Sumco Corporation

Ippei Shimozaki

Keiichi Takanashi

Wataru Sugimura

Mitsuaki Hayashi

A crystal puller apparatus comprises a pulling assembly to pull a crystal from a silicon melt at a pull speed; a crucible that contains the silicon melt; a heat shield above a surface of the silicon melt; a lifter to change a gap between the heat shield and the surface of the silicon melt; and one or more computing devices to determine an adjustment to the gap using a Pv-Pi margin, at a given length of the crystal, in response to a change in the pull speed. The computer-implemented method by a computing device comprises determining a pull-speed command signal to control a diameter of the crystal; determining a lifter command signal to control a gap between a heat shield and a surface of a silicon melt from which the crystal is grown; and determining an adjustment to the gap, in response to a different pull-speed, using a Pv-Pi margin.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing defect-free monocrystalline silicon crystal

An apparatus for manufacturing a silicon single crystal is provided. The apparatus comprises a chamber (), a quarts crucible () provided in the chamber so as to be rotatable and movable upward and downward and store a silicon melt, a first heater () for melting a silicon raw material stored in the crucible, and a pulling mechanism () provided in the chamber so as to be rotatable and movable upward and downward. The pulling mechanism has a lower end to which a seed crystal (S) is attached. The seed crystal is to be dipped in the silicon melt in the crucible and pulled upward for growing a silicon single crystal by a Czochralski method. The apparatus further comprises a melt supplying mechanism () for supplying an additional silicon melt to the silicon melt in the crucible from external of the chamber. The melt supplying mechanism includes a melt inlet pipe () disposed at an inclination angle &#x3b8;1 of 50&#xb0; to 80&#xb0; with respect to the melt surface of the silicon melt and a melt generating mechanism () for supplying the additional silicon melt (M) to an opening part () of a base end of the melt inlet pipe. The melt inlet pipe has a tip end provided with an opening part (). The opening part of the tip end has an annular surface inclined at an angle &#x3b8;with respect to a direction orthogonal to the axis of the melt inlet pipe. The annular surface has a vertically lower side () and a vertically upper side (). The vertically lower side is located nearer to the tip end in the axis direction than the vertically upper side.

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Tokyo, Japan

Ippei Shimozaki