Fluid-solid Coupling Multi-physics Analysis And Optimization Of A PECVD Equipment

Energy demand is increasing rapidly. The world’s energy consumption per capita increased 39% from 1990 to 2008, while China’s increased 149% during the same period. Currently, the main energy resource is fuel which is non-renewable and highly polluting. The human race needs new energy source that is clean and renewable. Solar energy is a promising option. Plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition(PECVD) is one of the key processes for manufacturing solar cells. China is far behind countries like Germany in manufacturing PECVD equipment. This paper focuses on a PECVD equipment whose thermal expansion is so large that the sealing fails after heating. Some thermal and sealing related capabilities are studied using fluid-solid coupling multi-physics analysis method. And the equipment is optimized to meet its design goals.The paper is divided into three parts. The first part is an introduction to the PECVD equipment and some experiments. In this part, the scaffolding, feeding window and the body of the PECVD equipment are introduced. The results of one thermal experiment and two sealing experiments are introduced and discussed. The results show that the equipment is not ready for production.In the second part, the fluid-solid multi-physics model is built, calculated and validated. Some simplifying schemes are explored. Theories and practices related to fluid-solid multi-physics are studied. The validation demonstrates that the model is of high accuracy.The last part analyzes the root of the problems. An 32(49) orthogonal array is introduced to analyze the thermal related factors. Other factors like body structure and cooling scheme are analyzed afterward. As a result of structural optimization, cooling scheme optimization and thermal optimization, the highest temperature is lowered to 94.1 Celsius, and the largest deformation is lowed to 0.85 mm. The equipment now meets its design goals.