Global simulation of the Czochralski silicon crystal growth in ANSYS FLUENT

Abstract Silicon crystals for high efficiency solar cells are produced mainly by the Czochralski (CZ) crystal growth method. Computer simulations of the CZ process established themselves as a basic tool for optimization of the growth process which allows to reduce production costs keeping high quality of the crystalline material. The author shows the application of the general Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS FLUENT to solution of the static two-dimensional (2D) axisymmetric global model of the small industrial furnace for growing of silicon crystals with a diameter of 100 mm. The presented numerical model is self-sufficient and incorporates the most important physical phenomena of the CZ growth process including latent heat generation during crystallization, crystal–melt interface deflection, turbulent heat and mass transport, oxygen transport, etc. The demonstrated approach allows to find the heater power for the specified pulling rate of the crystal but the obtained power values are smaller than those found in the literature for the studied furnace. However, the described approach is successfully verified with the respect to the heater power by its application for the numerical simulations of the real CZ pullers by “Bosch Solar Energy AG”.

[1]  C. Martínez-Tomás,et al.  CdTe crystal growth process by the Bridgman method: numerical simulation , 2001 .

[2]  Georg Müller,et al.  Effects of various magnetic field configurations on temperature distributions in Czochralski silicon melts , 2001 .

[3]  Yu.N. Makarov,et al.  Gas flow effect on global heat transport and melt convection in Czochralski silicon growth , 2003 .

[4]  V. Kalaev,et al.  Development of oxygen transport model in Czochralski growth of silicon crystals , 2008 .

[5]  P. Rudolph,et al.  Numerical studies of flow patterns during Czochralski growth of square-shaped Si crystals , 2011 .

[6]  K. Kakimoto,et al.  Effects of argon flow on impurities transport in a directional solidification furnace for silicon solar cells , 2011 .

[7]  Georg Müller,et al.  Thermal simulation of the Czochralski silicon growth process by three different models and comparison with experimental results , 1997 .

[8]  Ying Teng,et al.  Numerical Simulation of the Effect of Heater Position on the Oxygen Concentration in the CZ Silicon Crystal Growth Process , 2012 .

[9]  F. Durst,et al.  3D computation of oxygen transport in Czochralski crystal growth of silicon considering evaporation , 2007 .

[10]  Y. Li,et al.  Large eddy simulation of Marangoni convection in Czochralski crystal growth , 2011 .

[11]  P. Spalart.  A One-Equation Turbulence Model for Aerodynamic Flows , 1992 .

[12]  Antonio Visioli,et al.  Practical PID Control , 2006 .

[13]  M. Kuramoto,et al.  Global simulation of the CZ silicon crystal growth up to 400 mm in diameter , 2001 .

[14]  A. Muiznieks,et al.  Prediction of the growth interface shape in industrial 300 mm CZ Si crystal growth , 2004 .

[15]  K. Hoshikawa,et al.  Oxygen transportation during Czochralski silicon crystal growth , 2000 .

[16]  A. Nowak,et al.  Analysis of fluid flow and energy transport in Czochralski's process , 2003 .

[17]  中島 一雄,et al.  Crystal growth of Si for solar cells , 2009 .

[18]  Chung-Wen Lan,et al.  Three-dimensional simulation of floating-zone crystal growth of oxide crystals , 2003 .

[19]  W. Hsu,et al.  On the hot-zone design of Czochralski silicon growth for photovoltaic applications , 2004 .

[20]  O. Smirnova,et al.  Optimization of furnace design and growth parameters for Si Cz growth, using numerical simulation , 2008 .

[21]  Ying Teng,et al.  Numerical simulation of oxygen transport during the CZ silicon crystal growth process , 2011 .

[22]  G. Müller,et al.  Study of oxygen transport in Czochralski growth of silicon , 1999 .

[23]  A. Alemany,et al.  Three‐dimensional study of the pressure field and advantages of hemispherical crucible in silicon Czochralski crystal growth , 2010 .