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AssigneeShin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.
InventorsNaoki Nagai, Michiaki Oda, Seiichiro Ohtsuka, Isamu Harada
Estimating the term…
A recharger system including a feeder and a feed conduit recharge polycrystalline silicon granules into a crucible after a run or operation of growing a single crystal silicon rod by the Czochralski method, thereby to prepare for a next run of crystal growing. The amount of holdup or backed-up supply of the silicon granules in the feed conduit is detected by a sensor provided on the feed conduit. A smooth and high-rate feed of the silicon granules is ensured by controlling the feed rate of the silicon granules from the feeder to the feed conduit and/or a descending velocity of the crucible by signals generated in the sensor as a function of the amount of the holdup or backed-up supply in the feed conduit.
In a batch-wise process of Czochralski single crystal growing from a melt of silicon in a crucible, wherein a single crystal rod of silicon is grown and withdrawn from said crucible in a growing operation, after which growing is discontinued, and then said crucible is recharged with granules of polycrystalline silicon during a recharging operation in preparation for a subsequent growing operation, the improvement wherein said recharging operation comprises:
In a batch-wise process of Czochralski single crystal growing from a melt of silicon in a crucible, wherein a single crystal rod of silicon is grown and withdrawn from said crucible in a growing operation, after which growing is discontinued, and then said crucible is recharged with granules of polycrystalline silicon during a recharging operation in preparation for a subsequent growing operation, the improvement wherein said recharging operation comprises:
The improvement claimed in clam 4, wherein a feed rate of said granules is at least about 50 g/second.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.