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LED and Classification of LEDs

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LED and Classification of LEDs

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barenyamkumar123
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DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND NANOTECHNOLOGY

SRM INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

21PYB102J –Semiconductor Physics and Computational Methods

Module 2

Lecture 22 & 23

1
Light Emitting Diode (LED) –
Construction and working principle
What is LED?

LED are semiconductor p-n junctions that under forward Semiconductors bring
quality to light!
bias conditions can emit radiation by electroluminescence
in the UV, visible or infrared regions of the
electromagnetic spectrum. The quanta of light energy
released is approximately proportional to the band gap of
the semiconductor.

2
Application of LED

3
Basics of LED

 A light emitting diode (LED) is essentially a pn junction opto-semiconductor


that emits a monochromatic (single color) light when operated in a forward
biased direction.
 LEDs convert electrical energy into light energy. They are frequently used as
"pilot" lights in electronic appliances to indicate whether the circuit is closed or
not.

4
Principles of LED

 The p-n junction diode is forward biased. Due to forward bias, the majority
carriers from ‘n’ and ‘p’ regions cross the junction and become minority
carriers in the other junction. That is electrons, which are majority carriers in
‘n’ region cross the junction and go to ‘p’ region and become minority carriers
in p-region.
 Similarly, holes which are majority carries in ‘p’ region cross the junction and
go to ‘n’ region and become minority carriers in ‘n’ region and this
phenomenon is called minority carrier injection.

5
Radiative Recombination

 Now, if the biasing voltage is further increased, these excess minority carriers
diffuse away from the junction, and they directly recombine with the majority
carriers. i.e., the electrons, which are excess minority carriers in p-region
recombine with the holes which are the majority carriers in ‘p’ region and emit
light. Similarly, the holes which are excess minority carriers in ‘n’ region
recombine with the electrons which are majority carriers in ‘n’ region and emit
light.

6
Radioactive Recombination

 Thus, radiative recombination events lead to photon emission. The number of radiative
recombination is proportional to the carrier injection rate and hence to the total current flowing
through the device as given by I I  exp  eVkT   1
0

where, I0 - the saturation current; V- the forward bias voltage; k - the Boltzmann constant ;  -
varies from 1 and 2 depending on the semiconductor and temperature.
 The optical photon emitted due to radiative recombination has the energy very close to the bandgap
hc
E
energy Eg and frequency of the emitted photon is given by , where,
 g
 - the photon wavelength;
h – Planck’s constant; c - the velocity of light in vacuum.

7
Construction of LED

An LED must be constructed such that the light emitted by the radiative
recombination events can escape the structure.

8
Surface Emitting LED

Lightly doped P type


P type
Highly doped P type

9
Edge Emitting LED

10
Construction of a typical LED

11
Construction of a typical LED

 LEDs can be designed as either surface or edge emitters. Surface emitting


LEDs can be made such that the bottom edge reflects light back towards
the top surface to enhance the output intensity. The main advantage of
edge emitter LEDs is the emitted radiation is relatively direct. Hence edge
emitter LEDs have a higher efficiency when coupled to optical fiber.
 Although, the internal quantum efficiency of LEDs is 100%, the external
efficiencies are much lower. The main reason is that most of the emitted
light radiation strikes the material interface at greater than critical angle
and hence trapped with in the device. The internal critical angle at the
semiconductor – air boundary is given by sin  c n2
n1

where n1­ is the refractive index of air (1.0), and n 2 is the refractive index
of the semiconductor. For group III semiconductor n 2 = 3.5; therefore, qc
= 16°
 Therefore, all rays of light striking the surface at an angle exceeding 16°
suffer total internal reflection and as a result most of the emitted light is
reflected inside the semiconductor crystal.

12
Construction of a typical LED

1. Transparent Plastic Case


2. Terminal Pins
3. Diode

13
Hemispherical Dome Shape

 Hence, to improve the external efficiency losses caused by bulk absorption


must be minimized and the surface transmission must be increased. One
method to achieve this is to give the semiconductor a dome structure.
 Hemi spherical domes made from plastics are effective in increasing the
external efficiency by a factor 2 or 3. There will be some losses at the
plastic/air interface, but these are easily minimized by molding the plastic into
an approximately hemispherical shape.

14
Hemispherical Dome Shape

15
LED Materials

 The choice of the materials for an LED is decided by the spectral requirements
for a particular application. The most used materials for LEDs are GaP, GaAs
and their related ternary compound GaAsxP1-x.
 The bandgap radiation of GaP, GaAs and GaAsP. GaP which gives a peak at
560 nm is very close to the wavelength of maximum eye response.
 This makes GaP one of the most useful of all visible semiconductor light
sources since in addition to green light both red and other colours can be
produced by appropriate dopants.

Wavelength response of LED materials

16

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