ABSTRACT
The current pandemic crisis caused by SARS-CoV-2 has also pushed researchers to work on LEDs, especially in the range of 220-240 nm, for the purpose of disinfecting the environment, but the efficiency of such deep UV-LEDs is highly demanding for mass adoption. Over the last two decades, several research groups have worked out that the optical power of GaN-based LEDs significantly decreases during operation, and with the passage of time, many mechanisms responsible for the degradation of such devices start playing their roles. Only a few attempts, to explore the reliability of these LEDs, have been presented so far which provide very little information on the output power degradation of these LEDs with the passage of time. Therefore, the aim of this review is to summarize the degradation factors of AlGaN-based near UV-LEDs emitting in the range of 200-350 nm by means of combined optical and electrical characterization so that work groups may have an idea of the issues raised to date and to achieve a wavelength range needed for disinfecting the environment from SARS-CoV-2. The performance of devices submitted to different stress conditions has been reviewed for the reliability of AlGaN-based UV-LEDs based on the work of different research groups so far, according to our knowledge. In particular, we review: (1) fabrication strategies to improve the efficiency of UV-LEDs; (2) the intensity of variation under constant current stress for different durations; (3) creation of the defects that cause the degradation of LED performance; (4) effect of degradation on C-V characteristics of such LEDs; (5) I-V behavior variation under stress; (6) different structural schemes to enhance the reliability of LEDs; (7) reliability of LEDs ranging from 220-240 nm; and (8) degradation measurement strategies. Finally, concluding remarks for future research to enhance the reliability of near UV-LEDs is presented. This draft presents a comprehensive review for industry and academic research on the physical properties of an AlGaN near UV-LEDs that are affected by aging to help LED manufacturers and end users to construct and utilize such LEDs effectively and provide the community a better life standard.
ABSTRACT
In this study, we found that the current droop (J-droop) in AlGaN-based UVB light-emitting diodes was more obvious at higher temperatures, despite both the main and parasitic peaks undergoing monotonic decreases in their intensity upon an increase in the temperature. The slower temperature droop (T-droop) did not occur when the forward current was increased to temperatures greater than 298 K. After an aging time of 6000 h, the emission wavelengths did not undergo any obvious changes, while the intensity of the parasitic peak barely changed. Thus, the degradation in the light output power during long-term operation was not obviously correlated to the existence of the parasitic peak.
ABSTRACT
AlGaN germicidal ultraviolet (GUV) light emitting diodes (LEDs) are one of the most promising disinfection technologies in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic;however, GUV LEDs are still lacking in efficiency due to low p-type doping efficiency in p-AlGaN. The most successful approach for producing conductive p-type AlGaN is the implementation of a polarization-enhanced short period AlxGa1-xN/ AlyGa1-yN superlattice (SL) structure, which enhances hole injection and reduces device operating voltage. In this report, we investigated different aspects of the superlattice including the AlxGa1-xN and AlyGa1-yN alloy constituent compositions, x and y, period thickness, total thickness, and Mg dopant concentration in terms of LED performance as well as electrical, optical, and morphological characteristics. The polarization-enhanced p-type doping in the AlGaN superlattice was also investigated computationally, giving excellent agreement with experimental results. Highly efficient UVC LEDs (279 nm) with EQE of 2% at 5 A/cm2 were demonstrated. A maximum output power of 5.5 mW (56 mW/mm2) was achieved at 100 mA. IEEE
ABSTRACT
Aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN) plays an essential role in deep ultra-violet light emitting diodes and high electron mobility transistors etc. For example, 2 nm - 5 nm AlGaN nanofilms consist of the quantum wells in ultra-violet light emitting diodes, which have been attracting extensive attention since the rise of COVID 2019. Since most photons and heat are generated in these AlGaN nanofilms, the thermal properties of AlGaN nanofilms are strongly influenced by the heat dissipation of devices. In this paper, utilizing elastic theory and the Boltzmann transport equation, the phonon dispersion relations, density of states, specific heat capacities and thermal conductivities of 2 nm Al (delta) Ga1-delta N nanofilms with various delta are theoretically calculated at different temperatures. The thermal conductivity of nanofilm is significantly smaller than that of its bulk counterpart. In contrast with bulk AlGaN, due to the dominance of boundary scattering and alloy disorder scattering, the thermal conductivity of Al (delta) Ga1-delta N exhibits a similar dependence on Al concentration to bulk Al (delta) Ga1-delta N. Meanwhile, since the screening of Umklapp scattering, the saturation temperature of thermal conductivity is delayed from 50 to 100 K in bulks to about 300 K in nanofilms. The shrinkage of nanofilms' thermal conductivity is also slower than for bulks. We believe that our work will be helpful in controlling the self-heating effect of devices based on AlGaN nanofilms.
ABSTRACT
AlGaN-based deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (UV LEDs) have gained rapidly growing attention due to their wide applications in water purification, air disinfection, and sensing as well as optical communication. Moreover, deep UV radiation has been verified as one of effective way to inactivate COVID-19. However, although numerous efforts have been made in deep UV LED chips, the reported highest external quantum efficiency (EQE) of them is 20.3%, which is far lower than that of visible LEDs. The EQE of commercial packaged AlGaN-based deep UV LEDs is usually lower than 5%, which will cause serious reliability problems as well. Therefore, it is very urgent to improve EQE and reliability of the devices from packaging level. In this review, a systematical summarization about the packaging technologies of AlGaN-based deep UV LEDs has been analyzed and future prospects have been made as well. Firstly, this work provides a brief overview of the devices and analyzes why the packaging level reduces EQE and reliability in theory. Then, systematically reviews the recent advances in packaging technologies and deep UV micro-LEDs. Finally, conclusions and outlooks are given as well. This review is of great significance for promoting the development of the packaging technologies for AlGaN-based deep UV LEDs. © 2022 Wiley-VCH GmbH
ABSTRACT
Crisis in coronavirus times requires understanding the effects on society and establishing efficient mechanisms to prevent infections. The disinfection of personal protection equipment by UVC light remains a key opportunity area. Therefore, this letter presents the main drawbacks and challenges on the fabrication of deep ultraviolet LEDs based on III-nitrides, such as the substrate selection, dislocation reduction, the increase of external quantum efficiency, enhancement of the radiative recombination in the active region, the complications to reach high Al content in AlGaN-based UVC LED avoiding the reduction of the p-doping, replacing the p-GaN contact layer by p-AlGaN without hindering the deposition of ohmic contacts. Furthermore, the cubic phase is suggested as a promising candidate for AlGaN UVC-LEDs applications as is discussed in this work. © 2022
ABSTRACT
A novel Multi-Quantum-Well Deep Ultra Violet Light Emitting Diode (DUV-LED) device with a near-pole hole insertion layer and far-pole hole insertion layer was proposed and carefully studied. It was found that remarkable enhancements both in the light output power (LOP) and the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) could be realized by using the far-electrode hole insertion layer and near-electrode hole insertion layer compared to the conventional DUV-LED device. Inserting the near-polar hole insertion layer can increase the electric field in the hole injection layer, which will promote the ionization of the acceptor, increase the hole concentration, and enhance the light-emitting performance of the device. In addition, inserting the far-pole hole insertion layer can suppress electron leakage and promote the hole injection. At the same time, the updated electron barrier height of P-AlGaN/GaN will indirectly weaken the electrostatic field in the hole injection layer, which remains inconducive to the ionization of the acceptor, implying that the electrostatic field between the P-AGaN/GaN layer can optimize the efficiency droop of the device.
ABSTRACT
Ultraviolet-C light-emitting diodes (UVC-LEDs) have great application in pathogen inactivation under various kinds of situations, especially in the fight against COVID-19. Unfortunately, its epitaxial wafers are so far limited to a size of 2 inches, which greatly increases the cost of massive production. In this work, a 4-inch crack-free high-power UVC-LED wafer is reported. This achievement relies on a proposed strain-tailored strategy, where a 3D to 2D (3D-2D) transition layer is introduced during the homo-epitaxy of AlN on the high temperature annealed (HTA)-AlN template, which successfully drives the original compressive strain into a tensile one and thus solves the challenge of realizing a high-quality Al0.6Ga0.4N layer with a flat surface. This smooth Al0.6Ga0.4N layer is nearly pseudomorphically grown on the strain-tailored HTA-AlN template, leading to 4-inch UVC-LED wafers with outstanding performances. The strategy succeeds in compromising the bottlenecked contradictory in producing a large-sized UVC-LED wafer on pronounced crystalline AlN template: The compressive strain in HTA-AlN allows for a crack-free 4-inch wafer, but at the same time leads to a deterioration of the AlGaN morphology and crystal quality. The launch of 4-inch wafers makes the chip fabrication process of UVC-LEDs match the mature blue one, and will definitely speed up the universal application of UVC-LED in daily life.
ABSTRACT
The world-wide spreading of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has greatly shaken human society, thus effective and fast-speed methods of non-daily-life-disturbance sterilization have become extremely significant. In this work, by fully benefitting from high-quality AlN template (with threading dislocation density as low as ≈6×108 cm-2) as well as outstanding deep ultraviolet (UVC-less than 280 nm) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) structure design and epitaxy optimization, high power UVC LEDs and ultra-high-power sterilization irradiation source are achieved. Moreover, for the first time, a result in which a fast and complete elimination of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus causes COVID-19) within only 1 s is achieved by the nearly whole industry-chain-covered product. These results advance the promising potential in UVC-LED disinfection particularly in the shadow of COVID-19.