US Patent 7259402 High efficiency group III nitride-silicon carbide light emitting diode

A method and resulting structures are disclosed for fabricating a high efficiency high extraction light emitting diode suitable for packaging. The method includes the steps of adding a light emitting active portion of wide-bandgap semiconductor material to a conductive silicon carbide substrate, joining the added active portion to a conductive sub-mounting structure, and removing a portion of the silicon carbide substrate opposite the added active portion to thereby reduce the overall thickness of the joined substrate, active portion and sub-mounting structure. The resulting the sub-mounting structure can be joined to a lead frame with the active portion positioned between the silicon carbide substrate and the sub-mounting structure to thereby use the sub-mounting structure to separate the active portion from the lead frame and avoid undesired electrical contact between the active portion and the lead frame.