Monocrystalline silicon

Monocrystalline silicon (also called single-crystal silicon (or Si), mono c-Si or simply mono-Si) is the base material for silicon-based discrete components and integrated circuits used in virtually all modern electronic equipment. Mono-Si also serves as a photovoltaic, light-absorbing material in the manufacture of solar cells.The crystalline structure of silicon forms a diamond cubic.VLSI devices fabricated by Intel on a monocrystalline silicon waferSolar panel made of octagonal monocrystalline silicon cellsComparison of solar cells: poly-Si (left) and mono-Si (right) Monocrystalline silicon (also called single-crystal silicon (or Si), mono c-Si or simply mono-Si) is the base material for silicon-based discrete components and integrated circuits used in virtually all modern electronic equipment. Mono-Si also serves as a photovoltaic, light-absorbing material in the manufacture of solar cells. It consists of silicon in which the crystal lattice of the entire solid is continuous, unbroken to its edges, and free of any grain boundaries. Mono-Si can be prepared as an intrinsic semiconductor that consists only of exceedingly pure silicon, or it can be doped by the addition of other elements such as boron or phosphorus to make p-type or n-type silicon. Due to its semiconducting properties, single-crystal silicon is perhaps the most important technological material of the last few decades—the 'silicon era', because its availability at an affordable cost has been essential for the development of the electronic devices on which the present-day electronics and IT revolution is based. Monocrystalline silicon differs from other allotropic forms, such as non-crystalline amorphous silicon—used in thin-film solar cells—and polycrystalline silicon, which consists of small crystals known as crystallites. Monocrystalline silicon is generally created by one of several methods that involve melting high-purity, semiconductor-grade silicon (only a few parts per million of impurities) and the use of a seed to initiate the formation of a continuous single crystal. This process is normally performed in an inert atmosphere, such as argon, and in an inert crucible, such as quartz, to avoid impurities that would affect the crystal uniformity. The most common production method is the Czochralski process, which dips a precisely oriented rod-mounted seed crystal into the molten silicon. The rod is then slowly pulled upwards and rotated simultaneously, allowing the pulled material to solidify into a monocrystalline cylindrical ingot up to 2 meters in length and weighing several hundred kilograms. Magnetic fields may also be applied to control and suppress turbulent flow, further improving the uniformity of the crystallization. Other methods are float-zone growth, which passes a polycrystalline silicon rod through a radiofrequency heating coil that creates a localized molten zone, from which a seed crystal ingot grows, and Bridgman techniques, which move the crucible through a temperature gradient to cool it from the end of the container containing the seed. The solidified ingots are then sliced into thin wafers during a process called wafering. After post-wafering processing, the wafers are ready for use in fabrication. Compared to the casting of polycrystalline ingots, the production of monocrystalline silicon is very slow and expensive. However, the demand for mono-Si continues to rise due to the superior electronic properties—the lack of grain boundaries allows better charge carrier flow and prevents electron recombination—allowing improved performance of integrated circuits and photovoltaics. The primary application of monocrystalline silicon is in the production of discrete components and integrated circuits. Ingots made from the Czochralski process are sliced into wafers about 0.75 mm thick and polished to obtain a regular, flat substrate, onto which microelectronic devices are built through various microfabrication processes, such as doping or ion implantation, etching, deposition of various materials, and photolithographic patterning. A single continuous crystal is critical for electronics, since grain boundaries, impurities, and crystallographic defects can significantly impact the local electronic properties of the material, which in turn affects the functionality, performance, and reliability of semiconductor devices by interfering with their proper operation. For example, without crystalline perfection, it would be virtually impossible to build very large-scale integration (VLSI) devices, in which billions of transistor-based circuits, all of which must function reliably, are combined into a single chip to form a microprocessor. As such, the electronics industry has invested heavily in facilities to produce large single crystals of silicon. Monocrystalline silicon is also used for high-performance photovoltaic (PV) devices. Since there are less stringent demands on structural imperfections compared to microelectronics applications, lower-quality solar-grade silicon (Sog-Si) is often used for solar cells. Despite this, the monocrystalline-silicon photovoltaic industry has benefitted greatly from the development of faster mono-Si production methods for the electronics industry.