In-process checking of carrier lifetime distribution in high-power devices

Nonuniform distribution of carrier lifetime over the area of power semiconductor devices results in a nonuniform distribution of on-state current density and consequently, in a nonuniform distribution of power dissipation during device operation, which results in nonuniform temperature distribution that can negatively influence the device reliability. In the presented paper, a method for determining carrier lifetime distribution over the area of power devices is described. The method is relatively simple and its application is easy so that it can be used for in-process checking of carrier lifetime distribution in large-area power devices structures after different steps of device fabrication.