Brief Overview of Circuit Simulator, Device Simulator, Process Simulator

System Architecture Design CAD

Verilog/VHDL

Circuit Design

SPICE

Compact Modeling

BSIM

Device Physics Technology CAD T-CAD

Process Technology

Simulation and Modeling

 Two distinct domains for CAD

Application domain
Circuit Designs, System Designs

Technology domain
Device Modeling, Process Simulation

 For circuit designs

SPICE Tools
Cadence, Mentor ,TSPICE, PSPICE etc

What does a circuit tool will do ?

For example SPICE simulator

 It will take netlist, which is the interconnection of all the devices Compact model or Transistor model
E.g. level 1, level 2 or BSIM model

Then analyze the circuit

For example DC analysis, AC analysis, Transient analysis, etc.

What Circuit design tool will do for you?

netlist

Nodal equations Circuit Behavior Circuit Design Tool

Compact models Or Transistor models

Inverter and its VTC

4.0

Vout (V)
2.0 0.0 0.0

1.0

2.0 Vin (V)

3.0

4.0

5.0

 Give the circuit behavior for example transfer characteristic of the inverter Will tell where is the transition point

Provided you have the right model for your device

Any CAD tool is only as good as the models are built into that CAD tool

So, you can not take the CAD tools results blindly !

Then why to use design tools?

Want to build without designing and simulating
lot of iterations Will not get first pass success

Want to minimize the design time to get the prototype

Need to use the CAD tools

Device simulation tool overview

Device structure Device Simulator

Device Behavior

Poission Equations, Current Continuity Equation

NMOS and I-V Characteristics

 Device simulator inputs:

E.g. doping concentrations, substrate type, gate length, etc.

Device simulator Output:

Electrical response I-V Characteristics C-V Characteristics

 For example, for current:

Need to have the accurate model for mobility

Mobility will determine drift current in the MOSFET Mobility model :

Function of doping concentration, electric field, temperature, etc.

Device simulator will give the device behavior by using these inputs

Process Simulation Tool Overview

Temperature, Time, Ambient, etc Process Simulator

For example oxide thickness

Example : Oxidation
Process Simulator Inputs:
Temperature Time Ambient e.g. 100 % oxygen

Process Simulator Output:

Oxide thickness

When you grow oxygen, upside silicon will consume the silicon
Silicon surface will go down and oxide will grow up

And that has to be predicted properly

Why TCAD?
Before going to the fabrication facility:
Process simulation : that will minimize the no. of iterations.

Know the reasonable optimum process parameters Need to go may be for one or two iterations to get the structure Can help in efficient usage of time and the resources.

Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD)

Collectively, process and device simulation form the core tools for the design phase known as technology computer-aided design (TCAD).
Process simulation is the modeling of the fabrication of semiconductor devices such as transistors.

 The ultimate goal of the process simulation is an accurate predication of the active dopant distribution, the stress distribution and the device geometry. Process simulation is typically used as an input for device simulation, the modeling of device electrical characteristics.