Patent ID: 7071015

Claim:
A method for producing a semiconductor light emitting device comprising the steps of: (a) forming an insulating layer on a single-crystal silicon substrate; (b) forming a gallium nitride type compound semiconductor layer as a buffer layer on the insulating layer; (c) stacking on the buffer layer in sequence a lower cladding layer, an active layer, an upper cladding layer, and a cap layer, these layers being made of the gallium nitride type compound semiconductor; (d) exposing a predetermined surface of the buffer layer by etching perpendicularly to the single-crystal silicon substrate; (e) forming electrodes on both the cap layer and the predetermined surface of the buffer layer exposed by the etching treatment in step (d), whereby obtaining a semiconductor wafer having multilayer structure; and (f) separating the semiconductor wafer to chips by dicing or by cleaving, wherein the step of forming the insulating layer is implemented by removing an oxide film over the single-crystal silicon substrate and forming a silicon nitride layer by heating under an atmosphere of nitrogen gas.