Semiconductor devices, such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers, and methods for manufacturing the same, are disclosed. The semiconductor devices include contact extensions and electrically conductive adhesive material, such as fusible metal alloys or electrically conductive composites. In some instances, the semiconductor devices further include structured contacts. These components enable the production of semiconductor devices having minimal distortion. For example, arrays of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers can be produced exhibiting little to no bowing. Semiconductor devices having minimal distortion exhibit enhanced performance in some instances.

The invention relates to a semiconductor laser diode, which comprises a semiconductor layer sequence grown in a vertical direction and having an active layer that is configured and provided to generate light during operation in at least one active region extending in a longitudinal direction, and which comprises a transparent electrically conductive cover layer on the semiconductor layer sequence, wherein the semiconductor layer sequence terminates in a vertical direction with a top side, and the top side has a contact region arranged in the vertical direction above the active region and at least one cover region directly adjoining the contact region in a lateral direction perpendicular to the vertical and longitudinal directions, the cover layer is applied contiguously to the contact region and the at least one cover region on the top side, the cover layer is applied directly to the top side of the semiconductor layer sequence at least in the at least one cover region, and at least one element defining the at least one active region is present which is covered by the cover layer. The invention further relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor laser diode.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

A surface-emitting semiconductor laser includes a substrate, a first electrode in contact with the substrate, a first light reflection layer over the substrate, a second light reflection layer over the substrate, with the first light reflection layer between the second light reflection layer and the substrate, an active layer between the second light reflection layer and the first light reflection layer, a current confining layer between the active layer and the second light reflection layer and includes a current injection region, a second electrode over the substrate, with the second light reflection layer between the second electrode and the substrate, at least a portion of the second electrode is at a position overlapping the current injection region, and a contact layer between the second electrode and the second light reflection layer and includes a contact region in contact with the second electrode.

Disclosed herein are multi-layered optically active regions for semiconductor light-emitting devices (LEDs) that incorporate intermediate carrier blocking layers, the intermediate carrier blocking layers having design parameters for compositions and doping levels selected to provide efficient control over the carrier injection distribution across the active regions to achieve desired device injection characteristics. Examples of embodiments discussed herein include, among others: a multiple-quantum-well variable-color LED operating in visible optical range with full coverage of RGB gamut, a multiple-quantum-well variable-color LED operating in visible optical range with an extended color gamut beyond standard RGB gamut, a multiple-quantum-well light-white emitting LED with variable color temperature, and a multiple-quantum-well LED with uniformly populated active layers.

A semiconductor device includes a detector structure. The detector structure includes an integrated circuit on a substrate, and a photo detector on an upper surface of the integrated circuit that is opposite the substrate, where the substrate is non-native to the photo detector. A System-on-Chip apparatus includes at least one laser emitter on a non-native substrate, at least one photo detector on the non-native substrate, and an input/output circuit. The at least one photo detector of the second plurality of photo detectors is disposed on an integrated circuit between the at least one photo detector and the non-native substrate to form a detector structure.

A distributed feedback laser (DFB) is a type of laser diode in which the active region of the device contains a periodically structured element or diffraction grating, which may include periodic changes in refractive index that cause reflection back into the laser cavity. Conventional DFB lasers used in optical networks may exploit either loss-modulated or index-modulated gratings. In the case of complex-coupling, index-modulated and loss-modulated gratings may be combined together.

Building blocks are provided for on-chip chemical sensors and other highly-compact photonic integrated circuits combining interband or quantum cascade lasers and detectors with passive waveguides and other components integrated on a III-V or silicon. A MWIR or LWIR laser source is evanescently coupled into a passive extended or resonant-cavity waveguide that provides evanescent coupling to a sample gas (or liquid) for spectroscopic chemical sensing. In the case of an ICL, the uppermost layer of this passive waveguide has a relatively high index of refraction that enables it to form the core of the waveguide, while the ambient air, consisting of the sample gas, functions as the top cladding layer. A fraction of the propagating light beam is absorbed by the sample gas if it contains a chemical species having a fingerprint absorption feature within the spectral linewidth of the laser emission.

In an embodiment, the gain-guided semiconductor laser includes a semiconductor layer sequence and electrical contact pads. The semiconductor layer sequence includes an active zone for radiation generation, a waveguide layer, and a cladding layer. The semiconductor layer sequence further includes a current diaphragm layer which is electrically conductive along a resonator axis (R) in a central region and electrically insulating in adjoining edge regions. Transverse to the resonator axis (R), the central region includes a width of at least 10 μm and the edge regions includes at least a minimum width. The minimum width is 3 μm or more. Seen in plan view, the semiconductor layer sequence as well as at least one of the contact pads on the semiconductor layer sequence are continuous components extending in the central region as well as on both sides at least up to the minimum width in the direction transverse to the resonator axis adjoining the central region and beyond the central region.

A vertical cavity surface emitting laser element includes a first light reflecting film, a nitride semiconductor layered body, a p-electrode and a second light reflecting film. The nitride semiconductor layered body includes an n-side semiconductor layer disposed on the first light reflecting film, an active layer disposed on the n-side semiconductor layer, and a p-side semiconductor layer disposed on the active layer. The p-side semiconductor layer includes a protrusion and a surface around the protrusion. The p-electrode is in contact with an upper surface of the protrusion, and extends to the surface around the protrusion. The p-electrode is light-transmissive. The second light reflecting film is disposed on the p-electrode. A height of the protrusion as measured from the surface around the protrusion is smaller than a thickness of the p-electrode.