System and method for determining near--surface lifetimes and the tunneling field of a dielectric in a semiconductor
US6011404A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 3, 1997 |
| Grant date | Jan 4, 2000 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 3, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH01L22/14
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a system for, and method of, determining a non-contact, near-surface generation and recombination lifetimes and near surface doping of a semiconductor material. The system includes: (1) a radiation pulse source that biases a dielectric on top of the semiconductor material, (2) a voltage sensor to sense the surface voltage, and (3) a photon source to create carriers. For lifetime measurements both the excitation and measurement signals are time dependent and may be probed near the surface of the semiconductor to obtain various electrical properties. For high-field tunneling and leakage characteristics of a thin dielectric (<15 nm) on top of the semiconductor, a high bias charge density is used to induce tunneling, from which tunneling fields and charge-fluence to tunneling of the dielectric are determined.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.