Patent ID: 8039283

Claim:
A production method for a nitride compound semiconductor element including a substrate having an upper face and a lower face and a multilayer structure supported by the upper face of the substrate, the production method comprising: a step of providing a wafer to be split into the substrate; a step of growing a plurality of semiconductor layers composing the multilayer structure on the wafer; and a step of performing cleavage of the wafer and the multilayer structure to form a cleavage plane, further comprising a step of arranging a plurality of voids at positions where the cleavage plane is to be formed, wherein at least one of the plurality of voids is shaped so as to have a longitudinal axis along a cleavage direction, wherein a cross section of each void in a plane which is parallel to the wafer is sized and shaped so as to be accommodated within a rectangular region of 10 μm×10 μm.