Manufacturing commercial solar cells require doped silicon with very few impurities. One way to produce silicon that can be used for solar cells is the Czochralski process. The goal is to create a large, single crystal of doped silicon that can later be cut down to the appropriate size for solar cells.

If you are not familiar with what doping is and how solar cells work, visit the solar panel technologies page for more information.

The Czochralski process requires melting high grade silicon in a crucible. Once this is done, a dopant material can be added to the heated mixture. The dopant added determines whether the silicon crystal will be n-type or p-type. A thin rod with a seed crystal on the end is used to extract a much larger crystal from the melted silicon.

A seed crystal is a crystal made of the same type of material as that of the larger crystal you wish to create. The seed crystal provides an infrastructure on which the melted silicon builds upon. The thin rod is inserted into the melted mixture and removed slowly while being rotated. This process creates cylindrical silicon that can be anywhere from 1 to 2 meters in length.

The Multi-crystalline Solar Cells offered by Silicon Solar are the highest grade on the market today. Because of this, they are less expensive to manufacture and we can pass that savings on to you! In our Commercial Solar Cells subcategory, you will find Commercial Solar Cells, a Solar Cell Sample Pack, a Solar Cell information packet, Scrap Solar Cells, Interconnection material for Solar Cells, and more.