Optimization of liquid flow rate distribution in etching modules through numerical simulationsand experiments

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to simulate the liquid flow rate distribution in the etching modules and find the optimal setup in order to achieve a distribution as homogenous as possible. The commercial software Matlab 2015a has been employed for all the numerical simulations. The optimization has been carried out varying several parameters, i.e. spray cross sections of the nozzles, the oscillation parameters, the rotating angle of the nozzles within etching module 1 and the nozzle arrangement inside the modules. Furthermore, the optimization has been carried out separately along the two directions of the modules. The results achieved computationally have been validated via experimental procedures. During this study a specific experimental setup has been developed in order to be able to compare experimental and computational results. The validation process has shown that the computational method matches the experimental results to a good extent. The experimental liquid distribution in etching module 2 widely matches the simulations to a quantitative extent, while the one in etching module 1 provides the same qualitative but different quantitative results.