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Chin. Phys. B, 2017, Vol. 26(8): 087308    DOI: 10.1088/1674-1056/26/8/087308
CONDENSED MATTER: ELECTRONIC STRUCTURE, ELECTRICAL, MAGNETIC, AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES Prev   Next  

Progressive current degradation and breakdown behavior in GaN LEDs under high reverse bias stress

Linna Zhao(赵琳娜)1, Peihong Yu(于沛洪)1, Zixiang Guo(郭子骧)3, Dawei Yan(闫大为)1, Hao Zhou(周浩)1, Jinbo Wu(吴锦波)1, Zhiqiang Cui(崔志强)1, Huarui Sun(孙华锐)2, Xiaofeng Gu(顾晓峰)1
1 Engineering Research Center of IoT Technology Applications (Ministry of Education), Department of Electronic Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China;
2 School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), Shenzhen 518055, China;
3 School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
Abstract  

The progressive current degradation and breakdown behaviors of GaN-based light emitting diodes under high reverse-bias stress are studied by combining the electrical, optical, and surface morphology characterizations. The current features a typical “soft breakdown” behavior, which is linearly correlated to an increase of the accumulative number of electroluminescence spots. The time-to-failure for each failure site approximately obeys a Weibull distribution with slopes of about 0.67 and 4.09 at the infant and wear-out periods, respectively. After breakdown, visible craters can be observed at the device surface as a result of transient electrostatic discharge. By performing focused ion beam cuts coupled with scan electron microscope, we observed a local current shunt path in the surface layer, caused by the rapid microstructure deterioration due to significant current heating effect, consistent well with the optical beam induced resistance change observations.

Keywords:  GaN LEDs      current degradation      breakdown behavior      reverse bias stress  
Received:  30 March 2017      Revised:  02 May 2017      Accepted manuscript online: 
PACS:  73.61.Ey (III-V semiconductors)  
  85.30.Kk (Junction diodes)  
  85.30.De (Semiconductor-device characterization, design, and modeling)  
Fund: 

Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 61504050 and 11604124), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Grant Nos. BK20140168 and BK20150158), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China (Grant Nos. JUSRP51628B and JUSRP51510).

Corresponding Authors:  Dawei Yan, Xiaofeng Gu     E-mail:  daweiyan@jiangnan.edu.cn;xgu@jiangnan.edu.cn
About author:  0.1088/1674-1056/26/8/

Cite this article: 

Linna Zhao(赵琳娜), Peihong Yu(于沛洪), Zixiang Guo(郭子骧), Dawei Yan(闫大为), Hao Zhou(周浩), Jinbo Wu(吴锦波), Zhiqiang Cui(崔志强), Huarui Sun(孙华锐), Xiaofeng Gu(顾晓峰) Progressive current degradation and breakdown behavior in GaN LEDs under high reverse bias stress 2017 Chin. Phys. B 26 087308

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