In this review, using thermodynamic and kinetic considerations, we explain (1) the proper implication of transport-limited growth, (2) various quasi-equilibrium, morphological and structural characteristics of thermally induced oxide precipitates and secondary crystallographic defects and (3) various electrically active and inactive impurity effects upon oxygen precipitation in Czochralski silicon. A model based upon the formation of Frenkel defects at the silicon-silica interface has shown promise on microscopic accounts of various experimentally observed precipitation behaviors. © 1989.