Collaborations

[ Back ] [ Up ] [ Next ]

*Collaborative Work with Industrial Si Companies:*
6N Silicon	Phone consultation on Si feedstock
Alcoa	Lab evaluation of experimental silicon material
Applied Materials	Consulting on novel silicon growth processes
Arise Technologies Corp.	Lab evaluation of experimental silicon material via FZ and CZ methods
AstroPower	Assistance in thin-Si film growth and characterization issues
BP Solar	Consulting and lab R&D on various silicon growth and processing topics
Consarc Corporation	Consulting on heating methods for Si growth
Corning Corporation	Consulting on photovoltaic silicon new concepts
D.O.E. (US Department of Energy)	Assistance in evaluation of contracted silicon materials research
Dow Corning Corporation	Consulting and lab R&D on photovoltaic silicon feedstock issues
EBARA Solar, Inc.	Assistance in improving the Si dendritic web growth process
Evergreen Solar, Inc.	Consulting and lab R&D on silicon ribbon growth and feedstock
GTi	Assistance with demonstration of a novel silicon feedstock deposition process; Consulting on silicon growth.
LDK Solar CO, Ltd.	Consulting on silicon feedstock
Lectrotherm Process Systems	Consulting on silicon melting and solidification issues
Monitor Innovation	Consulting on alternative energy approaches
Owens Technology Corporation	Consulting on new silicon growth processes
REC	Consulting on Si materials evaluation
ReTech Systems	Consulting on novel approaches to Si crystal growth
Sarcos	Consulting on extreme dimension silicon crystal growth
SICO Technology GmbH	Training and consultation on CZ growth of silicon
Siemens Solar Industries (Shell Solar)	Development of an ingot-lifetime measurement instrument
Siliken SA	Consulting on novel Si growth approaches
Solar Materials International LLC	Consulting on silicon ingot growth equipment
Solar Power Industries, Inc.	Consulting and lab-scale R&D on new silicon growth processes
Solarvalue Proizvodnja d.d.	Consulting and lab evaluation of experimental silicon feedstock
Stanford Research Institute (SRI) International	Lab evaluation of experimental silicon material
Sun Power	Consulting on silicon crystal growth processes
TLC Precision Wafer Technology Inc.	Lab evaluation of silicon feedstock
UniSil Corporation	Assistance in set up of a U.S. Float-zone single crystal Si manufacturing capability

Examples of R&D projects conducted with industrial Si PV companies

		Designed, built, and installed an industrial silicon ingot lifetime tester capable of measuring lifetime on large crystalline ingots or multicrystalline blocks of silicon. Measurements can be made on as-cut surfaces without special sample preparation, using a unique probe head and contacting system. The instrument is especially useful for monitoring the quality of ingots before expending resources on wafering and PV cell fabrication.

		Grew silicon tubes from the melt for a specialty application by a technique we introduced earlier __________________ T.F. Ciszek, "Melt Growth of Crystalline Silicon Tubes by a Capillary Action Shaping Technique," Phys. Stat. Sol. (a) 32, (l975) 521).

		Improved a ribbon melt growth process by implementing high-yield seeding procedures, eliminating undesired motion of shallow melts, thermally decoupling melt replenishment from ribbon growth, and characterizing dislocation and lattice distortion phenomena via X-ray topography.

		Demonstrated a "containerless" silicon feedstock particulate consolidation system based on our cold-crucible electromagnetic semicontinuous casting process _____________ Theodore F. Ciszek, "Method and Apparatus for Casting Conductive and Semiconductive Materials," U.S. Patent 4,572,812 (1986)).

♦♦♦♦♦ ted_ciszek @ siliconsultant.com (remove spaces) ♦♦♦♦♦