Products: Custom Equipment

EFG Growth Furnace

Polysilicon Growth, Continuous Feed High Efficiency

Photo courtesy of Schott Solar

The Edge-Defined Film-Fed Growth Technique is another extremely efficient method to produce polycrystalline silicon for the solar cell production. From the molten silicon, hollow, multi-sided tube is grown to a length of more than 20 feet (6 m). The wall thickness of the tube is about 0.3 mm. Square shaped wafers are laser-cut from the tube for solar cell production. Polysilicon material is fed continuously into the crucible to replace silicon that has been solidified to form the tube. The tube is pulled through a die and an argon gas barrier directly into the atmosphere resulting in high efficiency growth. GT Solar Incorporated builds these pullers exclusively for a customer who is a leading manufacturer of solar cells.

This equipment was custom designed and manufactured by GT Solar Incorporated solely for its customers' use, and is not commercialized for resale.