A general-purpose two-dimensional process simulator-OPUS for arbitrary structures

A general-purpose two-dimensional process simulator OPUS (Oki Process simulator for ULSI Structures) for arbitrary structures is discussed. By separating a preprocessor from a main processor, OPUS can simulate any kind of impurity or material with up to eight impurities and ten materials. OPUS utilizes a finite-difference method for diffusion analysis without any coordinate transformation. In order to minimize errors due to discretization around the curved boundaries, OPUS has introduced two kinds of boundaries. The first is true boundaries by strings. The other is quasi-boundaries formed through simplifying but retaining the shape of true boundaries as long as possible. The quasi-boundaries and resulting dummy cells are used for discretization of the diffusion equation. General features of OPUS are first introduced with special emphasis on dummy cells. Errors caused by dummy cells are discussed. The capacity of OPUS is then demonstrated through application to a trench process and to a full MOS process with a sidewall