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US 5,964,941 AGranted
Crystal pulling method and apparatus
AssigneeShin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.
InventorsEiichi Iino, Makoto Iida, Masanori Kimura, Shozo Muraoka
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AssigneeShin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd.
InventorsEiichi Iino, Makoto Iida, Masanori Kimura, Shozo Muraoka
Estimating the term…
A method and an apparatus for pulling a single crystal are disclosed. A neck portion, a corrugated portion, and a single crystal are formed below a seed crystal held by a seed chuck. When the corrugated portion is raised to a predetermined position (where lifting jig can hold the corrugated portion) by the seed chuck, the rising speed Va of the seed chuck is reduced, and a slider that supports a seed chuck lifting mechanism is raised at a speed Vb in order to maintain a constant pulling speed of the single crystal. Eventually, the pulling by the seed chuck is switched to the pulling by the slider. Subsequently, the lifting jig provided on the slider is raised slightly by a moving mechanism so that the crystal holding portions of the lifting jig are brought into contact with the corrugated portion and 1-50% of the weight of the crystal is shifted to the lifting jig. This enables safe and accurate growth of a heavy single crystal in accordance with, for example, the CZ method.
A crystal pulling method comprising the steps of:
A crystal pulling apparatus in which a seed crystal held by a seed chuck is brought into contact with material melt in a crucible, the seed chuck is raised in order to grow a single crystal below the seed crystal, and a lifting jig is caused to come into contact with a portion of the single crystal in the course of the pulling operation in order to switch the pulling by the seed chuck to the pulling by the lifting jig, wherein said seed chuck and said lifting jig are disposed on a slider that is moved vertically through use of an elevating mechanism such that said seed chuck and said lifting jig can move vertically independently of each other, and said entire lifting jig or at least a part of the lifting jig is moved vertically relative to said slider through use of a moving mechanism.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.