Proton Cleaving Silicon

Alternative energy sources
Forum rules
The usual. As I have two large solar PV systems here, and my lab assistant just put one in, and others are interested in things like this, here's where that stuff goes. This is mostly for things that work now, not "gee someday a fusor will do this" -- we know that, but it's not someday yet.
The hope is to save anyone embarking on this sort of thing a lot of wasted time and money, as at least I have been off the grid since 1980 and have had a lot of practice (and made mistakes you won't have to).

Proton Cleaving Silicon

Postby Jerry » Thu Mar 15, 2012 2:10 am

This is a pretty neat way to cleave silicon to thinner sheets without having to waste material with saws:

http://www.twincreekstechnologies.com/t ... erion.html
Jerry
 
Posts: 573
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:07 am
Location: Beaverton, OR

Re: Proton Cleaving Silicon

Postby johnf » Thu Mar 15, 2012 3:35 am

Hey Jerry
welcome to my world
I believe I'm the first person to do this with aluminium using He ions --normally the He leaches out of the Al lattice @ normal temps but I did it with the Al cooled to -179 degrees C
you need a fluence of ions above 10^16-17 /cm^2 to achieve this.
PS the silicon in the video is a standard technique in the industry, it pays to have the right orientation of the wafer otherwise channelling will make a mess of it.

I'll post a sem pic I took of the peeling Al layer
johnf
 
Posts: 433
Joined: Sun Aug 08, 2010 3:51 pm
Location: Wellington New Zealand

Re: Proton Cleaving Silicon

Postby Jerry » Thu Mar 15, 2012 6:23 am

How flat of a surface will this technique make? For solar cells I can't imagine it really matters though.
Jerry
 
Posts: 573
Joined: Sun Jul 18, 2010 12:07 am
Location: Beaverton, OR

Re: Proton Cleaving Silicon

Postby Doug Coulter » Thu Mar 15, 2012 9:13 am

I'd bet it's pretty flat, but probably not "single atom" crystal surface. As you say, it would hardly matter for making big sloppy diodes for solar panels. For those, you don't even need single crystal anyway, none of mine are.

This is what a business would call a "moat" - a barrier to competition. You've either got this thing or you don't, and if you don't, you can't compete in the same markets. Stock traders get all excited about things like that.
Posting as just me, not as the forum owner. Everything I say is "in my opinion" and YMMV -- which should go for everyone without saying.
User avatar
Doug Coulter
 
Posts: 3515
Joined: Wed Jul 14, 2010 7:05 pm
Location: Floyd county, VA, USA


Return to Alt energy

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron