Abstract:
The depth of a denuded layer in respect to a relatively defective bulk region of a monocrystalline semiconductor wafer is estimated in a nondestructive way by measuring effective diffusion length of injected excess minority charge carriers on a surface of the wafer having such a denuded layer and on a different portion of the surface of the wafer from where the denuded layer has been previously stripped-off by lapping and/or etching and by calculating the depth of the denuded layer through a best-fit procedure or through numerical processing of the measurement results on the basis of the diffusion equations of excess minority carriers.