APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR GROWING DOPED MONOCRYSTALLINE SILICON SEMICONDUCTOR CRYSTALS USING THE FLOAT ZONE TECHNIQUE

摘要

The crystals are grown by locally melting a rod (10) of polycrystalline semiconductor material by means of an inductive heating coil (11) surrounding said rod (10), to form a molten zone (13) and by shifting the molten zone (13) along the axis of said rod (10), thereby converting the polycrystalline semiconductor material to a monocrystalline material. A solid doping rod (22) is moved into said molten zone (13) and toward the center of said rod (10) to add dopant - preferably oxygen and p- and/or n-dopants - thereto, where the added amount of dopant is controlled by the composition and the geometry of said doping rod (22) and by the rate at which it is moved into said molten zone (13). Crystals grown according to the invention are suitable for LSI/VLSI applications. Using the invention, for example, crystals with a relatively high oxygen content can be grown.