The importance of photolithography simulation in the field of OPC needs not to be proved anymore. The simulation software SOLID-CT, commercialized by SIGMA-C permits the influence study of photolithography conditions on few microns pieces of OPC masks. To optimize capabilities of SOLID-CT, we have created an interface with a TCAD simulation environment from Synopsys Inc. The main function of the TCAD software is the prediction of transistors electrical characteristics. The aim of developing such an interface between the two simulation software is to create a powerful and user-friendly simulation platform. The SYNOPSIS tools run with a graphical interface called GENESISe from which different modules can be used. These modules permit for instance to plot the simulated transistors, extract electrical device characteristics, and to visualize 3D topographies. With this interface, SOLID-CT is integrated as a new module usable under GENESISe. One of the advantages of such interface is the opportunity to obtain electrical characteristics and photolithography process simulations in a single user environment. Another one is the possibility to import under SOLID-CT very accurate models of the wafer stack drawn under SYNOPSIS TCAD. Moreover as GENESISe allows drawing simulation trees in really user-friendly way parameters optimization is improved. This paper presents this new interface, which was installed thanks to ISE support between version 6.5 of SOLID-CT and 9.5 of GENESISe. It gives the main advantages of the interface, deals with things which can still be improved and shows some applications which can be done with it.

Date Published: 5 November 2005
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 5992, 25th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology, 59925J (5 November 2005); doi: 10.1117/12.631282

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 5992:
25th Annual BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology
J. Tracy Weed; Patrick M. Martin, Editor(s)