A Cellular Automata Simulation Tool for Modelling and Automatic VLSI Implementation of the Oxidation Process in Integrated Circuit Fabrication

Abstract

As device lots become more and more expensive, the importance of technology computer-aided design (TCAD) is increasing. TCAD can be used to simulate device fabrication and performance and to avoid processing experimental lots. Cellular Automata (CAs) have been applied successfully to the simulation of several physical systems and semiconductor processes, and have been extensively used as VLSI architecture. This paper describes a TCAD system for the simulation of the two-dimensional oxidation process in integrated circuit fabrication. The TCAD system is fully automated and is also able to support, the hardware implementation of the corresponding CA algorithm, leading to its execution by dedicated parallel processor. The simulation results are in good qualitative and quantitative agreement with experimental data reported in literature. The proposed system produces as output the corresponding VHDL code, which leads directly to the FPGA implementation of the CA algorithm.