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Interesting

As you seem to be agreeing with me. I said Silicon is in the class just BEFORE the gasses.

I was wrong in choosing the word purification, as I should have said manufacturing process. While the purification for copper is the end of the process, the purification of silicon in preparation for the doping is simply the base for the manufacture which, by it's nature, requires very small amounts of 'impurities' to be introduced to the silicon base. You do need, as you point out, special processes to control the introduction of those doping materials to penetrate the silicon base.

I believe the highest purity one can achieve from a blast furnace is about 4N if the ingots are specially cast in a vacuum. In open air, 3N MAY be capable. And you are very correct: at those purity ranges, the chances of large crystal formation is virtually impossible, even if temperature controlled cool down processes are employed.

The purity range necessary for transistor construction is not even close to the purity ranges one sees from a blast furnace. IIRC, the purity needed is much higher than 6N so commonly (and incorrectly advertised) in cable ads.

Still the use of the strip heaters can bump up the purity of the ingots considerably and the lengthy and slow progress of the ingot through the molten range will create significantly larger crystal formation. Crystal boundaries are, as you point out, are generally defined by impurities, whether it be molecular air or other solids.

Mind you, I never made that claim of monocrystal formation: you are projecting your thoughts onto mine. A simple bending or impact of the finished product can break the crystalline structure. That the crystalline structure is much larger is a known fact when higher purities can be achieved, however.

The simple drawing of an ingot into wire introduces potential contamination from the dies and the lubricants and the simple exposure to air. I would very much agree with a statement one wire manufacturer told me: claiming 6N copper is akin to MacDonalds saying 1/4 pound before cooking. I have said this before on the cable forum. There are many factors to be considered when taking high purity wire into consideration, and manufacturers' claims should patently be ignored since most wire is made by subcontractors.

This also leads to problems with testing procedures as wire would need to assayed or spectrographically analyzed in order to verify claims. But then this is not what you originally atated either, is it?

Stu

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  • Interesting - unclestu52 13:12:40 08/29/06 (3)
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