A lift assembly includes a lift housing, a drum with a helical groove about its exterior surface, and a drive shaft coupled to the drum to cause the drum to rotate. A roller guide mounted to the lift housing engages the helical groove of the drum such that rotation of the drum causes the drum to translate due to the engagement of the helical groove of the drum with the roller guide. The roller guide can be part of a roller guide assembly that includes a mounting plate and a shaft.

An apparatus for growing a crystal includes a growth chamber and a melt chamber thermally isolated from the growth chamber. The growth chamber includes: a growth crucible configured to contain a liquid melt; and a die located in the growth crucible, the die having a die opening and one or more capillaries extending from within the growth crucible toward the die opening. The melt chamber includes: a melt crucible configured to receive feedstock material; and at least one heating element positioned within the melt chamber relative to the melt crucible to melt the feedstock material within the melt crucible to form the liquid melt. The apparatus also includes at least one capillary conveyor in fluid communication with the melt crucible and the growth crucible to transport the liquid melt from the melt crucible to the growth crucible.

A cyclical epitaxial deposition system and a gas distribution module are provided. The gas distribution module includes an inflow element having a plurality of inlet holes, a guide assembly, and an outflow element. The guide assembly disposed between the inflow and outflow elements includes a plurality of guide channels separate from one another and a plurality of temporary gas retention trenches respectively corresponding to the guide channels. Each of the guide channels is in fluid communication with the corresponding inlet hole. The outflow element has a plurality of diffusion regions respectively corresponding to the gas retention trenches, and a plurality of outlet channels respectively corresponding to the diffusion regions. Each of the diffusion regions has a plurality of diffusion apertures, and each of the temporary gas retention trenches is in fluid communication with the corresponding outlet channel through the diffusion apertures in the corresponding diffusion region.

A lift assembly includes a lift housing, a drum with a helical groove about its exterior surface, and a drive shaft coupled to the drum to cause the drum to rotate. A roller guide mounted to the lift housing engages the helical groove of the drum such that rotation of the drum causes the drum to translate due to the engagement of the helical groove of the drum with the roller guide. The roller guide can be part of a roller guide assembly that includes a mounting plate and a shaft.

The amount of gas evacuation from a reaction chamber of an apparatus for manufacturing epitaxial wafers is controlled to any one of: a first amount of gas evacuation when an epitaxial film formation process is performed in the reaction chamber; a second amount of gas evacuation smaller than the first amount of gas evacuation when a gate valve is opened to load or unload a wafer between the reaction chamber and a wafer transfer chamber; and a third amount of gas evacuation larger than the first amount of gas evacuation until a purge process for a gas in the reaction chamber is completed after the epitaxial film formation process is completed in the reaction chamber.

A wafer transfer device includes a transport unit and a placement unit for placing a silicon wafer transferred by the transport unit onto a susceptor. The placement unit includes a plurality of lift pins and a relative movement mechanism for relatively moving the plurality of lift pins and the susceptor. At least one of the transport unit or the placement unit is configured to bring a predetermined lift pin into the first contact with a lower side of the silicon wafer when the silicon wafer is supported by the plurality of lift pins.

The embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method and an apparatus for crystal growth. The method for crystal growth may include: placing a seed crystal and a target source material in a growth chamber of an apparatus for crystal growth; executing a growth of a crystal based on the seed crystal and the target source material according to physical vapor transport; determining whether a preset condition is satisfied during the crystal growth process; and in response to determining that the preset condition is satisfied, replacing a sublimated target source material with a candidate source material. In the present disclosure, by replacing the sublimated target source material with the candidate source material, a crystal with large-size and high-quality can be grown.

A feed assembly supplies polysilicon to a growth chamber for growing a crystal ingot from a melt. An example system includes a housing having support rails for receiving one of a granular tray and a chunk tray and a feed material reservoir positioned above the support rails to selectively feed one of either the granular tray or the chunk tray. A valve mechanism and pulse vibrator are also disclosed.

An apparatus for growing a crystal includes a growth chamber and a melt chamber thermally isolated from the growth chamber. The growth chamber includes: a growth crucible configured to contain a liquid melt; and a die located in the growth crucible, the die having a die opening and one or more capillaries extending from within the growth crucible toward the die opening. The melt chamber includes: a melt crucible configured to receive feedstock material; and at least one heating element positioned within the melt chamber relative to the melt crucible to melt the feedstock material within the melt crucible to form the liquid melt. The apparatus also includes at least one capillary conveyor in fluid communication with the melt crucible and the growth crucible to transport the liquid melt from the melt crucible to the growth crucible.

The amount of gas evacuation from a reaction chamber of an apparatus for manufacturing epitaxial wafers is controlled to any one of: a first amount of gas evacuation when an epitaxial film formation process is performed in the reaction chamber; a second amount of gas evacuation smaller than the first amount of gas evacuation when a gate valve is opened to load or unload a wafer between the reaction chamber and a wafer transfer chamber; and a third amount of gas evacuation larger than the first amount of gas evacuation until a purge process for a gas in the reaction chamber is completed after the epitaxial film formation process is completed in the reaction chamber.