US 11,939,696 B2
Thin plate-shaped single-crystal production equipment and thin plate-shaped single-crystal production method
Isamu Shindo, Hokuto (JP)
Assigned to Crystal Systems Corporation, Hokuto (JP)
Appl. No. 17/610,890
Filed by Crystal Systems Corporation, Hokuto (JP)
PCT Filed Feb. 12, 2021, PCT No. PCT/JP2021/005139
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Nov. 12, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2022/130651, PCT Pub. Date Jun. 23, 2022.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-207337 (JP), filed on Dec. 15, 2020; and application No. 2021-002285 (JP), filed on Jan. 8, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0411957 A1, Dec. 29, 2022
Int. Cl. C30B 15/10 (2006.01); C30B 15/16 (2006.01); C30B 15/30 (2006.01); C30B 23/00 (2006.01); C30B 35/00 (2006.01)
CPC C30B 15/16 (2013.01) [C30B 15/10 (2013.01); C30B 15/30 (2013.01); C30B 23/00 (2013.01); C30B 35/002 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A thin plate-shaped single-crystal production equipment comprising:
an infrared ray irradiation apparatus that irradiates an upper surface of a raw material lump for production of a thin plate-shaped single crystal with an infrared ray to melt the upper surface; and
an elevator apparatus that causes a lower surface of a thin plate-shaped seed single crystal to be immersed in a melt melted using the infrared ray irradiation apparatus and formed on the upper surface and then pulls the thin plate-shaped seed single crystal immersed in the melt upward,
wherein the thin plate-shaped single-crystal production equipment is configured such that, by using the elevator apparatus to immerse the lower surface of the thin plate-shaped seed single crystal in the melt formed on the upper surface of the raw material lump for the production of the thin plate-shaped single crystal using the infrared ray irradiation apparatus, growth of a single crystal is started from the lower surface of the immersed thin plate-shaped seed single crystal and that, by using the elevator apparatus to pull the thin plate-shaped seed single crystal upward, the thin plate-shaped single crystal is produced continuously,
wherein the infrared ray emitted from the infrared ray irradiation apparatus is a laser beam, and
wherein a shape of an irradiation area irradiated with the laser beam is a hollow quadrangular shape elongated in a horizontal direction, the thin plate-shaped single-crystal production equipment being configured for a circumferential area of the upper surface of the raw material lump for the production of the thin plate-shaped single crystal to be irradiated with the laser beam such that the hollow quadrangular irradiation area is formed in the circumferential area of the upper surface, the circumferential area excluding a central portion of the upper surface.