Will Czochralski Growth of Sapphire Once Again Prevail?

• Authors: F. Bruni , C. Liu , J. Stone-Sundberg
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

In the past decade there has been an explosive growth in the consumption of sapphire driven by the demands of the next generation of energy efficient general lighting based on GaN LEDs. This application requires orienting these rhombohedral corundum crystals such that the substrate surface is the c-plane; a basal plane defined using hexagonal axes. Sapphire crystals form a strong facet on the c-plane, and growth in that direction generally results in crystals with high defect densities, particularly dislocations, and low angle grain boundaries. To overcome this drawback, the usual methodology is to grow the crystal in the a-direction and then core drill rods perpendicularly which are then sliced into c-plane substrates. For all crystal growth techniques commonly employed for sapphire, this approach suffers from poor material utilization. Although this has generally been viewed as an acceptable trade-off in the manufacturing process as long as 2" substrates were the dominant market, as substrate diameters have increased towards 150 mm and larger, this compromise is no longer seen as a viable alternative because of the low material utilization and the high energy consumption of the growth process. This has led to a renewed look at the Czochralski process for more efficient c-axis substrate production.

Keywords

EN

81.10.Fq; 81.10.Aj; 61.72.-y

Discipline

• 81.10.Fq: Growth from melts; zone melting and refining
• 61.72.-y: Defects and impurities in crystals; microstructure(for radiation induced defects, see 61.80.-x; for defects in surfaces, interfaces, and thin films, see 68.35.Dv and 68.55.Ln; see also 85.40.Ry Impurity doping, diffusion, and ion implantation technology; for effects of crystal defects and doping on superconducting transition temperature, see 74.62.Dh)
• 81.10.Aj: Theory and models of crystal growth; physics and chemistry of crystal growth, crystal morphology, and orientation(see also 61.50.Nw Crystal stoichiometry)

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 124
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 213-218

Dates

published

2013-08

Contributors

author

F. Bruni

• Consultant, P.O. Box 2413, Santa Rosa, California, 95405, USA

author

C. Liu

• Sino-American Silicon Products Inc., Innovation Technology Research Center, No. 8, Industry E. Rd. II Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu 30075, Taiwan, R.O.C.

author

J. Stone-Sundberg

• Current address: Adjunct Research Faculty, Department of Physics, Portland State University P.O. Box 751, Portland, OR 97207-0751, USA

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Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.124.213