The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 2010
Filed:
Jul. 10, 2006
Applicant:
Emanuel Michael Sachs, Newton, MA (US);
Inventor:
Emanuel Michael Sachs, Newton, MA (US);
Assignee:
Evergreen Solar, Inc., Marlborough, MA (US);
Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
C30B 15/00 (2006.01);
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract
A method and apparatus for growing a crystalline or poly-crystalline body from a melt is described, wherein the melt is retained by capillary attachment to edge features of a mesa crucible. The boundary profile of the resulting melt surface results in an effect which induces a ribbon grown from the surface of the melt to grow as a flat body. Further, the size of the melt pool is substantially reduced by bringing these edges close to the ribbon, thereby reducing the materials cost and electric power cost associated with the process.