Low cost processes for silicon

Abstract

The paper describes the multiple process development of low cost processes for manufacture of silicon. A support program includes subtasks for the modeling of reactions and reactors, chemical engineering and solid-state physics studies, and development of impurity concentration measurement procedures. The preliminary economic analyses indicate total product costs ranging from $5.00 to $8.73/kg based on 1000 MT/yr plants. In the studies of impurity effects, a model which considers that degradations of solar cell performance by impurities are primarily due to decreases in base diffusion length was constructed from experimental data.