Design and Development of Nano-Resolution Wireless Czochralski System for High Quality Crystal Growth Applications

Abstract

Remotely operated Czochralski puller, Automatic Crystal Puller System (ACPS) with a translation nano-resolution of 20 nm, is designed and developed for high quality crystal growth applications. The system comprises the Programmable System-on-chip hardware with integrated firmware and user-friendly graphical user interface. The controller is attached to high precision specially designed mechanical crystal pulling system. ACPS provides controlled bi-directional rotation speed of 0.01–59.99 rpm and translation motion of 0.001–99.99 mm/h. The wireless operation of ACPS from remote desktop devices is implemented using ZigBee Radio-frequency modules, which facilitates controlling the system for user without entering into the furnace room. The performance of the system was evaluated by growing KCl single crystals and analysing the quality of the grown crystals using various techniques. This paper describes the design and development of wireless nano-resolution Czochralski puller and evaluation of performance for real time crystal growth applications.The developed system can be used to grow many technologically important crystals with optimized growth procedures.