Effect of Dielectric Distributed Bragg Reflector on Electrical and Optical Properties of GaN-Based Flip-Chip Light-Emitting Diodes

We demonstrated two types of GaN-based flip-chip light-emitting diodes (FCLEDs) with distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and without DBR to investigate the effect of dielectric TiO2/SiO2 DBR on optical and electrical characteristics of FCLEDs. The reflector consisting of two single TiO2/SiO2 DBR stacks optimized for different central wavelengths demonstrates a broader reflectance bandwidth and a less dependence of reflectance on the incident angle of light. As a result, the light output power (LOP) of FCLED with DBR shows 25.3% higher than that of FCLED without DBR at 150 mA. However, due to the better heat dissipation of FCLED without DBR, it was found that the light output saturation current shifted from 268 A/cm2 for FCLED with DBR to 296 A/cm2 for FCLED without DBR. We found that the use of via-hole-based n-type contacts can spread injection current uniformly over the entire active emitting region. Our study paves the way for application of DBR and via-hole-based n-type contact in high-efficiency FCLEDs.