Fabricating semiconductor material, which is useful in field of photovoltaics, electronics or microelectronics from starting material, comprises reducing starting material to powder form, and sintering powders by heat or cold compression

摘要

The process of fabricating a semiconductor material from a starting material, comprises reducing the starting material to powder form if it is not present in powder form, sintering the powders (12) by heat or cold compression and heat treatment, and purifying the material using an inert gas flow traversing the material through porous channels interconnected with the material. The gas is a mixture formed of inert carrier gas and a reactive gas, where the reactive gas reacts with impurities of the material for forming a volatile compound. The process of fabricating a semiconductor material from a starting material, comprises reducing the starting material to powder form if it is not present in powder form, sintering the powders (12) by heat or cold compression and heat treatment, and purifying the material using an inert gas flow traversing the material through porous channels interconnected with the material. The gas is a mixture formed of inert carrier gas and a reactive gas, where the reactive gas reacts with impurities of the material for forming a volatile compound directed towards outside of the material by flow of gas. The flow of gas is obtained by pumping with a pressure of 1 hectopascal to atmospheric pressure, or a pressure of greater than the atmospheric pressure. The purification step is carried out at a same time of heat treatment of the material.