Preliminary study of a radiantly heated fluidized bed for the production of high purity silicon

The purpose of the reported research is to explore a processing method for decomposing silane. The process involves heating the particles at the surface of a shallow fluidized bed by radiant heaters located above the surface of the bed. The radiant sources could be cooled by a purge of inert gas which is exhausted with the spent H/sub 2/. The hot bed particles would circulate down to the bottom of the bed where they would heat the cold silane gas rising through the distributor plate. Decomposition and deposition of the silane then follow. Two important systems characteristics are evaluated. One, the effective absorptivity of the bed, is the fraction of electrical energy supplied to the heaters which is actually absorbed by the particles. The second is the heat transfer coefficient between the hot bed and the cool distributor plate. Both characteristics are experimentally studied and theoretically examined. (LEW)