In the last 7 years, the ?rst edition of "Lock-in Thermography" has
established as a reference book for all users of this technique for
investigating electronic devices, especially solar cells. At this time,
a vital further development of lock-in therm- raphy could be observed.
Not only the experimental technique was improved by applying new and
better infrared cameras, solid immersion lenses, and novel t- ing
strategies, but also completely new application ?elds of lock-in
thermography were established by implying irradiation of light during
the measurements. The two groups of new techniques are different kinds
of Illuminated Lock-In Thermography (ILIT) and Carrier Density Imaging,
resp. Infrared Lifetime Imaging (CDI/ILM). While ILIT is performed on
solar cells, CDI/ILM is performed on bare wafers for imaging the local
minority carrier lifetime and the local concentration of trapping
centers. The new edition of this book implements these new developments.
One new section entitled "Timing strategies" is added. In this, new ways
are introduced to overcome previous limitations of the choice of the
lock-in frequency in comparison with the frame rate of the camera. The
previous diffraction limit of the spatial resolution can be overcome by
a factor of up to 4 by applying so-called solid immersion lenses. This
technique is introduced and its application for failure analysis of ICs,
where highest possible spatial resolution is desired, is shown in
another new section.