Abstract
A thermal‐mapping technique is presented which, when applied to a p‐n junction, can locate hot spots that are only slightly warmer than surrounding regions. Among the Zn‐diffused GaAs devices to which this method has been applied, these hot spots have always been found to be associated with an irregularity (usually a microplasma) in the I‐V characteristic. Furthermore, etching has revealed a crystal imperfection coinciding with each hot spot. Selective etching at these sites causes the removal of the imperfect region and a corresponding significant improvement in the diode reverse characteristic, though less than 4% of the total diode area has been removed.

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