Patent ID: 7754512

Claim:
A method of fabricating a semiconductor light-emitting device having a semiconductor substrate of a first conductive type, and a plurality of mutually isolated light-emitting regions of a second conductive type formed in the semiconductor substrate and disposed in an array along an array direction, the semiconductor substrate having peripheral edges that extend in the array direction, the method comprising: diffusing an impurity of said second conductive type into a first part of a top surface of the semiconductor substrate, thereby forming at least one diffusion region having a diffusion depth sufficient for emission of a light with a desired intensity; and then removing material from the at least one diffusion region to form a plurality of isolation trenches, the isolation trenches, taken from a plan view of the semiconductor substrate, cutting through the at least one diffusion region in a first direction that is parallel to the top surface of the semiconductor substrate and perpendicular to the array direction and separating the at least one diffusion region into said mutually isolated light-emitting regions, the isolation trenches being as wide as or wider than the at least one diffusion region in the first direction, the at least one diffusion region and the isolation trenches being narrower than the substrate in the first direction, each of the isolation trenches being apart from the array-direction-extending peripheral edges of the semiconductor substrate; and after forming the isolation trenches, forming a plurality of electrode pads and a plurality of electrodes on a second part of the top surface of the semiconductor substrate, the electrode pads, taken from the plan view of the semiconductor substrate, being spaced apart from the diffusion region, the electrode pads being electrically coupled to the at least one diffusion region by the electrodes, the second part being different from the first part.