Micro-LED is considered an emerging display technology with significant potential for high resolution, brightness, and energy efficiency in display applications. However, its decreasing pixel size and complex manufacturing process create challenges for its integration with driving units. Recently, researchers have proposed various methods to achieve highly integrated micro-structures with driving unit. Researchers take advantage of the high performance of the transistors to achieve low power consumption, high current gain, and fast response frequency. This paper gives a review of recent studies on the new integration methods of micro-LEDs with different types of transistors, including the integration with BJT, HEMT, TFT, and MOSFET.
GaN-based μLEDs with superior properties have enabled outstanding achievements in emerging micro-display, high-quality illumination, and communication applications, especially white-light visible light communication (WL-VLC). WL-VLC systems can simultaneously provide white-light solid-state lighting (SSL) while realizing high-speed wireless optical communication. However, the bandwidth of conventional white-light LEDs is limited by the long-lifetime yellow yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) phosphor, which restricts the available communication performance. In this paper, white-light GaN-μLEDs combining blue InGaN-μLEDs with green/red perovskite quantum dots (PQDs) are proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Green PQDs (G-PQDs) and red PQDs (R-PQDs) with narrow emission spectrum and short fluorescence lifetime as color converters instead of the conventional slow-response YAG phosphor are mixed with high-bandwidth blue InGaN-μLEDs to generate white light. The communication and illumination performances of the WL-VLC system based on the white-light GaN-based μLEDs are systematically investigated. The VLC properties of monochromatic light (green/red) from G-PQDs or R-PQDs are studied in order to optimize the performance of the white light. The modulation bandwidths of blue InGaN-μLEDs, G-PQDs, and R-PQDs are up to 162 MHz, 64 MHz, and 90 MHz respectively. Furthermore, the white-light bandwidth of 57.5 MHz and the Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) of (0.3327, 0.3114) for the WL-VLC system are achieved successfully. These results demonstrate the great potential and the direction of the white-light GaN-μLEDs with PQDs as color converters to be applied for VLC and SSL simultaneously. Meanwhile, these results contribute to the implementation of full-color micro-displays based on μLEDs with high-quality PQDs as color-conversion materials.
Surface-plasmon (SP) coupled red light emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well (MQW) structure is fabricated and investigated. The centre wavelength of 5-period InGaN/GaN MQW structure is about 620 nm. The intensity of photoluminescence (PL) for InGaN QW with naked Ag nano-structures (NS) is only slightly increased due to the oxidation of Ag NS as compared to that for the InGaN QW. However, InGaN QW with Ag NS/SiO2 structure can evidently enhance the emission efficiency due to the elimination of surface oxide layer of Ag NS. With increasing the laser excitation power, the PL intensity is enhanced by 25%–53% as compared to that for the SiO2 coating InGaN QW. The steady-state electric field distribution obtained by the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method is different for both structures. The proportion of the field distributed in the Ag NS for the GaN/Ag NS/SiO2 structure is smaller as compared to that for the GaN/naked Ag NS structure. As a result, the energy loss of localized SP modes for the GaN/naked Ag NS structure will be larger due to the absorption of Ag layer.
Realizing energy-efficient devices with sustainable and independent operation is a large challenge for next-generation photodetection systems in various environments. In this study, we present a high-response and fast-speed ultraviolet photodetector (UV PD) based on the p-AlGaN/AlN/n-GaN nanowires (NWs) heterojunction, which could operate at a 0 V bias for underwater photodetection through the photoelectrochemical (PEC) process. Compared to the UV PD without AlN insertion, the detection performance would be increased to 3–5 times for underwater solar-blind UV detection under the effect of heterostructure band engineering to prevent carrier drift and recombination at 0 V bias under 255 nm illumination. Furthermore, the photoresponsivity and response speed can be further improved by a surface modification strategy to adjust the carrier transport between the nitride semiconductor and electrolyte. These promising results lay a solid foundation for the development of III-nitride high-efficiency, self-powered PEC photosynthesis devices in the future.
GaN-based blue micro-light-emitting diodes (μ-LEDs) with different structures were designed, of which the effect of quantum well (QW) structure on modulation bandwidth was numerically explored. By using trapezoidal QWs, the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) can be reduced, leading to an enhanced electron-hole wave function overlap, thereby increasing the recombination rate and reducing the differential carrier lifetime. In addition, the improved hole transport also creates favorable conditions for shortening the differential carrier lifetime. Furthermore, by comparing with traditional μ-LEDs with different thicknesses of QW, the modulation bandwidth of μ-LEDs with trapezoidal QWs exhibits a large advantage at lower current densities of below 2 kA/cm2.
Through investigating the temperature dependent current-voltage (T-I-V) properties of GaN based blue and green LEDs in this study, we propose an asymmetric tunneling model to understand the leakage current below turn-on voltage (V < 3.2 V): At the forward bias within 1.5 V ∼ 2.1 V (region 1), the leakage current is main attributed to electrons tunneling from the conduction band of n-type GaN layer to the valence band of p-type GaN layer via defect states in space-charge region (SCR); While, at the forward bias within 2 V ∼ 2.4 V (region 2), heavy holes tunneling gradually becomes dominant at low temperature (T < 200K) as long as they can overcome the energy barrier height. The tunneling barrier for heavy holes is estimated to be lower than that for electrons, indicating the heavy holes might only tunnel to the defect states. This asymmetric tunneling model shows a novel carrier transport process, which provides better understanding of the leakage characteristics and is vital for future device improvements.
An excellent hybrid III‐nitride/nanocrystal nanohole light‐emitting diode (h‐LED) has been developed utilizing nonradiative resonant energy transfer (NRET) between violet/blue emitting InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and various wavelength emitting nanocrystals (NCs) as color‐conversion mediums. InGaN/GaN MQWs are fabricated into nanoholes by soft nanoimprint lithography to minimize the separation between MQWs and NCs. A significant reduction in the decay lifetime of excitons in the MQWs of the hybrid structure has been observed as a result of the NRET from the nitride emitter to NCs. The NRET efficiency of the hybrid structures is obtained from the decay curves, as high as 80%. Moreover, a modified Förster formulation has exhibited that the exciton coupling distance in the hybrid structures is less than the Förster's radius, demonstrating a strong coupling between MQWs and NCs. Finally, based on a systemic optimization for white emission indexes, a series of hybrid ternary complementary color h‐LEDs have been demonstrated with a high color rendering index, up to 82, covering the white light emission at different correlated color temperatures ranging from 2629 to 6636 K, corresponding to warm white, natural white, and cold white.
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