Mass transport characteristics in a pulsed plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition reactor for thin polymer film deposition

A pulsed plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) reactor is used for the preparation of thin polyacetylene films. A theoretical model based on the mass transport characteristics of the reactor is developed in order to correlate with experimentally obtained spatial deposition profiles for t he acetylene plasma polymer film deposited within the cylindrical reactor. Utilizing a free radical mechanism with gas phase initiation of the polymer ization reaction as the rate controlling step, a system parametric study is performed to predict the Peclet number range of operation for the pulsed P ECVD reactor. This parametric study indicates radical decay by diffusion to the reactor walls to be the significant physical phenomenon in the system. It is concluded that a quasi-steady-state model is a good tool for predict ing the important mass transfer phenomena occurring in the pulsed plasma re actor.