Reliability-based optimisation of chemical vapour deposition process

In this paper, the process of Chemical Vapour Deposition (CVD) in a vertical impinging reactor is simulated and optimised using the reliability-based performance measure approach for the deposition of a thin film of silicon from silane. The key focus is on the rate of deposition and on the quality of the thin film produced. Proper control of the governing transport processes results in large area film thickness and composition uniformity. The effect of important design parameters and operating conditions are studied using numerical simulations. Response surfaces are generated for deposition rate and uniformity of the deposited film using compromise response surface method for the range of design variables considered. The resulting response surfaces are used to optimise the CVD system by considering the uncertainty in the design variables.