Improved multicrystalline silicon ingot quality using single layer silicon beads coated with silicon nitride as seed layer

•The single layer Si beads coated with silicon nitride as seed layer was proposed.•Dislocation clusters reduction in mc-Si was demonstrated.•Impact of grain structure in mc-Si on dislocation clusters was investigated.•Single layer Si beads seeded mc-Si ingots show lower fractions of defected area compared with conventional mc-Si ingot.

We propose to utilize single layer silicon beads (SLSB) coated with silicon nitride as cost-effective seed layer to grow high-quality multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si) ingot. The texture structure of silicon nitride provides a large number of nucleation sites for the fine grain formation at the bottom of the crucible. No special care is needed to prevent seed melting, which would lead to decrease of red zone owing to decrease of feedstock melting time. As we expected, mc-Si ingot seeded with SLSB was found to consist of small, different grain orientations, more uniform grain distribution, high percentage of random grain boundaries, less twin boundaries, and low density of dislocation clusters compared with conventional mc-Si ingot grown under identical growth conditions. These results show that the SLSB seeded mc-Si ingot has enhanced ingot quality. The correlation between grain boundary structure and defect structure as well as the reason responsible for dislocation clusters reduction in SLSB seeded mc-Si wafer are also discussed.