Modeling of flame assisted chemical vapor deposition of silicon films

The simulation of a flame assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) process is here proposed with reference to the growth of silicon thin films through the silane/chlorosilanes/hydrogen/chlorine route. The goal is to design a reactor able to deposit micromorphous or multicrystalline films at the high growth rates necessary for photovoltaic applications. In fact, since FACVD processes can operate in atmospheric conditions and in auto-thermal mode, they present significant energetic advantages with respect to the plasma assisted technology used today. This work is in particular devoted to illustrate the multi-hierarchical modeling procedure adopted to determine the process optimal operating conditions and to design the deposition chamber. Different burner geometries (single, porous or multiple nozzles burner) were investigated in order to exploit the advantages of the two classical stagnation flow and Bunsen stretched flames. (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim