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US 2015/0091032 A1Published application
Nickel-Titanium and Related Alloys as Silver Diffusion Barriers
AssigneeIntermolecular, Inc.
InventorsJianhua Hu, Minh Huu Le, Sandeep Nijhawan, Teresa B. Sapirman
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Abstract
Diffusion of silver from LED reflector layers is blocked by 10-50 nm barrier layers of nickel-titanium (NiTi) alloys. Optionally, the alloys also include one or more of tungsten (W), niobium (Nb), aluminum (Al), vanadium (V), tantalum (Ta), or chromium (Cr). These barriers may omit the noble-metal (e.g., platinum or gold) cap used with silver barriers based on other materials.
Claims20
A light-emitting device, comprising:
- a substrate;
- a light-emitting structure on the substrate;
- a silver layer operable to reflect emitted light from the light-emitting element;
- and
- an alloy layer between the silver layer and a silver-sensitive layer;
- wherein the alloy layer comprises nickel and titanium;
- wherein the alloy layer is between about 10 nm and 50 nm thick;
- and
- wherein a reflectance of the silver layer at a wavelength of the emitted light changes less than 5% after heating to 500 C for 20 minutes.
6 more elements
A method of forming a light-emitting device, the method comprising:
- forming a light-emitting structure;
- forming a silver layer;
- and
- forming an alloy layer by pulsed direct-current physical vapor deposition;
- wherein the alloy layer comprises nickel and titanium;
- wherein the alloy layer is in contact with the silver layer;
- and
- wherein the alloy layer is between about 100 Å and 500 Å thick.
5 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.