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Study on Oxygen Control of Large Diameter N-type Monocrystalline Silicon with Large Thermal Field

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Abstract

With the rapid development of photovoltaics industry under the background of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", the growth of large diameter N-type monocrystalline silicon will become the mainstream technology in the next few years. However, the problem of high oxygen content in large diameter monocrystalline silicon will become more prominent since oxygen-related defects are detrimental to minority carrier lifetime and cell efficiency. Focusing on this problem, this paper proposes a variety of oxygen control techniques through thermal field innovation and conventional processes optimization. Furthermore, the influence of new thermal field structure and optimized process on oxygen content in silicon melt during crystal growth is analyzed by numerical simulation and further confirmed by the corresponding on-site experiments. In addition, the synergistic effects of the comprehensive application of these proposed oxygen control techniques has been verified, with the lowest average oxygen concentration of 11.95 ppma, which is 2.8 ppma lower than that of the conventional growth process. The results provide some guidance for the growth of large diameter N-type monocrystalline silicon with large thermal field, which may be valuable for the development of photovoltaics industry.

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Data Availability

The data and materials generated and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Hoyuan Green Energy Co., Ltd. and Hoyuan New Material (Baotou) Co., Ltd. for the help of simulations and experiments. The author would like to thank the supporting provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62025403 and 61721005), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LD22E020001), "Pioneer" and "Leading Goose" R&D Program of Zhejiang (2022C01215) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (226-2022-00200).

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 62025403 and 61721005), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LD22E020001), "Pioneer" and "Leading Goose" R&D Program of Zhejiang (2022C01215) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (226–2022-00200).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hoyuan Green Energy Co., Ltd., Wuxi, 214128, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Yang, Jinwei Guo & Peidong Liu

  2. Hoyuan New Material (Baotou) Co., Ltd., Baotou, 014030, People’s Republic of China

    Yang Yang, Huimin Li & Xiangyu Li

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

    Zechen Hu & Xuegong Yu

Authors
  1. Yang Yang
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  2. Huimin Li
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  3. Zechen Hu
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  4. Jinwei Guo
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  5. Xiangyu Li
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  6. Peidong Liu
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  7. Xuegong Yu
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Contributions

X. Yu proposed and supervised the project. Y. Yang, H. Li and J. Guo conducted the simulation and experiments. Y. Yang and H. Li wrote the manuscript. Y. Yang and X. Yu conceived the idea. H. Li and J. Guo contributed to the sample characterization and data analysis. X. Li and P. Liu were involved in the data analysis. X. Yu and Z. Hu reviewed and revised the manuscript. All authors discussed and reviewed the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Zechen Hu or Xuegong Yu.

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Yang, Y., Li, H., Hu, Z. et al. Study on Oxygen Control of Large Diameter N-type Monocrystalline Silicon with Large Thermal Field. Silicon 16, 753–763 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02708-9

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