ROMJIST Volume 22, No. 1, 2019, pp. 14-29
Viorel Banu, Josep Montserrat, Xavier Jordà, Philippe Godignon Electro-Optical Method for Surface Recombination Evaluation in Silicon Carbide Bipolar Junction Transistors
ABSTRACT: This paper reports two original methods aimed for the surface recombination studies of bipolar junction transistors made on silicon carbide subject to a significant surface recombination around the emitter-base junction. The first novel method targets the measurement of very short minority carrier lifetime in semiconductor junctions by combining the current switch lifetime measurement approach with electro-optical excitation. The second method is elaborated to evaluate individually the surface recombination velocity for each transistor using the combined electro-optical measurement of very short lifetime in base-emitter junctions. Previous to its use for silicon carbide BJTs, the first presented method was tested and calibrated on silicon bipolar transistors using combined electro-optical measurements.KEYWORDS: Minority carrier lifetime; surface recombination; bipolar junction transistor; silicon carbide; optical excitationRead full text (pdf)