This study reports the development of GaN-based power-chip light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with sidewall roughness using natural lithography with polystyrene spheres as the etching mask. At an injection current of 350 mA, the LED with sidewall roughness increased the light output intensity of the InGaN/GaN multiple quantum well LEDs by a factor of 1.26, indicating that the LED with sidewall roughness had larger light extraction efficiency. The wall-plug efficiency of GaN-based LED was increased by 26.5% with sidewall roughness. After 1000 h life test, it was found that normalized output power of power-chip LED with sidewall roughness did not show any significant degradation. (c) 2006 The Electrochemical Society.