的深紫外LED及其制备方法。深紫外LED为其为采用激光切割衬底,使得电化学腐蚀液腐蚀牺牲层,实现大面积衬底剥离制得,所述电化学腐蚀液包括草酸溶液,所述牺牲层包括重掺杂的n-GaN层。在电化学剥离前,先将蓝宝石衬底减薄,之后采用激光对蓝宝石衬底背面进行切割,切割轨迹呈网格状,露出重掺杂n-GaN牺牲层,使得腐蚀溶液能够均匀腐蚀牺牲层,且电解过程中伴生的气泡能通过网格格点均匀排出,实现完整的大面积衬底剥离,获得高质量且界面光滑的外延层薄膜,进而制备大功率、发光效率高的深紫外LED,此法简单易行、效果显著、价格低廉。(The invention belongs to the technical field of semiconductors and manufacturing thereof, and provides a deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping and a preparation method thereof. The deep ultraviolet LED is manufactured by cutting a substrate by laser, enabling an electrochemical corrosion solution to corrode a sacrificial layer and realizing large-area substrate stripping, wherein the electrochemical corrosion solution comprises an oxalic acid solution, and the sacrificial layer comprises a heavily doped n-GaN layer. Before electrochemical stripping, firstly, the sapphire substrate is thinned, then, laser is adopted to cut the back of the sapphire substrate, the cutting track is in a grid shape, and the heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer is exposed, so that a corrosive solution can uniformly corrode the sacrificial layer, and bubbles associated in the electrolytic process can be uniformly discharged through grid points, thereby realizing complete large-area substrate stripping, obtaining an epitaxial layer film with high quality and smooth interface, and further preparing a deep ultraviolet LED with high power and high luminous efficiency.)

1. The deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping is characterized in that a substrate is cut by laser, an electrochemical corrosion solution corrodes a sacrificial layer to achieve large-area substrate stripping, the electrochemical corrosion solution comprises an oxalic acid solution, and the sacrificial layer comprises a heavily doped n-GaN layer.

2. A preparation method of a deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping is characterized by comprising the following steps:

1) preparing an LED epitaxial structure: sequentially epitaxially growing a GaN buffer layer, a heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer and doped n-Al on a sapphire substrate_xGa_1-xN layer, Al_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xN multi-quantum well active layer, p-Al_zGa_1-zN-electron blocking layer, p-Al_xGa_1-xAn N contact layer;

2) preparing an LED substrate: p-Al on LED epitaxial structure_xGa_1-xBonding a new substrate on the N contact layer, and coating a silver paste layer as an electrode to obtain an LED substrate;

3) sapphire substrate pretreatment: firstly, thinning the sapphire substrate, then cutting the back of the sapphire substrate by adopting laser, wherein the cutting trace is in a grid shape, and exposing the heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer;

4) etching the sacrificial layer: adopting an oxalic acid solution as an electrolyte, and carrying out electrochemical corrosion on the pretreated LED substrate;

5) stripping the sapphire substrate: placing the corroded LED substrate in deionized water for ultrasonic cleaning, and stripping the sapphire substrate;

6) manufacturing an LED chip: on the stripped LED substrate, on the doped n-Al_xGa_1-xAnd manufacturing an N electrode on the N surface, and manufacturing a P electrode on the new substrate to obtain the vertical conductive deep ultraviolet LED chip.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer of step 1) is Si doped with a doping concentration greater than 8 x 10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness range is 2 to 3 μm.

4. The method for preparing the deep ultraviolet LED according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the doped n-Al of the step 1)_xGa_1-xThe N layer is doped with Si with a doping concentration greater than 1 × 10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness range is 2 to 3 μm, and the range of x is 0.2 to 1.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the Al in step 1) is selected from the group consisting of_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xThe active layer of the N multi-quantum well comprises 3-6 pairs of quantum wells, the well thickness of each quantum well is 1-3 nm, the barrier layer thickness of each quantum well is 10-15 nm, the ranges of x and y are 0.2-1, and Al is added_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xX in N multiple quantum well active layer>y。

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the p-Al of step 1) is selected from the group consisting of_zGa_1-zThe N electron blocking layer is Mg doped with the doping concentration range of 5 multiplied by 10¹⁷cm^-3～1×10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness range is 20-30 nm, the range of Al component z is 0.3-1, and z is>x>y。

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the p-Al of step 1) is selected from the group consisting of_xGa_1-xThe N contact layer is Mg doped with a doping concentration of more than 5 × 10¹⁷cm^-3The thickness range is 100-200 nm, and the range of x is 0.2-1.

8. The method for preparing the deep ultraviolet LED according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the new substrate in the step 2) is a transparent conductive substrate comprising one of a SiC substrate, a gallium oxide substrate and a zinc oxide substrate.

9. The method for preparing the deep ultraviolet LED according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the concentration range of the oxalic acid solution in the step 4) is 0.3-0.5 mol/L.

10. The method for preparing the deep ultraviolet LED as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the operation of step 6) comprises performing metal evaporation of Cr/Au by electron beam evaporation to obtain a P electrode, and performing metal evaporation of Ti/Al/Ni/Au to obtain an N electrode.

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of semiconductors and manufacturing thereof, and particularly relates to a deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping and a preparation method thereof.

Background

At present, as a novel ultraviolet light source, the AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet LED not only meets the current energy-saving and environment-friendly concept, but also has wide application. The novel ultraviolet curing.

In recent years, the development of AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet LEDs has made some progress, but the commercialization of AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet LEDs is still hindered by the problems of low external quantum efficiency and power. In order to improve the performance of the deep ultraviolet LED, most of the deep ultraviolet LED chips adopt a flip structure to improve light emission, but the current congestion phenomenon still exists; the chip adopting the vertical structure technically has the technical advantages of large light-emitting area, high power, large and uniform current diffusion area, better heat dissipation performance of a metal electrode than that of a sapphire substrate and the like, and can solve the problems of low light extraction efficiency, poor current diffusion and poor heat dissipation performance of the existing deep ultraviolet LED to a great extent, but the peeling of the sapphire substrate and an epitaxial layer is a difficult problem for manufacturing the chip with the vertical structure.

Most of the current methods for peeling off sapphire substrates employ a laser peeling method. The laser lift-off method is to utilize ultraviolet pulse laser to irradiate the AlGaN-based epitaxial layer and the interface of the substrate from one side of the sapphire substrate, and high-energy laser can rapidly thermally decompose GaN into nitrogen and metal gallium liquid drops, namely, the first GaN layer on the sapphire substrate is instantaneously decomposed, so that the AlGaN-based heterojunction film is lifted off from the original substrate. However, in the application process, high-energy laser irradiates on a sapphire substrate with poor thermal conductivity to generate thermal shock instantaneously, so that a large number of defects are caused, a rough peeling interface is formed, and the development of the AlGaN-based light emitting diode is further influenced.

The method of electrochemical corrosion of the sacrificial layer is also adopted for stripping the sapphire substrate, and in order to obtain a good stripping effect and a smooth interface, the electrochemical stripping method which is low in cost and simple to operate gradually becomes a research hotspot. The electrochemical lift-off method means that the substrate and the epitaxial layer are separated by selectively etching the sacrificial layer between the GaN-based epitaxial layer and the sapphire substrate. Researchers have used electrochemical selective etching to etch GaN, and the chemical etching solution used is nitric acid, phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid, potassium hydroxide (molten), etc. However, these solutions were found to not perform very selective etching, to damage the epitaxial film, and to fail to ensure the integrity of the peeled film.

The current electrochemical stripping method has realized the low-loss stripping of small-area substrates, and the large-area low-loss or even non-destructive substrate stripping is more required for industrial application. However, as the area of the substrate and the epitaxial layer becomes larger, the peeling effect is poor, even cracks and the interface is not smooth due to the problems of non-uniform selective corrosion and the like during the peeling process.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems, the invention aims to provide a deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping and a preparation method thereof.

The invention comprises the following steps:

the deep ultraviolet LED is manufactured by cutting a substrate by laser, enabling an electrochemical corrosion solution to corrode a sacrificial layer and realizing large-area substrate stripping, wherein the electrochemical corrosion solution comprises an oxalic acid solution, and the sacrificial layer comprises a heavily doped n-GaN layer.

The invention also discloses a preparation method of the deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping, which comprises the following steps:

1) preparing an LED epitaxial structure: sequentially epitaxially growing a GaN buffer layer, a heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer and doped n-Al on a sapphire substrate_xGa_1-xN layer, Al_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xN multi-quantum well active layer, p-Al_zGa_1-zN-electron blocking layer, p-Al_xGa_1-xAn N contact layer;

2) preparing an LED substrate: p-Al on LED epitaxial structure_xGa_1-xBonding a new substrate on the N contact layer, and coating a silver paste layer as an electrode to obtain an LED substrate;

3) sapphire substrate pretreatment: firstly, thinning the sapphire substrate, then cutting the back of the sapphire substrate by adopting laser, wherein the cutting trace is in a grid shape, and exposing the heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer;

4) etching the sacrificial layer: adopting an oxalic acid solution as an electrolyte (also called corrosive liquid) to carry out electrochemical corrosion on the pretreated LED substrate;

5) stripping the sapphire substrate: placing the corroded LED substrate in deionized water for ultrasonic cleaning, and stripping the sapphire substrate;

6) manufacturing an LED chip: on the stripped LED substrate, on the doped n-Al_xGa_1-xManufacturing an N electrode on the N surface, and manufacturing a P electrode on the new substrate to obtain the vertical conductive deep ultraviolet LED chip, wherein the structure of the vertical conductive deep ultraviolet LED chip is shown in figure 1;

the heavily doped n-GaN sacrificial layer in the step 1) is doped with Si, and the doping concentration is more than 8 multiplied by 10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness range is 2-3 μm;

doped n-Al as described in step 1)_xGa_1-xThe N layer is doped with Si with a doping concentration greater than 1 × 10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness range is 2-3 μm, and the range of x is 0.2-1;

al described in step 1)_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xThe active layer of the N multi-quantum well comprises 3-6 pairs of quantum wells, the well thickness of each quantum well is 1-3 nm, the barrier layer thickness of each quantum well is 10-15 nm, and Al is_yGa_1-yY of the N well layer is in the range of 0.2-1, and Al_xGa_1-xThe range of the N barrier layer x is 0.2-1, and Al_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xX in N multiple quantum well active layer>y；

Step 1) the p-Al_zGa_1-zN-electron blocking layerFor Mg doping, the doping concentration range is 5X 10¹⁷cm^-3～1×10¹⁸cm^-3The thickness of the alloy is 20-30 nm, the range of the Al component z is 0.3-1, and z is>x>y, x and y are Al_yGa_1-yN/Al_xGa_1-xX and y in the N multi-quantum well active layer;

p-Al described in step 1)_xGa_1-xThe N contact layer is Mg doped with a doping concentration of more than 5 × 10¹⁷cm^-3The thickness range is 100-200 nm, and the range of x is 0.2-1;

the new substrate in the step 2) is a transparent conductive substrate, and includes one of a SiC substrate, a gallium oxide substrate and a zinc oxide substrate, but is not limited thereto;

step 3), firstly, thinning the sapphire substrate until the thickness of the sapphire substrate is about 100 microns, then cutting the sapphire substrate by adopting laser, wherein the cutting depth is about 100 microns, the heavily doped n-GaN layer is exposed, the sapphire substrate is not cut through cutting, the cutting mode is that the sapphire substrate is longitudinally and uniformly cut by linear cutting and then transversely and uniformly cut by linear cutting, and the cutting track is in a grid shape;

the concentration range of the oxalic acid solution in the step 4) is 0.3-0.5 mol/L;

and 6) performing metal evaporation of Cr/Au by adopting electron beam evaporation to obtain a P electrode, and performing evaporation of Ti/Al/Ni/Au to obtain an N electrode.

The invention has the following beneficial effects:

according to the deep ultraviolet LED based on large-area substrate stripping, the heavily doped n-GaN layer is used as the sacrificial layer, the oxalic acid solution with low acidity is used as the electrochemical electrolyte, and the sacrificial layer is corroded, so that the substrate stripping is realized;

in the preparation method, in order to obtain large-area substrate stripping, before electrochemical stripping, the sapphire substrate is thinned and then pretreated by using a laser cutting mode, the cutting mode is longitudinal uniform linear cutting and then transverse uniform cutting, the cutting track is in a grid shape and does not penetrate through the cut sapphire substrate to break, and the heavily doped n-GaN layer is exposed, so that a sacrificial layer can be uniformly corroded by a corrosive solution, and bubbles associated in the electrolytic process can be uniformly discharged through grid points, thereby realizing complete large-area substrate stripping, obtaining an epitaxial layer film with high quality and smooth interface, and further preparing a deep ultraviolet LED with high power and high luminous efficiency.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of making a deep ultraviolet LED of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a deep ultraviolet LED according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic trace of a laser cut substrate of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The present invention is described in further detail in the following description of specific embodiments and the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention, which is defined by the appended claims, and modifications thereof by those skilled in the art after reading this disclosure that are equivalent to the above described embodiments.

All the raw materials and reagents of the invention are conventional market raw materials and reagents unless otherwise specified.