FZ (float-zone) Si crystal growth Figure 1.12 shows a sketch of a float-zone crystal-growth system.

Because float-zone crystal growth is a crucible-free technique, contamination is scarcely introduced during the crystalgrowth process. Also, the oxygen concentration is as low as 1015 atoms cm-3, because there is no oxygen supply. Thus, float-zone-grown silicon single crystals have resistivities as high as 400 m. Due to the high resististivity, float-zone-grown crystals are used for discrete power devices, such as rectifiers, thyristors, power transistors, and so on. For industrial silicon single-crystal growth, RF (radio frequency 1 3 MHz) heating is employed. Because silicon has a high resistivity at room temperature, first a carbon ring is heated by RF power; see Fig. 1.12(a). Using radiation from the carbon ring, polycrystalline feed rod is heated, so that the electrical conductivity of the rod is sufficiently increased, and then direct RF heating of the feed rod is available; see Fig. 1.12(b). An edge of the feed rod is melted by the RF power and brought into contact with a seed crystal that rotates in the opposite direction and then the molten zone is formed; see Fig. 1.12(c). As shown in Fig. 1.12(d), a molten zone is sustained stably against the gravitational force by the electromagnetic force and the surface tension of a silicon melt. The diameter of the grown crystal increases as the crystal grows. However, the diameter of the molten portion is smaller than that of the solid parts; thus this technique is called the needle-eye technique. Because the heat capacity of the total system is smaller than that for the CZ (Czochralski) system, crystal growth rates as high as 2 mm min-1 can be obtained. Single-crystal growth of silicon 200 mm in diameter has been attempted.

A problem in the float-zone crystals is inhomogeneous distribution of resistivity due to that of the dopant. 3D numerical simulation shows that float-zone crystal growth using RF heating is featured with use of a nonaxisymmetric one-turn coil, as shown in Fig. 1.13. this

causes nonaxisymmetric distribution of the input power in the melt, coupled with crystal rotation. Considering buoyancy, electromagnetic and Marangoni forces, the flow and temperature fields were calculated (see Fig. 1.14); they show nonaxisymmetric distributions. Flow instability was found; inhomogeneous distribution of resistivity (dopant) was also calculated and compared with experimental observation. It was concluded that rotation is one of the major origins of growth striations. Dopants are added from a gas phase using, e.g., PH3 or BH2H6. Neutron transmutation doping (NTD) in an atomic reactor is also used to dope phosphorus into silicon, as follows,
30

Si (n, ) 31Si 31P + -

(1.4)

Three per cent of the natural abundance of 30Si captures thermal neutrons and is transmuted into 31Si, which decays with a half-life of 2.62 h by the emission of beta particles to 31P. Use of neutron transmutation doping assures homogeneous distribution of the phosphorus dopant, resulting in uniformly doped n-type silicon with accurately predetermined resistivity, although strong growth striations remain in float-zone crystals.