Method for testing lifetime of surface state carrier of semiconductor

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11719739-B2
Application number	US-202017275674-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 6, 2020
Priority date	Jul 9, 2019
Publication date	Aug 8, 2023
Grant date	Aug 8, 2023

Abstract

A method for testing a lifetime of a surface state carrier of a semiconductor, including the following steps, 1) a narrow pulse light source is used to emit a light pulse, and coupled to an interior of a near-field optical probe, and the near-field optical probe produces a photon-generated carrier on a surface of a semiconductor material under test through excitation. 2) The excited photon-generated carrier is concentrated on the surface of the semiconductor material, and recombination is conducted continuously with a surface state as a recombination center. 3) A change in a lattice constant is produced due to an electronic volume effect, a stress wave is produced, and a signal of the stress wave is detected in a high-frequency broadband ultrasonic testing mode. 4) Fitting calculation is conducted on the signal of the stress wave to obtain the lifetime of the surface state carrier τc.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for testing a lifetime of a surface state carrier of a semiconductor, comprising the following steps:
1) Using a narrow pulse light source with photon energy higher than a semiconductor forbidden band width to emit a light pulse, coupling the light pulse to an interior of a near-field optical probe through light path collimation, and producing, by the near-field optical probe, a photon-generated carrier on a surface of a semiconductor material under test through excitation;
2) Concentrating the excited photon-generated carrier on the surface of the semiconductor material, and conducting recombination continuously with a surface state as a recombination center, wherein a recombination rate is in direct proportion to a carrier concentration and a carrier lifetime;
3) In both carrier excitation and recombination processes in step 1) and step 2), producing a change in a lattice constant due to an electronic volume effect, producing a stress wave, and detecting a signal of the stress wave in a high-frequency broadband ultrasonic testing mode; and
4) Conducting fitting calculation on the signal of the stress wave to obtain the lifetime of the surface state carrier τ c .

2. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 1), a width of the light pulse emitted by the narrow pulse light source is femtosecond-magnitude to nanosecond-magnitude, and is not more than 5 nanoseconds.

3. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 1), the near-field optical probe is a near-field optical probe with a hole or a near-field optical probe without the hole, and the light pulse is coupled to an interior of the near-field optical probe with the hole or a surface of the near-field optical probe without the hole through collimation.

4. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 1), a distance between the near-field optical probe and the surface of the semiconductor material under test is not more than 1/10 of a wave length of the light pulse.

5. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 1), the photon-generated carrier excited by the near-field optical probe is located at a surface and a subsurface of a semiconductor under test.

6. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 2), when the recombination of the photon-generated carrier, excited by the near-field optical probe, on the surface of the semiconductor under test is conducted, indirect recombination is conducted with the surface state as the center.

7. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 2), the photon-generated carrier still conducts the recombination continuously after light pulse irradiation is finished, till the carrier in the semiconductor material is returned to a balance state.

8. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 3), the signal of the stress wave of the surface of the semiconductor material is detected by means of a high-frequency broadband ultrasonic testing instrument, wherein the high-frequency broadband ultrasonic testing instrument comprises an ultrasonic transducer, a laser doppler vibrometer, and a laser interferometer which have a nanosecond resolution.

9. The method for testing the lifetime of the surface state carrier of the semiconductor according to claim 1 , wherein in the step 4), fitting is conducted on a trailing part of the signal of the stress wave produced on the surface of the semiconductor material through excitation by near-field light to obtain the lifetime of the surface state carrier τ c , wherein a specific fitting formula is:

Δ
⁢
c

c

=

d
⁢

E
G

d
⁢
P

⁢
n

=

Q
⁢

⁢

exp
⁡

(

-

t

τ
c

)

wherein c is a lattice constant,

d
⁢

E
G

dP

is a band gap pressure coefficient, n is an electron-hole pair concentration, Q is a constant coefficient, and t is time.

Assignees

• Univ Tongji

Inventors

• Cheng Qian
• Xie Weiya
• Gao Ya
• Chen Yiming
• Chen Yingna
• Zhang Mengjiao
• Zhang Haonan
• Wu Shiying

Classifications

• G01R31/2642 Primary

  Testing semiconductor operation lifetime or reliability, e.g. by accelerated life tests · CPC title

• G01N21/1717

  with a modulation of one or more physical properties of the sample during the optical investigation, e.g. electro-reflectance · CPC title

• G01R31/31721

  Power aspects, e.g. power supplies for test circuits, power saving during test (for scan test G01R31/318575) · CPC title

• G01R31/40

  Testing power supplies (testing photovoltaic devices H02S50/10) · CPC title

• G01R31/42

  AC power supplies · CPC title