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US 8,540,920 B2Granted
Methods of making an article of semiconducting material on a mold comprising particles of a semiconducting material
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsPrantik Mazumder, Sergey Potapenko, Natesan Venkataraman
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Abstract
The invention relates to methods of making articles of semiconducting material and semiconducting material articles formed thereby, such as articles of semiconducting material that may be useful in making photovoltaic cells.
Claims20
A method of making an article of a semiconducting material, comprising:
- providing a molten first semiconducting material at a temperature Ts;
- providing a mold at a temperature TMold, such that TMold<Ts, wherein the mold comprises a principle substrate having an external surface and at least one discrete location;
- coating the at least one discrete location with particles of a semiconducting material, the particles being substantially the same semiconducting material as the molten semiconducting material;
- immersing the mold in the molten semiconducting material for a period of time sufficient to form a solid layer at least partially comprised of the first semiconducting material over the external surface of the mold;
- withdrawing the mold with the solid layer from the molten semiconducting material;
- and
- optionally separating the solid layer from the mold.
4 more elements
A method of making an article of a semiconducting material, comprising:
- providing a molten first semiconducting material at a temperature Ts;
- providing a mold at a temperature TMold, such that Ts>TMold, wherein the mold comprises a principle substrate having opposing external surfaces and at least one discrete location of a second semiconducting material;
- immersing the mold in the molten first semiconducting material for a period of time sufficient to form solid layers at least partially comprised of the first semiconducting material over the external surfaces of the mold;
- withdrawing the mold with the solid layers from the molten first semiconducting material;
- and
- optionally separating the solid layers from the mold, wherein the first semiconducting material is substantially the same as the second semiconducting material.
3 more elements
A method of reducing the amount of impurities and/or defects and/or controlling the grain structure of an article of a semiconducting material during formation of the article, comprising:
- providing a molten first semiconducting material at a temperature Ts;
- providing a mold at a temperature TMold, such that Ts>TMold, wherein the mold comprises a principle substrate having an external surface and at least one discrete location comprised of a second semiconducting material;
- immersing the mold in the molten first semiconducting material for a period of time sufficient to form a solid layer at least partially comprised of the first semiconducting material over an external surface of the mold and begin to remelt;
- withdrawing the mold with the solid layer from the molten first semiconducting material;
- and
- optionally separating the solid layer from the mold,
- wherein the first semiconducting material is substantially the same material as the second semiconducting material.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.