MANUFACTURE OF LIGHT EMITTING ELEMENT

PURPOSE:To contrive not to form a spike-formed high impurity layer inside of the device even in the presence of pin holes on the protection film on a wafer surface, by forming a shallow impurity diffused layer formed in the groove of the wafer surface. CONSTITUTION:A P layer 4, an N layer 5 and an N layer 6 are formed on the wafer 3 having GaAl As layer on a GaAs substrate 1. Next, the protection film 17 is selectively formed, and, with the film 17 as a mask, the layer 5, 6 are mesa-etched in a ring form resulting in the formation of the groove 18. Next, with the film 17 as a mask, an impurity is diffused resulting in the formation of a P+ type layer 7. This layer 7 is formed shallower than the depth of the layer 6. Next, the layer 17 is removed, and a cathode electrode 8 and an anode electrode 9 are provided on the layers 6, 7 inside-outside the groove 18. The electrode 9 is formed to extend on the outer periphery wall of the groove 18 and reach the layer 7. Next, with the electrodes 8, 9 as masks, the layer 7 on the internal periphery wall of the groove 18 is etched into a mesa type resulting in the exposure of the boundary of the layers 4-6 on the internal periphery wall of the groove 18. Next, after the groove part is covered with an insulating protection film 19, the wafer 3 is divided into pellets.