Patent ID: 7384807

Claim:
A method of fabricating a vertical structure opto-electronic device, comprising: fabricating a plurality of vertical structure opto-electronic devices on a crystal substrate; removing the crystal substrate using a laser lift-off process; and fabricating a metal support structure in place of the crystal substrate, wherein the fabricating the metal support structure in place of the crystal substrate including depositing an ITO (Indium Tin Oxide) layer forming an n-contact, depositing an Au buffer layer over the ITO layer, plating a Cu layer over the Au buffer layer using at least one of electroplating and electro-less plating, wherein the vertical structure opto-electronic device is a GaN-based vertical structure, the crystal substrate includes sapphire and wherein the GaN-based vertical structure includes a buffer layer comprising an AlGaN buffer layer in addition to a GaN buffer layer or a AlN buffer layer to provide a thermal diffusion barrier to protect a polymer-base adhesive layer, and wherein trenches are formed from the-GaN buffer layer through the crystal substrate according to the following rules a) trench dimension is substantially similar to a laser beam spot size to relieve shock wave during the laser lift-off process, b) the trenches are narrower than about 100 microns wide and extend no deeper than about 3 microns into the crystal substrate, and c) the trenches are formed using reactive ion etching.