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Influence of Different Vacuum Conditions On The Distribution of Insoluble Inclusions in A Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot
Influence of Different Vacuum Conditions On The Distribution of Insoluble Inclusions in A Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot
Influence of Different Vacuum Conditions On The Distribution of Insoluble Inclusions in A Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot
Vacuum
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vacuum
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: The distribution of insoluble inclusions in multi-crystalline (m-c) silicon was investigated by directional
Received 20 December 2015 solidification under different vacuum conditions using recycled scraps. We found an abnormal peak
Received in revised form (weight ratio of 1.19%) of SiC and Si3N4 with an average size of 100 mm located at the bottom of the silicon
11 March 2016
ingot obtained under low-vacuum conditions. At the top of the ingot, the impurity phase featured a
Accepted 12 March 2016
Available online 14 March 2016
weight ratio exceeding 10.62% and a size of 20 mm. Results showed that large particles sank to the bottom
of the ingots whereas small particles floated upward. Further investigation suggested that the dominant
factor influencing inclusion distribution is related to the presence of metallic impurities (e.g., Ca, Al, and
Keywords:
Directional solidification
Na) and their corresponding microstructure. A mechanism of migration was proposed to reveal that
Vacuum bonding of metallic impurities and insoluble inclusions contribute to the abnormal distribution of im-
Multi-crystalline silicon purities. The results provide guidance for controlling the distribution of insoluble inclusions in recycled
Nitrides m-c silicon.
Carbides © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.vacuum.2016.03.010
0042-207X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72 67
between insoluble inclusions and volatile impurities were studied completed with the same measured value for three times, then
during DS under low-vacuum and non-vacuum conditions in m-c entered into the cooling stage. Crucible didn't pulling downwards
silicon. continually, and heater temperature decreased gradually to room
temperature.
2. Experiment Silicon feedstock originated from the edges, head, and tail of the
ingots, which included large amounts of foreign inclusions. Fig. 2
A pilot-scale electromagnetic induction furnace (DPS-650) was shows the process parameters of vacuum degree and solidified
used to produce a silicon ingot, which is shown in Fig. 1. A graphite height during the DS process. In the melting stage, a protective
heater wound with copper coils absorbed the majority of the atmosphere of argon was flowed and the pressure increased
magnetic flux and generated heat by electromagnetic induction. A gradually to 6 104 Pa. At the start of the crystallization, argon also
protective layer of Si3N4 was painted on the inner wall of a cylin- flowed under a pressure of 6 104 Pa until the solidified height
drical silica crucible (F810 mm 620 mm) to act as a barrier for reached 50 mm. The furnace chamber was then evacuated to 0.3 Pa
impurities and relieve thermal strain from silicon. An insulation in 30 min, and the vacuum degree was maintained until the end of
plate on top of the silicon was designed to reduce carbon crystallization. In cooling stage, the pressure of argon increased to
contamination from graphite components. Heater was used to 6 104 Pa again. It should be note that the crystal growth rate, or
control temperature field in the furnace chamber. During the DS the ratio of solidified height to solidification time, was controlled to
process, silicon, as well as the crucible, moved downwards gradu- a constant value to ignore the influence of crystal growth rates on
ally from the hot zone to the cold zone. The increasing of crucible the segregation behavior of impurities.
pulling down heights led to larger heat dissipating area at the After cooling down, the grown ingot (410 kg,
bottom of silicon. Maintaining the net heat flux along axial direc- F810 mm 350 mm) was cleaned by abrasive blasting and
tion was in favor of generating a vertical, homogeneous, columnar sectioned by a mechanical saw. Two axial rods close to the center
grain structure. Two thermocouples were adopted to monitor region were selected for subsequent tests. For on silicon rod, nine
temperature fields in the furnace. Thermocouple 1 (TC1) was pieces axial direction were chosen to be completely etched off with
installed on the surface of the graphite heater to record the heater an acid mixture of HNO3 and HF (1:1), followed by filtration and
temperature, while thermocouple 2 (TC2) was installed at the weighing. For further identification, a scanning electron micro-
bottom of the crucible to confirm melting completion. scope (SEM; Hitachi SU-70, Japan) with an energy dispersive
The DS process involved three stages: melting stage, crystalli- spectrometer (EDS; INCAE250, Oxford, England) was employed to
zation stage and cooling stage. In melting stage, the insulator was investigate impurity components of silicon rods and the acid-
closed. Heater temperature increased gradually to 1850 K, and then etched residues. The other silicon rod was equally divided into 34
maintained the temperature until melting completion. In crystal- blocks, and eight pieces (10 10 10 mm3) along the axial di-
lization stage, heater temperature decreased to 1800 K, and the rection were selected to determine impurity concentrations by
crucible started pulling downwards. Heat was transferred to the inductively couple plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS; DRC II,
bottom of crucible wall. Temperature gradient from bottom to top Perkin Elmer, US).
of silicon melt was formed. Crystal growth occurred once the
temperature decreased to melting point of silicon. The height of
3. Results
crystal growth was measured by a quartz rod immersing into the
molten silicon every hour. The solidified stage was considered
The weights of initial samples with different solidified heights
and corresponding insoluble inclusions after acid etching are
shown in Table 1. Under the non-vacuum condition (solidified
height of 0e30 mm), no residues are collected. Under the low-
vacuum condition, three regions are found along the DS direc-
tion: insoluble precipitation at the start of solidification (50 and
60 mm), empty space (80e300 mm), and a large amount of
Fig. 2. Process parameters of vacuum degree and solidified height during the DS
Fig. 1. Schematic of the pilot scale apparatus. process.
68 S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72
Table 1
Weight percentages of insoluble inclusions in the nine 1 cm3 pieces from the bottom to the top of the ingot under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition.
Sample no. Solidified height (mm) Initial weight M1 (g) Weight after etching M2 (g) Weight ratio of inclusions (%)a
1 10 3.5042 –b e
2 30 3.3663 e e
3 50 3.4724 0.0414 1.1922
4 60 3.6945 0.0168 0.4547
5 80 3.4298 e e
6 150 3.4585 e e
7 240 3.5846 e e
8 300 3.7642 e e
9 340 4.4131 0.4689 10.6252
a
Weight ratio of inclusions equals to M2 =M1 , revealing the distribution of insoluble inclusions.
b
“–” indicates that the amount of inclusions is either too low for collection or completely absent in the sample.
precipitation on top of the ingot (340 mm). The main impurities of Table 2
the residues are confirmed as Si3N4 rods and SiC particles, and the Concentrations of impurities of recycled m-c silicon by ICP-MS.
relevant morphologies are shown in Fig. 3. Element Concentration(ppm wt) Element Concentration(ppm wt)
It is interesting that a peak of insoluble inclusions occurred at
B 0.13 Na 1.97
the start of low-vacuum condition, and the vacuum condition may P <1 Fe 5.68
be an important factor. However, we also had reason to doubt that Al 3.06 Cu 0.07
the other impurities in raw material caused the redistribution of Ca 5.15 Mn 0.06
Ni 0.01 Ti 0.02
Si3N4 and SiC or the risk of air leakage into the chamber at the start
of vacuum pump working caused the changing of the oxygen/car-
bon equilibrium.
To further investigate the cause of the peak of insoluble in-
clusions, it was important that a series of test experiments were
added to clarify the nature of raw materials. Concentrations of
impurities by ICP-MS were shown in Table 2. The metallic impu-
rities, such as Fe, Ca, Al, Na, were slightly higher than normal m-c
silicon (>6 N silicon). Afterwards the raw material was also chosen
to be completely etched off, and the residues are shown in Fig. 4.
The size of Si3N4 particle was over hundreds of microns, which
indicated that recycled Si already contained large insoluble in-
clusions. A possible explanation of the peak of insoluble inclusions
in our experiments was that large insoluble inclusions in raw ma-
terials deposited at the bottom region.
Then, a different vacuum condition was adopted that the vac-
uum degree in the furnace chamber was set as 0.3 Pa at the start of
the crystallization. After cooling down to room temperature, the
grown ingot also experienced acid pickling and weighing. Weight
ratios of insoluble inclusions, as a function of solidification fraction
from the bottom to the top of an ingot, are under the low-vacuum Fig. 4. Concentrations of impurities along the solidified height from the bottom to the
top of the ingot: (a) mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition during crystallization;
(b) low-vacuum condition during crystallization.
silicon and the concentrations are easily influenced by vacuum (FW), and the buoyancy force (FB). Fr is determined by the surface
conditions. If there are a number of Ca and Na around inclusions area of inclusions and the surface energy difference (Ds) between
(non-vacuum stage in the mixture of non- and low-vacuum con- liquid and impurity particles [19].
dition), some small SiC particles covered by impurities clusters and
large inclusions were pushed from solid-liquid interface to the melt pRDs
silicon. Once impurities of Ca, Na are separated from inclusions Fr ¼ (2)
2
(low-vacuum stage in the low-vacuum condition or the mixture of
The buoyancy force is associated with the density difference
non- and low-vacuum condition), large inclusions were engulfed
between molten silicon and impurities (Dr), particle size (R), and
by the solideliquid interface, whereas small insoluble inclusions
gravitational acceleration (g), shown as [29].
particles remained suspended by remained metallic clusters and
finally accumulated at the top of m-c silicon ingot.
4 3
FB ¼ pR gDr: (3)
3
4. Discussion FW is related to the weight of insoluble inclusions
8
> 0 < t 2:4 104
>0
>
>
<
k¼ (1)
>
>
>
> vrl Ct
: ln ln H v t 2:4 104 rS =rl lnðHÞ 4
2:4 10 < t < 12 10 4
r S C0
Fig. 8. Mass transfer coefficients of Ca, Al, and Na in molten silicon under the mixture
of non- and low-vacuum condition as a function of directional solidification time.
Fig. 7. Secondary electron SEM micrographs of the silicon samples: (a) Solidified
height of 50 mm, (b) solidified height of 340 mm, and (c) detailed view of the impurity
phase in (b).
Table 3
Chemical composition (wt.%) of impurity phases in a silicon ingot based on Fig. 7 as
measured by EDS testing.
Fig. 9. Schematic of insoluble inclusion migration in m-c silicon ingots under the
Phase Si Al Ca Na C N O
mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition along the solidification direction. Large
І 69.95 e e e 0.53 28.5 1.01 and small blue particles indicate different sizes of insoluble inclusions, whereas green
II 62.23 2.58 0.39 0.40 2.66 3.35 28.38 particles show volatile metallic atoms. (For interpretation of the references to colour in
III 37.27 2.74 0.30 e 1.51 44.90 13.27 this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
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