Crucible assemblies and methods for forming a unitized crucible assembly
AssigneeGlobalWafers Co., Ltd.
InventorsRichard Joseph Phillips, Salvador Zepeda, Patrick Fredrick Boegemann, III, William Luter
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Abstract
Methods for forming a unitized crucible assembly for holding a melt of silicon for forming a silicon ingot are disclosed. In some embodiments, the methods involve a porous crucible mold having a channel network with a bottom channel, an outer sidewall channel that extends from the bottom channel, and a central weir channel that extends from the bottom channel. A slip slurry may be added to the channel network and the liquid carrier of the slip slurry may be drawn into the mold. The resulting green body may be sintered to form the crucible assembly.
Claims12
A method for forming a unitized crucible assembly for holding a melt of silicon for forming a silicon ingot by the Czochralski method, the method comprising:
- providing a crucible mold, the mold comprising a porous body and a channel network disposed within the porous body, the channel network comprising:
- a bottom channel;
- an outer sidewall channel that extends from the bottom channel;
- and
- an inner weir channel that extends from the bottom channel, the inner weir channel being disposed interior to the outer sidewall channel;
- introducing a slip slurry into the channel network to fill the bottom channel, outer sidewall channel and inner weir channel with the slip slurry, the slip slurry comprising silica and a liquid carrier;
- drawing at least a portion of the liquid carrier into the mold by capillary action to form a green body;
- separating the green body from the crucible mold;
- and
- sintering the green body to dry and densify the green body to form the unitized crucible assembly.
A crucible assembly comprising:
- a bottom;
- an outer sidewall that extends upward from the bottom;
- a central weir that extends upward from the bottom;
- and
- an inner weir that extends upward from the bottom, the central weir being disposed between the outer sidewall and the inner weir, wherein the bottom, outer sidewall, central weir and inner weir are unitized and are free of seams at (1) a joint between the outer sidewall and the bottom, (2) a joint between the central weir and the bottom, (3) a joint between the inner weir and the bottom.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.