Guidance system for low angle silicon ribbon growth

Patent · 08 July 1986

OSTI ID:865914

Jewett, David N ^[1]; Bates, Herbert E ^[2]; Milstein, Joseph B ^[3]

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1. Harvard, MA
2. Ashby, MA
3. Denver, CO

In a low angle silicon sheet growth process, a puller mechanism advances a seed crystal and solidified ribbon from a cooled growth zone in a melt at a low angle with respect to the horizontal. The ribbon is supported on a ramp adjacent the puller mechanism. Variations in the vertical position of the ribbon with respect to the ramp are isolated from the growth end of the ribbon by (1) growing the ribbon so that it is extremely thin, preferably less than 0.7 mm, (2) maintaining a large growth zone, preferably one whose length is at least 5.0 cm, and (3) spacing the ramp from the growth zone by at least 15 cm.

• Assignee: Energy Materials Corporation (So. Lancaster, MA)
• Patent Number(s): US 4599132
• Application Number: 06/692,844
• OSTI ID: 865914
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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