Improved reliability and ESD characteristics of flip-chip GaN-based LEDs with internal inverse-parallel protection diodes

In this letter, a GaN/sapphire light-emitting diode (LED) structure was designed with improved electrostatic discharge (ESD) performance through the use of a shunt GaN ESD diode connected in inverse-parallel to the GaN LED. Thus, electrostatic charge can be discharged from the GaN LED through the shunt diode. We found that the ESD withstanding capability of GaN/sapphire LEDs incorporating this ESD-protection feature could be increased from several hundreds up to 3500 V in the human body model. Furthermore, flip-chip (FC) technology was also used to produce ESD-protected LEDs to further improve light output power and reliability. At a 20-mA current injection, the output power of the FC LEDs showed an improvement of around 60%. After a 1200-h aging test, the luminous intensities of the FC LEDs featuring an internal ESD-protection diode decreased by 4%. This decay percentage was far less than those of non-FC LEDs.