Measurement of the Minority-Carrier Lifetime in a Semiconductor Wafer by a Two-Mercury-Probe Method and Its Application to Evaluation of the Surface Recombination Velocity

It is shown that the minority-carrier lifetime τ and diffusion coefficient D can be nondestructively evaluated by the two-mercury-probe method and analysis technique, even in the p-type silicon wafers with low resistivity. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that the evaluation of the surface recombination velocity s and its dependence on the wafer surface conditions is possible by applying the developed measurement and analysis method.