Monolithic blue LED series arrays for high-voltage AC operation

Design and fabrication of monolithic blue LED series arrays that can be operated under high ac voltage are described. Several LEDs, such as 3, 7, and 20, are connected in series and in parallel to meet ac operation. The chip size of a single device is 150 mum x 120 mum and the total size is 1.1 mm x 1 mm for a 40 (20 + 20) LED array. Deep dry etching was performed as device isolation. Two-layer interconnection and air bridge are utilized to connect the devices in an array. The monolithic series array exhibit the expected operation function under dc and ac bias. The output power and forward voltage are almost proportional to LED numbers connected in series. On-wafer measurement shows that the output power is 40 mW for 40 (20 + 20) LED array under ac 72 V.