Lock-in contact thermography investigation of lateral electronic inhomogeneities in semiconductor devices

Dynamic precision contact thermography (DPCT) is a thermal scanning probe technique with pulsed heating of the sample and lock-in signal detection. It enables the lateral imaging of weak leakage- and injection currents in large-area electronic devices. After summarizing the basic principles of this investigation technique, recent results of investigating a silicon solar cell and MOS wafers are presented.