ABSTRACT
The paper describes the design and working of a vacuum furnace developed for growing crystals of semiconductors for solid state device fabrication. The design of the furnace—resistance heater type—is along the lines of the vertical pulling method of Czochralski. The vacuum assembly, power supply and temperature controlling unit and the rotating and pulling mechanism of the seed-holding shaft are described in detail. The furnace can handle both elemental as well as some intermetallic semiconductors.