A system and method for manufacturing an LED is provided. A preferred embodiment includes a substrate with a distributed Bragg reflector formed over the substrate. A photonic crystal layer is formed over the distributed Bragg reflector to collimate the light that impinges upon the distributed Bragg reflector, thereby increasing the efficiency of the distributed Bragg reflector. A first contact layer, an active layer, and a second contact layer are preferably either formed over the photonic crystal layer or alternatively attached to the photonic crystal layer.