Patent 7404856 was granted and assigned to MEMC Electronic Materials on July, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention relates to a process for forming single crystal silicon ingots or wafers that contain an axially symmetric region in which vacancies are the predominant intrinsic point defect, that are substantially free of oxidation induced stacking faults, and are nitrogen doped to stabilize oxygen precipitation nuclei therein.