Metal Melt Purification of Non-Metal Semiconductor Materials
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional methods for purifying semiconductor materials like phosphorus, sulfur, and arsenic face challenges in removing impurities, especially those with similar properties, resulting in low purity levels and complex processes.
Innovation Solution
A purification apparatus and method involving a sealed furnace with a crucible, heating structure, liftable injection mechanism, and recovery mechanism, where a non-metallic material is gasified and injected into a metal melt under controlled pressure conditions, allowing impurities to volatilize and be separated from the material to be purified, achieving high purity through multiple cycles.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Manufacturing precision
If traditional purification methods (sublimation, chlorination, hydrolysis, rectification) are used, then purification process can be implemented, but the process becomes complex and requires multiple steps, achieving only limited purity improvement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the fundamental parameters of the purification process by using metal melt as the purification medium instead of traditional sublimation or chemical reaction methods. The metal melt method allows for direct dissolution and selective precipitation, simplifying the process while achieving higher purity (99.999% or more) in fewer steps.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces metal melt as an intermediary medium between the crude semiconductor material and the purified product. The metal melt serves as a solvent that selectively dissolves impurities while leaving the target material, enabling separation through controlled precipitation and filtration, thus simplifying the overall process.
2Manufacturing precision
If traditional purification methods are used, then purification can be achieved, but impurities with similar properties (e.g., sulfur and arsenic in phosphorus) remain difficult to remove
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using a metal melt with specific chemical properties that are selectively reactive toward certain impurity elements. The metal melt is designed to have different affinities for different impurities, allowing selective dissolution and removal of specific impurity types while leaving others behind, thus addressing the challenge of removing similar property impurities.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the chemical environment parameters by using a metal melt with controlled composition and properties. By adjusting the metal type, temperature, and other parameters, the system can selectively precipitate or dissolve specific impurity elements, enabling effective removal of impurities with similar properties to the target material.
3Manufacturing precision
If multiple purification cycles are performed to achieve high purity, then purity level increases, but the process time and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements continuous purification action by maintaining the metal melt in a steady state and continuously introducing crude material for purification. The metal melt serves as a reusable medium that can process multiple batches sequentially, achieving high purity through continuous operation rather than repeated discrete cycles, thus reducing total process time.
Solution Approach 2:
The metal melt system is designed to be self-regenerating and reusable. After purification, the metal melt can be recovered, refined, and reused for subsequent purification cycles without requiring complete replacement, reducing time loss and improving efficiency compared to single-use purification methods.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The method effectively increases the purity of semiconductor materials by selectively volatilizing impurities and concentrating the target element, achieving purities of 99.999% or more, while simplifying the process and reducing side effects from metallic impurities.
Implementation Method 1
heating the non-metal material substance to be purified until it is gasified
Implementation Method 2
the gasified non-metal material will diffuse into the metal melt
Implementation Method 3
the gasified non-metal material will diffuse into the metal melt, and the metal and the non-metal material will exist in an atomic state, respectively, until it reaches the point where the atoms of the non-metallic element are saturated in the melt
Implementation Method 4
vacuuming the furnace body to 10−5 Pa
Implementation Method 5
filling the furnace body with an inert gas, so that the pressure of the furnace body is higher than a design pressure
Implementation Method 6
heating the metal to a design temperature, and melting the metal to form a metal melt
Implementation Method 7
collecting volatilized bubbles while continuously cooling the recovery mechanism until the bubbles disappear
Data Source
AI summary
A purification apparatus and purification method of a non-metallic semiconductor material relate to the field of preparation of high-purity materials, and are especially applicable to preparation of high-purity non-metal materials, in particular to an apparatus and method for purifying a non-metallic semiconductor material by means of a metal melt. The apparatus includes a furnace body, a pressure balance valve, a crucible disposed in the middle of the lower part of the furnace body, a heating and supporting structure for the crucible, a liftable injection mechanism disposed right above the crucible, and a liftable and rotatable recovery mechanism disposed next to the liftable injection mechanism. The method is completed based on the purification apparatus, and includes: injecting the gasified non-metal material into the metal melt under a high pressure environment; reducing the ambient pressure, and collecting the bubbles volatilized from the metal melt to obtain the purified non-metal material. The technical solution proposed in the present invention can be used to effectively remove impurities in the non-metal material, especially remove elements of similar properties. The apparatus is highly integrated and easy to control, and the method is simple.