Determination of minority-carrier generation lifetime in beam-recrystallized silicon-on-insulator structure by using a depletion-mode transistor

Abstract

We describe a technique for measuring minority-carrier lifetime on a very small area of material and apply this technique to recrystallized silicon layers on an insulating substrate where the localization of the crystalline defects gives rise to small defect-free regions actually used for devices. The method uses a depletion-mode transistor in which drain-source conductance yields a signal equivalent to capacitance signal, thus allowing measurements equivalent to conventional Zerbst transient capacitance to be made in the defect-free regions.