Modelling and analysis of sputter deposited ZrN coating by CFD

Abstract

The objective of the present work is to investigate the effect of various sputtering parameters such as velocity, mass flow rate on velocity profiles, pressure profiles, density profiles and concentration distribution of the process gases (argon and nitrogen) of zirconium nitride films deposited on glass and silica substrate by RF magnetron sputtering. A three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study has been carried out using Fluent-ANSYS commercial code to visualize the mixing behavior of process gases inside the deposition chamber. The results show that the location of gas inlet port has a greater influence on gas distribution inside the chamber where reactive gas will form coating. By having this information, one can able to modify the reactor geometry and gas flow openings along with its positions for better gas flow over the substrate which in turns gives an indirect indication of coating from the composition point of view.