Patent ID: 6991948

Claim:
A method of testing a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer comprising: (a) providing an SOI wafer having an insulating layer sandwiched between a semiconductor top layer and a semiconductor substrate; (b) moving a pair of spaced, elastically deformable contacts and a surface of the SOI wafer exposed on a side thereof opposite the semiconductor substrate into contact; (c) applying a first voltage to the semiconductor substrate; (d) applying a second voltage to at least one of the contacts; (e) sweeping at least one of the first voltage and the second voltage from a first value toward a second value; (f) measuring a current that flows in the SOI wafer in response to the sweep of the at least one voltage; and (g) determining at least one characteristic of the SOI wafer as a function of the measured current flow and the at least one voltage.