Abstract: A production method of a monocrystalline silicon includes: growing the monocrystalline silicon pulled up from a silicon melt by the Czochralski process; and maintaining a pulling speed of the monocrystalline silicon when dislocations occur during pulling up of the monocrystalline silicon, so that the pulling up of the monocrystalline silicon is continued until a start point of the dislocations passes a temperature zone in which nuclei of oxygen precipitates form.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to drive a mirror in a wide driving range and at a fast response speed. An imaging device 100 includes an imaging element 103, a mirror 102, a lens 101, and a mirror tilt actuator 110. The imaging element 103 images subject light that is reflected light from a subject. The mirror 102 reflects the subject light, and makes the subject light incident on the imaging element 103. The lens 101 collects the subject light on the mirror 102. The mirror tilt actuator 110 drives the mirror 102 so as to change an optical axis of the lens OAL. The optical axis of the lens OAL is an optical axis to be incident on the central part C of the imaging element 103 in the subject light exited from the lens 101.

Abstract: After melting raw materials, a distance between a raw material melt surface and a heat-shielding member disposed so as to face to the melt surface is adjusted based on temporal changes in chamber inside conditions, such as the heater temperature at the time of completion of the seed crystal equilibration operation carried out after completion of the raw material melting procedure and/or lag time required for completion of the seed crystal equilibration operation following completion of the raw material melting procedure. As a result, single crystals can be produced efficiently and in high yield, and further, by controlling the crystal interior temperature gradient by modifying the distance between the melt surface and the heat-shielding member, it becomes possible to control the ratio V/G (V:pulling speed, G:crystal interior temperature gradient) to thereby produce single crystals free of crystal defects such as COPs and/or dislocation clusters.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to drive a mirror in a wide driving range and at a fast response speed. An imaging device 100 includes an imaging element 103, a mirror 102, a lens 101, and a mirror tilt actuator 110. The imaging element 103 images subject light that is reflected light from a subject. The mirror 102 reflects the subject light, and makes the subject light incident on the imaging element 103. The lens 101 collects the subject light on the mirror 102. The mirror tilt actuator 110 drives the mirror 102 so as to change an optical axis of the lens OAL. The optical axis of the lens OAL is an optical axis to be incident on the central part C of the imaging element 103 in the subject light exited from the lens 101.

Abstract: The present invention is applied to an infrared imaging device including infrared lens (11) condensing infrared light, infrared sensor (12) detecting the condensed infrared light, and image signal output unit (18) eliminating fixed pattern noise for each pixel from an output signal from infrared sensor (12) and acquiring an image signal. The infrared imaging device includes sensor field-of-view controller (13) varying the field-of-view of infrared sensor (12) with respect to the infrared light incident on infrared sensor (12), and overall controller (16) acquiring the fixed pattern noise for each pixel on the basis of the luminance of the output signal from infrared sensor (12) when varying the field-of-view of infrared sensor (12).

Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus for producing a single crystal, and a method for producing a silicon single crystal using the same. An apparatus for producing a single crystal includes a heating device which heats polycrystalline silicon raw material held in a crucible to form silicon melt, and a pulling up device which grows a silicon single crystal while pulling it up from the silicon melt accompanied with rotation. By providing the apparatus with a magnetic field generation unit which applies to the silicon melt a cusp magnetic field a shape of neutral plane of which is symmetric around the rotation axis of the silicon single crystal and is curved in the upward direction, various conditions for producing a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is relaxed, and a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is produced at high efficiency.

Abstract: After melting raw materials, a distance between a raw material melt surface and a heat-shielding member disposed so as to face to the melt surface is adjusted based on temporal changes in chamber inside conditions, such as the heater temperature at the time of completion of the seed crystal equilibration operation carried out after completion of the raw material melting procedure and/or lag time required for completion of the seed crystal equilibration operation following completion of the raw material melting procedure. As a result, single crystals can be produced efficiently and in high yield, and further, by controlling the crystal interior temperature gradient by modifying the distance between the melt surface and the heat-shielding member, it becomes possible to control the ratio V/G (V:pulling speed, G:crystal interior temperature gradient) to thereby produce single crystals free of crystal defects such as COPs and/or dislocation clusters.

Abstract: Thermal-type infrared imaging device comprises an infrared ray detection unit in which pixels, each of which includes a bolometer, are arranged two-dimensionally; and a signal processing unit that sequentially reads signal of each bolometer in synchronization with switching operation of a horizontal shift register and a vertical shift register, integrates the read signal using an integration circuit, and outputs the integrated signal.

Abstract: Thermal-type infrared imaging device comprises an infrared ray detection unit in which pixels, each of which includes a bolometer, are arranged two-dimensionally; and a signal processing unit that sequentially reads signal of each bolometer in synchronization with switching operation of a horizontal shift register and a vertical shift register, integrates the read signal using an integration circuit, and outputs the integrated signal.

Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus for producing a single crystal, and a method for producing a silicon single crystal using the same. An apparatus for producing a single crystal includes a heating device which heats polycrystalline silicon raw material held in a crucible to form silicon melt, and a pulling up device which grows a silicon single crystal while pulling it up from the silicon melt accompanied with rotation. By providing the apparatus with a magnetic field generation unit which applies to the silicon melt a cusp magnetic field a shape of neutral plane of which is symmetric around the rotation axis of the silicon single crystal and is curved in the upward direction, various conditions for producing a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is relaxed, and a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is produced at high efficiency.

Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus for producing a single crystal, and a method for producing a silicon single crystal using the same. An apparatus for producing a single crystal includes a heating device which heats polycrystalline silicon raw material held in a crucible to form silicon melt, and a pulling up device which grows a silicon single crystal while pulling it up from the silicon melt accompanied with rotation. By providing the apparatus with a magnetic field generation unit which applies to the silicon melt a cusp magnetic field a shape of neutral plane of which is symmetric around the rotation axis of the silicon single crystal and is curved in the upward direction, various conditions for producing a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is relaxed, and a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is produced at high efficiency.

Abstract: A silicon annealed wafer having a sufficient thick layer free from COP defects on the surface, and a sufficient uniform BMD density in the inside can be produced by annealing either a base material wafer having nitrogen at a concentration of less than 1×1014 atoms/cm3, COP defects having a size of 0.1 ?m or less in the highest frequency of occurrence and no COP defects having a size of 0.2 ?m or more, oxygen precipitates at a density of 1×104 counts/cm2 or more, and BMDs (oxygen precipitates), where the ratio of the maximum to the minimum of the BMD density in the radial direction of the wafer is 3 or less, or a base material wafer grown at specific average temperature gradients within specific temperature ranges and specific cooling times for a single crystal at a nitrogen concentration of less than 1×1014 atoms/cm3, employing the Czochralski method.

Abstract: The invention provides an apparatus for producing a single crystal, and a method for producing a silicon single crystal using the same. An apparatus for producing a single crystal includes a heating device which heats polycrystalline silicon raw material held in a crucible to form silicon melt, and a pulling up device which grows a silicon single crystal while pulling it up from the silicon melt accompanied with rotation. By providing the apparatus with a magnetic field generation unit which applies to the silicon melt a cusp magnetic field a shape of neutral plane of which is symmetric around the rotation axis of the silicon single crystal and is curved in the upward direction, various conditions for producing a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is relaxed, and a silicon single crystal having a defect free region is produced at high efficiency.

Abstract: A silicon annealed wafer having a sufficient thick layer free from COP defects on the surface, and a sufficient uniform BMD density in the inside can be produced by annealing either a base material wafer having nitrogen at a concentration of less than 1×1014 atoms/cm3, COP defects having a size of 0.1 &mgr;m or less in the highest frequency of occurrence and no COP defects having a size of 0.2 &mgr;m or more, oxygen precipitates at a density of 1×104 counts/cm2 or more, and BMDs (oxygen precipitates), where the ratio of the maximum to the minimum of the BMD density in the radial direction of the wafer is 3 or less, or a base material wafer grown at specific average temperature gradients within specific temperature ranges and specific cooling times for a single crystal at a nitrogen concentration of less than 1×1014 atoms/cm3, employing the Czochralski method.

Abstract: A silicon wafer characterized in that the laser scattering tomography defect occurrence region accounts for at least 80% of the wafer surface area and that the laser scattering tomography defects have a mean size of not more than 0.1 &mgr;m, with the density of those defects which exceed 0.1 &mgr;m in size being not more than 1×105 cm−3, and wafers derived from this wafer as the raw material by heat treatment for oxide precipitate formation, by heat treatment for denuded layer formation or by epitaxial layer formation on the surface are useful as semiconductor materials.

Abstract: A method of producing a high-quality silicon single crystal of a large diameter and a long size in a good yield by controlling the positions where ring-like oxygen-induced stacking faults (R-OSF) occur in the crystal faces and minimizing grown-in defects such a dislocation clusters and infrared scattering bodies that are introduced in the pulling step. Wafers produced from the above-high-quality silicon single crystal contain little harmful defects that would deteriorate device characteristics and can be effectively adapted to larger scale integration and size reduction of the devices. Therefore, the method can be extensively utilized in the field of producing semiconductor silicon single crystals.

Abstract: A method of producing high-quality and large-diameter single crystals by the Czochralski method is disclosed which can provide wafers with a minimized number of such grown-in defects as dislocation clusters and laser scattering tomography defects. Specifically, it is a method of producing silicon single crystals which comprises carrying out the crystal pulling while maintaining the solid-melt interface during pulling in the shape of an upward convex with the central portion of the interface being higher by at least 5 mm than the peripheral region thereof and while applying a magnetic field, and optionally in addition to the above, while maintaining the temperature gradient in the direction of axis of pulling in the peripheral region at a level lower than that in the central portion in the range of from the melting point to 1,200° C.

Abstract: A silicon wafer characterized in that the laser scattering tomography defect occurrence region accounts for at least 80% of the wafer surface area and that the laser scattering tomography defects have a mean size of not more than 0.1 &mgr;m, with the density of those defects which exceed 0.1 &mgr;m in size being not more than 1×105 cm−3, and wafers derived from this wafer as the raw material by heat treatment for oxide precipitate formation, by heat treatment for denuded layer formation or by epitaxial layer formation on the surface are useful as semiconductor materials. In producing this wafer, a single crystal is pulled up under pulling conditions such that while the temperature of the central portion of the single crystal being pulled up from the melt is within the range from the melting point to 1,370° C., the temperature gradient Gc in the central portion in the single crystal pulling axis direction is not less than 2.8° C.

Abstract: A silicon single crystal wafer having good device characteristics can be manufactured according to the Czochralski method without formation of any dislocation cluster within a crystal surface. Where a silicon single crystal having an oxygen concentration of less than 8.5.times.10.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.3 (ASTM F1188-88) is manufactured, a radius of a latent zone of oxidation induced stacking defects ring-likely-distributed in the crystal surface is made within a range of 70% to 0% of a crystal radius, and a value of V/G (mm.sup.2 /.degree. C..multidot.minute) is controlled at a predetermined critical value or over at radial positions except an outermost periphery of the crystal when a pulling rate is taken as V (mm/minute), and a crystalline temperature gradient along the pulling axis is taken as G (.degree. C./mm). On the other hand, when a silicon single crystal having an oxygen concentration of not less than 8.5.times.10.sup.17 atoms/cm.sup.