On July 13, 2011, the SEMI North American PV Technical Committee approved SEMI Draft Document 5072A New Standard: Test Method for Simultaneously Measuring Oxygen, Carbon, Boron and Phosphorus in Solar Silicon Wafers and Feedstock by Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.  A copy of part of the balloted test method can be downloaded from here.

The key value of this test method is the ability to simultaneously do the measurement of these four critical elements (O, C, B and P) with sufficient detection limits using only a Cesium primary ion beam, thus reducing the cost of the measurement by greatly increasing the throughput.  Furthermore, the measurement can be done on PV Si wafers of all thicknesses, including thin wafers.  Lastly, the measurement can be done using older, or used SIMS equipment, as well as new instruments. 

Interested laboratories are being solicited in this SEMI interlaboratory study of the precision of this test method. Those laboratories wishing to participate in this interlaboratory study should send a memo to Richard S. Hockett, Chairman, SEMI International PV Analytical Test Methods Task Force, at dhockett@eaglabs.com. For complete instructions, details are listed in the attached Word file.