{"id":432,"date":"2014-11-06T22:25:53","date_gmt":"2014-11-06T22:25:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/me\/facil\/melwp\/?page_id=432"},"modified":"2018-02-16T21:21:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-16T21:21:46","slug":"current-efforts-cmt-er-czt-mzo","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/current-efforts-cmt-er-czt-mzo\/","title":{"rendered":"Computational Simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thin film deposition is the backbone for many industries including thin film PV, semiconductor, flat panel display, LED laser manufacturing and others.\u00a0 The US is the world leader in manufacturing thin film PV.\u00a0\u00a0 The research at the Center has highlighted the strong need for computational modeling of deposition processes for the thin film PV fields.<\/p>\n

Our aim is to\u00a0 bring accurate Simulation Based Engineering Science (SBES) to the thin film industry and lead to significant economic benefits.\u00a0 The foundation of the Center’s capabilities is the thermal modeling of many industrial scale systems that have been completed by our group. Thermal simulation methods were utilized to design processing hardware and model industrial systems for the production of thin film PV modules (100 MW\/yr.). The exact geometries of the industrial hardware are modeled and the resultant temperature distribution predicted by thecomputations is within +\/- 2% of the experimental measurements.<\/p>\n

The Center’s simulation research includes mechanical, thermal and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models will include thermal aspects as well as generation, transport and deposition of vapor species.\u00a0 Our current research thrust involves extending the computational simulation methods to vapor species and ultimately enable a predictive understanding of film properties including the film thickness, film uniformity and microstructure.\u00a0 This work is supported by the National Science Foundation’s Accelerating Innovation Research Technology Translation program.<\/p>\n

\"difihbai\"<\/a>The CdTe solar cell manufacturing process developed at Colorado State<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>University used a vapor source that utilized infrared heating lamps as the heating source.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This was used in the initial research system that was used to develop the inline CdTe<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>solar cell manufacturing method used in industry. This system has since been redesigned<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>to improve its ability to function as a more versatile research tool.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"image-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Embedded\u00a0<\/span>NiCr<\/span>\u00a0Heating for ARDS Deposition Source<\/span><\/h2>\n

This study focused<\/span>\u00a0on the modeling efforts used in the development and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>understanding of an embedded\u00a0<\/span>NiCr<\/span>\u00a0heating unit for th<\/span>e vapor source. The traditional\u00a0<\/span>infrared heating lamps, while effective, were inefficient. A new design consisting of a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>NiCr<\/span>\u00a0heating element imbedded in to the graphite deposition crucible, was developed as a<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>more efficient and robust replacement to the infrared lamps. Four distinct models of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>increasing complexity were developed using the heat transfer modeling capabilities of<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>ANSYS Fluent. The first two models helped to determine the\u00a0<\/span>overall thermal uniformity<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>and the ability of the new heating designs ability to reach the needed temperatures of the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>deposition proc<\/span>esses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a>The third model discussed in this study, aided in the development of the top heater that
\nwould maintain the desired steady state temperature at the process station used to deposit CdS\u00a0films. The final model developed contained a higher level of detail used to determine the validity\u00a0of previous assumptions and to gain an understanding of the internal temperature profile of the\u00a0completed source.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This modeling effort was extended to t<\/span>he system used in industry. The\u00a0<\/span>experimental data was compared to the modeled data verifying the model accuracy. The<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>calculated<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>temperatures were within 2.5% of the meas<\/span>ured temperatures. The modeling\u00a0<\/span>efforts of CSU<\/span>\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>deposition systems has<\/span>\u00a0proved the usefulness<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>of CFD mo<\/span>deling as an important tool to equipment development and characterization.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cell 2 Model (Left) vs Camera Image (Right) showing agreement between CFD model and measured value.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thin film deposition is the backbone for many industries including thin film PV, semiconductor, flat panel display, LED laser manufacturing and others.\u00a0 The US is the world leader in manufacturing thin film PV.\u00a0\u00a0 The research at the Center has highlighted the strong need for computational modeling of deposition processes for the thin film PV fields.…Read more <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"page_nosidebar.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-432","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1253,"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/432\/revisions\/1253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.engr.colostate.edu\/projects\/ngpv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}