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Improving Performance of Cast Silicon Ingot by Forcing Silicon Melt Convection with Mechanical Stirring

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Abstract

Currently, a large amount of recycled Si material is used in casting multicrystalline Si, which leads to an increase in impurities in the crystal. In this study, an innovative mechanical stirring device in the casting furnace is investigated, for forcing Si melt convection during the crystal directional growth. The qualification rate of Si ingot with the stirring is increased by 6.43% due to an increase of the minority carrier lifetime and a decrease of impurity clusters in the improved Si crystal, compared to that without the stirring. It was found that some impurities, such as carbon and oxygen, can achieve better segregation effect in cast multicrystalline Si, with the help of the stirrer. Also, the stirring action on Si melt can reduce the number of dislocation clusters in Si ingot, which is beneficial for improving the quality of the Si crystal.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFB1506501) and Jiangsu Key Lab of Silicon Based Electronic Materials for financial support.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2020YFB1506501).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, NingboTech University, Ningbo, 315100, People’s Republic of China

    Dongli Hu & **bing Zhang

  2. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Silicon Based Electronic Materials, Jiangsu GCL Silicon Material Technology Development Co., Ltd., Xuzhou, 221000, People’s Republic of China

    Dongli Hu, Hongrong Chen, Huali Zhang & Chen Wang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, People’s Republic of China

    Shuai Yuan

Authors
  1. Dongli Hu
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  2. **bing Zhang
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  3. Shuai Yuan
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  4. Hongrong Chen
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  5. Huali Zhang
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  6. Chen Wang
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Contributions

Dongli Hu and **bing Zhang: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Investigation, Writing-original draft. Shuai Yuan: Methodology, Software, Investigation. Hongrong Chen: Resources, Writing - review & editing, Data curation. Huali Zhang: Validation, Formal analysis, Visualization, Software. Chen Wang: Investigation, Data curation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to **bing Zhang.

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Hu, D., Zhang, J., Yuan, S. et al. Improving Performance of Cast Silicon Ingot by Forcing Silicon Melt Convection with Mechanical Stirring. Silicon 15, 2737–2744 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-022-02217-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-022-02217-1

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