4.1.2 Tool Categories

Apart from being specialized in particular physical processes, process simulation tools fall in three categories with respect to the usability for process flow simulation:

1. Tools that model the effects of a single fabrication process.
2. Tools that model the effects of a short sequence of closely related fabrication process steps.
3. Tools capable of simulating a complete semiconductor process flow in its entirety.

Moreover, tools differ with respect to the completeness of the solution produced: Tools either generate a complete model of the wafer as it appears at the end of a process step considered, or they produce only a partial model, limiting the output, for instance, to dopant distribution data or geometry data. Table 4.1 gives some examples of process simulation tools belonging to either of these two categories.

 

The ability to integrate a broad variety of heterogeneous simulators and to present them in a uniform manner is one of the main concerns of this work. The following sections present in more detail the tool integration methodology used in VISTA/SFC.