Fundamental processes such as charge generation, trapping and emission, and collection in scanning deep level transient spectroscopy (SDLTS) are analyzed. It is concluded that SDLTS is more sensitive to minority‐carrier traps than to majority‐carrier traps and that a two‐dimensional map of SDLTS peak signal magnitude, i.e., SDLTS image, of minority‐carrier traps does not necessarily show the trap concentration distribution. A practical equation for trap concentration is derived by utilizing an electron beam induced current. Concentration of a hole trap with an activation energy 0.45 eV in ann‐type as‐grown liquid encapsulated Czochralski GaAs is calculated to be 1×1016cm−3.