The invention is directed to a method of producing polycrystaline silicon metal
from a silicon halide plasma source. The silicon halide is split into silicon and
halide ions in an inductively coupled plasma and silicon ions are then condensed
to form molten silicon metal that can be vacuum cast into polysilicon ingots. The
halide ions are separated and recycled into silicon halide gas over a silicon dioxide
bed. In this way, high grade polysilicon is produced without a metallurgical grade
silicon precursor and the process these processes consumes the byproducts in a
continuous manner madding it less expensive than traditional methods of producing
polysilicon and more environmentally friendly.
