Influence of the thermal oxidation on minority carrier lifetime of 6H-SiC

The minority carrier lifetime is one of the most important characteristic parameters of semiconductor materials and devices, which must be put into consideration in improving the on-state characteristics and switch characteristics of high-voltage SiC bipolar power devices. The minority carrier lifetime of 6H-SiC samples through different thermal oxidation process is measured by microwave photoconductive decay (μ-PCD) method. The experiment results show that the higher the temperature, the more obviously the carrier lifetime improves under the same oxidation time; the longer oxidation time, the longer minority carrier lifetime will be obtained under the same oxidation temperature. An influence analysis of thermal oxidation on minority carrier lifetime is also given.