Minority carrier lifetime measurement in GaAs

A technique for the determination of relatively short carrier lifetimes (< 1 ns) is presented. By measuring the frequency dependence of the diffusion capacitance of a one-sided abrupt-junction GaAs diode, the minority carrier lifetime can be obtained. The method has the advantages that it is repeatable after exposing the diode to further processing, the diode can be mounted in a convenient package so that no special handling precautions are necessary, and the method can be automated.