An optimized design for a micro-light-emitting diode array is presented. Based on a honeycomb hexagonal closed-packed structure, the packing density of individual elements can be increased to over 80% to minimize wastage of junction area. The extended sidewall area provides additional light extraction pathways. The honeycomb light-emitting diode (LED) emits twice as much light compared to a conventional broad area LED with equal junction area, and 50% more light than a microdisk array LED. The significant improvement in efficiency makes the additional processing step worthwhile. (c) 2006 American Vacuum Society.