Minority carrier traps in silicon affect photoconductance (PC)-based lifetime measurements at low and medium injection levels. In this study, the presence of minority carrier traps with a long PC decay time constant in multi-crystalline silicon wafers is unraveled for the first time. To study these traps even further, the effect of firing and laser treatment on them is investigated. It is shown that firing introduces a metastable state of traps while laser treatment annihilates the trapping effect and seems to affect the trap's concentration rather than its nature.
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