Growth of High Performance Multicrystalline Silicon; A Literature Review

This review on ""Growth of High Performance Multicrystalline Silicon (HPMC-Si)"" is intended as a summary of the state of the art at the beginning of the KPN project ""Impurity Control in High Performance Multicrystalline Silicon"". This project focuses on the role of impurities in this type of material, and a general understanding of the characteristics of the special material is thought to be essential for conducting good and relevant research. Although the industrial production of this material starts to dominate the market, publications are still quite sparse. Nevertheless, important characteristics, such as grain size, grain growth, grain boundary types, dislocation density and dislocation cluster characteristics have been described and discussed. Also conditions during nucleation and growth and their effect on material properties have been reported in some detail. This overview should be sufficient to generate a good understanding of HPMC-Si for the members of the consortium to be able to perform effective and relevant research on impurity control in this material.