Cyclone-type vaporizer for mass delivery of atomic layer deposition precursors: Simulation and experimental studies

Liquid delivery systems have been commercialized to supply precursors to the atomic layer deposition (ALD) reactor at high flow rates. However, the complicated internal structure of the conventional vaporizer causes a problem of slow flow and temperature deviation. In this paper, we propose a cyclone-type vaporizer with a simple structure to supply ALD precursors in large quantities. We investigated the effect of key design parameters on the gas flow and temperature distribution inside the vaporizer by computational fluid dynamics analysis. The design parameters were optimized by considering the flow velocity distribution, residence time at the bottom, and temperature uniformity inside the vaporizer. In the optimized model, a swirling flow was actively formed to reach the bottom of the vaporizer with high flow velocity. The cyclone vaporizer with optimized design parameters was constructed to test its vaporization performance. The cyclone vaporizer vaporized all the injected CpZr(NMe2)3 at a constant feed rate of 4 g/min.