Design, Fabrication, and Application of GaN-Based Micro-LED Arrays With Individual Addressing by N-Electrodes

We demonstrate the development, performance, and application of a GaN-based micro-light emitting diode ( <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>LED) array sharing a common p-electrode (anode), and with individually addressable n-electrodes (cathodes). Compared to conventional GaN-based LED arrays, this array design employs a reversed structure of common and individual electrodes, which makes it innovative and compatible with n-type metal-oxide-semiconductor (NMOS) transistor-based drivers for faster modulation. Excellent performance characteristics are illustrated by an example array emitting at 450 nm. At a current density of 17.7 kA/cm<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^2$</tex-math></inline-formula> in direct-current operation, the optical power and small signal electrical-to-optical modulation bandwidth of a single <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>LED element with 24 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>m diameter are over 2.0 mW and 440 MHz, respectively. The optimized fabrication process also ensures a high yield of working <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula>LED elements per array and excellent element-to-element uniformity of electrical/optical characteristics. Results on visible light communication are presented as an application of an array integrated with an NMOS driver. Data transmission at several hundred Mb/s without bit error is achieved for single- and multiple-<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math></inline-formula> LED-element operations, under an <sc>on</sc>–<sc>off</sc>-keying modulation scheme. Transmission of stepped sawtooth waveforms is also demonstrated to confirm that the <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu$</tex-math> </inline-formula>LED elements can transmit discrete multilevel signals.