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US 8,617,447 B2Granted
Methods of making an unsupported article of pure or doped semiconducting material
AssigneeCorning Incorporated
InventorsGlen Bennett Cook, Prantik Mazumder, Kamal Kishore Soni, Balram Suman, Christopher Scott Thomas, 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.
Claims8
A method of controlling the thickness of an unsupported article of a semiconducting material during formation of the unsupported article, comprising:
- providing a mold at a temperature TMold;
- providing a molten semiconducting material at a temperature TS, wherein TS>TMold;
- immersing the mold in the molten semiconducting material for a period of time sufficient for solid layers of semiconducting material to form over opposing external surfaces of the mold and begin to remelt;
- withdrawing the mold with the solid layers of semiconducting material from the molten semiconducting material;
- and
- separating the solid layers of semiconducting material from the mold to form the unsupported article of the semiconducting material.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.