Measurements of the p-n product in heavily doped epitaxial emitters

A new method is described for the measurement of the p-n product in the heavily doped epitaxial emitters of biopolar tansistors. Quantitative electron-beam-induced conductivity is used to determine the diffusion length in the emitter as well as the emitter thickness. I - V characterization and other standard methods are then used to measure the p-n product. The principal advantage of this method is that corrections for recombination in both the emitter and the base can be made based on measurements on identical regions of the same device. A key problem with other methods for determining the p-n product is their inability to separate changes in the p-n product (bandgap narrowing) from recombination, based on measurements taken on the same region of the device. New data for the p-n product at ∼ 10²⁰.cm³free-carrier electron density are uniformly compared to other published data. The importance of the effective bandgap narrowing parameter both for comparing experimental data and for device modeling is stressed. Diffusion length measurements on the more heavily doped emitters yield lifetimes longer than expected based on published lifetimes determined by the decay of optical luminescence in heavily doped silicon. Possible reason for this difference are discussed and attributed to gettering in our samples.