1.5 Outline of the Thesis

This document deals primarily with a method of simulating topography modifications caused by the application of novel processing techniques which are not found in commercial simulators. However, before those are introduced the thermal oxidation of silicon will be described in Chapter 2. A novel process for localized silicon oxidation, LON, which has garnered much attention as of late is also introduced in this chapter. The requirements for a topography simulation of thermal oxidation and LON will be tackled in Chapter 3, where the state-of-the-art in thermal oxidation simulations is presented. The required modifications to the LS framework in order to enable the modeling of multiple topographies in an oxidation process are also described here. This chapter also includes descriptions of MC methods and particle distributions generated in order to enable the simulation of LON.

Chapter 4 introduces deposition and etching processes which have garnered attention recently and describes their functionality and the reasons for the increased interest in these technologies. The technologies introduced are spray pyrolysis deposition and BiCS memory hole etching. The models and techniques used in order to simulate these technologies are described in Chapter 5.

The applications of the mentioned technologies and their simulations are presented in Chapter 6. Here, several simulations of AFM lithography including some applications for device generation, are presented. Simulations of thermal oxidation are also presented, which use linear-parabolic equations to describe the oxide growth, while also incorporating some two-dimensional effects and silicon crystal orientation in the material growth. The topography modification due to spray pyrolysis deposition is also shown, along with an etched BiCS memory hole. Finally, Chapter 7 concludes with a brief summary and gives suggestions for future work.


L. Filipovic: Topography Simulation of Novel Processing Techniques