CHARACTERIZATION OF SOLAR CELLS: FROM

FEEDSTOCK QUALITY TO FINAL CELL EFFICIENCY

The Czochralski Crystal Pulling Method for Monocrystalline Silicon

PRESENTED BY
DANISH ALI (5168350)
DEPARTMENT OF SUSTAINABLE SYSTEMS ENGINEERING
FREIBURG, 01.06.2021
CONTENTS
• Manyfacturing of Monocrystalline Silicon typo

• The Czochralski Crystal Growth/Pulling Method

• Impurities in the Cz Silicon
• Advantages
• Challanges typo
MANUFACTURING There are two main techniques for converting granular silicon into a single
OF crystal Ingot, which are used to obtain the final wafers.
MONOCRYSTALLINE
SILICON • Czochralski Technique(Cz)
• This is the dominant and most important technique for production of
too much text single crystals.
• It is especially suited for the large wafers that are currently used in Solar
avoid having complete sentences Cell fabrication.
• Float zone Technique
• This production method is mainly used for small sized wafers.
• The float zone technique is used for producing specialty wafers that have
low oxygen and carbon impurity concentration. (Crucible free method).

But the commonly used method to produce monocrystalline silicon ingots is

Czochralski Technique which is discussed here.
 A schematic representation of this growth process is shown in the figure below.

THE CZOCHRALSKI
CRYSTAL
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD

source?

• Major components of the process are:

• Furnace (includes heating element and power supply)
• A crystal pulling mechanism (seed holder and a rotating mechanism)
• Ambient control (atmosphere controller – includes gas source, flow control and an exhaust system)
• Control system (parameter controller - such as temperatures, crystel diameter, pull rate and rotation
speed)
 The Czochralski crystal growth consists of the following steps:

THE CZOCHRALSKI
CRYSTAL
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD

i
• Schematic
• Steps of the process are:
a) The polycrystalline feedstock is melted
b) Melt in the crucible
c) Seed crystal is brought down (seeding procedure)
d) Seed is engaged the molten silicon (seeding procedure)
e) Neccking process
f) Shouldering process
g) Growth of end cone
h) Lift off
i) Cooling down
j) Removing of the crystal
 • For the Czochralski crystal growth process the starting material is Electronic
Grade Silicon (EGS - exceptionally high purity), which is melted in the
furnace.
THE CZOCHRALSKI
• To minimize contamination, the crucible is made of SiO 2 or SiNx. The
CRYSTAL
GROWTH/PULLING downside is that at verh high temperatures the inner liner of the crucible also
METHOD starts melting and has to be replaced periodically.

WAY TOO MUCH text Step by step process:

• Pieces of Electronic Grade Silicon (EGS) are placed in silicon (SiO 2)
avoid having complete sentences
crucible along with a small amount of doped silicon and are then melted.
• The melting temperature is stablized at just above the silicon melting point
(1147 oC).
• A small single crystal seed suitably oriented is suspended over the crucible
in a chunk.
• For growth the seed is lowered into the melt until its end is molten.
• It is then slowly withdrawn resulting in a single crystal which grows by
progressive fusing at the liquid – solid interface.
 • The crystal orientation of this seed will determine the orientation of the
resulting pulled crystals and wafers.
• The amount of dopant placed in a crucible with silicion charge will
THE CZOCHRALSKI
CRYSTAL determine the doping concentration in the resulting crystal.
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD • The silicon atoms from the melt bond to the atoms in the seed by
forming a single crtsyal as the seed is pulled upwards.
too much text
• The diameter is controlled by carefully adjusting the heating power, the
avoid having complete sentencespulling rate, and the rotation rate of the crystal. Fast pulling results in
smaller diameter crystal.
• The seed and crucible are rotated in opposite direction to promote more
uniform growth.
 • Schematic of CZ crystal growth method (real time)

THE CZOCHRALSKI
CRYSTAL
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD

1 2 3
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4 5 6
 • Post production image of Silicon crystal (sample)

THE CZOCHRALSKI
CRYSTAL
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD

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Silion crystal with a diameter of 300 mm and a weight exceeding 250 kg,
grown by the Czochralski method.
 
I don‘t see any „important point“ on this slide.Important pointss to consider:
it may all be interesting aspects to mention in the
• The process control, i.e. speed of withdrawl and the speed of rotation of
presentation but they have little relevance to A)
understanding how the Cz growth works or B) why
the crystal puller are crucial to obtain a good quality single crystal. There
THE CZOCHRALSKI
Cz Si is interesting for photovoltaics
CRYSTAL is a feedback system that controls this porcess.
GROWTH/PULLING
METHOD • An ambient gas contol system, maintains stable environemnt conditions
inside the chamber and the ambient gas used here is Argon (an inert gas).
• A 450mm wafer ingot can be as heavy as 800 kg.
IMPURITIES IN CZ
SILICON
IMPURITIES IN CZ SILICON
abbreviation is „Cz“
• Oxygen is the most important unintentional impurity in CZ-Si, which is present in a range
of 1018 atoms/cm3.
• The incorporation of this impurity in the melt results from the gradual dissolution of the
silica crucible walls.
SiO2 + Si  2SiO
• Since SiO is very volatile, most of the oxygen evaporates from the melt surface. But a
small part remains in the melt which is incorporated into the silicon crystal through the
crystal-melt interface.
IMPURITIES IN CZ SILICON
• The oxygen solubility depends on several factors such as:
• Doping
• Presence of Carbon
• Thermal Stress in the crystal
• Ambient atmosphere during the process

• Consequently, the oxygen content varies with the process growth conditions.
Therefore, the foremost oxygen-controlling factors in CZ-Si growth are
• The effect of surface evaporation
• crucible dissolution.
IMPURITIES IN CZ SILICON
• Since, oxygen is an important contamination in silicon with high concentrations, it can
affect the electrical quality of the Silicon wafer material.
• Further, the concentration of interstitial oxygen [Oi] is a common parameter in material
specifications. (?)
IMPURITIES IN CZ SILICON
Technique used to analyze and determine the concentration of oxygen in silicon:
• In this connection, the most sort after measurement technique in characterization of silicon
feedstock to analyze and determine the concentration of oxygen in silicon is Fourier
Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR).
points 2-4 are unneccessary information for your presentation
• In this technique, an FTIR spectrometer simultaneously collects high-spectral-resolution
data over a wide spectral range.
• In solar cell research, FTIR is typically used after crystallization and applied either to slabs
of silicon or even thin wafers.
• The studied absorption bands then correlate to bonds with lattice atoms. For e.g., the Si-O
bonds are studied to investigate the oxygen content in Czochralski-grown silicon.
ADVANTAGES
• Czochralski technique is capable of easily producing large crystals (state of the art: 18
inch = 46 cm) from which large diameter wafers can be cut.
• This method is extensively used in the semiconductor industry as this method allows to
grow large single crystals.
• There is no direct contact between the crucible walls and the crystal which helps to
produce unstressed single crystal.
• High efficiency
• Low content of metal contaminations
 CHALLENGES
• Complicated
it isn‘t THAT manufacturing
complicated and done on process is required
mass production scale.tohigher
produce monocrystalline
energy cost is the main silicon, which
difference to eg multi
results in slightly higher costs than those of other technologies.
• Expensive Process - Reducing the production cost and increase the yield, without sacrificing
the quality, remains the key issue for crystal growers.
• The higher throughput and lower energy consumption of Multi-crystalline Silicon (mc-Si),
by casting, has increased its market share.
• This imposes a great challenge on Cz – Silicon producers to improve their process and
lower the cost.
• Further challenges in the process are crucible erosion, components volatilization, and other
impurities intrusion.
 • The main advantage of the float-zone technique is the very low impurity concentration
in the silicon crystal. In particular the oxygen and carbon concentration are much lower
so you want to end your presentation on Cz Si by praising another technology?
as compared to CZ silicon, since the melt does not come into contact with a quartz
from a PV industry
crucible, and nopoint
hot of view FZcontainer
graphite does not play any role because it is much to
is used.
expensive. it is only used for research. a better comparison would be to
multicrystalline Si.
• The main advantage of the float-zone technique is the very low impurity concentration
in the silicon crystal. In particular the oxygen and carbon concentration are much lower
as compared to CZ silicon, since the melt does not come into contact with a quartz
crucible, and no hot graphite container is used.