The design of a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process in a complex reactor configuration was performed by combining computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and experiments. This design methodology was implemented in a horizontal cold-wall reactor, where tin oxide deposition on silicon substrates at atmospheric pressure (APCVD) was experimentally investigated. A set of measured growth rates at different operating conditions was used to determine a Langmuir-Hinshelwood mechanism of the growth kinetics of tin oxide films by tin tetrachloride oxidation in a single-wafer reactor. The coupled kinetic/CFD model was then used to further analyze the influence of some key operating parameters on the process performance. Simulation results are suggestive of modifications in the operating parameters that could enhance the uniformity of the layer thickness. In particular, the uniformity of the layer thickness was investigated, with special attention paid to the origins of the axial and transverse heterogeneities on the wafer for each of the parameters examined, thus opening possible ways of process improvement. (C) 2004 The Electrochemical Society.