Use of transient capacitance measurements for direct determination of minority-carrier lifetime in low-doped metal-oxide-semiconductor structures

A new method for the direct determination of minority-carrier lifetime is presented, which utilizes transient capacitance measurements performed with varying depletion voltages on metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) structures. It is shown that the slope of the fill (storage) time versus the depletion voltage is directly proportional to the minority-carrier lifetime. Good agreement is shown between results obtained with the proposed method and those obtained using a standard technique. The method is limited, however, to low-doped MOS structures which can be depleted to the back contact.