I-Corps team: Advanced computational simulation for thin film manufacturing

薄膜沉积是包括太阳能、半导体、平板显示器、LED和其它的许多行业的关键制造工艺。薄膜气相沉积使用复杂且昂贵的制造设备来完成，其中热和蒸气通量均匀性对于生产高质量产品至关重要。为了创建新的或改进的设计，薄膜制造商依赖于低效、迭代、试错的设计技术。本项目将为薄膜工业开发高保真的计算模拟工具。这些进步将使制造商能够设计更好的制造设备，并以更快的设计周期优化工艺。该项目将开发用于工业薄膜工艺和设备的高保真计算模拟方法。将开发这些软件工具的商业化途径，并确定和联系潜在客户。预测模拟方法将联合收割机的热、流体动力学和薄膜生长模型结合到一个综合模拟中，该模拟将针对工业用途进行优化。本项目的范围是从制造硬件规范和加工条件开始，这些规范和条件将根据具体情况进行建模。将为最终用户开发制造设备、工艺和产品性能之间的相互作用。随着项目的推进，该分析将通过创建独特的独立软件应用程序来针对特定行业进行定制。这些软件包将每年获得许可，并由设计团队使用，使工程师能够利用高保真仿真的显著优势，而无需多年的专业培训。该项目将导致独特的模拟能力的发展，这将有利于薄膜行业。

Thin film deposition is a critical manufacturing process for many industries including solar, semiconductor, flat panel display, LED and others. Thin film vapor deposition is accomplished using complex and expensive manufacturing equipment in which thermal and vapor flux uniformity are critical to producing high quality products. To create new or improved designs, thin film manufacturers rely upon inefficient, iterative, trial and error design techniques. This project will develop high fidelity computational simulation tools for the thin-film industry. These advancements will allow manufacturers to design better fabrication equipment and optimize processes with faster design cycles. Outcomes will be the increased performance and reduced cost of thin film products.This project will develop high fidelity computational simulation methods for industrial thin film processes and equipment. The commercialization pathways of these software tools will be developed and potential customers identified and contacted. The predictive simulation methods combine thermal, fluid dynamics, and film growth models into a comprehensive simulation which will be optimized for industrial usage. The scope of this project is to start with manufacturing hardware specifications and processing conditions which will be modeled on a case by case basis. The interactions between manufacturing equipment, processes, and product performance will be developed for the end user. As the project advances, this analysis will be tailored to specific industries by creating unique standalone software applications. These packages would be licensed annually and used by design teams enabling engineers to leverage the significant benefits of high fidelity simulation without requiring the years of specialized training. This project will result in the development of unique simulation capabilities that will benefit the thin film industry.