Apparatus and methods of measuring minority carrier lifetime using a liquid probe

Li, Jian

Title: Apparatus and methods of measuring minority carrier lifetime using a liquid probe

Patent · Tue Apr 12 00:00:00 EDT 2016

OSTI ID:1246893

Li, Jian

Methods and apparatus for measuring minority carrier lifetimes using liquid probes are provided. In one embodiment, a method of measuring the minority carrier lifetime of a semiconductor material comprises: providing a semiconductor material having a surface; forming a rectifying junction at a first location on the surface by temporarily contacting the surface with a conductive liquid probe; electrically coupling a second junction to the semiconductor material at a second location, wherein the first location and the second location are physically separated; applying a forward bias to the rectifying junction causing minority carrier injection in the semiconductor material; measuring a total capacitance as a function of frequency between the rectifying junction and the second junction; determining an inflection frequency of the total capacitance; and determining a minority lifetime of the semiconductor material from the inflection frequency.

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Research Organization:: National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

DOE Contract Number:: AC36-08GO28308

Assignee:: Alliance For Sustainable Energy, LLC (Golden, CO)

Patent Number(s):: 9,310,396

Application Number:: 14/198,215

OSTI ID:: 1246893

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2014 Mar 05

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (25)

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