Characteristics of three-dimensional flow, heat, and mass transfer in a chemical vapor deposition reactor

The three-dimensional flow heat, and mass transfer characteristics in a horizontal chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor with a tilted susceptor are analyzed numerically. As the physical domain for the CVD reactor has an irregular region, the Cartesian coordinates are transformed into a general curvilinear coordinate system. For calculating the governing equations, the finite volume method (FVM) is adopted and the SIMPLE algorithm is extended and modified to employ the curvilinear system. The effects of flow rate and tilted angle of the susceptor on the transport phenomena (i.e., heat transfer rate, uniformity and growth rate of reactant gas, etc.) at the susceptor are investigated. The results show that the existence of return flows leads locally to improvement of the heat transfer, but it is not good for the uniformity of the deposition. As the tilted angle of the susceptor is increased (from 0 degrees to 9 degrees), the amount of heat transfer and growth rate in the main flow direction are improved irrespective of the Reynolds number. The growth rate and uniformity are less sensitive to the inclined angle of the susceptor than that of the Reynolds number.