Patent ID: 7745245

Claim:
A method of manufacturing a nitride semiconductor light emitting device, comprising: forming a repeated pattern of protruding portions on a surface of a sapphire substrate having a C plane as a primary plane; growing a GaN based semiconductor from the top surface of said protruding portions and from flat portions on said surface of said substrate where no protruding portions are formed so that said protruding portions are covered with said GaN based semiconductor; and forming an ohmic electrode on said GaN based semiconductor, wherein said protruding portions are island-like shaped and have a at least one side surface that is inclined relative to the direction in which said GaN based semiconductor is layered and is not parallel to a plane that includes an A axis of said GaN based semiconductor, wherein said GaN based semiconductor growing from the top surface of said protruding portion comprises a top surface and a side surface, and wherein said GaN based semiconductor growing from said flat portion comprises a top surface, wherein the GaN based semiconductors are grown such that the side surface of the GaN based semiconductor growing from the top surface first contacts the GaN based semiconductor growing from the flat portion near the side surface of said protruding portion so as to cover said protruding portions, and wherein a top surface of the combined GaN based semiconductors becomes flat.