US Patent 7135711 Electroluminescent body

An electroluminescent component (1), in particular an LED chip, which has a high external efficiency in conjunction with a simple construction. The electroluminescent component (1) has a substrate (2); a plurality of radiation decoupling elements arranged at a distance next to one another on the substrate (2) and having an active layer stack (7) with an emission zone (8); and a contact element (9) on each radiation decoupling element (4). The contact elements (9), whose width (b′) is dimensioned such that it is less than the width (b) of the radiation decoupling elements (4), are arranged centrally on the radiation decoupling elements (4), and the width (b) of the radiation decoupling elements (4), for a given height (h), is chosen to be so small that a substantial proportion of the light (11) radiated laterally from the emission zone (8) can be decoupled directly through the side areas (12) of the radiation decoupling elements (4).