Simulation of a vertical reactor for high pressure organometallic chemical vapor deposition

The suitability of a vertical cylindrical reactor with highly constrained radial flow from a central gas injection port past a set of heated substrate wafers that are embedded in the top channel wall has been evaluated in the context of organometallic chemical vapor deposition (OMCVD) at elevated pressure. Numerical simulations showed that, in addition to the limitation on the channel height necessary for preventing buoyancy driven recirculation, negotiating the ninety-degree bend at the inlet is problematic and also constrains the channel height below a critical value, at which the radial flow area after the inlet bend is equal to the cross-sectional area of the central gas injection port. Restricting the channel height poses the danger of heating of the channel wall opposite to the substrate wafers causing potential problems with deposition of decomposition products and competitive polycrystalline film growth at this location. These problems can be avoided by actively cooling the channel wall opposite to the substrate and by keeping the retention time of the source vapor molecules and fragments thereof in the wafer location below a critical value. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.