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

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.<
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