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Numerical Investigation on Effect of Side Heater Modification on the Stress Distribution and Dislocation Density of Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot Grown by DS Process

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Abstract

A transient global numerical simulation is adopted to develop a high quality multi-crystalline silicon (mc-Si) ingot using directional solidification (DS) furnace. The geometry of the simulation furnace is based on the G1 DS furnace. In this simulation, the modification is done on the side heaters wherein each heater group has different temperature profile. The thermal field is investigated during and after solidification process. The thermoelastic stress model is solved for the stress distribution in the mc-Si ingot. The modified heater system results in the reduction of thermal stress up to 8.3 × 103 Mpa and the reduction of dislocation up to 4.0 × 105 [1/m2]. Also, the melt crystal interface, temperature distribution and power profile are investigated. From the heater modification system will be reduce the thermal stress and dislocation density in the grown ingot.

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Data Availability

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

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Department of Science and Technology, Government.

of India. (Order No. DST/TMD / CERI /RES/ 2020/7(c) dated on 31/12/2020).

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All authors contributed to the study’s conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by Muthukumar R, Aravinth K*, Balaji Barghav P, Ramasamy P. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Muthukumar R, Aravinth K, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to K. Aravinth.

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Muthukumar, R., Aravinth, K., Bhargav, P.B. et al. Numerical Investigation on Effect of Side Heater Modification on the Stress Distribution and Dislocation Density of Multi-Crystalline Silicon Ingot Grown by DS Process. Silicon 15, 7755–7764 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02614-0

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