A furnace for electromagnetic casting a tubular-shaped silicon ingot is provided. The furnace includes a mold, outer and inner induction coils and a support member. The mold includes an outer crucible and an inner crucible. The outer crucible is annular-shaped. The inner crucible is disposed in the outer crucible and spaced away from the outer crucible to provide a gap between the inner crucible and the outer crucible. The mold is configured to receive granular silicon in the gap. The outer induction coil disposed around the outer crucible. The inner induction coil disposed in the inner crucible. The outer induction coil and the inner induction coil are configured to heat and melt the granular silicon in the mold to form a tubular-shaped silicon ingot. The support member is configured to hold and move a seed relative to the mold during formation of the tubular-shaped silicon ingot on the seed.

A silica glass crucible includes a cylindrical side wall portion, a curved bottom portion, and a corner portion that is provided between the side wall portion and the bottom portion and has a higher curvature than a curvature of the bottom portion, in which a first region provided from a crucible inner surface to a middle in a thickness direction, a second region that is provided outside the first region in the thickness direction and has a different strain distribution from the first region, and a third region that is provided outside the second region in the thickness direction and up to the crucible outer surface and has a different strain distribution from the second region, are provided, and internal residual stresses of the first region and the third region are compressive stresses, whereas an internal residual stress of the second region includes a tensile stress.

A method for forming an isolating layer of a crucible includes placing a round crucible sideways with a bottom surface of an inside thereof perpendicular to a horizontal plane, and then performing a plurality of spraying processes to form the isolating layer on the bottom surface and a wall surface of the round crucible. Each spraying process includes spraying a slurry on the bottom surface; using an optical positioner to set a spraying range the same as one of a plurality of partial areas divided from the wall surface; aligning one of the plurality of partial areas with the spraying range; fixing the round crucible and spraying the slurry in the spraying range; stopping the spraying; and rotating the round crucible to move another partial area to the spraying range. Then, the steps are repeated until the spraying of all the partial areas is completed.

An insert fixture has a base, a plurality of mounting brackets, and a plurality of separators. The plurality of separators extends vertically from the base and includes a plurality of grid portions extending the length of the insert fixture and a plurality of divider portions, which connect to the plurality of grid portions to form a plurality of individual component holders around one of the plurality of mounting brackets. Each individual component holder has two separated grid portion sections positioned on either side of the bracket. These grid portions have two divider portions which are also separated and positioned either side of the bracket at an angle relative to the two grid portions. The individual component holder forms a cell around the mounting bracket. The insert fixture may be constructed from a molybdenum alloy, lanthanum oxide and/or titanium zirconium molybdenum.

A pedestal 103 of the present invention is a pedestal 103 for a seed 102 for crystal growth, in which one main surface 103a to which the seed 102 adheres is flat, and the pedestal has a gas-permeable region 106 which a thickness from the one main surface 103a that is formed to be locally thin.

Methods for producing a single crystal silicon ingot are disclosed. The ingot is doped with boron using solid-phase boric acid as the source of boron. Boric acid may be used to counter-dope the ingot during ingot growth. Ingot puller apparatus that use a solid-phase dopant are also disclosed. The solid-phase dopant may be disposed in a receptacle that is moved closer to the surface of the melt or a vaporization unit may be used to produce a dopant gas from the solid-phase dopant.

A crucible device for growing crystals includes a container being arrangeable in a heating chamber of a heating apparatus, and a seed fixture element. The container includes a base section and the seed fixture element includes a seed surface which is configured for attaching a seed crystal. The seed fixture element is moveable coupled to the base section such that the distance between the seed surface and the base section is adjustable.

An organic thin film includes an organic crystalline phase, where the organic crystalline phase defines a surface having a surface roughness (R.sub.a) of less than approximately 10 micrometers over an area of at least approximately 1 cm.sup.2. The organic thin film may be manufactured from an organic precursor and a non-volatile medium material that is configured to mediate the surface roughness of the organic crystalline phase during crystal nucleation and growth. The thin film may be formed using a suitably shaped mold, for example, and the non-volatile medium material may be disposed between a layer of the organic precursor and the mold during processing.

A system for manufacturing one or more single crystals of a semiconductor material by physical vapor transport (PVT) includes a reactor having an inner chamber adapted to accommodate a PVT growth structure for growing the one or more single crystals inside. The reactor accommodates the PVT growth structure in an orientation with a growth direction of the one or more single crystals inside the PVT growth structure substantially horizontal with respect to a direction of gravity or within an angle from horizontal of less than a predetermined value.

Ingot puller apparatus for preparing a single crystal silicon ingot by the Czochralski method are disclosed. The ingot puller apparatus includes a heat shield. The heat shield has a leg segment that includes a void (i.e., an open space without insulation) disposed in the leg segment. The heat shield may also include insulation partially within the heat shield.