A pragmatic approach to integrated process/device/circuit simulation for IC technology development

Author

Green, Keith R. ; Fossum, Jerry G.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Florida Univ., Gainesville, FL, USA

Volume

11

Issue

4

fYear

1992

fDate

4/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

505

Lastpage

512

Abstract

A novel approach to integrated process/device/circuit simulation is proposed which allows pragmatic, computationally efficient IC technology CAD at the mixed-mode device/circuit level. The approach is demonstrated with a simulation system for advanced silicon bipolar technologies. This system comprises the process simulator SUPREM-3 integrated with the seminumerical mixed-mode device/circuit simulator MMSPICE by a program called SUMM. The integration is characterized by the unique evaluation of the physical (structure-dependent) parameters for the MMSPICE BJT model from a one-dimensional doping profile generated by SUPREM-3 without any optimization-based extraction. The capability of the application-specific SUMM/MMSPICE integrated system to reliably predict device characteristics and their sensitivities to process-flow variations is verified by measurements and by purely numerical simulations with PISCES-II. The utility of the system in IC technology development is exemplified by simulations

Keywords

circuit analysis computing; digital simulation; electronic engineering computing; integrated circuit technology; BJT model; CAD; IC technology development; MMSPICE; PISCES-II; SUMM; SUPREM-3; advanced Si bipolar technologies; integrated process/device/circuit simulation; one-dimensional doping profile; process simulator; process-flow variations; Character generation; Circuit simulation; Computational modeling; Doping profiles; Equations; Integrated circuit modeling; Integrated circuit technology; Numerical simulation; Semiconductor process modeling; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0278-0070

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/43.125098

Filename

125098