Goal

Provide optimization based tools to improve the design and performance of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors used in semiconductor processing.

Background and Project Description

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is used extensively in the manufacturing of semiconductors. As CVD reactors, such as small-batch fast-ramp low pressure CVD furnaces become increasingly expensive, there is a higher payoff for increased reactor throughput or for an increase in the number of usable wafers.
Computational simulation combined with optimization are powerful and efficient tools to achieve these objectives.

To accurately describe the physics of the process, increasingly complex mathematical models are used, which lead to large and computing intensive simulation codes. The implementation of these simulation codes alone is a challenging task that can often only be performed with state-of-the-art HPCC technology. A combination of such simulation codes with optimization algorithms to produce usable tools for the designer or operator of CVD reactors requires new and innovative ways in the formulation of optimization algorithms, the use of HPCC technology, and their interaction with various simulation codes.

The goal of this project is to provide an optimization environment for the designer or operator