Method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragment and method for managing surface metal concentration of polycrystalline silicon fragment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11214892-B2
Application number	US-201816607128-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 19, 2018
Priority date	Apr 24, 2017
Publication date	Jan 4, 2022
Grant date	Jan 4, 2022

Abstract

A method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments includes producing a polycrystalline silicon rod by the Siemens method; crushing the polycrystalline silicon rod to obtain polycrystalline silicon fragments; and cleaning by etching the polycrystalline silicon fragments in a cleaning tank. In the cleaning, small pieces of the polycrystalline silicon having controlled shapes and sizes are present in the cleaning tank and the weight change of the small pieces of the polycrystalline silicon before and after the etching is measured to thereby manage the cleaning.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments comprising:
producing a polycrystalline silicon rod by the Siemens method,
crushing the polycrystalline silicon rod to obtain polycrystalline silicon fragments, and
cleaning the polycrystalline silicon fragments by etching in a cleaning tank,
wherein, in the cleaning step, polycrystalline silicon pieces having a controlled shape and size that are separately obtained from said polycrystalline silicon fragments are placed in the cleaning tank, and the weight change of the polycrystalline silicon pieces before and after the etching is measured to manage the cleaning step.

2. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the management of the cleaning step is performed by calculating the etching rate from the weight change of the polycrystalline silicon pieces before and after the etching, and adjusting the etching time so as to achieve a target etching amount.

3. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline silicon pieces are cubic or rectangular parallelepiped polycrystalline silicon pieces.

4. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the ratio of the total surface area of the polycrystalline silicon pieces before the cleaning step to the resolution of a weight scale measuring the weight of the polycrystalline silicon pieces, total surface area [cm 2 ] of the polycrystalline silicon small pieces/scale resolution [g], is 2.0×10 3 to 3.5×10 7 [cm 2 /g].

5. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 4 , wherein the resolution of the scale for measuring the weight before and after etching of the polycrystalline silicon pieces is 0.1 to 0.0001 g.

6. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline silicon pieces are contained in a container capable of passing liquid and placed in the cleaning tank.

7. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline silicon pieces are dispersively placed in the cleaning tank.

8. A method for managing a surface metal concentration of crushed fragments of polycrystalline silicon rod produced by the Siemens method comprising:
placing polycrystalline silicon pieces having controlled shape and size in a cleaning tank in which polycrystalline silicon fragments are cleaned by etching, and
measuring the weight change of the polycrystalline silicon pieces before and after the etching, to thereby managing surface metal concentration of the polycrystalline silicon fragments.

9. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein a surface area with respect to one polycrystalline silicon piece before the cleaning step is 5 to 10,000 mm 2 .

10. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein a number of polycrystalline silicon pieces is 10 to 200.

11. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 1 , wherein the polycrystalline silicon pieces are obtained by cutting a polycrystalline silicon rod.

12. A method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments comprising:
producing a polycrystalline silicon rod by the Siemens method;
crushing the polycrystalline silicon rod to obtain polycrystalline silicon fragments;
placing the polycrystalline silicon fragments in a cleaning tank;
placing polycrystalline silicon pieces having a controlled shape and size in the cleaning tank, said polycrystalline silicon pieces being separately obtained from said polycrystalline silicon fragments;
etching the polycrystalline silicon fragments and the polycrystalline silicon pieces; and
measuring a weight change of the polycrystalline silicon pieces before and after said etching to control an etching amount of the polycrystalline silicon fragments.

13. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 12 , wherein controlling the etching amount comprises calculating an etching rate and adjusting a treatment time for etching.

14. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 12 , wherein a surface area with respect to one polycrystalline silicon piece before the etching is 5 to 10,000 mm 2 .

15. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 12 , wherein a number of polycrystalline silicon pieces is 10 to 200.

16. The method for manufacturing polycrystalline silicon fragments according to claim 12 , the polycrystalline silicon pieces are cubic.

Assignees

• Tokuyama Corp

Inventors

• Nishimura Shigeki

Classifications

• B02C1/02

  Jaw crushers or pulverisers · CPC title

• C30B29/66

  Crystals of complex geometrical shape, e.g. tubes, cylinders · CPC title

• C30B33/10

  in solutions or melts · CPC title

• C01B33/035

  by decomposition or reduction of gaseous or vaporised silicon compounds in the presence of heated filaments of silicon, carbon or a refractory metal, e.g. tantalum or tungsten, or in the presence of heated silicon rods on which the formed silicon is deposited, a silicon rod being obtained, e.g. Siemens process · CPC title

• B02C13/00

  Disintegrating by mills having rotary beater elements {; Hammer mills} · CPC title