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Manufacturing, processing, testing of materials and structures

A technique for characterizing surface recombination in silicon wafers based on thermal-emission measurements

V. V. Bogatyrenko

Institute of Semiconductor Physics NAS, Kiev

Abstract: A noncontact technique for the measurement of the surface-recombination rate in silicon wafers is suggested. A wafer under study is excited optically in the spectral region of intrinsic absorption, and the excitation-wavelength dependence of the power of the wafer thermal emission beyond the intrinsic-absorption edge is examined. The surface-recombination rate is determined from the ratio of intensities of the wafer thermal emission in the wavelength range 3–5 $\mu$m recorded under excitation with two laser diodes with wavelengths of 863 and 966 nm. Wafers subjected to different surface treatments were tested; at 230$^\circ$C, rates on the order of 10$^4$ cm/s were measured after mechanical polishing and 10$^3$ cm/s after etching in CP-4A etchant. The applicability of the method is discussed, and the measurement error as a function of the wafer and light-source parameters is considered.

Received: 30.07.2009
Accepted: 20.08.2009

 English version: Semiconductors, 2010, 44:3, 392–395

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