Ultraviolet light-emitting diode and electric apparatus provided with the same
AssigneesRiken, Panasonic Corporation
InventorsHideki Hirayama, Masafumi Jo, Takuya Mino, Norimichi Noguchi, Takayoshi Takano, Jun Sakai
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Abstract
A UV LED element, which is an exemplary ultraviolet light-emitting diode according to the present invention, includes an n-type conductive layer, a light-emitting layer, an electron block layer, and a p-type contact layer, all of which are arranged in this order. Bandgap energy of the electron block layer satisfies Econtact≤EEBL, where Econtact designates bandgap energy of the p-type contact layer and EEBL designates the bandgap energy of the electron block layer. The electric apparatus includes the UV LED element as a light source for emitting an ultraviolet ray.
Claims10
An ultraviolet light-emitting diode comprising:
- an n-type conductive layer including an Inx1Aly1Ga1-x1-y1N layer, where 0≤x1<1 and 0<y1≤1;
- a light-emitting layer;
- an electron block layer including an Inx2Aly2Ga1-x2-y2N layer, where 0≤x2<1 and 0<y2<1;
- a p-type contact layer, which is an Inx3Aly3Ga1-x3-y3N layer, where 0≤x3<1 and 0<y3<1;
- and
- a metal p-side electrode, all of which are arranged in this order,
- a bandgap energy of the electron block layer satisfying
- Econtact≤EEBL
- where Econtact designates bandgap energy of the p-type contact layer and EEBL designates the bandgap energy of the electron block layer,
- wherein
- the metal p-side electrode is an optical reflector directly on the p-type contact layer,
- EEBL−Econtact satisfies
- 0 eV≤EEBL−Econtact≤0.966 eV
- where Econtact designates the bandgap energy of the p-type contact layer and EEBL designates the bandgap energy of the electron block layer.
An ultraviolet light-emitting diode comprising:
- an n-type conductive layer including an Inx1Aly1Ga1-x1-y1N layer, where 0≤x1<1 and 0<y1≤1;
- a light-emitting layer;
- an electron block layer including an Inx2Aly2Ga1-x2-y2N layer where 0≤x2<1 and 0<y2≤1;
- and
- a p-type contact layer including an Inx3Aly3Ga1-x3-y3N layer where 0≤x3<1 and 0<y3<1,
- all of which are arranged in this order,
- a bandgap energy of the electron block layer satisfying
- Econtact≤EEBL
- where Econtact designates bandgap energy of the p-type contact layer and EEBL designates the bandgap energy of the electron block layer,
- wherein
- the electron block layer is a multi-quantum barrier layer, and
- a maximum value of bandgap energy of the multi-quantum barrier layer satisfies
- Econtact≤EMQB-max
- where Econtact designates the bandgap energy of the p-type contact layer and EMQB-max designates the maximum value of the bandgap energy of the multi-quantum barrier layer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.