HYDRODYNAMIC DESCRIPTION OF EPITAXIAL FILM GROWTH IN A HORIZONTAL REACTOR

Growth rate uniformity of epitaxial films is an important prerequisite for fabricating semiconductor devices. The correlation between the fi lm thickness distributions and the vorticity distributions in the flow field is investigated in detail. Equations for conservation of mass, momentum and energy are solved numerically. The vorticity around the s ubstrates and the vorticity gradient on the substrates are calculated from the velocity distribution rather than by solving the species equa tions. The substrate temperature is 1000 K, the total pressures are 2 and 20 Ton: and the Reynolds numbers are 1, 10 and 100. The thicknesse s of the films deposited by low-pressure chemical vapor deposition are measured. As a result, it can be shown that the deposited film thickn ess distributions agree with the vorticity gradient distributions. Thi s suggests that vorticity has an important influence on film depositio n.