TOTAL TCAD STRATEGY FOR DFM IN IC TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

The authors present some of the simulation tools available to IC techn ology and circuit designers and discuss their importance in a Design F or Manufacturability (DFM) strategy. It is demonstrated how these simu lators, when combined with Design Of Experiment (DOE) and Response Sur face Methodology (RSM), can be used to increase engineering knowledge while at the same time reducing the number of simulations required to optimise a process. The idea of contour plotting response distribution parameters to help determine robust manufacturing conditions is intro duced together with a also methodology of using simulation results to rapidly produce histograms of response distributions. An environment t o help automate the above approach is presented, and its use as part o f a DFM strategy is illustrated through an example of a process/device optimisation.