Silica versus silicon nitride crucible: Influence of thermophysical properties on the solidification of multi-crystalline silicon by Bridgman technique

Optimization of silicon crystallization in a Bridgman growth furnace by numerical modeling

“…For most material parameters vendor data is used. Thermo-physical properties of silicon and the silica crucible are taken from [9,10]. The values of the anisotropic thermal conductivity for the bottom and side furnace insulation are shown in Table 1.…”

“…Although these aspects require 3D models of the crystallization process, current models are often limited to 2D simulation (assuming axisymmetric conditions or planar configurations) or quasi-stationary models [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12].…”

Chemical bulk properties of multicrystalline silicon ingots for solar cells cast in silicon nitride crucibles

“…Numerical and experimental investigations of such crucibles have been reported by Bellmann et al [7] for the solidification furnace used in this work. They suggested increasing the furnace temperature by 20 K during melting, in order to counterbalance the higher heat loss through the bottom due to higher heat conductivity of the silicon nitride crucibles compared to silica crucibles.…”

Si3N4/fused quartz composite crucible with enhanced thermal conductivity for multicrystalline silicon ingot growth

“…M.P.Bellmann from SINTEF compares standard silica crucible with Si 3 N 4 crucible, analyze the influences of thermophysical properties variations on the multicrystalline silicon directional solidification [ 10 ]. Si 3 N 4 is a universal ceramic material that is widely used in friction gears and high temperature dielectric materials [11], however, this square crucible method for industrial multicrystalline Si ingot is more difficult than circular one for pilot testing, subject to thermal cracking because of the mismatch of its CTE with that of Si, and complexity of fabrication process.…”

“…Si 3 N 4 is a universal ceramic material that is widely used in friction gears and high temperature dielectric materials [11], however, this square crucible method for industrial multicrystalline Si ingot is more difficult than circular one for pilot testing, subject to thermal cracking because of the mismatch of its CTE with that of Si, and complexity of fabrication process. To obtain a stable planar or exhibits many features that are similar to SiO 2 ; moreover, it is a potentially suitable material for fabricating crucibles [12].An advantage of using Si 3 N 4 to composite with SiO 2 is that its thermal conductivity is approximately16.7 W/m-K [10], which considerably higher than that of SiO 2 .…”