Method for supplying a low resistivity electrical contact to a semiconductor laser device

In a method of fabricating a semiconductor laser comprising the steps of forming a wafer of semiconductor material having regions of opposite conductivity type therein with a p-n junction therebetween;

• metallizing a pair of surfaces of the wafer, each surface adjacent to a region of a different conductivity type;
• cleaving the wafer to form a strip of semiconductor material having a pair of opposed cleavage faces perpendicular to said metallized surfaces;
• separating the strip in a direction perpendicular to said cleavage faces to form a laser chip of the semiconductor material;
• bonding a first metallized surface of the chip to an electrically conducting surface of a support;
• and contacting an electrically conducting lead to a second metallized surface of said chip;
• the improvement comprising the steps of bonding an electrically conducting sheet to the second metallized surface of said strip prior to the separating step and contacting the electrically conducting lead to the electrically conducting sheet.