Defect formation induced by seed-joints during directional solidification of quasi-mono-crystalline silicon ingots

This work reports about the growth behavior and defect formation during the directional solidification of monocrystalline lab-scale silicon ingots in which split seed crystals were used. Thereby the split seeds have certain crystallographic orientations which chosen to induce the growth of selected grain boundaries between the seeded regions. It will be shown that the grain boundary type which is formed inside the seed gap correlates quite well with the intentionally selected orientation relationship of the adjacent seeds. During further growth of the ingot the grain boundaries show a different behavior with respect to their structure and the formation of other crystal defects, e.g. dislocations. It was found that some of the grain boundaries continue straightly in growth direction without any change of structure or formation of other defects. In contrast, other grain boundaries split into several new grain boundaries with a simultaneous formation of dislocations around them. This behavior correlates very well with the energy content of the respective grain boundary, i.e. with its symmetry or coincidence lattice site parameter . In consequence the use of special grain boundaries between the seeds can significantly reduce the defect generation above the seed joints during growth of quasi-mono silicon ingots.

Section: Introduction and First Experiments With Mono-crystalline Seedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and First Experiments With Mono-crystalline Seedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and First Experiments With Mono-crystalline Seedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and First Experiments With Mono-crystalline Seedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introduction and First Experiments With Mono-crystalline Seedsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Erlangen—An Important Center of Crystal Growth and Epitaxy: Major Scientific Results and Technological Solutions of the Last Four Decades

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Müller

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This article describes the historic development of the Erlangen Crystal GrowthLaboratory CGL from its beginnings in 1974 at the chair of Materials of Electrical Engineering (Department of Material Science) of the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg until its current status as a large department "Materials" of the Erlangen Fraunhofer-Institute for Integrated Systems and Device Technology. Essential developments and scientific achievements in the various fields of crystal growth and epitaxy are presented from the early period until today.

A Study on Characterization and Prevention of Shadows in Cast Mono‐Crystalline Silicon Ingots

Zhou

Liu

Zhou

et al. 2022

Dark shadow areas often appear in infrared images of cast monocrystalline silicon (CMC-Si) ingots. In this work, the formation of shadow and how to avoid it by optimizing the growth process are analyzed. The analysis of scanning electron microscopy & energy dispersive spectroscopy show that the shadows in CMC-Si are caused by dispersed SiC particles. These particles will further induce a great number of dislocations, subgrain boundaries, and strip-shaped grains, which decrease the quality and the minority carrier lifetime of CMC-Si. In addition, an optimized process has proposed and successfully produced a silicon ingot without any shadows. By comparing the traditional and optimized processes, the shadow formation mechanism is studied and found preventing shadow formation by keeping the liquid phase temperature gradient smooth, the maximum crystal growth rate is not more than 1.1 cm h −1 and reducing the value of G L /V below 0.235.