Skip to main content
Log in

Effect of Titanium Carbide Heat Exchanger Block and Retort on Oxygen Impurities in Mc-Silicon: Numerical Modelling

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Silicon Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Primarily, mc-Silicon growth is undertaken by directional solidification (DS) process. Reduction of non-metallic impurities such as oxygen, carbon and nitrogen in DS produced mc-Si ingots is a challenging task and strong contaminations come from inner parts of the DS system. In conventional DS system heat exchanger block and retort are made of graphite. In our present work, we have used a heat exchanger block and retort made by titanium carbide (TiC). The simulation has been done for using both graphite and TiC as Heat exchanger block and retort. The simulation results were compared and analysed. The numerical simulation of oxygen impurity distributions in melt and crystal has been investigated. When we used TiC as Heat exchanger block and retort, it gives lower melt convection in the molten stage, more uniform temperature distribution in x- axis and lower temperature gradient in y-axis at the end of solidification. The lower melt convection can reduce the oxygen impurities and results in uniform oxygen distribution. So, TiC based DS system gives better results compared with the graphite-based system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Dropka N, Buchovska I, Herrmann-Geppert I, Kilmm D, Kiessling FM, Degenhardt U (2018) Towards graphite-free hot zone for directional solidification of silicon. J Cryst Growth 492:18–23

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Ma X, Zheng L, Zhang H, Zhao B, Wang C, Xu F (2013). J Cryst Growth 318:288–292

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Matsuo H, Bairava Ganesh R, Nakano S, Liu L, Kangawa Y, Arafune K, Ohshita Y, Yamaguchi M, Kakimoto K (2008) Thermodynamical analysis of oxygen incorporation from a quartz crucible during solidification of multicrystalline silicon for solar cell. J Cryst Growth 310:4666–4671

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Vorobev AN, Sidko AP, Kalaev VV (2014). J Cryst Growth 386:225–234

    Google Scholar 

  5. Zhou B, Chen W, Li Z, Yue R, Huang X. J Cryst Growth 483:164–168

  6. Saitoh T, Wang X, Hashigami H, Abe T, Igarashi T, Glunz S, Rein S, Wettling W, Yamasaki I, Sawai H, Ohtuka H, Warabisako T (2001) Suppression of light degradation of carrier lifetimes in low-resistivity CZ–Si solar cells. Sol Energy Mater Sol Cells 65:277–285

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Kesavan V, Srinivasan M, Ramasamy P (2018) https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9928-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Nagarajan SG, Srinivasan M, Aravinth K, Ramasamy P https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-018-9870-8

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Gao B, Nakano S, Kakimoto K. JOM 63(10)

  10. Nakano S, Gao K, Kakimoto K (2013). J Cryst Growth 375:62–66

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Li Z, Liu L, Ma W, Kakimoto K (2011) Effects of argon flow on impurities transport in a directional solidification furnace for silicon solar cells. J Cryst Growth 318:304–312

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Teng Y-Y, Chen J-C, Huang B-S, Chang C-H (2014) Numerical simulation of impurity transport under the effect of a gas flow guidance device during the growth of multicrystalline silicon ingots by the directional solidification process. J Cryst Growth 385:1–8

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Srinivasan M, Ramasamy P. J Optoelectron Adv Mater 18(3–4):315–321

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to M. Srinivasan.

Additional information

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vishnuwaran, M., Srinivasan, M., Kesavan, V. et al. Effect of Titanium Carbide Heat Exchanger Block and Retort on Oxygen Impurities in Mc-Silicon: Numerical Modelling. Silicon 12, 799–803 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00174-w

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-019-00174-w

Keywords

Navigation