Numerical study of the DLC film flow field in the ECR-PECVD reaction chamber

This paper mainly investigates the optimum parameters for the fabrication of uniform diamond-like carbon (DLC) films on the electron cyclotron resonance plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (ECR-PECVD) reaction chamber by analyzing the effect of the reacting gas velocity on the film properties. This work makes use of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach to model surface chemical reactions, flow and temperature fields, as well as heat and mass transfer phenomena. The simulation has shown that natural convection and mass transfer affect the recirculating flow within the reactor and, therefore, the distribution of material deposition. In other words, as a result of attaching an endplate (baffle) at the top of the substrate, the deposition rate of the substrate is appreciably enhanced. However, the surface uniformity of the substrate is obviously deteriorated.