SEPARATION OF DOPING DENSITY AND MINORITY CARRIER LIFETIME IN PHOTOLUMINESCENCE MEASUREMENTS ON SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
First Claim
1. A method of conducting an analysis of a silicon ingot or brick, said method including the steps of:
- (a) exciting at least one side facet of said silicon ingot or brick to produce photoluminescence;
(b) obtaining at least one image of the photoluminescence emitted from said at least one side facet; and
(c) interpreting said at least one image to identify variations in effective and/or bulk minority carrier lifetime in said ingot or brick.
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Abstract
Methods are presented for separating the effects of background doping density and effective minority carrier lifetime on photoluminescence (PL) generated from semiconductor materials. In one embodiment the background doping density is measured by another technique, enabling PL measurements to be analysed in terms of effective minority carrier lifetime. In another embodiment the effective lifetime is measured by another technique, enabling PL measurements to be analysed in terms of background doping density. In another embodiment, the effect of background doping density is removed by calculating intensity ratios of two PL measurements obtained in different spectral regions, or generated by different excitation wavelengths. The methods are particularly useful for bulk samples such as bricks or ingots of silicon, where information can be obtained over a much wider range of bulk lifetime values than is possible with thin, surface-limited samples such as silicon wafers. The methods may find application in solar cell manufacturing.
5 Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of conducting an analysis of a silicon ingot or brick, said method including the steps of:
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(a) exciting at least one side facet of said silicon ingot or brick to produce photoluminescence; (b) obtaining at least one image of the photoluminescence emitted from said at least one side facet; and (c) interpreting said at least one image to identify variations in effective and/or bulk minority carrier lifetime in said ingot or brick. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 23)
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17. A system for conducting an analysis of a silicon ingot or brick, said system including:
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a photodetection unit for obtaining at least one image or line scan of photoluminescence generated from at least one side facet of said silicon ingot or brick; and a processor for interpreting said at least one photoluminescence image or line scan to identify variations in effective and/or bulk minority carrier lifetime in said ingot or brick. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification