Evanescent microwave probes on high-resistivity silicon and its application in characterization of semiconductors

In this article we report the design, fabrication, and characterization of very high quality factor 10 GHz microstrip resonators on high-resistivity (high-ρ) silicon substrates. Our experiments show that an external quality factor of over 13 000 can be achieved on microstripline resonators on high-ρ silicon substrates. Such a high Q factor enables integration of arrays of previously reported evanescent microwave probe (EMP) on silicon cantilever beams. We also demonstrate that electron–hole pair recombination and generation lifetimes of silicon can be conveniently measured by illuminating the resonator using a pulsed light. Alternatively, the EMP was also used to nondestructively monitor excess carrier generation and recombination process in a semiconductor placed near the two-dimensional resonator.