2.3-μm deep UV micro-LEDs fabricated by self-aligned selective thermal oxidation process

Recently, techniques for fabricating micro-sized deep ultraviolet light-emitting diodes (DUV LEDs) have been gaining attention. In this work, we propose a selective thermal oxidation (STO) process to fabricate ultra-small DUV micro-LEDs. Annealed in the air at 900°C for 2 h, the p-layers without SiO₂ protection are oxidized into insulating oxides, and oxygen penetrates into parts of the quantum wells. In contrast, the patterned SiO₂ protects the LED structure in the pixel regions. Therefore, micro-LED pixels are formed by the patterned SiO₂ and thermal oxidation process rather than the conventional reactive ion etching. The formed oxide in the unprotected region can function as the insulation layer between p-n electrodes. Meanwhile, the boundary between the pixel and the surrounding oxide is naturally formed during thermal oxidation, which is a "self-aligned" process. Dielectric deposition, precise lithography alignment, and aperture etching in the conventional process are no longer required in STO-based micro-LED fabrication, which reduces production complexity and cost. Based on the STO process, we have achieved 2.3-µm DUV micro-LED standalone pixels and arrays with a 270-nm emission wavelength. The standalone DUV micro-LED is possibly the smallest reported in the literature to date, which has a low-operation voltage of 4.9 and 6.75 V at 10 and 1000 A/cm². Meanwhile, the fabricated DUV micro-LED arrays show leakage current density 4 × 10^-7 A/cm² at -5 V and a peak EQE of 0.77% under unpackaged conditions. We hope this work provides a new insight into micro-LED fabrication and further promotes future performance growth of DUV LEDs.