There are many weird and wonderful manufacturing techniques in the Material World but the Czochralski process is among the most captivating. The polysilicon is tipped into a quartz crucible (the crucible must be incredibly pure, or else it may introduce impurities back into the silicon) and heated up to just under 1,500°C. A seed crystal, a pencil-sized rod of silicon, is dipped into the melt and is then slowly pulled upwards, rotating slightly. Gradually, a perfect, solid ingot, a boule, begins to form out of the melt.[*2]
