{{Use mdy dates, date = March 2019 Semiconductor characterization techniques are used to characterize a

semiconductor material A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way. ...

or device (

PN junction PN may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' Purple Noon'', a 1960 film * Patriotic Nigras, a griefing group in the game ''Second Life'' Business and economics * Pacific National, a rail freight company in Australia * Participatory notes, i ...

Schottky diode The Schottky diode (named after the German physicist Walter H. Schottky), also known as Schottky barrier diode or hot-carrier diode, is a semiconductor diode formed by the junction of a semiconductor with a metal. It has a low forward voltag ...

, etc.). Some examples of semiconductor properties that could be characterized include the depletion width, carrier concentration,

carrier generation and recombination In the solid-state physics of semiconductors, carrier generation and carrier recombination are processes by which mobile charge carriers (electrons and electron holes) are created and eliminated. Carrier generation and recombination processes are ...

rates, carrier lifetimes, defect concentration, and trap states.

Electrical characterization techniques

Electrical characterization can be used to determine

resistivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows ...

, carrier concentration, mobility,

contact resistance The term contact resistance refers to the contribution to the total resistance of a system which can be attributed to the contacting interfaces of electrical leads and connections as opposed to the intrinsic resistance. This effect is describe ...

, barrier height, depletion width, oxide charge, interface states, carrier lifetimes, and deep level impurities. * Two-point probe * Four-point probe * Differential

Hall effect The Hall effect is the production of a voltage difference (the Hall voltage) across an electrical conductor that is transverse to an electric current in the conductor and to an applied magnetic field perpendicular to the current. It was dis ...

* Capacitance voltage profiling * Deep-level transient spectroscopy (DLTS) * Electron beam-induced current * Drive-level capacitance profiling (DLCP)

Optical characterization techniques

* Microscopy *

Ellipsometry Ellipsometry is an optical technique for investigating the dielectric properties (complex refractive index or dielectric function) of thin films. Ellipsometry measures the change of polarization upon reflection or transmission and compares it t ...

* Photoluminescence * Absorption or transmission spectroscopy * Raman spectroscopy *

Reflectance The reflectance of the surface of a material is its effectiveness in reflecting radiant energy. It is the fraction of incident electromagnetic power that is reflected at the boundary. Reflectance is a component of the response of the electronic ...

modulation *

Cathodoluminescence Cathodoluminescence is an optical and electromagnetic phenomenon in which electrons impacting on a luminescent material such as a phosphor, cause the emission of photons which may have wavelengths in the visible spectrum. A familiar example is ...

Physical and chemical characterization techniques

* Electron beam techniques ** Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) **

Transmission Electron Microscopy Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a g ...

(TEM) ** Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) **

Electron microprobe An electron microprobe (EMP), also known as an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) or electron micro probe analyzer (EMPA), is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. It ...

(EMP) **

Electron energy loss spectroscopy In electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) a material is exposed to a beam of electrons with a known, narrow range of kinetic energies. Some of the electrons will undergo inelastic scattering, which means that they lose energy and have their pa ...

(EELS) *

Ion beam An ion beam is a type of charged particle beam consisting of ions. Ion beams have many uses in electronics manufacturing (principally ion implantation) and other industries. A variety of ion beam sources exists, some derived from the mercury ...

techniques **

Sputtering In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas. It occurs naturally in outer space, and ca ...

Secondary ion mass spectrometry Secondary-ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) is a technique used to analyze the composition of solid surfaces and thin films by sputtering the surface of the specimen with a focused primary ion beam and collecting and analyzing ejected secondary ions. ...

(SIMS) **

Rutherford backscattering spectrometry Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) is an analytical technique used in materials science. Sometimes referred to as high-energy ion scattering (HEIS) spectrometry, RBS is used to determine the structure and composition of materials by mea ...

(RBS) *

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

techniques **

X-ray fluorescence X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is the emission of characteristic "secondary" (or fluorescent) X-rays from a material that has been excited by being bombarded with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays. The phenomenon is widely used for elemental analysis ...

(XRF) **

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is a surface-sensitive quantitative spectroscopic technique based on the photoelectric effect that can identify the elements that exist within a material (elemental composition) or are covering its surface, ...

(XPS) ** X-ray diffraction (XRD) ** X-ray topography ** Neutron activation analysis (NAA) ** Chemical etching

Future characterization methods

Many of these techniques have been perfected for

silicon Silicon is a chemical element with the symbol Si and atomic number 14. It is a hard, brittle crystalline solid with a blue-grey metallic luster, and is a tetravalent metalloid and semiconductor. It is a member of group 14 in the periodic ta ...

, making it the most studied semiconductor material. This is a result of silicon's affordability and prominent use in

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

. As other fields such as

power electronics Power electronics is the application of electronics to the control and conversion of electric power. The first high-power electronic devices were made using mercury-arc valves. In modern systems, the conversion is performed with semiconducto ...

, LED devices, and

photovoltaics Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially ...

develop, characterization of a variety of alternative materials (including

organic semiconductors Organic semiconductors are solids whose building blocks are pi-bonded molecules or polymers made up by carbon and hydrogen atoms and – at times – heteroatoms such as nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. They exist in the form of molecular crystals or ...

will continue to increase in importance. Many existing characterization methods will need to be adapted to accommodate the peculiarities of these new materials.

References

* Schroder, Dieter K. ''Semiconductor Material and Device Characterization.'' 3rd Ed. John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken, New Jersey, 2006. * McGuire, Gary E. ''Characterization of Semiconductor Materials: Principles and Methods.'' Vol 1. Noyes Publications, Park Ridge, New Jersey, 1989. Semiconductor analysis