Effect of surface conditions on the measurement of minority carrier diffusion lengths using the surface photovoltage technique

Zhenhua Zhang; Leng Seow Tan; Shee Meng Koh; Hong Mei Liu; Dirk Flottman

doi:10.1117/12.405371

24 October 2000 Effect of surface conditions on the measurement of minority carrier diffusion lengths using the surface photovoltage technique

Zhenhua Zhang, Leng Seow Tan, Shee Meng Koh, Hong Mei Liu, Dirk Flottman

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4227, Advanced Microelectronic Processing Techniques; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.405371
Event: International Symposium on Microelectronics and Assembly, 2000, Singapore, Singapore

Abstract

The surface photo voltage (SPV) technique is a well- established method for the measurement of the minority carrier diffusion lengths (L) in semiconductor wafers. The measurement can be performed with two methods: constant magnitude SPV (Method A); and linear photo voltage, constant photon flux mode (Method B). A detailed theoretical study published several years ago showed that Method A was more robust than Method B. In this paper, the values of L on a set of silicon wafers with various surface treatments were measured using both Methods A and B, and the results compared with those obtained using the laser-microwave photo conductance decay (LMPCD) method. It was found that for wafers without any surface treatment, the results from SPV Method A were much closer to those obtained with LMPCD, than those from Method B. The values of L obtained from Method A were also much less sensitive to the surface conditions of the wafers, thus indicating that they are closer to the true bulk diffusion lengths of the wafers. Method B can give correct values of L only under the condition of a very low surface recombination velocity.

Citation Download Citation

Zhenhua Zhang, Leng Seow Tan, Shee Meng Koh, Hong Mei Liu, and Dirk Flottman "Effect of surface conditions on the measurement of minority carrier diffusion lengths using the surface photovoltage technique", Proc. SPIE 4227, Advanced Microelectronic Processing Techniques, (24 October 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.405371

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