Abstract
The carrier gas flow field of a batch-reactant chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor was modeled using the method of images and an analog flow and transport visualization experiment. The current reactor is a rectangular inconel box with argon carrier flow introduced through two corner jets. The reactor was designed such that the argon flow drives active vapor from a bed of batch reactants up to a single flat substrate. Reynolds number and Peclet number similarity were used to determine vapor non-uniformity in the reactor and over the substrate. Method of images computations showed dominant patterns of transport which lead to non-uniform coating potential. Still photographs of transport patterns provided verification of the computational model. The paper provides diagnostic information to develop hardware design improvements.
