Growth of AlN layer on patterned sapphire substrate by hydride vapor phase epitaxy

Even though a patterned sapphire substrate (PSS) has been used for the growth of a high-quality epilayer because of its many advantages, it has not been successfully used to grow an AlN epilayer for ultraviolet (UV) light-emitting diodes (LEDs) on a PSS up to now. We report the growth of a high-quality AlN epilayer on a PSS, as a substrate for the manufacture of UV LEDs, by hydride vapor phase epitaxy (HVPE). The X-ray diffraction (XRD) peaks for the AlN epilayer grown on the PSS indicate that crystalline AlN with a wurtzite structure was grown successfully on the PSS. Furthermore, HVPE combining both in situ HVPE technology and liquid-phase epitaxy (LPE) using a mixed source is proposed as a novel method for the growth of a flat AlN epilayer on a PSS.