Part 1: Silicon ingot casting. Heat Exchanger Method (HEM)

Abstract

Directional solidification by the Heat Exchanger Method (HEM) is a viable approach for directional solidification of silicon ingots used for terrestrial solar cell applications. Some of the significant advances made during this phase of the program were: ingot size, 34 cm x 34 cm x 17 cm - 45 kg, usable material yield - 90%, solar cell efficiency averaged over the whole ingot - 85% of control CZ (35 kg ingot), very uniform resistivity over the boule, and cycle time for 36 kg ingots - 56 hours. Some of the problems encountered were growth rate decrease with increased ingot height, silicon carbide precipitates, and high dislocation density in HEM material. The silicon carbide is attributed to backstreaming of oil vapors from the vacuum pump; the high dislocation density is associated with the thermal history of the boule.