Numerical Modeling of Thin Film Deposition in Expanding Thermal Plasma

Expanding thermal plasma (ETP) is a widely used technique for deposition of a thin layer of ceramic materials and metal oxide on a substrate for a wide range of applications including abrasion resistance, UV absorption, as well as conductive and optical coatings. The coating quality is found to be dependent on operating parameters as well as reactor designs. In this article, we have presented a CFD based model of the ETP process to simulate the deposition of silica-like coatings on a polycarbonate substrate. Along with the flow-thermal model of plasma jet expansion process, the study also reports the development of a simplified gas phase and surface reaction model to simulate the coating phenomena. The model has been used further to study the effect of various operating conditions on the coating thickness, viz. reactor pressure, reagent flow rate, distance of the substrate from the arc and substrate alignment.