5.1.4 Lithography Masks

A key issue for a full functional coupling of process simulation tools is the handling of their lithography masks. The strict separation of the process recipe from the mask set must be possible. It must easily be possible to specify these masks and to introduce some sort of parameterization of their dimensions.

Since all of the established process simulation tools allow the specification of lithography masks via files, the masks fit perfectly to the template mechanism of the simulation-flow-models. Example 5.1 shows how mask sets can be used in the context of simulation-flow-model. The mask file is specified in the model port named mask and this port is used in the command line of the tool labeled ligament which encapsulates an invocation of the Ligament program. To produce devices using different masks sets one can use this simulation-flow-model within a network-model and overload the settings of the mask port.