Light emitting diode having extensions of electrodes for current spreading

Abstract

Disclosed is a light emitting diode having extensions of electrodes for improving current spreading. The light emitting diode includes a lower semiconductor layer, an upper semiconductor layer and an active layer, which are formed on a substrate. The upper semiconductor layer is located above the lower semiconductor layer such that edge regions of the lower semiconductor layer are exposed, and has indents indented in parallel with diagonal directions from positions in the edge regions adjacent to corners of the substrate in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction to expose the lower semiconductor layer. The indents have distal ends spaced apart from each other. Meanwhile, a lower electrode is formed on the exposed region of the lower semiconductor layer corresponding to the first corner of the substrate, and an upper electrode is formed on a transparent electrode layer on the semiconductor layer. Lower extensions extending from the lower electrode are formed on the exposed edge regions of the lower semiconductor layer and on the regions of the lower semiconductor layer exposed through the indents. An upper extension extending from the upper electrode are formed on the transparent electrode layer. The lower and upper extensions improve current spreading, particularly, in a light emitting diode with a large area.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.