Optoelectronic high accurary setup for the analysis of internal temperature and carrier profiles in semiconductor power devices

We continued the development of a high accuracy measurement set-up that enables the time-resolved analysis of carrier densities and temperature profiles in the interior of semiconductor power devices. From these primary quantities other characteristic device parameters like carrier lifetimes and carrier diffusion lengths are extracted. The experiment exploits the so-called mirage effect as described in [1,3]. Compared to earlier versions, it has been enhanced towards higher precision and stability of the measured data by improving and stabilizing the optical features and the control of external temperature. Owing to the improved experimental set-up and data processing, we are now able to quantitatively investigate ambient temperature and self-heating effects in high power devices, which constitutes a valuable supplement to the data base required for predictive and reliable computer simulation.