This paper gives an in-depth analysis of the factors affecting the alpha parameter which is used for extracting the surface recombination velocity in electron beam induced current (EBIC) line scan measurements. The analysis shows that the alpha versus normalized surface recombination velocity curve is a function of both the normalized beam depth as well as the normalized scanning range. Variations in the normalized beam depth affect the accuracy only when extracting high surface recombination velocity values. On the other hand, the variation in the normalized scanning range affects the accuracy in extracting the middle range values of the surface recombination velocity only slightly. Conditions for accurate extraction are given in this paper. The analysis was further verified with the use of computer simulation. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.