Effect of Boundary Layers on Polycrystalline Silicon Chemical Vapor Deposition in a Trichlorosilane and Hydrogen System

Abstract

This paper presents the numerical investigation of the effects of momentum, thermal and species boundary layers on the characteristics of polycrystalline silicon deposition by comparing the deposition rates in three chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors. A two-dimensional model for the gas flow, heat transfer, and mass transfer was coupled to the gas-phase reaction and surface reaction mechanism for the deposition of polycrystalline silicon from trichlorosilane (TCS)-hydrogen system. The model was verified by comparing the simulated growth rate with the experimental and numerical data in the open literature. Computed results in the reactors indicate that the deposition characteristics are closely related to the momentum, thermal and mass boundary layer thickness. To yield higher deposition rate, there should be higher concentration of TCS gas on the substrate, and there should also be thinner boundary layer of HCl gas so that HCl gas could be pushed away from the surface of the substrate immediately.