Influence of Different Vacuum Conditions On The Distribution of Insoluble Inclusions in A Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot

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Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Vacuum
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/vacuum

Influence of different vacuum conditions on the distribution of


insoluble inclusions in a multi-crystalline silicon ingot
Shi Qiu a, Shiqiang Ren b, Liuqing Huang a, Tianyu Tang a, Ming Fang a, b, Xuetao Luo a, *
a
Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, College of Materials, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China
b
School of Material Science and Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, China

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.

1. Introduction with large amounts of insoluble inclusions have yet to be reported.


Insoluble inclusions are expected in ingots, which feature
Multi-crystalline (m-c) silicon, one of the main materials used to various contamination sources, including silicon scraps recycling,
manufacture solar cells, must show acceptable contamination Si3N4 coating, dust particles on the long-term insulation plate, and
levels in solar-grade silicon products [1e3]. Metallurgical methods reactions of the silica crucible and the graphite supporter
are environment-friendly and inexpensive m-c production opera- [12,14e16]. Therefore, the behavior of insoluble inclusions in a sil-
tions that aim to purify silicon from metallurgical-grade (99%) to icon ingot must be understood to improve the solar cell efficiency of
solar-grade (99.9999%) [4]. Extensive efforts have been exerted to wafers. Researchers have investigated a number of insoluble in-
remove impurities, such as Al, Ca, Fe, B, and P, from metallurgical clusion characteristics, including their existing forms, sizing, dis-
silicon effectively [5e7]. However, insoluble inclusions (including tribution, and segregation behavior, near the solideliquid interface
SiC and Si3N4) in silicon have yet to be sufficiently investigated to during directional solidification [17e22]. However, previous
fulfill the requirements of the photovoltaic industry. During block studies have only concentrated on individual particles of insoluble
casting, insoluble inclusions frequently appear in certain portions inclusions during normal directional solidification (DS) (non-vac-
of silicon ingots [8,9]. The presence of SiC leads to severe ohmic uum conditions). Other impurities, such as volatile impurities (e.g.,
shunt current flow in large-angle grain boundaries, causing Ca, Na) and non-volatile impurities (e.g., Fe, B), may also be found in
degradation in solar cell efficiency [10,11]. Broken wires caused by m-c silicon. Removal of volatile impurities has been investigated by
insoluble inclusions result in wafer defects [12]. Both SiC and Si3N4 considering the segregation behavior and evaporation mechanism
can induce impurity accumulation, which causes larger local de- of DS under low-vacuum conditions [23e27]. Considering that the
fects in the final wafers [13,14]. Methods to recycle silicon scraps interactions of impurities with each other influence the corre-
sponding redistribution, studying the behavior of insoluble in-
clusions while accounting for the existence of other impurities are a
* Corresponding author. Fujian Key Laboratory of Advanced Materials, College of significant endeavor.
Materials, Xiamen University, No. 422, Siming South Road, Xiamen, Fujian 361005, In this paper, the distributions of insoluble inclusions and other
China. impurities along the height of an ingot were measured. Interactions
E-mail address: xuetao@xmu.edu.cn (X. Luo).

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.

condition and the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition, as is


shown in Fig. 5. The data of the red dash dot line come from Table 1,
whereas the blue dash line is under low-vacuum condition. Large
amounts of residues appeared on top of the ingots both under the
low-vacuum condition and the mixture vacuum condition. The
abnormal peak (solidified height of 50 mm on the red dash dot line)
indicated insoluble inclusion aggregation under low-vacuum con-
dition, but this relationship did not apply to the peak of the blue
solid line (non- and low-vacuum condition). The main difference of
the process parameters was vacuum condition. Although it is
possible that the distribution of insoluble inclusions is related to
the changes vacuum conditions, insoluble inclusions of Si3N4 and
SiC cannot be volatilized to their gas phase under vacuum condi-
tions. Moreover, if air leakage at the start of vacuum pump working
caused the abnormal deposition, the peak values of insoluble in-
clusions under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition and
Fig. 3. Secondary electron SEM micrograph of silicon samples obtained after etching the low-vacuum condition should be identical. However, a differ-
(in the solidified height of 50 mm) shows that insoluble inclusions are rod-like Si3N4 ence shown in Fig. 5 indicates that the peak value at the start of
and small SiC particles.
S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72 69

Fig. 5. Weight ratios of insoluble inclusions as a function of solidification fraction from


the bottom to the top of an ingot are under low-vacuum, the mixture of non- and low-
vacuum condition. The data of the red dash dot line come from Table 1, whereas the
blue dash line indicates the distribution under low-vacuum condition. (For interpre-
tation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.)

low-vacuum condition is much larger than that under the mixed


vacuum conditions. Hence, the vacuum conditions cannot directly
influences the distribution of Si3N4 and SiC, and air leakage cannot
explain the abnormal peak values of insoluble inclusions as well.
The concentrations of impurities from the bottom to the top of
the m-c silicon ingot during crystallization are shown in Fig. 6: (a)
under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition; (b) under
the low-vacuum condition. The abnormal peak values of Ca, Al
appear at the start of low-vacuum condition in both of Fig. 5(a) and
(b), while no changes of B, Fe occur under different vacuum con-
ditions. In general, the impurities are divided into two types. For
one type (e.g., B and Fe), the distribution of impurities are hardly
influenced by vacuum conditions, and mainly determined by the
solubility in solid and liquid phase of silicon [2]. For the other type Fig. 6. 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;
(e.g., Ca, Al, Na), the distribution of impurities is mainly determined
(b) low-vacuum condition during crystallization.
by the segregation behavior caused by the diffusibility and evapo-
rability of impurity atoms [25,26,28]. High concentrations of im-
purities in the final grown silicon are due to accumulation of large portion of the impurities in grown silicon ingots belongs to
impurities on the solideliquid interface. Considering low segrega- small particles. The corresponding chemical compositions are
tion coefficient, the concentrations of Al, Ca, and Na at the start of confirmed in Table 3. Phase І reveals straight hexagon-shaped rods
solidification should be minimal. In our experiment under mixture of Si3N4, whereas Phases II and III show the coexistence of carbides
of non- and low-vacuum condition shown in Fig. 6 (a), however, and metallic impurities (Ca, Al, and Na). After Phases I and II
peaks of impurities (e.g., Al, Ca, and Na) are located at the bottom completely etching, Fig. 3 indicates that carbides in Phases II are
(50 mm) of an ingot. The initial concentrations of Ca, Al, and Na are small SiC particles. With Si3N4 acting as nucleation sites for im-
C0(Ca) ¼ 5.15 ppm wt., C0(Al) ¼ 3.06 ppm wt., and C0(Na) ¼ 1.97 ppm purities [8], various kinds of impurities got together to form im-
wt, respectively, and their peak values are 4.22, 2.83, and 1.72 ppm purity clusters (Phase II) around insoluble inclusions (Phase I). This
wt. The transition tendency of Ca, Al, and Na is similar to that of observation confirms that the presence of impurity clusters influ-
insoluble inclusions shown in Fig. 5. We can expect that aggrega- enced the distribution of insoluble inclusions under vacuum con-
tions of SiC and Si3N4 at the start of processing in low-vacuum ditions. An explanation is that, as the density of Ca and Na were
conditions may be attributed to the presence of Al, Ca, and Na. lower than melt silicon, impurity clusters covering small SiC par-
The morphology of the high impurity phase in the silicon ingot ticles carried large insoluble inclusions suspending in the melt
under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition is shown in silicon (solidified height of 0e50 mm under non-vacuum condi-
Fig. 7. At a solidified height of 50 mm, the average particle size of tion), while deposited if Ca and Na were not enough (solidified
Phase І is over 100 mm, as also observed in Fig. 3. Considering the height of 50 mm at the start of low-vacuum condition).
20 mm size of Phase III at the top of an ingot, the result shows that It is possible that the occurrence of abnormal peak at the change
larger particles precipitate at the bottom of the ingots, whereas of vacuum condition is due to the existence of volatile metallic
smaller particles float upward. According to Table 1, the weight impurities (Ca, Na, Al) in recycled silicon, especially for Ca and Na.
ratios of Phases І and II exceed 1.19%, whereas that of Phase III is In addition to the metallic impurities are around insoluble in-
beyond 10.62%. Comparison of the impurity phase indicates that a clusions, the densities of Ca and Na are all lower than that of melt
70 S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72

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

4.1. Transport characteristics of Ca, Al, and Na


FW ¼ mg: (4)
To understand the migration of insoluble inclusions further, the Particles can remain stably floating in molten silicon only if Fr
transport characteristics of impurities must be investigated. The and FB are equal to FW. If this balance is broken, the particles are
mass transfer coefficient of impurities reflects the mass of impurity engulfed/pushed by the solidification front.
atoms transferred from melted silicon to the gas phase per unit of A mechanism of insoluble inclusion migration is used to reveal
time. The mass transfer coefficient k depends on the solidification the abnormal peak of insoluble inclusions, which is shown in Fig. 9.
rate v, the density of solid silicon rs, the density of liquid silicon rl, The state of insoluble particles in molten silicon under non-vacuum
the height of the liquid silicon ingot H, the initial concentration C0, conditions is shown in Fig. 9 (a). The transfer behavior of particles
an arbitrary time t during solidification, and the corresponding under low-vacuum conditions is shown in Fig. 9(b)e(d). Although
concentration of evaporation Ct, which can be expressed as [26]: the densities of nitrides and carbides are higher than that of silicon,

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

bands of particles are found ahead of the solideliquid interface


during crystal growth [19]. Among these bands, solid insoluble
Given that v ¼ 3.54  106 (m/s), rs ¼ 2.33  103 (kg/m3), particles act as nucleation sites to adsorb volatile metallic
rl ¼ 2.45  103 (kg/m3), H ¼ 0.35 (m), C0(Ca) ¼ 5.15 ppm wt., impurities.
C0(Al) ¼ 3.06 ppm wt., C0(Na) ¼ 1.97 ppm wt., solidification time Toward the end of processing in non-vacuum stage under the
t ¼ 12  104 s, and concentrations of Ct(Ca) ¼ 1.50 ppm wt., mixture vacuum condition in Fig. 9 (a), abundant volatile metallic
Ct(Al) ¼ 1.70 ppm wt., and Ct(Na) ¼ 0.85 ppm wt. may be obtained atoms aggregate on the surface of insoluble particles. FB is suffi-
after evaporation. ciently large to guarantee that
Fig. 8 shows that mass transfer coefficients of impurities in
molten silicon under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condi-
tion as a function of directional solidification time. The mass
transfer coefficients of Ca, Al, and Na show the same tendency of FB þ Fr ¼ FW (5)
time changes. At the start of processing in low-vacuum conditions,
the mass transfer coefficients of Ca, Al, and Na decrease sharply and Thus, regardless of size, insoluble particles are suspended above
then plateau at a low value with increasing solidification time, as the solideliquid interface.
shown in Fig. 8. This trend indicates that the majority of the im- As seen in Fig. 9 (b), at the start of processing in low-vacuum
purity atoms rapidly evaporate from the melt to the gas phase at the stage, large amounts of impurity atoms are extracted from the
beginning of processing, subsequently reaching equilibrium with bands of particles as a result of high mass transfer coefficients. Parts
the extraction of several atoms by the vacuum system. of the impurities separated from insoluble particles lead to de-
creases in FB. For large particles, FW is larger than the sum of the Fr
and FB. Large particles are engulfed by the solideliquid interface,
4.2. Migration of insoluble inclusions whereas small particles remain suspended.
During crystallization, the mass transfer coefficients sharply
Due to the fact that melting points of SiC and Si3N4 are decrease to low values, and few metallic atoms of Ca, Al, Na move
considerably higher than that of silicon, their existing forms are away from the insoluble particles. Hence, insoluble inclusions
solid particles. Force analysis in molten silicon should was con- gradually move upward, as shown in Fig. 9 (c). In the final stage of
ducted to determine whether the particles are engulfed or pushed crystallization shown in Fig. 9 (d), the suspended particles are
by the plane front [20]. Forces acting on particles for a planar sol- aggregated at the top the solideliquid interface, leading to a high
ideliquid interface include the repulsive force (Fr), the weight force weight ratio at the top of the silicon ingot.
S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72 71

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.)

5. Conclusions insoluble particles are proposed to be the dominant driving force of


impurity transition from the bottom to the top surface of the
DS under different vacuum conditions is adopted to investigate samples. Extraction of atoms of Ca, Al, Na from insoluble particles,
the migration behavior of insoluble inclusions in m-c silicon. An which is caused by high mass transfer coefficients at the beginning
abnormal peak (weight ratio of 1.19%) of SiC and Si3N4 with average of processing at low-vacuum conditions, is the main cause of
sizes of 100 mm is located at the bottom of the silicon ingot obtained abnormal peaks. The results provide guidance for the removal of
under the mixture of non- and low-vacuum condition. At the top of insoluble inclusions from recycled silicon.
the ingot, the weight ratio of the impurity phase exceeds 10.62%
and its size is 20 mm. This large size of impurity particles is due to Acknowledgments
agglomeration of insoluble inclusions and impurities of Ca, Al, Na at
the bottom of the ingots. The interactions of Ca, Al, Na, and The authors grateful acknowledge the financial support from
72 S. Qiu et al. / Vacuum 128 (2016) 66e72

Qingdao Longsun Silicon Technology company Ltd, and support of and filaments precipitated in multicrystalline Si for solar cells, Sol. Energy
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