Abstract
The growth of epitaxial layers of silicon from a tin melt has been examined over a range of cooling rates (0.2°–7°C/min). It is found that at cooling rates below 1°C/min, the growth rate increases with cooling rate, while at higher cooling rates the growth rate saturates. This behavior is due to the transition from mass transport limited growth to surface kinetically controlled growth. This has been confirmed by the measurement of the variation in epitaxial layer thickness across the wafer with and without stirring, at both slow and fast cooling rates.