SBIR Phase II: Simulation of Rapid Thermal Processing in a Distributed Computing Environment

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This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will continue to develop and demonstrate a computational tool for detailed simulation of Rapid thermal processing (RTP) in a distributed computingenvironment by taking advantages of the findings in Phase I. RTP has become a key technology in thefabrication of advanced semiconductor devices. As wafers get larger and chip dimensions smaller, theunderstanding of the highly coupled physics such as radiative heat transfer, transient fluid flow and heattransfer as well as chemical reactions through numerical modeling using high-performance computing isthe key to the design, optimization, and control of RTP reactors. In Phase II, A 3D surface radiationmodel based on the modified discrete transfer method (MDTM) will be developed to treat radiativetransfer in the lamphouse and process chamber as a whole process. The detailed pattern effects will betaken into account by rigorously solving time-domain Maxwell's equations through a finite volumeapproach. The rarefied gas dynamics in low pressure RTP will be modeled by adding Burnett terms intothe Navier-Stokes equations. The governing equations that contain various multi-disciplinary physicalmodels will be solved by a 3D unstructured finite volume method. To address computationally intensive3D simulation needs, an efficient parallel strategy will be implemented in the solution procedure. Datacommunication among parallel processors will be conducted by the Message Passing Interface (MPI)library. To accelerate the overall solution convergence and improve the parallel performance, thealgebraic multi-grid (AMG) method will be used to solve the discretized equations in each processor. It isexpected that the proposed simulation tool can be used to systematically investigate the underlyingphysics occurring in RTP systems, and to help in the design, optimization, and control of RTP reactors.The proposed simulation tool will significantly benefit the semiconductor manufacturing equipment industries that require a detailed understanding of multimode and highly coupled transport phenomena. The potential applications include the design, optimization, and control of RTP reactors and many other manufacturing and materials processing systems.