Recent developments on manufacturing and characterization of fused quartz crucibles for monocrystalline silicon for photovoltaic applications

Abstract

The dominating technology of solar cell production today is based on monocrystalline silicon, produced mostly by the Czochralski process. Recently, the solar cell industry, has started to move towards growing larger and better-performing ingots. This triggered a need for crucibles that can withstand longer runtimes with better mechanical properties of high purity to reduce the silicon melt contamination. In this work we present the current state of fused quartz crucibles technology and a summary of the most important literature papers in this field. This review indicates that the characterization of fused quartz crucibles remains a challenge. The existing techniques are often not sufficient for fused quartz glass characterization without optimization. Therefore, further work should be a combination of complementary characterization techniques to be able to assess the properties of the crucible and their interactions, which could result in assessing the best combination of crucible properties.