Effect of Fluoride Layer Growth on the Deposition Rate under Different Microchannel Structures

In the plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process, a showerhead is used to enhance fluid uniformity in the chamber. The uniformity of the flow field will be affected by changing the microchannel on the showerhead, which in turn directly affects the uniformity of deposition. The showerhead will be etched during the cleaning process due to the presence of HF, which will form a fluoride layer. This layer will cause a decrease in the diameter of the microchannels, resulting in changes in the deposition uniformity. The impact of diameter changes can be reduced by making modifications to the microchannel structure. By adopting a coupling of the Navier-Stokes and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (NS-DSMC) methods, we obtained the velocity variation of two typical microchannels (equal-diameter type and expansion type) under the same diameter change. The results indicate that compared to the equal-diameter type, the expansion type exhibits a smaller change in velocity for the same change in diameter. For the surface reaction limited regime, a stable velocity leads to a consistent residence time, which is advantageous for maintaining the uniformity of the film thickness. Therefore, compared to the equal-diameter type microchannel, the expansion type can reduce the impact of changes in diameter.

Automated summary

This study investigates the impact of microchannel diameter changes on flow field uniformity in plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) process. The results show that the expansion type microchannel exhibits a smaller change in velocity compared to the equal-diameter type, which is beneficial for maintaining the uniformity of film thickness.