Transparent Conducting Zinc-Tin-Oxide Layer for Application to Blue Light Emitting-diode

To use the GaN based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) as solid state lighting sources, the improvement of light extraction and internal quantum efficiency is essential factors for high brightness LEDs. In this study, we suggested the new materials system of a zinc tin oxide (ZTO) layer formed on blue LED epi-structures to improve the light extraction. ZTO is a representative n-type oxide material consisted of ZnO and SnO system. Moreover, ZTO is one of the promising oxide semiconductor material. Even though ZTO has higher chemical stability than IGZO owing to its SnO2 content this has high mobility and high reliability. After formation of ZTO layer on p-GaN layer by using the spin coating method, structural and optical properties are investigated. The x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurement results show the successful formation of ZTO. The photoluminescence (PL) and absorption spectrum shows that it has 3.6-4.1eV band gap. Finally, the light extraction properties of ZTO/LED chip using electroluminescence (EL) measurement were investigated. The experimental and theoretical analyses were simultaneously conducted.