SBIR Phase I: The Study of Superior Quality Thin Films Derived from Liquid Combustion in a Thermal Plasma

9861324 SBIR第一期项目将研究创新燃烧化学气相沉积（CCVD）薄膜沉积工艺的基础物理和化学。CCVD是一种创新的、专利的、常压的、热等离子体工艺，已成功地用于以高速率和低成本沉积极高质量的薄膜材料。因此，它具有巨大的商业潜力。通常，CCVD工艺首先将含有溶解金属络合物的碳氢化合物溶液在压力下泵入类似火炬的喷嘴中。该溶液通过专有的雾化器亚微米雾化，并注入到由火炬产生的等离子体中，导致所需材料的薄膜沉积在基板上。外延薄膜可以沉积在单晶和定向衬底上。沉积膜的高质量是由于CCVD工艺能够清洁有效地雾化和燃烧前驱体溶液。为了提高我们对这一过程的理解和控制，热等离子体的基本动力学，包括解离化学和化学输运将通过一些物理和光谱技术，包括原子发射光谱和光学热分析法进行研究。这些基本数据将与代表性薄膜制造应用的工艺性能相关联，特别是关于CCVD沉积速率，薄膜质量和工艺经济。用于电子、防腐、光学涂层、纳米粉末、超导体、燃料电池以及其他应用的高质量薄膜材料的沉积，产生了数十亿美元的潜在总市场。与现有技术相比，提高了液体燃烧效率。

9861324 This SBIR Phase I project will investigate the fundamental physics and chemistry of the innovative combustion chemical vapor deposition (CCVD) process for thin film deposition. CCVD is an innovative, patented, atmospheric pressure, thermal plasma process that has been successfully utilized to deposit exceedingly high quality thin film materials at high rate and low cost. Accordingly, it has enormous commercial potential. The CCVD process, generally, starts with a hydrocarbon solution containing a dissolved metal complex that is pumped under pressure into a torch like nozzle. The solution is submicron atomized via a proprietary nebulizer and injected into the plasma generated by the torch causing deposition of a thin film of the desired material onto a substrate. Epitaxial films can be deposited onto single crystal and oriented substrates. The high quality of the as deposited films is due to the ability of the CCVD process to atomize and combust the precursor solutions cleanly and efficiently. In order to improve our understanding and control of the process, the fundamental dynamics of the thermal plasma, including dissociation chemistry and chemical transport will be studied by a number of physical and spectroscopic techniques including atomic emission spectroscopy and optical pyrometry. These fundamental data will be correlated with process performance for representative thin film manufacturing applications, specifically with respect to CCVD deposition rate, film quality and process economics. Deposition of high quality thin film materials for use in electronics, corrosion protection, optical coatings, nanopowders, superconductors, fuel cells as well as other applications yielding a potential multibillion dollar total market. Increased liquid combustion efficiencies relative to current technology.