Patent ID: 8581274

Claim:
A process for manufacturing a compound semiconductor light-emitting device including a first light-emitting-unit and a second light-emitting-unit, the process comprising: preparing a semiconductor wafer which comprises a substrate, an optical coupling layer deposited on the substrate, and a thin-film crystal layer deposited on top of the optical coupling layer, the thin-film crystal layer having an n-type semiconductor layer containing an n-type cladding layer, one active layer structure, and a p-type semiconductor layer containing a p-type cladding layer; forming a light-emitting-unit separation-trench by dry-etching between a first part and a second part of the thin-film crystal layer, where the first part is a part to be included in the first light-emitting-unit and the second part is a part to be included in the second light-emitting-unit, so that the first light-emitting-unit and the second light-emitting-unit are electrically separated from each other and are formed by separating the one active layer structure, but are optically coupled to each other by the optical coupling layer which is below the first light-emitting-unit and the second light-emitting-unit, wherein light emitted by the first light-emitting unit and the second light-emitting unit is propagated through the optical coupling layer, the first light-emitting unit and the second light-emitting unit have a same emission wavelength, and the optical coupling layer is sufficiently insulative to electrically separate the first light-emitting unit and the second light-emitting unit; and eliminating the substrate from the optical coupling layer.