Novel results on defect annealing behavior and minority‐carrier lifetime control in electron irradiated siliconp+‐njunctions are presented. Two mechanisms are found to be involved in the annealing process of the divacancies; one dominates in the lower temperature range (from 240 to 300 °C) and the other dominates in the higher temperature range (from 320 to 360 °C). A defect labeld as E3with an energy level at 0.37 eV below the conduction band is found to be an efficient recombination channel responsible for minority carrier lifetime control. The activation energy for dissociation of the defect E3obtained from the annealing study is 1.7 eV, and the frequency factor is 2.8×109s−1. Annealing of electron irradiated samples at about 300 °C, or performing the electron irradiation at a similar high temperature is found to increase the concentration of the defect E3, and stabilize the carrier lifetime. These processes might be useful to improve the thermal stability of devices like high‐voltage rectifiers and thyristors.