This ingot formation or growth is followed by a shaping operation which takes the round cross sections and produces square or semi-square ingots.

The ingot growth for multicrystalline silicon is quite simple requiring only the melting of silicon in a large crucible and letting it cool slowly to form a large crystal. The furnace design allows the ingot to cool slowly in order to form very large grains (>1 cm). The process for monocrystalline ingot and multicrystalline ingot growth is almost the same.

An ingot is a material that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Silicon ingots can be grown through methods such as the Czochralski Growth process or the Bridgman Furnace technique to produce solar cells. Most of today's solar cells are made of crystalline silicon.

Monocrystalline silicon ingot growth requires polysilicon charges to be packed into quartz crucibles. Crucibles are used to contain the silicon as it melts in the grower (aka puller). A monocrystalline seed is dipped into the center of the melted silicon and counter-rotated in the crucible in order to form monocrystalline material.