Nitride compound semiconductor element and method for manufacturing same
View Patent ↗The present invention is directed to a production method for a nitride compound semiconductor element including a substrate and a multilayer structure 40 supported by an upper face of the substrate. First, a wafer 1 to be split into individual substrates is provided. A plurality of semiconductor layers composing the multilayer structure 40 are grown on the wafer 1 . By cleaving the wafer 1 and the semiconductor layers, a cleavage plane in the multilayer structure 40 is formed. In the present invention, a plurality of voids are arranged at positions in the multilayer structure at which a cleavage plane is to be formed. Thus, cleavage can be performed with a good yield.
1. A nitride compound semiconductor element comprising a substrate having an upper face and a lower face and a multilayer structure supported by the upper face of the substrate, such that the substrate and the multilayer structure have at least two cleavage planes, wherein,
the multilayer structure includes at least one void which is in contact with either of the two cleavage planes, and
a cross section of the void in a plane which is parallel to the upper face of the substrate is sized and shaped so as to be accommodated within a rectangular region of 10 μm×10 μm.
2. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 1 , wherein the upper face of the substrate has a rectangular shape, and the void is located at at least one of four corners of the upper face of the substrate.
3. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 1 , wherein the multilayer structure has a laser resonator structure including: an n-type nitride compound semiconductor layer and a p-type nitride compound semiconductor layer; and an active layer interposed between the n-type nitride compound semiconductor layer and the p-type nitride compound semiconductor layer, at least a portion of the cleavage planes functioning as a resonator end face.
4. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 3 , wherein an interval between a bottom of the void and the substrate is smaller than an interval between the active layer and the substrate.
5. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 3 , wherein a trench is formed between a laser optical waveguide portion and the void in the multilayer structure.
6. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 5 , wherein an interval between the bottom of the trench and the substrate is smaller than an interval between the active layer and the substrate.
7. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a nitride compound semiconductor.
8. The nitride compound semiconductor element of claim 7 , comprising a rear electrode formed on the lower face of the substrate, wherein,
the rear electrode has a planar pattern which allows the void to be visually recognized through the lower face of the substrate.