Memc Electronic Materials, Inc.

Sunedison, Inc.

Plasmasil, LLC

Milind S Kulkarni

Puneet Gupta

Mohsen Banan

Jameel Ibrahim

Vithal Revankar

Balaji Devulapalli

Kwasi Foli

Jeffrey Louis Libbert

Richard Joseph Phillips

Harold W Korb

Hariprasad Sreedharamurthy

Luciano Mule'Stagno

Stephen J Brunkhorst

Joseph C Holzer

Roland R Vandamme

Richard G Schrenker

Carlo Zavattari

Christopher Vaughn Luers

AnKur Desai

Charles Whitmer, Ii

Gas distribution units of fluidized bed reactors are configured to direct thermally decomposable compounds to the center portion of the reactor and away from the reactor wall to prevent deposition of material on the reactor wall and process for producing polycrystalline silicon product in a reactor that reduce the amount of silicon which deposits on the reactor wall.

Fluidized bed reactor systems

Methods for introducing a first gas and a second gas into a reaction chamber

The present invention relates to a single crystal silicon ingot or wafer wherein the lateral incorporation effect of intrinsic point defects has been manipulated such that the formation of agglomerated intrinsic point defects and/or oxygen precipitate clusters in a ring extending radially inward from about the lateral surface of the ingot segment is limited.

Silicon material with controlled agglomerated point defects and oxygen clusters induced by the lateral surface

Controlling crystal growth in a crystal growing system is described. The crystal growing system includes a heated crucible including a semiconductor melt from which a monocrystalline ingot is grown according to a Czochralski and the ingot is grown on a seed crystal pulled from the melt. The method includes applying a cusped magnetic field to the melt by supplying an upper coil with a first direct current (I) and supplying a lower coil with a second direct current (I). The method also includes supplying the upper coil with a first alternating current (I) and supplying the lower coil with a second alternating current (I) to generate a time-varying magnetic field, wherein the time-varying magnetic field generates a pumping force in the semiconductor melt.

Generating a pumping force in a silicon melt by applying a time-varying magnetic field

Methods for producing polycrystalline silicon that reduce the deposition of silicon on reactor walls

A system for growing silicon crystals that facilitates controlling a shape of a melt-solid interface is described. The crystal growing system includes a heated crucible including a semiconductor melt from which a monocrystalline ingot is grown according to a Czochralski process. The ingot is grown on a seed crystal pulled from the melt. The method includes applying an unbalanced cusped magnetic field to the melt, and rotating the ingot and the crucible in the same direction while the ingot is being pulled from the melt.

Controlling a melt-solid interface shape of a growing silicon crystal using an unbalanced magnetic field and iso-rotation

Processes for preparing a single crystal silicon ingot are disclosed. In certain embodiments, the processes involve controlling (1) a growth velocity, v, of the ingot as well as (2) an average axial temperature gradient, G, a corrected average axial temperature gradient, G, or an effective average axial temperature gradient, G, during the growth of at least a segment of the constant diameter portion of the ingot.

Controlling agglomerated point defect and oxygen cluster formation induced by the lateral surface of a silicon single crystal during CZ growth

A crystal puller for growing monocrystalline ingots includes a side heater adjacent a crucible for heating the crucible and a melt heat exchanger sized and shaped for surrounding the ingot and disposed adjacent a surface of the melt. The heat exchanger includes a heat source having an area for radiating heat to the melt for controlling heat transfer at the upper surface of the melt. The melt heat exchanger is adapted to reduce heat loss at the exposed upper surface portion. Methods for growing single crystal silicon crystals having desired defect characteristics are disclosed.

Crystal puller and method for growing a monocrystalline ingot

A system and method for slicing an ingot into wafers using the wire saw process. A slurry collection system collects and supplies slurry to a slurry handling system for controlling temperatures and/or flow rates of the slurry thereby providing slurry output at a controlled temperature and/or a controlled flow rate to slicing system for cutting the ingot, which may be preheated.

Wire saw ingot slicing system and method with ingot preheating, web preheating, slurry temperature control and/or slurry flow rate control

A process for imparting controlled oxygen precipitation behavior to a single crystal silicon wafer. Specifically, prior to formation of the oxygen precipitates, the wafer bulk comprises dopant stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers. The dopant is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen and carbon, and the concentration of the dopant is sufficient to allow the oxygen precipitate nucleation centers to withstand thermal processing, such as an epitaxial deposition process, while maintaining the ability to dissolve any grown-in nucleation centers.

Process for making silicon wafers with stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers

A single crystal silicon ingot having a constant diameter portion that contains arsenic dopant atoms at a concentration which results in the silicon having a resistivity that is less than about 0.003 &#x3a9;&#xb7;cm.

Single crystal silicon ingot having a high arsenic concentration

A silicon wafer having a controlled oxygen precipitation behavior such that a denuded zone extending inward from the front surface and oxygen precipitates in the wafer bulk sufficient for intrinsic gettering purposes are ultimately formed. Specifically, prior to formation of the oxygen precipitates, the wafer bulk comprises dopant stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers. The dopant is selected from a group consisting of nitrogen and carbon and the concentration of the dopant is sufficient to allow the oxygen precipitate nucleation centers to withstand thermal processing such as an epitaxial deposition process while maintaining the ability to dissolve any grown-in nucleation centers.

Silicon wafers with stabilized oxygen precipitate nucleation centers and process for making the same

A method of lowering the resistivity of resultant silicon crystal from a Czochralski crystal growing process by adding arsenic dopant to the melt in multiple stages.

Multi-stage arsenic doping process to achieve low resistivity in silicon crystal grown by czochralski method

A method of processing a semiconductor wafer sliced from a single-crystal ingot and having front and back surfaces and a peripheral edge comprises the step of plasma jet etching the wafer to reduce the sub-surface wafer damage. The method further comprises high-gloss etching the wafer by subjecting the wafer to a high-gloss etchant that smooths the wafer such that surface roughness and nonspecularly reflected light are reduced. Plasma assisted chemical etching (PACE) is performed on the wafer to improve the flatness and the thickness uniformity of the wafer. The wafer is final polished to further reduce surface roughness and nonspecularly reflected light.

Growing community of inventors

St. Louis, MO, United States of America

Milind S Kulkarni