Mapping of Large Area Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) Wafers: Apparatus and Methods

Abstract

AbstractCadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) shows great promise as a semiconductor radiation detector material. CZT possesses advantageous material properties over other radiation detector materials in use today, such as a high intrinsic resistivity and a high cross-section for x and γ-rays. However, presently available CZT is not without limitations. The hole transport properties severely limit the performance of these detectors, and the yield of material possessing adequate electron transport properties is currently much lower than desired. The result of these material deficiencies is a lack of inexpensive CZT crystals of large volume for several radiation detector applications. One approach to help alleviate this problem is to measure the spatial distribution (or map) the electrical properties of large area CZT wafers prior to device fabrication. This mapping can accomplish two goals: identify regions of the wafers suitable for detector fabrication and correlate the distribution of crystalline defects with the detector performance. The results of this characterization can then be used by the crystal manufacturers to optimize their growth processes. In this work, we discuss the design and performance of apparatus for measuring the electrical characteristics of entire CZT wafers (up to 10 cm × 10 cm). The data acquisition and manipulation will be discussed and some typical data will be presented.