Failure Mechanism for GaN-Based High-Voltage Light-Emitting Diodes

Author

Shoou-Jinn Chang ; Chung-Ying Chang ; Chun-Lung Tseng ; Ching-Shing Shen ; Bing-Yang Chen

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Nat. Cheng Kung Univ., Tainan, Taiwan

Volume

26

Issue

11

fYear

2014

fDate

1-Jun-14

Firstpage

1073

Lastpage

1076

Abstract

We report a detailed reliability test study on GaN-based high-voltage light-emitting diodes. Under high temperature (i.e., 80°C) and high current injection (i.e., 100 mA) conditions, it was found that Al metal whiskers were formed from the sidewall of the Cr/Al/Ti/Pt/Au p-finger metal after 120-h burn-in test. It was also found that the whiskers became longer as we increased the burn-in time. Furthermore, it was found that the formation of Al whiskers is directly related to Al migration.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium; chromium; gallium compounds; gold; light emitting diodes; platinum; semiconductor device reliability; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor-metal boundaries; titanium; whiskers (crystal); wide band gap semiconductors; Cr-Al-Ti-Pt-Au-GaN; GaN-based high-voltage light-emitting diodes; burn-in test; burn-in time; current 100 mA; failure mechanism; high current injection; high temperature injection; metal whiskers; p-finger metal; reliability test; temperature 80 degC; time 120 h; Electromigration; Failure analysis; Gallium nitride; Gold; Light emitting diodes; Reliability; Al; GaN; high-voltage; light-emitting diodes; metal; whisker;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2014.2314701

Filename

6783724