Atmospheric-pressure plasma enhanced chemical deposition: role of the reactor flow dynamics

An atmospheric- instead of low-pressure plasma deposition reactor for the inline production and processing of thin films is investigated. Process optimization and scale-up require a fundamental understanding of the reactor behaviour. The influence of the reactor design and the operating conditions on the reactor hydrodynamics and the film deposition rate are studied experimentally and by means of detailed computational fluid dynamics simulations. The influence of the process gas and its flow rate to the inlet channels, the precursor injection velocity and different geometric reactor design parameters is focused on.