Patent ID: 8246744

Claim:
A method for predicting a precipitation behavior of oxygen in a silicon single crystal for predicting behavior of oxygen precipitates produced in the silicon single crystal in response to heat treatment, comprising: dividing a heat treatment process into a plurality of time segments; determining a nucleation rate I (T, C, TD) of the oxygen precipitates in each time segment from a nucleation rate formula, I ( T,C,TD )= a ( T ) C 9 TD 1/3 wherein I (T, C, TD) is the nucleation rate (cm −3 s −1 ), C is an oxygen concentration (×10 17 cm −3 ), TD is a thermal donor concentration (×10 15 cm −3 ), T is a temperature; a(T) is a constant determined by the temperature; and determining a density of nuclei N(t′) of the oxygen precipitates produced during a period Δt that begins at the time t′, from a formula, N ( t ′)= I ( T,C,TD )Δ t.