A deep-learning-based surrogate modeling method with application to plasma processing

Rapid and accurate system evolution predictions are crucial in scientific and engineering research. However, the complexity of processing systems, involving multiple physical field couplings and slow convergence of iterative numerical algorithms, leads to low computational efficiency. Hence, this paper introduces a systematic deep-learning-based surrogate modeling methodology for multi-physics-coupled process systems with limited data and long-range time evolution, accurately predicting physics dynamics and considerably improving computational efficiency and generalization. The methodology comprises three main components: (1) generating datasets using a sequential sampling strategy, (2) modeling multi-physics spatio-temporal dynamics by designing a heterogeneous Convolutional Autoencoder and Recurrent Neural Network, and (3) training high-precision models with limited data and long-range time evolution via a dual-phase training strategy. A holistic evaluation using a 2D low-temperature plasma processing example demonstrates the methodology's superior computational efficiency, accuracy, and generalization capabilities. It predicts plasma dynamics approximately 105 5 times faster than traditional numerical solvers, with a consistent 2% relative error across different generalization tasks. Furthermore, the potential for transferability across various geometries is explored, and the model's transfer capability is demonstrated with two distinct geometric domain examples.