Ultra-low-current driven InGaN blue micro light-emitting diodes for electrically efficient and self-heating relaxed microdisplay

InGaN-based micro-light-emitting diodes have a strong potential as a crucial building block for next-generation displays. However, small-size pixels suffer from efficiency degradations, which increase the power consumption of the display. We demonstrate strategies for epitaxial structure engineering carefully considering the quantum barrier layer and electron blocking layer to alleviate efficiency degradations in low current injection regime by reducing the lateral diffusion of injected carriers via reducing the tunneling rate of electrons through the barrier layer and balanced carrier injection. As a result, the fabricated micro-light-emitting diodes show a high external quantum efficiency of 3.00% at 0.1 A/cm(2) for the pixel size of 10 × 10 μm(2) and a negligible J(max EQE) shift during size reduction, which is challenging due to the non-radiative recombination at the sidewall. Furthermore, we verify that our epitaxy strategies can result in the relaxation of self-heating of the micro-light-emitting diodes, where the average pixel temperature was effectively reduced.