Granted Patent B2

US 12,727,441 · App. 18/041,318 · Granted Sep 1, 2026

Inventors: Dane William de Quilettes (Somerville, MA); Brandon T. Motes (Rowlett, TX); Anthony T. Troupe (Cambridge, MA); Vladimir Bulovic (Lexington, MA)

Assignee: Massachusetts Institute of Technology

H10P74/238G01N21/9501G01N2201/06113

Abstract

Claims (29)

1 . A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of measured semiconductor properties of one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

determining a measure of short circuit current density (J SC ) of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices, the J SC measure based on a measure of semiconductor diffusion length (L D ) and a measure of thickness;

determining a current voltage relationship of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

calculating a current voltage (JV) curve based on the J SC measure and the current voltage relationship of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices, wherein the JV curve provides an indication of maximum achievable power point (P max ) and open circuit voltage (V oc ) of a semiconductor device completed from the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

determining a predicted performance characteristic of the semiconductor device; and

in response to the predicted performance characteristic being within a range of threshold values, completing fabrication of the semiconductor device.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of measured semiconductor properties comprises an absorptivity spectrum determined from a measure of transmittance and reflectance.

3 . The method of claim 2 , further comprising, fitting a low energy bandtail of the absorptivity spectrum to extrapolate the data below the measurement noise floor.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the current voltage relationship includes a measure of radiative saturation current density (J 0,rad ) of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the J 0,rad measure is based on an extended data set comprised of two or more data sets.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the current voltage relationship includes a measure of radiative saturation current density (J 0,rad ) and a measure of non-radiative current density (J 0,nr ) of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein the measure of J 0,rad and the measure of J 0,nr are based on a first-order, non-radiative recombination rate constant (k 1 ), a second-order, radiative recombination rate constant (k 2 ), a third-order, non-radiative recombination rate constant (k 3 ), an intrinsic carrier density (n i ), or any combination thereof.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the measure of J 0,rad and the measure of J 0,nr are further based on a total non-radiative recombination rate constant (k tot ).

9 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising, in response to the predicted performance characteristic not being within the range of threshold values, stopping fabrication of the semiconductor device.

10 . A method comprising:

receiving a plurality of measured semiconductor properties of one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

determining a measure of short circuit current density (J SC ) of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

determining a current voltage relationship of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices, wherein the current voltage relationship includes a measure of radiative saturation current density (J 0,rad ) and a measure of non-radiative current density (J 0,nr ) of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

calculating a current voltage (JV) curve based on the J SC measure and the current voltage relationship of each of the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices, wherein the JV curve provides an indication of maximum achievable power point (P max ) and open circuit voltage (V oc ) of a semiconductor device completed from the one or more partially completed semiconductor devices;

determining a predicted performance characteristic of the semiconductor device; and

in response to the predicted performance characteristic being within a range of threshold values, completing fabrication of the semiconductor device.

11 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the plurality of measured semiconductor properties comprises an absorptivity spectrum determined from a transmittance and reflectance measure.

12 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising, fitting a low energy bandtail of the absorptivity spectrum to extrapolate the data below the measurement noise floor.

13 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the measure of J 0,rad and the measure of J 0,nr are based on a first-order, non-radiative recombination rate constant (k 1 ), a second-order, radiative recombination rate constant (k 2 ), a third-order, non-radiative recombination rate constant (k 3 ), an intrinsic carrier density (n i ), or any combination thereof.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein the measure of J 0,rad and the measure of J 0,nr are further based on a total non-radiative recombination rate constant (k tot ).

15 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the J 0,rad measure is based on an extended data set comprised of two or more data sets.

16 . The method of claim 10 , wherein the J SC measure is based on a measure of semiconductor diffusion length (L D ) and a measure of thickness.

17 . The method of claim 10 , further comprising, in response to the predicted performance characteristic not being within the range of threshold values, stopping fabrication of the semiconductor device.

Assignments (2)

Continuity (3)

References Cited (52)