Computational fluid dynamic modeling of tin oxide deposition in an impinging chemical vapor deposition reactor

A fundamental framework for atmospheric pressure chemical vapor deposition of tin oxide coatings on glass using monobutyltin trichloride as the precursor, developed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in an impinging flow geometry, is presented in this paper. The CFD model explicitly accounts for homogenous reaction in the gas phase, heterogeneous reaction on the glass surface, thermal effect of the impinging jet on the glass, and impinging flow characteristics in the confined coating zone. A comparison of modeling results with experimental data is described. It is shown that the experimentally observed spatial distribution in the deposition rate is successfully captured by the model and the wave shape in the deposition profile can be explained with boundary layer separation. The effects of reactor-substrate spacing and glass line speed on the simulated deposition profile are discussed.