A vertical InGaN-based blue light emitting diode (LED) with a reflective metal electrode and thick gold plated base free from insulating sapphire is demonstrated. A 50 µm-thick gold plated layer on a highly reflective platinum p-side ohmic contact is formed on the InGaN-based LED epi-structure, followed by irradiation with high power ultra-violet pulsed laser from the backside of the original sapphire substrate. The laser processing, so called laser lift-off technique, enables the separation of sapphire by decomposition of interfacial GaN layer. No transparent electrode is necessary for the LED because the current can spread well through the highly conductive n-GaN layer so that uniform blue light is emitted through the n-GaN layer. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra show small multi peaks due to the resonance within the formed vertical cavity. In addition, the measured thermal resistance of the vertical LED is smaller than that of the conventional LED on poor heat-conductive sapphire. The vertical LED would increase the brightness together with smaller chip size and lower series resistance. This would be advantageous espacially for high power and highly efficient LEDs applicable to future solid state lighting. 1 Introduction GaN-based visible light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been widely used for various applications such as indicators, signals and large displays. High power and highly efficient white LEDs excited by the GaN-based LEDs would enable future solid state lighting, as well. So far, sapphire has been the most commonly used substrate for the LED fabrication. However, sapphire is a poor heatconductive material and the LED on it needs to have both electrodes on the same side due to its insulating nature resulting in large chip size and potentially higher series resistance. Thus the use of sapphire limits further improvement of the device performances, even though the epitaxial layer of the best quality has been obtained on the cost-effective substrate. In order to solve such disadvantages keeping the use of sapphire as a substrate, removal of GaN or InGaN-based device layers by using high power ultra-violet pulsed laser, so-called laser lift-off technique, has been demonstrated [1,2]. So far, blue LEDs on silicon substrates fabricated by using laser lift-off process has been reported [3]. Attaching better heat sink than silicon with better reflectivity on the separated LED structure would enable higher power output of the LED with better reliability. This paper reports a new vertical InGaN-based LED with a reflective metal electrode and thick gold plated base free from insulating sapphire. The LED structure grown on a sapphire substrate is separated using the laser lift-off technique after the formation of the electrode and plated metal base. This vertical LED emits uniform blue light through highly conductive n-GaN layer with smaller thermal resistance.