Production organisation
Process conditions, equipment and stable manufacturing practice.
Silicon technology since 1979
From silicon production to a new growth architecture.
EBZ is the latest result of 47 years of practical work: organising CZ and FZ production, developing quartz tooling and crystal-growth equipment, purifying feedstock and scaling silicon processes beyond the laboratory.
47 yearscontinuous work with silicon
CZ + FZproduction organisation experience
300 mmdemonstrated material diameter
2pilot-industrial EB platforms
Industrial experience
Not only developing processes—organising production.
The foundation of EBZ is broader than a patent or a research result. It includes hands-on responsibility for turning silicon technology into a working production system: CZ and FZ crystal growth, equipment, quartz tooling, feedstock, process discipline and cooperation with international industrial suppliers. Patents and publications document this work; they are not the story by themselves.
Production organisation
Feedstock, crystal-growth regimes and equipment implementation.
Critical process infrastructure
Quartz tooling for silicon production, including industrial cooperation with GE Quartz.
Technology history
One development line, documented over decades.
The EBZ proposal is the next step in a sustained programme—not the starting point. The milestones below connect industrial silicon experience, pilot equipment and peer-reviewed results.
Industrial foundation
Work in CZ and FZ silicon, from crystal-growth regimes and equipment to the organisation of production. This period also included quartz tooling and cooperation with GE Quartz, now part of Momentive.
Electron-beam purification and FZ feed rods
EB melting and purification moved from 100 mm experiments to 170 mm rods and a 10-inch, 50 kg ingot. FZ single crystals were subsequently grown at IKZ from KEPP EU feed rods.
Scale-up to 300 mm
Energy-efficient electron-beam pulling, automated diameter control and large-diameter rod growth progressed through 200 and 220 mm to a demonstrated 296–300 mm polycrystalline rod.
From process history to crystal testing
The 2017 review set the technology in the wider history of surface-heated silicon growth. Follow-up work used pedestal and FZ approaches to evaluate EB-grown material.
Finding and suppressing impurity sources
Experiments isolated contamination introduced by the electron-beam system and validated a gas-dynamic window as part of the route toward cleaner silicon.
Purity suitable for the 300 mm FZ route
Pilot-scale work combining chamber protection, a gas-dynamic window and a bent-tube magnetic separator reduced aluminium by about two orders of magnitude while oxygen remained below 0.1 ppma.
Selected technical record
2014Ingots pulled with electron beam heating from skull — a new feedstock for FZ crystals↗2017Development of Silicon Growth Techniques from Melt with Surface Heating↗2019Float zone single crystals for testing rods pulled under electron-beam heating↗2021Experimental verification of contamination reduction using a gas-dynamic window↗2026Reduction of aluminium contamination in electron-beam melting of feed rods for 300 mm FZ silicon↗The EBZ technology
Large geometry without a quartz crucible or graphite hot zone.
KEPP EU has developed and experimentally demonstrated an electron-beam zone-growth process in which a silicon melt is formed inside the feedstock itself. The crystal is pulled upward with rotation while the molten zone moves through the surrounding chunk silicon.
EBZ is not presented as a finished commercial product. It is a mature experimental platform designed to combine CZ-scale geometry and feedstock logic with a pathway toward FZ-like purity and structural perfection.
Experimental record
Equipment and published results—not a paper concept.
The programme starts from two existing electron-beam installations and a long experimental record in silicon technology. The latest work documents the full pilot-scale system, including the gas-dynamic window and bent-tube magnetic separator.
Read the Journal of Crystal Growth paper ↗~100×reduction in aluminium concentration
Residual Al below 5 × 10¹² at·cm⁻³, with oxygen below 0.1 ppma.
EIC Pathfinder
From high-purity material to dislocation-free single crystals.
Our central hypothesis is that historical dislocation densities were not an intrinsic limitation of crucible-free growth, but the result of an unobserved and uncontrolled thermo-hydrodynamic state.
See the hidden interface
Reconstruct the moving melt–skull boundary through solid silicon using multi-point low-frequency ultrasound.
Constrain the model
Combine surface-temperature dynamics, interface measurements and post-growth evidence in one validated thermo-hydrodynamic model.
Find the growth regime
Identify and experimentally validate the process-control conditions required for dislocation-free single-crystal growth.
Project development
Building the European team for the next experimental step.
KEPP EU is forming a consortium around measurement-constrained modelling, ultrasonic interface reconstruction, operando impurity chemistry and crystal characterisation.
The project proposition is deliberately testable: determine whether the required growth regime exists, create the framework for finding it, and validate it experimentally.
Cooperation
Help define a new route for high-purity silicon.
We welcome scientific and industrial partners in crystal-growth modelling, diagnostics, materials characterisation and semiconductor applications.
Contact Dr. Anatoly Kravtsov