NUMERICAL STUDY OF EFFECT OF CARRIER GAS ON THE DEPOSITION UNIFORMITY INSIDE BATCH ALD REACTOR

Abstract

In the present study, flow simulations were performed to study the effect of carrier gases in a batch ALD reactor. Several cases varying the flow ratio between the carrier N2 and Side N2, which are injected into a main nozzle and side ones, respectively, were compared. The explanations about the wafer-to-wafer and within-wafer uniformity regarding film deposition were provided in terms of the flow analysis. The results showed that the flow rates injected from each nozzle hole are different from one another, leading to the non-uniformity inside the batch. The increase in Side N₂ can improve the uniformity at the single wafer. Even though the amount of Side N₂ also significantly influences the uniformity inside the whole batch reactor, its improvement is only achieved when the amount of Carrier N₂ is comparable to the Side N₂.