436

IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 49, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

Numerical Simulation of GaN-based LEDs With

Chirped Multiquantum Barrier Structure
Shoou-Jinn Chang, Senior Member, IEEE, Yu-Yao Lin, Chun-Hsing Liu, Shuguang Li, Tsun-Kai Ko,
and Schang-Jing Hon

Abstract The authors report the numerical simulation of

GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with either a conventional AlGaN electron blocking layer (EBL), uniform multiquantum barrier (UMQB) structure, or chirped multiquantum barrier
(CMQB) structure. It is found that the 102-meV effective barrier
height simulated from the LED with CMQB structure is larger
than those simulated from the LEDs with a UMQB structure
(90 meV) and with conventional AlGaN EBL (60 meV). With the
large effective barrier height, it is found that LEDs with a CMQB
structure exhibit smaller leakage current. It is also found that
the maximum internal quantum efficiencies are 0.703, 0.842, and
0.887, for the LEDs with conventional EBL, UMQB structure,
and CMQB structure, respectively. In addition, it is found that
forward voltages simulated from the LEDs with CMQB structure
and with UMQB structure are both smaller than that simulated
from the LED with conventional AlGaN EBL. These results also
agree well with the experimental data.
Index Terms Chirped multiquantum barrier (CMQB),
GaN, leakage current, light-emitting diodes (LEDs), simulation.

I. I NTRODUCTION

aN and its related compounds, such as AlGaN and

InGaN, are interesting materials with a direct bandgap.
The bandgap energy of Alx Ga1xy In y N varies from 0.7 eV
of InN to 6.3 eV of AlN. Therefore, one can adjust
the emitting wavelength of these III-nitride materials from
infrared to ultraviolet by changing the composition ratio
between aluminum, gallium and indium. These properties also
make III-nitride materials suitable for light emitters. Indeed,
GaN-based blue/green light emitting diodes (LEDs) have
Manuscript received December 20, 2012; revised February 19, 2013;
accepted February 25, 2013. Date of publication March 7, 2013; date of
current version March 20, 2013. This work was supported in part by the
Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Center, NCKU, the Research Center for
Energy Technology and Strategy, NCKU under Projects from the Ministry of
Education, Taiwan, and the Bureau of Energy, Ministry of Economic Affairs
of Taiwan, under Contract 100-D0204-6.
S.-J. Chang is with the Institute of Microelectronics and Department of Electrical Engineering, Advanced Optoelectronic Technology Center, Research
Center for Energy Technology and Strategy, National Cheng Kung University,
Tainan 70101, Taiwan (e-mail: changsj@mail.ncku.edu.tw).
Y.-Y. Lin is with the Department of Photonics, National Cheng Kung
University, Tainan 70101, Taiwan (e-mail: yuyaolin0128@gmail.com).
C. H. Liu is with the Department of Electronic Engineering,
Nan Jeon Institute of Technology, Tainan 73746, Taiwan (e-mail:
liuch1688@mail.njtc.edu.tw).
S. Li is with the College of Science, China University of Petroleum (East
China), Shandong 266555, China (e-mail: lshguang@upc.edu.cn).
T.-K. Ko and S.-J. Hon are with Epistar Corporation, Tainan 744, Taiwan
(e-mail: kai_ke@epistar.com.tw; sj_hon@epistar.com.tw).
Color versions of one or more of the figures in this paper are available
online at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JQE.2013.2250919

already been extensively used in traffic light lamps, outdoor

full-color displays, backlight of liquid crystal displays and
automobile taillights [1][3]. To achieve a high output power,
one needs to enhance both the light extraction efficiency (LEE)
and the internal quantum efficiency (IQE) of the LEDs. Several
recent works had focused on the improvement of IQE of
InGaN QW LEDs by suppressing the charge separation effect
in active region [4], [5] and reducing the dislocation density
in InGaN/GaN materials [6][8]. The suppression of charge
separation in InGaN QW had been reported by using non/semipolar QW [4] and polar QW with large overlap design [5], and
the GaN growth of nano-patterned sapphire [6][8] had been
reported for reducing the dislocation density by several orders
of magnitude.
Typical high-brightness LEDs exhibit a multiquantum well
(MQW) active region. The MQW LED is a kind of heterostructure LED in which the thickness of well layers is
less than the deBroglie wavelength of the carriers in the
semiconductor material. Thus, electrons and holes are confined
in the well layers. However, it has been shown that recombination efficiency of these MQW LEDs is high at low injection
currents. However, the efficiency decreases gradually as the
injection current increases [9][12]. Such a phenomenon is
called efficiency droop. The exact origin of such efficiency
droop is still not fully understood. Several loss mechanisms
to explain the droop phenomenon have been proposed such
as junction heating, carrier leakage, carrier delocalization,
and Auger recombination. The current injection efficiency
quenching in InGaN QW LEDs had been shown as important
limitation at high current injection level [13], [14]. This finding
is also consistent with the general theory of current injection
efficiency developed in IIIV QW lasers [15], which shows the
importance of thermionic carrier escape processes [16], [17]
in leading to reduction in current injection efficiency in QW
lasers at high injection level. Recent work had also reported
the possibility of Auger process in leading to droop issue in
nitride LEDs [18].
It has also been found very recently that the electron
current leakage and nonuniform hole distribution are the
possible mechanisms responsible for the efficiency droop at
high injection current [19]. The most commonly used method
to reduce electron current leakage is to insert a p-AlGaN
electron blocking layer (EBL) between the MQW active region
and the p-GaN cap layer [20]. With a larger bandgap, this EBL
provides a potential barrier which can reduce the probability
for the injected electrons to overflow from the MQW active

0018-9197/$31.00 2013 IEEE

CHANG et al.: NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF GaN-BASED LEDs

region into the p-GaN cap layer. In 1986, Iga et al. proposed a multiquantum barrier (MQB) structure to enhance the
electron blocking capability [21]. MQB structure consists of
alternating layers of narrow and wide bandgap semiconductor
materials. Similar to crystal lattice, such an arrangement forms
allowed and forbidden carrier states over a very shorter range.
By properly design the MQB structure, it is possible to achieve
an effective barrier height which is much larger than classical
barrier [22]. Previous works had also demonstrated the use of
MQB as a mechanism to improve the effective barrier height
in InGaP-based red LEDs and laser diodes, which results in
suppression of carrier leakage [23][28].
Similarly, we should be able to apply MQB structure to
GaN-based LDs and LEDs. It has been shown that one
can achieve much lower threshold current and higher slope
efficiency from GaN-based LDs with MQB structure, as
compared to GaN-based LDs with a p-AlGaN EBL [29]. For
GaN-based LEDs, it has also been shown experimentally
that MQB structure can successfully reduce the leakage current [30]. This should also result in reduced efficiency droop
at high injection current. However, only very few reports
on GaN-based LEDs with MQB structure can be found in
the literature. On the other hand, it has been shown that
chirped MQB (CMQB) structure can provide an even larger
electron blocking efficiency for AlInGaP-based LEDs, as
compared to uniform MQB (UMQB) [31]. Very recently, Lin
et al. reported experimentally that such CMQB can indeed
further improve the performances of GaN-based LEDs [32].
In this study, we numerically simulated the performance of
GaN-based LEDs with either conventional EBL, UMQB structure or CMQB structure by using the Advance Physical Model
of Semiconductor Devices (APSYS) program developed by
the Crosslight Software Inc [33]. This program can simulate
optical and electrical properties of LEDs by solving Poissons equation, current continuity equations, carrier transport
equation, quantum mechanical wave equation, and photon rate
equation. Using the simulation program, the performance of
the LEDs will be compared and discussed. The simulated
results will also be compared to the properties of the experimentally fabricated LEDs.

437

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of simulated LEDs with three different EBL

structures.

CMQB structure consists of five Al0.15 Ga0.85 N layers

(7.5, 33.75, 60, 86.25, and 112.5 , arranged in sequence from
n-side to p-side) and four GaN layers (65.625, 46.875, 28.125,
and 9.375 , arranged in sequence from n-side to p-side) with
different thicknesses. Notice that film thicknesses of the five
Al0.15 Ga0.85 N layers are increased monotonically while thicknesses of the four GaN layers are decreased monotonically
instead. It should be noted that thicknesses of these layers were
designed following the geometric ratio. The total thicknesses
of the UMQB and CMQB structures are maintained at 45 nm,
which is identical to that of Al0.15 Ga0.85 N EBL used in
conventional AlGaN LED. In our simulation, we assumed
that the device geometry was rectangular with an area of
200 200 m2 . The internal absorption within the LED is
assumed to be 500 m1 and the operating temperature the
LED is assumed to be 500 m1 and the operating temperature
is 300 K. To simplify the simulation, the light extraction
efficiency is assumed to be 0.8. Other material parameters
of the semiconductors used in the simulation can be found
elsewhere [19]. The surface charges at the interfaces are
calculated by the methods developed by Fiorentini et al. [34].
III. E XPERIMENTAL

II. S TRUCTURE AND PARAMETERS

GaN-based LEDs with three different EBL structures, i.e.,
conventional AlGaN, UMQB and CMQB, prepared on c-plane
sapphire substrate were simulated in this study. As shown in
Fig. 1, structure of the conventional GaN-based LED consists
of a 3-m-thick n-GaN layer with n = 5 1018 cm3 , a
MQW active region, a 45-nm-thick p-Al0.1 Ga0.9 N EBL and a
15-nm-thick p-GaN cap layer with p = 1.2 1018 cm3 . The
MQW active region consists of eight 2-nm-thick In0.12 Ga0.88 N
well layers separated by night 15-nm-thick GaN barriers.
The structures of UMQB LED and CMQB LED were
identical to that of the conventional LED, except the UMQB
and CMQB structures were used instead of AlGaN EBL for
UMQB and CMQB LEDs, respectively. The UMQB structure
consists of four 50-nm-thick GaN layers interleaved by five
5-nm-thick Al0.15 Ga0.85 N layers. On the other hand, the

To experimentally support the simulation results, LEDs with

conventional EBL, with UMQB and with CMQB structure
were fabricated. The samples used in this study were all
grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD)
on c-plane sapphire substrate. Details of the growth can
be found elsewhere [35], [36]. The structures used for our
experimental samples were identical to those used for simulation. Standard procedures were subsequently used to fabricate
the 200 200 m LED chips with indium-tin-oxide (ITO)
p-contact [37] and Ti-Al-Ti-Au n-contact. The currentvoltage
(I V ) characteristics of the fabricated devices were then measured at room temperature using an HP4156 semiconductor
parameter analyzer. The chips were subsequently packaged
as LED lamps. The intensitycurrent (LI ) characteristics of
the packaged lamps were measured with the molded LEDs
attached to an integrating sphere detector.

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IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 49, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

Fig. 2. Simulated distribution of carriers in LED with conventional EBL

injected with 130-mA dc current.

Fig. 4.

Simulated electron reflection rate for three MQW LEDs.

(a)
Fig. 3.
Simulated energy band diagrams for GaN-based LEDs with
conventional EBL, UMQB structure, and CMQB structure, injected with
130-mA dc current.

IV. S IMULATION A NALYSIS

To understand the decrease in efficiency for GaN-based
LEDs, we need to know carrier distribution profiles within the
device. Fig. 2 shows simulated distribution of carriers in the
LED with conventional AlGaN EBL injected with 130 mA
DC current. In this figure, electrons and holes are injected
from the right-side (i.e., n-region) and left-side (i.e., p-region),
respectively. The gray regions represent the location of well
layers in the active region. As shown in Fig. 2, it was found
that electron concentrations in each well were all about the
same. With small effective mass and high mobility, electrons
can transport among the well layers easily. Thus, electrons
were distributed uniformly among the well layers. On the
other hand, effective mass is much larger and the mobility
is much lower for holes. Furthermore, the EBL also acts as
a potential barrier to retard the holes from injecting into the
active region [38]. Thus, most holes are confined in the last
well layer next to the p-type region. Using angle-resolved farfield measurements, David et al. reported experimentally that
only the well layer nearest the p-type region emits light under
electrical pumping [39]. Such a result agrees well with our
simulation.
Previously, Kim et al. pointed out that the reduced LED
efficiency under high current injection is not related to MQW
efficiency but rather to the recombination of carriers outside

(b)
Fig. 5. Calculated radiative recombination rate in each well layer for three
MQW LEDs injected. (a) 20-mA dc current. (b) 130-mA dc current.

the MQW region [40]. As shown in Fig. 2, it was found that a

significant amount of electrons can overflow across the EBL.
These electrons could result in leakage current and severe
efficiency droop, particularly under high current injections. To
minimize such a problem, we simulated the performance of
GaN-based LEDs with UMQB structure and CMQB structure.
Fig. 3 show simulated energy band diagrams for GaN-based
LEDs with conventional AlGaN EBL, UMQB structure and
CMQB structure, injected with 130 mA DC current. It can be
seen from these figures that not much difference in the band
bending of active region can be observed. This suggests that
we can neglect the effects originated from piezo polarization.

CHANG et al.: NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF GaN-BASED LEDs

439

(a)
(a)

(b)
Fig. 6. (a) Simulated and (b) experimental LI characteristics for these three
LEDs.

Fig. 4 shows simulated electron reflection rate for these

three MQW LEDs operated. These results were achieved using
the transfer matrix method. Briefly, the electron wave-function
in the well layers and the barrier layers could be calculated by
quantum mechanical treatment. Similar method has also been
applied to AlGaInP-based LEDs with CMQB [31]. Compared
with the LED with a single AlGaN EBL, it can be seen that
simulated electron reflection rates were higher for the LEDs
with either an UMQB structure or with a CMQB structure.
This should be attributed to the good electron confinement as
a result of the quantum interference of the electrons within
the MQBs. It can be seen from Fig. 4 that the effective
barrier heights were 60, 90 and 102 meV for the LEDs with
conventional EBL, UMQB structure and CMQB structure,
respectively. In other words, we achieved the largest effective
barrier height from the LED with CMQB structure followed by
the LED with UMQB structure. On the other hand, effective
barrier height for the conventional LED with a single AlGaN
EBL was the smallest. To further understand the effects of
UMQB and CMQB structures, we calculated the radiative
recombination rate in each well layer. Fig. 5 shows calculated
radiative recombination rate in each well layer for the three
MQW LEDs injected with 20 and 130 mA DC current. It can
be seen that we achieved the highest radiative recombination
rates in these well layers from the LED with CMQB structure,
followed by the LED with UMQB structure. On the other
hand, radiative recombination rates in these well layers were
the smallest for the LED with a single EBL. Such a result

(b)
Fig. 7.
LEDs.

(a) Simulated IQE and (b) experimental EQE curves for these three

is expected since the radiative recombination rate is directly

related to the number of carriers confined in the well layers.
Fig. 6(a) shows simulated LED power as a function of the
injected DC current for these three LEDs. Within the current
range investigated, it can be seen clearly that LED power
achieved from the LEDs with UMQB structure or with CMQB
structure were both significantly higher than that achieved
from the LED with conventional EBL. These results suggest
that CMQB could provide an even higher barrier height, as
compared to UMQB. Fig. 6(b) shows LI characteristics
experimentally measured from these three blue LEDs. From
the LI curves, it was found that output power observed from
the CMQB LED was the largest, followed by the UMQB LED
while output power of the LED with conventional AlGaN
EBL was the smallest. It should be noted that output power
measured from the CMQB LED was larger than that measured
from UMQB LED. This should again be attributed to the larger
effective potential barrier provided by CMQB.
Fig. 7(a) shows simulated IQE as a function of the injected
DC current for these three LEDs. Within the current range
investigated, it can be seen clearly that IQEs achieved from the
LEDs with UMQB structure and LEDs with CMQB structure
were both significantly higher than that achieved from the
LED with conventional EBL. It was also found that the maximum IQE were 0.703, 0.842, and 0.887, for the LEDs with
conventional EBL, with UMQB structure and with CMQB
structure, respectively. Fig. 7(b) shows normalized external

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IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 49, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

found that LEDs with CMQB structure exhibit smaller leakage

current. Furthermore, it was found that forward voltages
simulated from the LEDs with CMQB structure and with
UMQB structure were both smaller than that simulated from
the LED with conventional AlGaN EBL. It was also found
that the maximum IQE were 0.703, 0.842, and 0.887, for the
LEDs with conventional EBL, with UMQB structure and with
CMQB structure, respectively. Furthermore, it was found that
CMQB could also effectively reduce efficiency droop. These
results also agree well with the experimental data.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Fig. 8. Simulated IV characteristics for these three LEDs. Inset experimental
results.

quantum efficiency (EQE) as a function of injection current

measured from these three LEDs. In this figure, the EQE
was normalized to their respective maximum value. It can be
seen clearly that we can indeed effectively improve drooping
phenomenon by replacing the AlGaN EBL with either UMQB
structure or CMQB structure. Here, we define the percentage
of efficiency droop as the ratio of IQE at 130 mA to the
maximum IQE [38]. With such definition, it was found that the
percentages of efficiency droop were 0.626, 0.668, and 0.673
for the LEDs with conventional EBL, with UMQB structure
and with CMQB structure, respectively. These values suggest
that CMQB could provide an even higher barrier height, as
compared to UMQB. As a result, we achieved the smallest
droop from the LED with CMQB structure.
Fig. 8 plots simulated I V characteristics for these three
LEDs. It should be noted that forward voltages simulated
from the LEDs with CMQB structure and with UMQB
structure were both smaller than that simulated from the
LED with conventional AlGaN EBL. Experimentally achieved
I V curves measured from these three LEDs were plotted
in the inset of Fig. 8. With 20 mA current injection, it was
found the forward voltages for CMQB LED, UMQB LED
and LED with conventional AlGaN EBL were 3.16, 3.17, and
3.18 V, respectively. With MQB structure (i.e., either UMQB
or CMQB) incorporated, it is possible that some of the injected
holes are confined and subsequently spread out in an in-plane
direction before they enter the MQW active region. As a
result, a better current spreading and thus a lower forward
voltage can be achieved. These values also suggest that we can
simultaneously improve the electrical property of the LEDs by
using the CMQB structure. Such a result also agrees well with
the numerically achieved simulation.
V. C ONCLUSION
In summary, we report numerical simulation of GaN-based
LEDs with either conventional AlGaN EBL, UMQB structure
or CMQB structure. It was found that the 102 meV effective
barrier height simulated from the LED with CMQB structure was larger than those simulated from the LEDs with
UMQB structure (90 meV) and with conventional AlGaN
EBL (60 meV). With the large effective barrier height, it was

The authors would like to thank the LED Lighting and

Research Center, NCKU, for the assistance in related measurements.
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Shoou-Jinn Chang (M06SM10) was born in

Taipei, Taiwan, on January 17, 1961. He received
the B.S. degree from the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, in 1983, the M.S.
degree from the State University of New York, Stony
Brook, NY, USA, in 1985, and the Ph.D. degree from
the University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA,
in 1989, all in electrical engineering.
He was a Research Scientist with Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT) Basic Research Laboratories, Musashino, Japan, from 1989 to 1992. He
joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, NCKU, Tainan in 1992,
as an Associate Professor, where he was promoted to a full Professor in
1998. He is currently the Deputy Director of the Advanced Optoelectronic
Technology Center, NCKU, Tainan. He was a Royal Society Visiting Scholar
with the University of Wales, Swansea, U.K., from January 1999 to March
1999, a Visiting Scholar with the Research Center for Advanced Science and
Technology, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, from July 1999 to February
2000, a Visiting Scholar with the Institute of Microstructural Science, National
Research Council, Canada, from August 2001 to September 2001, a Visiting
Scholar with the Institute of Physics, Stuttgart University, Stuttgart, Germany,
from August 2002 to September 2002, and a Visiting Scholar with the Faculty
of Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan from July 2005 to September
2005. He is also an Honorary Professor of the Changchun University of
Science and Technology, Changchun, China. His current research interests
include semiconductor physics, optoelectronic devices, and nanotechnology.
Prof. Chang was the recipient of the Outstanding Research Award from the
National Science Council, Taiwan, in 2004. He is a Fellow of OSA and SPIE.

Yu-Yao Lin was born in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on

January 28, 1983. He received the B.S. degree in
electrical engineering from Chung Yuan Christian
University, Jung Li, Taiwan, in 2005, and the M.S.
degree in photonics from National Cheng Kung
University (NCKU), Tainan, Taiwan, in 2008. He
is currently pursuing the Ph.D. degree with the
Department of Photonics, NCKU, Tainan.
His current research interests include device
design, simulation, and reliability of GaN-based
LEDs.

442

IEEE JOURNAL OF QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 49, NO. 4, APRIL 2013

Chun-Hsing Liu received the M.S. and Ph.D.

degrees in electrical engineering from National
Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in 1991 and
1997, respectively.
He is currently an Associate Professor with the
Department of Electronic Engineering, Nan Jeon
Institute of Technology, Tainan. His current research
interests include optoelectronic devices and compound semiconductors

Shuguang Li was born in Shandong Province,

China, on September 30, 1964. He received the B.S.
degree from the Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China, and the M.S. degree from Northwestern
Polytechnical University, Xian, China, in 1985 and
1990, respectively.
He is currently a full Professor with the College
of Science, China University of Petroleum (East
China), Qingdao, China.

Tsun-Kai Ko was born in Chang-Hua, Taiwan,

in 1980. He received the B.S. degree from the
Department of Electrical Engineering, the M.S. and
Ph.D. degrees from the Institute of Microelectronics,
National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan, in
2002, 2004, and 2007, respectively.
He is currently a Research Scientist with the
Epistar Corporation, Hsin-Shi, Taiwan.

Schang-Jing Hon received the Diploma degree

and Doctor Dissertation in physics from RheinischWestfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen
(RWTH), Aachen, Germany.
He has been working in the LED industrial
for more than ten years. From 2000 to 2002, he
served as a member of the Technical Staff with the
Kopin Corporation, Taunton, MA, USA, where he
developed MOCVD to grow GaN-based LEDs. He
founded Supernova Corporation, Taoyuan, Taiwan,
in 2004, and served as the President until 2004. He
joined Epitech Corporation, Tainan, Taiwan, in 2006. He is currently an AVP
of the GaN R&D Group, Epistar Corporation, Tainan, Taiwan.