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http://dx.doi.org/10.3807/KJOP.2012.23.2.064

Optical and Electrical Characteristics of GaN-based Blue LEDs after Low-current Stress  

Kim, Seohee (Department of Applied physics, Hanyang University)
Yun, Joosun (Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Hanyang University)
Shin, Dong-Soo (Department of Applied physics, Hanyang University)
Shim, Jong-In (Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Hanyang University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics / v.23, no.2, 2012 , pp. 64-70 More about this Journal
Abstract
We analyzed the changes in electrical and optical characteristics of 1 $mm^2$ multiple-quantum-well (MQW) blue LEDs grown on a c-plane sapphire substrate after a stress test. Experiments were performed by injecting 50 mA current for 200 hours to TO-CAN packaged sample chips. We selected the value of injection current for stress through the junction-temperature measurement by using the forward-voltage characteristics of a diode to maintain a sufficiently low junction temperature during the test. The junction temperature at the selected injection current of 50 mA was 308 K. Experiments were performed under the assumption that the average junction temperature of 308 K did not affect the characteristics of the ohmic contact and the GaN-based materials. Before and after the stress test, we measured and analyzed current-voltage, light-current, light distribution on the LED surface, wavelength spectrum and relative external quantum efficiency (EQE). After the stress test, it was observed experimentally that the optical power and the relative EQE decreased. We theoretically investigated and experimentally proved that these phenomena are due to the increased nonradiative recombination rate caused by the increased defect density.
Keywords
Optical devices; Light-emitting diodes; Reliability;
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