Large eddy simulations in a rotating disk chemical vapor deposition reactor

Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) is widely applied in the semiconductor industry for the deposition of thin layers on a silicon wafer. The large temperature differences in CVD processes may lead to natural convection induced turbulence. In this study, the influence of turbulence on the properties of the deposited film is studied numerically for a rotating disk CVD reactor using Large Eddy Simulations. It is found that turbulence may have adverse effects such as recirculations and non-uniform film growth. At carefully selected operating conditions however, these problems can be overcome. Under these conditions turbulence leads to increased mixing and an increased growth rate, in principle allowing a more economical operation of rotating disk CVD reactors.