Crystallization processes for photovoltaic silicon ingots: Status and perspectives

The choice of the crystallization process plays a crucial role in determining the quality and performance of the photovoltaic (PV) silicon ingots, which are subsequently used to manufacture solar cells. Silicon ingots are typically grown using either the Czochralski (Cz) process or the direction solidification (DS) method, with each technique influencing the microstructure and defects density as well as the final solar cells' performance. In this work, we describe these two processes with a brief overview of the main challenges. For monocrystalline silicon ingots, we discuss the role of crucible and bubble development as well as structure loss. For multicrystalline silicon ingots, we briefly review some of the methods that have been developed in the past years and present results of high-performance multicrystalline (HPMC) ingots.