Production of silicon ingots in a crystal puller that involve reduction of the erosion rate at the crucible contact point are disclosed.

A method for producing a mono-crystalline sheet includes providing at least two aperture elements forming a gap in between; providing a molten alloy including silicon in the gap; providing a gaseous precursor medium comprising silicon in the vicinity of the molten alloy; providing a silicon nucleation crystal in the vicinity of the molten alloy; and bringing in contact said silicon nucleation crystal and the molten alloy. A device for producing a mono-crystalline sheet includes at least two aperture elements at a predetermined distance from each other, thereby forming a gap, and being adapted to be heated for holding a molten alloy including silicon by surface tension in the gap between the aperture elements; a precursor gas supply supplies a gaseous precursor medium comprising silicon in the vicinity of the molten alloy; and a positioning device for holding and moving a nucleation crystal in the vicinity of the molten alloy.

Methods for growing single crystal silicon ingots that involve silicon feed tube inert gas control are disclosed. Ingot puller apparatus that include a flange that extends radially from a silicon funnel or from a silicon feed tube to reduce backflow of gases from the silicon feed tube into the growth chamber are also disclosed.

Methods for producing single crystal silicon ingots in which an array of quartz particles are added to the crucible assembly before ingot growth are disclosed. The array may be disposed in the outer melt zone of the crucible assembly as in a continuous Czochralski (CCz) process. The array may be made of quartz particles that are interconnected by linking members.

Disclosed is a method for controlling the supply of solid silicon to a preliminary crucible of an ingot growth apparatus for maintaining a constant amount of molten silicon in the preliminary crucible by measuring the height of the molten silicon in the preliminary crucible. The method for controlling the supply of solid silicon to a preliminary crucible of an ingot growth apparatus, according to the present invention, is a method for controlling the supply of solid silicon to the preliminary crucible for supplying molten silicon to a main crucible of the ingot growth apparatus, the method comprising: a management range setting step of setting an appropriate management range of the molten silicon in the preliminary crucible; a height measuring step of measuring the height of the molten silicon contained in the preliminary crucible to confirm whether the molten silicon falls within an appropriate management range of the molten silicon; a supply amount determining step of determining a supply amount of solid silicon to be supplied to the preliminary crucible according to the height measured in the height measuring step; and a step of supplying a predetermined supply amount of solid silicon determined according to the supply amount determining step to the preliminary crucible.

The present invention relates to a continuous ingot growing apparatus, and more specifically, to a continuous ingot growing apparatus which melts a solid silicon material supplied to a preliminary crucible to supply the solid silicon material to a main crucible and which can adjust a supply amount of molten silicon while blocking floating matter floating on top of the molten silicon so as not to be supplied.

The present invention relates to a premelter for pre-melting silicon before supplying to a main crucible capable of accurately measuring an input amount of molten silicon input into an ingot growth crucible, thereby effectively controlling the input amount, and a method for controlling the same. According to an embodiment of the present invention, disclosed is a premelter for pre-melting silicon before supplying to a main crucible, comprising: a preliminary crucible for supplying silicon in a molten state to a main crucible in which an ingot is grown after heating the silicon material in a solid state to become silicon in a molten state; a preliminary crucible moving module configured to tilt the preliminary crucible to one of a first position in which the preliminary crucible contains the solid silicon material or the molten silicon or a second position where the molten silicon in the preliminary crucible flows into the main crucible; and a control unit for controlling the preliminary crucible moving module.

An ingot growth apparatus may include an ingot growth furnace which heats molten silicon and an auxiliary melting furnace which melts solid silicon and supplies the molten silicon to the ingot growth furnace, wherein the auxiliary melting furnace may include an auxiliary crucible which melts the solid silicon, a first transfer path connected to the auxiliary crucible and connected to the ingot growth furnace, and a partition wall which extends downward from an upper surface of the auxiliary crucible, is located between a center of the auxiliary crucible and an inlet of the first transfer path, and extends between two facing points of an inner surface of the auxiliary crucible.

The present disclosure provides raw material re-feeding apparatus for manufacturing a monocrystal and monocrystal manufacturing apparatus including the same. The raw material re-feeding apparatus is provided outside a monocrystal furnace and includes a storage and a feeder in communication with the storage. A discharging end of the feeder is located in the monocrystal furnace and movable relative to the monocrystal furnace, so that the discharging end of the feeder is immersed in a silicon melt when the material re-feeding is performed, and thus the material is melted and re-fed.