An Open-Source, Extensible Software Suite for CVD Process Simulation

Chemical vapor deposition processes involve a complex interplay of chemistry and transport, both in the vapor and on the surface. Arriving at a mechanistic understanding usually requires both experimental process diagnostics and numerical simulation. Just as appropriate tools (gas chromatographs, lasers, spectrometers) are required for diagnostics, suitable numerical tools are needed for simulation, including ones to compute chemical equilibrium, simulate stirred reactors or reacting flow problems with surface chemistry, carry out reaction path analysis, among others. To be most effective, these software tools should be open-source, so that their internal workings can be examined if necessary (as can be done with hardware), should be extensible, and should have easy-to-use interfaces.