Project Title:

Numerical Modeling of Particle Formation and Growth During Chemical Vapor Deposition

15.03-3800
NAS1-19029
Numerical Modeling of Particle Formation and
	Growth During Chemical Vapor Deposition
Creare, Inc.
	P.O. Box 71
	Hanover, NH 03755
		Thomas J. Jasinski
(603-643-3800)

Abstract:

	Processing in the microgravity environment of space has the potential to improve
the quality of thin films grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Particle formation
and growth in the precursor gas mixture is an especially important phenomenon in
CVD due to its usually detrimental impact on film quality. This project will develop
numerical modeling tools to predict nucleation and subsequent growth of particles
during CVD. The effort is based on a computational fluid-dynamics-computer program
called FLUENT that simulates many phenomena of interest to CVD. Phase I consists
of implementing models for nucleation and growth in order to demonstrate that FLUENT
is a suitable framework for general-purpose modeling. Verification will be provided
by comparison of results with previous work from the literature. If results are favorable,
the models will be generalized during Phase II, yielding software for use by NASA
scientists.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Applications: Technology areas that could benefit from improved
modeling of particulate formation include: CVD of thin films for electronics and
optics; combustion with sooty flames; mitigating the fouling in heat exchangers;
and formation of preforms for optical fibers using modified CVD.