Determination of the Recombination Lifetime in the Space Charge Region of MOS Field-Induced PN Junctions

Abstract

We report a fast and accurate method to obtain the recombination lifetime from CV measurements on MOS structures in the context of a regular CV testing. The simultaneous measurement of the gate current and the high frequency gate capacitance in the non-equilibrium nonsteady state in response to a linear gate voltage ramp, started in inversion equilibrium towards accumulation, enables the self-consistent determination of the forward current-voltage characteristic of the field-induced pn junction. The application of the model for the forward current-voltage characteristic of regular pn junctions at low minority carrier injection permits the determination of both the recombination lifetime and the energy distance of the defect centre from the midband level.