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Monocrystalline Silicon
Monocrystalline silicon, often referred to as single-crystal silicon or simply mono-Si, is a critical material widely used in modern electronics and photovoltaics. As the foundation for silicon-based discrete components and integrated circuits, it plays a vital role in virtually all modern electronic equipment, from computers to smartphones. Additionally, mono-Si serves as a highly efficient light-absorbing material for the production of solar cells, making it indispensable in the renewable energy sector. It consists of silicon in which the crystal lattice of the entire solid is continuous, unbroken to its edges, and free of any grain boundaries (i.e. a single crystal). Mono-Si can be prepared as an intrinsic semiconductor that consists only of exceedingly pure silicon, or it can be doped by the addition of other elements such as boron or phosphorus to make p-type or n-type silicon. Due to its semiconducting properties, single-crystal silicon is perhaps the most impor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amorphous Silicon
Amorphous silicon (a-Si) is the non-crystalline form of silicon used for solar cells and thin-film transistors in LCDs. Used as semiconductor material for a-Si solar cells, or thin-film silicon solar cells, it is deposited in thin films onto a variety of flexible substrates, such as glass, metal and plastic. Amorphous silicon cells generally feature low efficiency. As a second-generation thin-film solar cell technology, amorphous silicon was once expected to become a major contributor in the fast-growing worldwide photovoltaic market, but has since lost its significance due to strong competition from conventional crystalline silicon cells and other thin-film technologies such as CdTe and CIGS. Amorphous silicon is a preferred material for the thin film transistor (TFT) elements of liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and for x-ray imagers. Amorphous silicon differs from other allotropic variations, such as monocrystalline silicon—a single crystal, and polycrystalline silico ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carrier Generation And Recombination
In solid-state physics of semiconductors, carrier generation and carrier recombination are processes by which mobile charge carriers (electrons and electron holes) are created and eliminated. Carrier generation and recombination processes are fundamental to the operation of many optoelectronic semiconductor devices, such as photodiodes, light-emitting diodes and laser diodes. They are also critical to a full analysis of p-n junction devices such as bipolar junction transistors and p-n junction diodes. The electron–hole pair is the fundamental unit of generation and recombination in inorganic semiconductors, corresponding to an electron transitioning between the valence band and the conduction band where generation of an electron is a transition from the valence band to the conduction band and recombination leads to a reverse transition. Overview Like other solids, semiconductor materials have an electronic band structure determined by the crystal properties of the material. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wafering
Wafering is the process by which a silicon crystal ( boule) is made into wafers. This process is usually carried out by a multi-wire saw which cuts multiple wafers from the same crystal at the same time. These wafers are then polished to the desired degree of flatness and thickness. In the past, conventional circular saws were used during the 1950s and 1960s, followed by inner diameter saws in the 1970s and 1980s. These saws had diamond particles embedded into their blades to cut silicon. Multi-wire saws were introduced during the early 2000s. The motivation behind this evolution was to reduce material losses from the saw's kerf, and to improve wafer's surface quality, flatness, and bow. See also * Wafer (electronics) * Monocrystalline silicon Monocrystalline silicon, often referred to as single-crystal silicon or simply mono-Si, is a critical material widely used in modern electronics and photovoltaics. As the foundation for silicon-based discrete components and integrated ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wafer (electronics)
In electronics, a wafer (also called a slice or substrate) is a thin slice of semiconductor, such as a crystalline silicon (c-Si, silicium), used for Semiconductor device fabrication, the fabrication of integrated circuits and, in photovoltaics, to manufacture solar cells. The wafer serves as the substrate (materials science), substrate for microelectronic devices built in and upon the wafer. It undergoes many microfabrication processes, such as doping (semiconductor), doping, ion implantation, Etching (microfabrication), etching, thin-film deposition of various materials, and Photolithography, photolithographic patterning. Finally, the individual microcircuits are separated by wafer dicing and Integrated circuit packaging, packaged as an integrated circuit. History In the semiconductor industry, the term wafer appeared in the 1950s to describe a thin round slice of semiconductor material, typically germanium or silicon. The round shape characteristic of these wafers comes f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zone Melting
Zone melting (or zone refining, or floating-zone method, or floating-zone technique) is a group of similar methods of purifying crystals, in which a narrow region of a crystal is melted, and this molten zone is moved through the crystal. The molten region melts impure solid at its forward edge and leaves a wake of purer material solidified behind it as it moves through the ingot. The impurities concentrate in the melt, and are moved to one end of the ingot. Zone refining was invented by John Desmond Bernal and further developed by William G. PfannWilliam G. Pfann (1966) ''Zone Melting'', 2nd edition, John Wiley & Sons in Bell Labs as a method to prepare high-purity materials, mainly semiconductors, for manufacturing transistors. Its first commercial use was in germanium, refined to one atom of impurity per ten billion,”Zone melting”, entry in ''The World Book Encyclopedia'', Volume 21, W-X-Y-Z, 1973, page 501. but the process can be extended to virtually any solute–solvent sy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Crystal
A seed crystal is a small piece of single crystal or polycrystal material from which a large crystal of typically the same material is grown in a laboratory. Used to replicate material, the use of seed crystal to promote growth avoids the otherwise slow randomness of natural crystal growth, and allows manufacture on a scale suitable for industry. Crystal enlargement The large crystal can be grown by dipping the seed into a supersaturated solution, into molten material that is then cooled, or by growth on the seed face by passing vapor of the material to be grown over it. Theory The theory behind this effect is thought to derive from the physical intermolecular interaction that occurs between compounds in a supersaturated solution (or possibly vapor). In solution, liberated (soluble) molecules (solute) are free to move about in random flow. This random flow permits for the possibility of two or more molecular compounds to interact. This interaction can potentiate intermolecular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Czochralski Method
The Czochralski method, also Czochralski technique or Czochralski process, is a method of crystal growth used to obtain single crystals (monocrystals) of semiconductors (e.g. silicon, germanium and gallium arsenide), metals (e.g. palladium, platinum, silver, gold), salts and synthetic gemstones. The method is named after Polish scientist Jan Czochralski, who invented the method in 1915 while investigating the crystallization rates of metals. He made this discovery by accident: instead of dipping his pen into his inkwell, he dipped it in molten tin, and drew a tin filament, which later proved to be a single crystal. The process remains economically important, as roughly 90% of all modern-day semiconductor devices use material derived from this method. The most important application may be the growth of large cylindrical ingots, or boules, of single crystal silicon used in the electronics industry to make semiconductor devices like integrated circuits. Other semiconductors, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of Silicon dioxide, SiO2. Quartz is, therefore, classified structurally as a Silicate mineral#Tectosilicates, framework silicate mineral and compositionally as an oxide mineral. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. Quartz exists in two forms, the normal α-quartz and the high-temperature β-quartz, both of which are chiral. The transformation from α-quartz to β-quartz takes place abruptly at . Since the transformation is accompanied by a significant change in volume, it can easily induce microfracturing of ceramics or rocks passing through this temperature threshold. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are classifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seed Crystal
A seed crystal is a small piece of single crystal or polycrystal material from which a large crystal of typically the same material is grown in a laboratory. Used to replicate material, the use of seed crystal to promote growth avoids the otherwise slow randomness of natural crystal growth, and allows manufacture on a scale suitable for industry. Crystal enlargement The large crystal can be grown by dipping the seed into a supersaturated solution, into molten material that is then cooled, or by growth on the seed face by passing vapor of the material to be grown over it. Theory The theory behind this effect is thought to derive from the physical intermolecular interaction that occurs between compounds in a supersaturated solution (or possibly vapor). In solution, liberated (soluble) molecules (solute) are free to move about in random flow. This random flow permits for the possibility of two or more molecular compounds to interact. This interaction can potentiate intermolecular ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single Crystal
In materials science, a single crystal (or single-crystal solid or monocrystalline solid) is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no Grain boundary, grain boundaries. The absence of the crystallographic defect, defects associated with grain boundaries can give monocrystals unique properties, particularly mechanical, optical and electrical, which can also be anisotropic, depending on the type of crystallography, crystallographic structure. These properties, in addition to making some gems precious, are industrially used in technological applications, especially in optics and electronics. Because entropy, entropic effects favor the presence of some imperfections in the microstructure of solids, such as impurity, impurities, inhomogeneous strain and crystallographic defects such as dislocations, perfect single crystals of meaningful size are exceedingly rare in nature. The necessary laboratory condi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
