Metallurgical Refinement of Multicrystalline Silicon by Directional Solidification

일방향 응고법에 의한 다결정 실리콘의 야금학적 정련

The solar energy is dramatically increasing as the alternative energy source and the silicon(Si) solar cell are used the most. In this study, the improved process and equipment for the metallurgical refinement of multicrystalline Si were evaluated for the inexpensive solar cell. The planar plane and columnar dendrite aheadof the liquid-solid interface position caused the superior segregation of impurities from the Si. The solidification rate and thermal gradient determined the shape of dendrite in solidified Si matrix solidified by the directional solidification(DS) method. To simulate this equipment, the commercial software, PROCAST, was used to solve the solidification rate and thermal gradient. Si was vertically solidified by the DS system with Stober process and up-graded metallurgical grade or metallurgical grade Si was used as the feedstock. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP) was used to measure the concentration of impurities in the refined Si ingot. According to the result of ICP and simulation, the high thermal gradient between the two phases wasable to increase the solidification rate under the identical level of refinement. Also, the separating heating zone equipped with the melting and solidification zone was effective to maintain the high thermal gradient during the solidification.