Measurement of Minority-Carrier Lifetime and Interface Recombination Velocities in p-i-n Diodes, from High Frequency Response of a Bipolar JFET Structure

A new method to measure the minority-carrier recombination lifetime in the low-doped layer of a p-i-n diode, and its emitter recombination current, is presented. The method is based on the measurement of the cutoff frequency of a three terminal device structure, similar to a vertical JFET, that incorporates the diode under test. The paper displays the basic theory of the measurement and some experimental results.