SEDL / STP / STP1340-EB / STP15693S

Carrier Lifetime Measurements by Microwave Photoconductivity Decay Method

Hashizume, H
General Manager, Genesis Technology Inc., Kobe, HYOGO,

Sumie, S
Manager and General Manager, Kobe Steel, Ltd., Kobe, HYOGO,

Nakai, Y
Manager and General Manager, Kobe Steel, Ltd., Kobe, HYOGO,

Pages: 12    Published: Jan 1998

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Abstract

The recombination lifetimes of silicon wafers were studied using microwave photo-conductivity decay(μ PCD) method with variable photo-injection function. For samples with surface inversion layers, the lifetimes increased as the injected carrier concentration decreased, and converged toward the value determined by the SiO²/Si interface trap density. It was found that the bulk recombination lifetimes could be measured in middle-high injection. Any clear dependence was not observed in the samples with surface accumulation layers. The recombination lifetimes of light-irradiated p-type silicon with iron contamination revealed strong dependence on injected carrier concentration due to breaking up iron-boron pairs. Molybdenum contamination of the epitaxial layers in p/p+ and p/p− wafers were also investigated using the differential μPCD technique.