Patent ID: 7569862

Claim:
A semiconductor light-emitting device manufactured by a method comprising: selectively etching a semiconductor layer structure and a metallic layer formed on the semiconductor layer structure thereby to form a mesa, wherein the semiconductor layer structure is fabricated in a nitride materials system and includes an aluminum-containing region, the metallic layer constituting the uppermost layer of the mesa; wherein the aluminum-containing region is either a cladding region or an optical guiding region ( 5 ); wherein at least one portions of the aluminum-containing region is exposed in the etching step; and wherein the method comprises oxidising the at least one exposed portion of the aluminum-containing region using the mesa ( 17 ) as a mask thereby to form a current blocking layer ( 18 ) laterally adjacent to and extending laterally from the mesa; and wherein an electrically conductive layer is deposited over the mesa and directly onto the oxidised exposed portion of the aluminum-containing region.