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Growth of High-Quality Multicrystalline Silicon Ingot through the Cristobalite Seeded Method



Author(s)

Yunyang Yu¹, Junjing Ding¹, Wenliang Chen¹, Zhaoyu Zhang², Xucheng Zhou², Genxiang Zhong³ and Xinming Huang^{1, 3}

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DOI:10.17265/2161-6221/2016.11-12.006

1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210009, China
2. Donghai JA Solar Technology Co., Ltd., Lianyungang, Jiangsu 222300, China
3. JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd., Feng Tai District, Beijing 100160, China

In this paper, an effective method for grain quality control in directional solidification (DS) by using cristobalite particles as seeds is proposed. The cristobalite seeds paved on the bottom of the crucible significantly enhanced the crystal quality of the multicrystalline silicon ingot in comparison with fused quartz seeds. The distribution of initial grain sizes at the ingot bottom was small and uniform. Crystals with lower dislocation density showed a higher and more uniform minority carrier lifetime compared to that produced by the fused quartz seeded growth method used in industry. A higher average solar cell conversion efficiency of about 0.09% in absolute value was obtained using the cristobalite seeded ingot (18.31%) in comparison with that using a fused quartz seeded ingot (18.22%) under the same cell production process.

Directional solidification, seed crystal, nucleation, dislocation, solar cell.