Researchers based in China have been exploring strategies to improve deep ultraviolet (UVC, 100–280nm) light-emitting diode (LED) performance on sapphire, focusing on the aluminium nitride template layers used as a base for the aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN) device materials [Xu Liu et al, IEEE Transactions On Electron Devices, published online 11 February 2025].
Their work achieved a 71% increase in external quantum efficiency (EQE), compared with a UVC LED grown on epitaxial layer overgrowth (ELO) AlN/sapphire. The researchers also report that the EQE of the 272nm-wavelength LED was almost 90% greater than that of a device on a conventional AlN buffer template. Short-wavelength UVC kills pathogens by disrupting the biochemical structures, such as DNA and RNA, vital to life.
The team from Wuhan University, Wuhan Joint Innovation Laboratory of Advanced Display Industry, and Ningbo ANN Semiconductor Company Ltd., report: “Using nanolayer modification, growth-mode modulation, and indium-doping methods, the crack-free, strain-controlled, and atomically smooth AlN buffer template was achieved on the sapphire substrate.” Read More
