Patent ID: 7589834

Claim:
A method of detecting surface particulate defects, and especially metal particulates, in semiconductors such as silicon, to characterise defects likely to have an effect on the electrical activity of such semiconductor materials, comprises the steps of: annealing a semiconductor structure to diffuse contaminants from a surface particulate into the semiconductor material; after annealing the semiconductor structure, exposing the surface of the semiconductor structure in the vicinity of a surface particulate to at least one high-intensity beam of light from a suitable light source; collecting photoluminescence produced by excitation of the semiconductor structure by the light beam; processing the collected photoluminescence to produce a result representative of the intensity of the photoluminescence response; comparing the result with a predetermined acceptable specification range of photoluminescence to identify unacceptable contamination levels resulting from diffusion of contaminants from the surface particulate into the semiconductor structure.