 Product Briefing Outline: Coventor, Inc. has introduced SEMulator3D, a computer-aided design (CAD) tool that provides silicon-accurate 3-D models of the devices and chips fabricated with semiconductor processing equipment, specifically produced within a given fab. This, the company believes will facilitate communication among fab personnel and to make employee training more productive. SEMulator3D also enables users to document and certify a wafer fab's manufacturing process, and any modifications, so the process can be transferred among a company's different wafer fabs, or between fabless chipmakers and foundries.
Problem: Certifying a wafer fab's manufacturing process, and any modifications, so the process can be transferred among a company's different wafer fabs, or between fabless chipmakers and foundries are critical and difficult to achieve in a right first time environment, adding to device costs and decreasing product life cycles. Existing ways to generate 3-D models are unsatisfactory -- TCAD simulations are time-consuming, while manual microscopic examinations and drawings may be inaccurate and require experienced engineers whose time could be better-spent. Solution: SEMulator3D includes a process library that supports all the typical process steps used in an advanced wafer fab, including those associated with CMOS processing (e.g. oxidation, implant, patterning, diffusion, etc.); material addition and removal (e.g. PVD, CVD, conformal and axial deposition, RIE, anisotropy etching, CMP, etc.); and advanced etching techniques. SEMulator3D performs error- and physical feature-detection, and its visualization capabilities aid in the yield analysis and optimization of semiconductor devices. The software enables one to view complex structures, electrical/mechanical connectivity, dynamic or interactive cross-sections; to measure distances; to control cross-sectional layer properties; to import/combine parts of various native CAD formats; to manipulate 3-D images, to save animation and camera settings, and to save screenshots in various standard formats, among many other functions. Applications: Process engineers, design engineers, documentation specialists and equipment operators. Platform: SEMulator3D CAD software is an outgrowth of Coventor's MEMS design software for the analysis and optimization of micro-scale devices and fluidic components and subsystems. SEMulator3D is controlled by a Python-based scripting language and supports parameterized arguments and the IDLE graphic user interface. It runs on the Windows 2000 and Windows XP platforms, and requires an OpenGL video card. It uses geometric or topographic parameters as input, not electrical or chemical input. This parametric input is taken from existing mask-layout data files and process flows in the standard GDSII format, and also from actual measurement of devices and structures fabricated by a given piece of production equipment. Availability: January 2006 onwards starting at $25,000 .
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Wafer Processing 
