Characteristics of HEM silicon produced in a reusable crucible

A reusable crucible has been developed for directional solidification of multicrystalline silicon ingots by HEM. Up to five 40 kg, 33 cm square cross section ingots have been produced without visible degradation of the crucible. Characterization of the silicon shows large grain size, vertical orientation of grain boundaries, uniform resistivity, low defect density, diffusion lengths up to 272 /spl mu/m and less than 1 ppma oxygen concentration. Solar cells of 2 cm/spl times/2 cm size fabricated on 10 cm square wafers have shown good uniformity and efficiencies up to 15.1% and V/sub OC/ to 616 mV.< >