• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.381-385
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• 2008

We have analyzed the effect of the substrate removal and packaging schemes on light output characteristics in InGaN/Sapphire LEDs. The removal of the sapphire substrate helps to dissipate the heat generated in the junction, but the advantage comes only with the detrimental effect of degrading the photon extraction efficiency. If the substrate-removed chip is attached to a metallic mount with good thermal conductivity, the maximum driving current is increased drastically, producing significantly increased light output and therefore compensating the photon extraction efficiency degradation. On a dielectric mount with a relatively poor thermal conductivity, however, it produces smaller light output, over most input current range, than the regular type of chips with the sapphire substrate remaining. Thus, for low power applications, the regular chips may be preferred over the substrate-removed chips, regardless of the chip mounts employed.