• Journal of the Korean Crystal Growth and Crystal Technology
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.195-199
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• 2008

Production of the silicon feedstock for the semiconductor industry cannot meet the requirement for the solar cell industry because the production volume is too small and production cost is too high. This situation stimulates the solar cell industry to try the lower grade silicon feedstock like UMG (Upgraded Metallurgical Grade) silicon of 5$\sim$6 N in purity. However, this material contains around 1 ppma of dopant atoms like boron or phosphorous. Calculation of the composition profile of these impurities using segregation coefficient during crystal growth makes us expect the change of the type from p to n : boron rich area in the early solidified part and phosphorous rich area in the later solidified part of the silicon ingot. It was expected that the change of the growth speed during the silicon crystal growth is effective in controlling the amount of the metal impurities but not effective in reducing the amount of dopants.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.6
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• pp.618-622
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• 2010

Cost-effective purification methods of silicon were carried out in order to replace the conventional Siemens method for solar grade silicon. Firstly, acid leaching which is a hydrometallurgical process was preceded with grinded silicon powders of metallurgical grade (~99% purity) to remove metallic impurities. Then, plasma treatments were performed with the leached silicon powders of 99.94% purity by argon plasma at 30 kW power under atmospheric pressure. Plasma treatment was specifically efficient for removing Zr, Y, and P but not for Al and B. Another purification step by EB treatment was also studied for the 99.92% silicon lump which resulted in the fast removal of boron and aluminum. That means the two methods are effective alternative tools for removing the doping elements like boron and phosphor.

• Journal of Korea Foundry Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.28-34
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• 1994

Metallurgical-grade polycrystalline silicon was directionally solidified at growth rates of $0.2{\sim}1.0mm/min$ by using split type, reusable graphite molds which were coated with $Si_3N_4$ powder. The resultant grain sizes of the silicon ingots and the shapes of the solid/liquid(S/L) interfaces were investigated. X-ray diffraction was used to determine the preferred orientation in each of the silicon ingots. The impurity content of the silicon was analyzed and the resistivities of the ingots were measured. During the growth of an ingot, the shape of the S/L interface was concave to the silicon melt, and the resistivity decreased. The presence of Al which can be acting as a carrier, is thought to be the main factor causing such a decrease in resistivity. When a growth rate of 0.2㎜/min was used, the preferred orientation was found to be (111).

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.111.1-111.1
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• 2011

The solar energy is dramatically increasing as the alternative energy source and the silicon(Si) solar cell are used the most. In this study, the improved process and equipment for the metallurgical refinement of multicrystalline Si were evaluated for the inexpensive solar cell. The planar plane and columnar dendrite aheadof the liquid-solid interface position caused the superior segregation of impurities from the Si. The solidification rate and thermal gradient determined the shape of dendrite in solidified Si matrix solidified by the directional solidification(DS) method. To simulate this equipment, the commercial software, PROCAST, was used to solve the solidification rate and thermal gradient. Si was vertically solidified by the DS system with Stober process and up-graded metallurgical grade or metallurgical grade Si was used as the feedstock. The inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP) was used to measure the concentration of impurities in the refined Si ingot. According to the result of ICP and simulation, the high thermal gradient between the two phases wasable to increase the solidification rate under the identical level of refinement. Also, the separating heating zone equipped with the melting and solidification zone was effective to maintain the high thermal gradient during the solidification.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.43.2-43.2
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• 2010

In this study, metallurgical grade (MG) silicon with 99% purity produced by arc furnace process was systematically investigated for slag refining. The most problematic impurities to remove from MG silicon are boron (B) and phosphorus (P). To remove B and P from MG-silicon, we used synthetic slag in the molten state. MG-silicon with synthetic slag of CaO, $SiO_2$, and $CaF_2$ was melted using by high-frequency induction furnace with electrical output of 50kW. Specimens prepared by various refining process conditions(holding time, mixture ratio) were inspected by combined analysis of ICP-MS and XRF. With this approach, B has been reduced to <5ppm, P to <1ppm and other impurities to 0.1~0.2% except for Calcium. Calcium has been increased from 17ppm to 1500ppm. Problem of calcium contamination will be resolved by additional refining processes.

• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.191-197
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• 2009

It is very important to raise the purity of silica for manufacturing metallurgical-grade silicon because the purification of silicon in the smelting process is very difficult. In present study, the silica sand which is obtained from Vietnam was mineralogically analyzed. Based on the results, a novel process to separate impurities from the silica sand was developed, which consisted of classification, specific gravity and magnetic separation steps. Using the developed process, high-grade silica sand concentrate containing over 99.8 wt% $SiO_2$ was prepared, being suitable for manufacturing the metallurgical-grade silicon.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.18 no.11
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• pp.118-123
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• 2017

To manufacture MG-Si (Metallurgical grade silicon) for use in various industries, Acid leaching experiments were performed to remove aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe), which are the most common impurities found in the silicon raw material. The silicon raw material was reacted with five types of acids (HCl, HF, H2SO4, HNO3, H3PO4) at 1, 2, 4, and 6M; 1M HF showed the highest Al and Fe removal rates, 97.9% and 95.2%, respectively. HF, however, resulted in an 18% reduced yield due to the silicon corrosion properties. To minimize the yield reduction, 2M HCl, which has a second removal ratio result, was mixed with 1M HF and applied to the silicon raw material. The experiment was conducted to select the optimal conditions for the mixed solution, which were $80^{\circ}C$ and 2hr. Under the optimal conditions, the residual Al and Fe concentrations were 141 ppmw and 93 ppmw, respectively, and it very easy to produce MG-Si with 3N grade purity.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.438-438
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• 2009

We have investigated the effect of forming gas annealing for Upgraded Metallurgical Grade (UMG)-silicon solar cell in order to obtain low-cost high-efficiency cell using post deposition anneal at a relatively low temperature. We have observed that high concentration hydrogenation effectively passivated the defects and improved the minority carrier lifetime, series resistance and conversion efficiency. It can be attributed to significantly improved hydrogen-passivation in high concentration hydrogen process. This improvement can be explained by the enhanced passivation of silicon solar cell with antireflection layer due to hydrogen re-incorporation. The results of this experiment represent a promising guideline for improving the high-efficiency solar cells by introducing an easy and low cost process of post hydrogenation in optimized condition.

• Resources Recycling
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.20-26
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• 2021

Solar grade silicon (SoG-Si) has been commercially supplied mainly from off-grade high-purity silicon manufactured for electronic-grade Si (EG-Si). Therefore, for wider application of solar cells, the development of a refining process at a considerably lower cost is required. The most cost-effective and direct approach for producing SoG-Si is to purify and upgrade metallurgical-grade Si (MG-Si). In this study, directional solidification of molten MG-Si was conducted in a high-frequency induction furnace to remove iron from molten Si. The experimental conditions and results were also discussed with respect to the effective segregation coefficient, Scheil equation, and Peclet number. The study showed that when the descent velocity of the specimen decreased, the macro segregations of impurities and ingot purities increased. These results were derived from the decrease in the effective segregation coefficient with the decrease in the rate of descent of the specimen.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.189-194
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• 2011

Metallurgical grade silicon was recovered from slurry waste for ingot sawing process by acid leaching and thermal treatment. SiC abrasive was removed by gravity concentration and centrifugation. Metal impurities were removed by the acid leaching using HF/HCl. The remaining SiC was separated by the thermal treatment at $1600^{\circ}C$ in an inert atmosphere by the difference in melting points. The purity of the obtained silicon was found to be around 99.7%.