Light emitting diodes and substrates

摘要

A thin layer substrate has a plurality of micron sized electrically conductive whisker components which are arranged in parallel and extending from one surface of the substrate to another surface to provide electrically conductive paths through the substrate. Such a substrate may be usable for micron sized LEDs.

主权项

1. A method to produce an array of semiconductor diodes, the method comprising:
forming a substrate for the diodes, the forming comprising:
longitudinally aligning electrically conductive whiskers within substantially parallel grooves in a grooved surface to form substantially parallel whisker components spaced apart from one another across the surface with each whisker component comprising at least one whisker;pouring a liquid electrically insulative matrix material onto the grooved surface and over the aligned whiskers to cover a portion of the surface and at least partially surround the whiskers, and allowing the matrix material to solidify to retain the whiskers in the matrix material and form a matrix of the plurality of spaced apart and substantially parallel electrically conductive whisker components, with the whisker components extending longitudinally between a first end surface of the matrix and an opposing second end surface of the matrix and having a first end face exposed in the first end surface and a second end face exposed in the second end surface; andpolishing at least the first end surface of the matrix to provide polished first end faces of the whisker components for crystal growth thereon; growing at least one layer of a semiconductor on the first end surface epitaxial with the exposed first end faces of the whisker components; depositing a first electrical contact layer on the at least one layer of the semiconductor to provide a first electrical contact with the at least one layer of the semiconductor; depositing a second electrical contact layer on the second surface of the matrix in contact with the second end faces of the whisker components to provide a second electrical contact with the at least one layer of the semiconductor via the substantially parallel whisker components; and forming a laminated unit with ceramic material as encasement of said laminated unit, wherein forming the laminated unit and said encasement includes:
encasing the laminated unit with ceramic material to form a substantially rod-shaped component with the whiskers disposed longitudinally in the substantially rod-shaped component;applying pressure to the substantially rod-shaped component to form a unified ceramic structure;sintering the ceramic structure to form a substantially rod-shaped ceramic substrate having a substantially linear array of whisker components; andcutting the rod-shaped ceramic substrate into lengths sufficient to provide substrates for the semiconductor diodes.