[en] The kinetics of ytterbium ion electroluminescence was analyzed with the purpose of determining whether the main role in this process is played by donor-acceptor pairs of minority impurities. The investigations were performed with InP< Yb> samples. The electroluminescence was excited by current pulses at a 77 K sample temperature. The intracentral luminescence radiation intensity of the ytterbium ion was bound to increase following transmission of a Δt<=3.0 μs current pulse, attaining the maximum and then slowly dropping. Such an anomalous behaviour of the luminescence kinetics is characteristics of the excitation processes in which minority donor-acceptor pairs participate. The donor-acceptor pair lifetime (tau approximately 2 μs) as obtained by calculation and experimentally coinsides