Solar:  How Our Products Are Used

High purity quartz from the The Quartz Corp is used primarily in the solar industry for the manufacture of fused quartz crucibles, but is also used in tubes, rods, and ingots used in quartzware for further processing.

Quartz crucibles are used to grow monocrystalline ingots using the Czochralski method.  These ingots are the building blocks of solar panels and are sliced into wafers before being processed into cells and finally arranged into modules.  The full journey of silicon to module is outlined on an infographic from TSE, available here.

High purity quartz is required for crucible manufacture to avoid contamination to the silicon melt.  Any impurities or inclusions will disrupt the monocrystalline structure of the ingot, resulting in a failed ingot and wasted product.  Because quartz from The Quartz Corp is 99.999% SiO2, it is deemed safe to come into contact with the silicon melt even at ~1,500ºC.  Any contaminants in the sand can travel into the melt, and that’s why we invest so much time, energy, and money into our quality department. 

For more information on the Czochralski method, click here.