SILVACO TCAD

Starting
DECKBUILD
To invoke ATHENA under DECKBUILD in
interactive mode, enter the UNIX command:
deckbuild an&
The -an option instructs DECKBUILD to
start ATHENA as the default simulator.

ATLAS

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Starting
DECKBUILD
To invoke ATHENA under DECKBUILD in
interactive mode, enter the UNIX command:
deckbuild an&
The -an option instructs DECKBUILD to
start ATHENA as the default simulator.
After a short delay, the main DECKBUILD
window will appear.
DECKBUILD consists of Two sub windows:
windows:
The first window is the text window in the
upper half of the base frame.
This text window is used to build and edit
input files.
The lower half window is the runtime
output window and it is used to echo the
output of the simulator.
ATLAS

-3-

Starting
DECKBUILD
To become familiar with the mechanics of
running ATHENA under DECKBUILD,
DECKBUILD, we
can now load and run some of the ATHENA
standard examples.
examples.

ATLAS

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Loading / Running
Examples
DECKBUILD makes it possible to load and
run a number of example simulation input
files.
To access the ATHENA examples:
Click on the Main Control menu follows by
the Examples
Examples menu item.
The Deckbuild: Examples window will
appear.
The DECKBUILD examples are listed in the
Section menu and they are grouped
according to the simulation topic that the
example demonstrates.
demonstrates
Select the MOS Application Examples listed
by doubledouble-clicking on this topic.
ATLAS

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Loading / Running
Examples
A list of the MOS Application Examples will
then be listed as shown.
Next, select the mos1ex01.in by doubledoubleclicking on the input file name.
A description of the selected input file will
appear in the examples window.
The description:
a.

lists the modules required for this

example,

b.

provide an overview that this example

demonstrates,

c.

describes the command statements

used in this example file,

d.

describes the simulated results that

will be displayed in this example.

ATLAS

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Loading / Running
Examples
To load this example, press the Load
example button on the top rightright-hand
corner.
corner.

ATLAS

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Loading / Running
Examples
To load this example, press the Load
example button on the top rightright-hand
corner.
The selected input file will then be loaded
into the DECKBUILD text window.
The input file, along with other files
associated with the input file will be copied
into your working directory.
You can now run the input file by pressing
the run button on the DECKBUILD Control.
Control.

ATLAS

-8-

Loading / Running
Examples
Once
the
process
simulation
has
completed, the MOSFET structure will be
automatically plotted as shown.
This MOS structure will then automatically
passed to the device simulator, ATLAS for
device simulation.
Once the simulation is completed,
TONYPLOT will then display the IdId-Vg
characteristics of the MOSFET device.

ATLAS

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Creating A Typical NMOS Input Deck File

In this session, we will learn the basic operations required for creating
a typical MOSFET input file.
These operations include:
Developing a good simulation grid
Performing conformal deposition and geometric etch
Performing oxidation, ion implantation and annealing
Extracting and Optimizing process parameters
Saving and loading structure information
These operations are relevant to all individual ATHENA process
simulators.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Before creating the initial structure, we
need to clear the current text window of
DECKBUILD by pulling down the File menu
follows by Empty Document.
Document.
The text window is now empty.
Next, we will also clear the history files that
were automatically created during the MOS
example simulation. To do so,
Select the Main Control menu, follows by
Main Control
Control
The Deckbuild: Main Control popup window
will appears
Then, click on the History Props
Props
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
This invokes
window.

the

History

Properties

Next, click on the clear button to clear the

history file.
The lines will now be reset to 0 which
means that the history files have been
cleared.
Once finished, close the History popup by
clicking on the top left hand corner and
select Close.
Close.
Close the Main Control popup as well by
clicking on the top left hand corner and
select Close.
Close.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
To start ATHENA as the simulator, we need
to start off with the go
go statement by
typing the statement:

go athena
in the text window.
Now, we can start defining the initial
rectangular grid.
The correct specification of a grid is critical
in process simulation.
The number of nodes in the grid has a
direct influence on simulation accuracy and
time.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
To define the rectangular grid, from the
Commands menu, select the Mesh Define...
menu item.
The Mesh Define menu will appear.
From the Mesh Define menu, the Direction
field is selected as X by default.
Also, the default value of the Location field
is 0 and 0.1 for the Spacing field.
For the Comment field, type NonNon-Uniform
Grid (0.6um x 0.8um)

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Next, click on the Insert button in the Mesh
Define window and the line parameters will
appear in the scrolling list.
In the same way, set the location of a
second X line to 0.2 with a spacing of 0.01
and a third X line to 0.6 with a spacing of
0.01.
0.01.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Next, we shall proceed to create the grid in
the Y direction. Select Y in the Direction
field.
Click on the Location field and enter a
value of 0.
Then, click on the Spacing field and enter a
value of 0.008.
0.008.
Click on the Insert button in the Mesh
Define window.
In the same way, set the:
2nd Y line Location to 0.2,
0.2, Spacing of 0.01
3rd Y line Location to 0.5,
0.5, Spacing of 0.05
4th Y line Location to 0.8,
0.8, Spacing of 0.15.
0.15.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Notice that the finest grid is defined at the
surface from location y=0
y=0m to y=0.2
y=0.2m.
This region will later be use to form the
surface active region of the NMOS
transistor.
Therefore, it is essential to have finest grid
in this region.
To preview the rectangular grid, from the
Mesh Define menu, click on the View...
button.
The View Grid window will be displayed.
(Notice that a total of 1786 points and 3404
triangles are generated.)
Close the View Grid Window after viewing.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
And press the WRITE button to write the
mesh define information into the text
window.
A set of lines will appear as shown.
It is a good practice to save the file
frequently to avoid loss of data. To save the
input file:
Click on the File menu, follows by Save
The Save As popup will appear.
KeyKey-in the file name as nmos.in
nmos.in and click
on the Save button.
The file is now saved as nmos.in
nmos.in.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
The LINE statements specified by the Mesh
Define menu set only the rectangular base
for the ATHENA simulation structure.
The next step is the initialization of the
substrate region.
To initialize the simulation structure:
From the ATHENA Commands menu, select
Mesh Initialize
Initialize
The ATHENA Mesh Initialize menu will
popup.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
By default, Silicon is selected as the
Material with <100> Orientation.
Click on the Boron impurity box so that
Boron is selected as the background
doping.
For the Concentration field, select the
desired concentration as 1.0 using the
slider or by typing it, and select an
exponent of 14 from the Exp: field.
This will give a background concentration
of 1.0 x 1014 atom/cm3.
For the Dimensionality field, check the 2D
box. This forces the simulation to be run in
a twotwo-dimensional calculation.
ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
For the Comment field, type Initial Silicon
Structure with <100> Orientation
Orientation.
Press the WRITE button to write the
initialization information into the text
window.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
For the Comment field, type Initial Silicon
Structure with <100> Orientation
Orientation.
Press the WRITE button to write the
initialization information into the text
window.
The following Comment and Initialize
statements will appear in the text window:
#Initial Silicon Structure with <100>
Orientation
init silicon c.boron=1.0e14 orientation=100
two.d

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Now, run ATHENA to obtain the initial
structure by clicking on the run button and
DECKBUILD will start executing the
command lines.
Once DECKBUILD finishes executing the
lines, the line struct outfile=.history01.str is
automatically produced by the History
function as shown.
This is the initial structure file and to
visualize it:
Highlight the .history01.str
.history01.str file.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
Next, pull down the Tools menu, select Plot
follows by Plot Structure...
After a short delay, TONYPLOT will appear.
It will have only regional and material
information.
To
display
the
mesh
information:
From TONYPLOT, pull down the Plot menu,
followed by Display .
The Display (2D Mesh) menu will appear.
By default, the Edges and Regions icons
will be selected. Click on the Mesh icon,
follows by the Apply button.

ATLAS

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Creating An
Initial Structure
And then click on the Dismiss button.
The initial triangular grid will appears as
shown.
So, the previous INIT statement creates a
<100> silicon region of size 0.6um x 0.8um,
which is uniformly doped with boron
concentration of 1 x 1014 atom/cm3.
This simulation structure is ready for any
process step (e.g. ion implantation,
diffusion, oxidation, etc.).
After viewing the initial structure, we can
now quit from TONYPLOT by clicking on
the toptop-left hand corner follows by Close.
Close.

ATLAS

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Performing Gate
Oxidation
Next, we will grow an gate oxide layer on
the Silicon surface by performing dry
oxidation at 950 oC for 11 minutes in 3%
HCL at 1.0 atmospheric pressure.
To perform this gate oxidation step, from
the ATHENA Commands menu, select the
items Process Diffuse....
Diffuse....
The ATHENA Diffuse menu will appear as
shown.
From the Diffuse Menu, change the Time
(minutes) from 30 to 11 and the
Temperature (C) from 1000 to 950.
950.
From the Ambient field, click on the Dry O2
box.

ATLAS

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Performing Gate
Oxidation
Check on the Gas pressure (atm) and the
HCL % fields. Change the HCL to 3%.
Add a comment Gate Oxidation
Oxidation in the
Comment field and click on the WRITE
button.
The gate oxidation information will be
written into DECKBUILD text window as
shown by the Diffuse statement:
# Gate Oxidation
diffus time=11 temp=950 dryo2 press=1.00
hcl.pc=3
Continue the ATHENA simulation by
clicking on the Cont button on the
DECKBUILD control.
Once the gate oxidation step is completed,
another history file .history02.str
.history02.str will be
saved as shown.
ATLAS

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Performing Gate
Oxidation
Plot this structure again by highlighting
.history02.str
.history02.str file.
Then, pull down the Tools menu and select
the Plot follows by Plot Structure...
The resulting gate oxide structure will
appears in TONYPLOT as shown.
From the plot, it can be seen that an oxide
layer was deposited onto the silicon
surface.

ATLAS

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Extracting Gate
Oxide Thickness
Next, we would like to extract the gate
oxide thickness that was grown during the
oxidation process step.
This can be done using the Extract routines
of DECKBUILD.
Extract forms a function calculator
calculator that
allows you to combine and manipulate
values or entire curves quickly and easily.
You can create your own, customized
expressions, or choose from a number of
standard routines provided for the process
and device simulators.
To extract the thickness of gate oxide:

ATLAS

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Extracting Gate
Oxide Thickness
First, we can close the TONYPLOT.
Next, pull down the Commands menu and
click on Extract
Extract. as shown.
The ATHENA Extract menu will appears.
By default, the Material
selected in the Extract field.

thickness

is

For the Name field, type in Gateoxide

Gateoxide.
For the Material
Material
Material button.

field,

click

on

the

The Material Chooser popup will appear.

By default, Silicon is selected. Since we are
extracting the oxide thickness, therefore
change it to SiO~2 and click Apply.
Apply.
ATLAS

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Extracting Gate
Oxide Thickness
Next, in the Extract location field, the X
location is selected by default and enter a
value of 0.3.
0.3.
Click on the WRITE button when done.

ATLAS

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Extracting Gate
Oxide Thickness
Next, in the Extract location field, the X
location is selected by default and enter a
value of 0.3.
0.3.
Click on the WRITE button when done.
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as shown.
In this Extract statement, all the parameters
are
selfexcept
the
self-explanatory
mat.occno=1 which specifies the layer
occurrence number.
This parameter is optional in this case as
there is only one silicon dioxide layer.
However, in some cases where there are
many stacked silicon dioxide layers, we
have to specify the specific silicon dioxide
layer that we are interested in.
ATLAS

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Extracting Gate
Oxide Thickness
Continue the ATHENA simulation by
clicking on the Cont button on the
DECKBUILD control.
The runtime output of the Extract statement
will then appear as shown.
It can be seen that the current structure is
first saved in a /tmp folder and it is being
called out by Extract to perform parameters
extraction.
When the extraction is done, Extract will
automatically quit and ATHENA is invoked
again.
Thus, we can see that the extracted gate
oxide thickness was 131.347 .
In the next section, we shall learn how to
optimize this extracted gate oxide
thickness.
ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
In this section, we will learn how to use the
Optimizer function in DECKBUILD to
optimize the gate oxidation process
parameters.
Assuming that the measured gate oxide
thickness is 100
100, and both the
temperature and partial pressure in the
Gate Oxidation step need to be tuned.
To optimize this parameter, pull down the
Main Control menu and select the
Optimizer
Optimizer
This invokes the DECKBUILD Optimizer as
shown.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
In the Setup Mode, the optimizer displays a
table of the control parameters.
The default parameters here are
adequate, except that we can
Maximum error (%) so as to fine
gate oxide thickness to 100
100.

normally
set the
tune the

Therefore, change the value of Maximum

Error (%) on the Stop criteria column from
5 to 1.
And now we can proceed to define the
parameter to be optimized.
To do so, pull down the Mode menu and
select the Parameters Mode as shown.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
For this workshop, the optimization
parameters are the temperature and partial
pressure during the Gate Oxidation step.
To define these parameters, go to
DECKBUILD window and highlight the Gate
Oxidation step as shown.
Then, within the Optimizer,
Optimizer, pull down the
Edit menu and select the Add item.
The Deckbuild: Parameter define popup
window will then appear as shown.
This window lists the items that may be
used as the optimizing parameters in the
Diffuse statement.
Check on the temp=<variable>
press=<variable> items.

and

Then, click on the Apply button.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
Close the Parameter define window by
doubledouble-clicking on the top leftleft-hand corner.
The added optimization parameters will
then be display as shown.
Next, pull down the Mode menu and change
it to Targets mode so as to define the
optimization target.
As the Optimizer will be using the value of
Extract
statement
to
define
the
Optimization Target,
Target, therefore, go to text
window and highlight the Extract statement
as shown.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
Then, within the Optimizer,
Optimizer, pull down the
Edit menu follows by the Add item.
This adds the target Gateoxide
Gateoxide to the
Optimizer target list.
list.
Next, enter a value of 100
100 for the Target
value and hit the [RETURN] button on the
keyboard after editing the target value.
Therefore, Optimizer has now been
configured to optimize the gate oxide
thickness by varying the temperature and
partial pressure during the Gate Oxidation
process step.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
To monitor the optimization process,
change from Targets mode to Graphics
mode as shown.
Finally, to perform optimization, click on
the Optimize button.
The simulation will run again and will, after
a little time, start to iterate the Gate
Oxidation step.
The Optimizer will then converged at a
temperature of 925.727 oC and a partial
pressure of 0.982979 and the extracted
oxide thickness is 100.209
100.209.

ATLAS

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Optimizing Gate
Oxide Thickness
To complete this optimization exercise, the
optimized value for the temperature and
partial pressure should be copied back to
the input deck.
To copy this value, go to the Parameters
mode.
Then, pull down the Edit menu follows by
Copy to Deck to update the optimized
parameter in the input deck.
The input deck will be automatically
updated in the correct place.

ATLAS

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Performing Ion
Implantation
Ion implantation is the main method used
to introduce doping impurities into
semiconductor device structures.
Adequate simulation of the ion implantation
process is very important because modern
technologies employ shallow doping
profiles, high doses, tilted implants and
other advanced methods.
In ATHENA, ion implementation is done
using the IMPLANT statement which can be
set using the ATHENA Implant menu.
In this tutorial, we will perform a Threshold
Voltage Adjust Implant using Boron with a
dose of 9.5 x 1011 cm-2 at an energy of 10
keV, with the ion beam tilted at 7o and
rotated at 30o.

ATLAS

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Performing Ion
Implantation
To do so, pull down the Commands menu
and select Process follows by Implant...
The ATHENA Implant menu will appears as
shown.
In the Impurity field , Boron
Boron is by default
selected.
Enter a value of 9.5 in the Dose field using
the slider or by typing it.
Also, ensure that the default exponent
value in the Exp: field is 11.
11.
For the implant Model,
Model, the Dual Pearson
model is selected by default.
Then, enter a value of 10 for the Energy
field, 7 for the Tilt field and 30 for the
Rotation field.
ATLAS

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Performing Ion
Implantation
Finally, type the comment Threshold
Voltage Adjust implant in the Comment
field.
Click on the WRITE button.
And the Implant statements will appear in
the text window as shown.
All the parameters in the Implant statement
are selfself-explanatory except the CRYSTAL
parameter.
This parameter specify the SIMS Verified
Dual Pearson (SVDP)
SVDP) moments tables to be
used for the silicon implant ranges for the
Dual Pearson Implant model.
Press on the Cont button and ATHENA will
continue the simulation and output another
history file .history05.str
.history05.str.
ATLAS

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Analyzing Boron
Doping Profile
Next, we will analyze the doping profile of
the implanted Boron in TONYPLOT.
This can be done using the 2D Mesh menu
or using the Cutline tool of TONYPLOT.
In the 2D Mesh menu,
menu, we can obtain the
contour plot of the Boron doping profile.
On the other hand, performing a Cutline on
the 2D structure create a 1D crosscross-section
plot of the doping profile.
First, we shall illustrate the use of the 2D
Mesh menu to obtain the Boron doping
profile.
To do so, plot the history file
.history05.str
.history05.str of the threshold voltage
adjust implant step by highlighting it.
ATLAS

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Analyzing Boron
Doping Profile
Then, pull down the Tools menu and select
Plot follows by Plot Structure...

ATLAS

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Analyzing Boron
Doping Profile
Then, pull down the Tools menu and select
Plot follows by Plot Structure...
TONYPLOT will appears.
From TONYPLOT, pull down the Plot menu
and select Display
Display
The Display (2D Mesh) popup will appear.
Click on the Contours icon to plot the
contour of the structure.
Then, pull down the Define menu and select
Contours
Contours as shown.
The TONYPLOT:
appears.

ATLAS

Contours popup will

- 46 -

Analyzing Boron
Doping Profile
By default, Net doping is being selected in
the Quantity option of the popup.
Pull down the Quantity menu and change it
to Boron.
Boron.
Click on the Apply button follows by the
Dismiss button when finished and another
Dismiss button.
The contour plot of the Boron doping
profile will appears as shown.
Next, we shall perform a cutline on the 2D
structure to create a 1D cross section plot
of the Boron doping profile.

ATLAS

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Analyzing Boron
Doping Profile
To do so, from TONYPLOT, pull down the
Tools menu follows by Cutline
Cutline.
The Cutline popup will appear.
By default, the Vertical icon is selected.
This will restrict the cutline to a vertical
direction.
In the structure plot, left click and drag the
mouse starting from the oxide layer to the
bottom of the structure.
In this way, a 11-D cross section plot of the
Boron doping profile will appears in
another window as shown.
As can be seen from this cross sectional
plot, the Concentration of the Implanted
Boron is plotted against the Depth of the
device.
ATLAS

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Deposition for
Polysilicon Gate
Next, we shall proceed to perform the
conformal deposition for the polysilicon
gate.
Conformal deposition can be used to
generate multilayered structures.
It is the simplest deposit model and can be
used in all cases when the exact shape of
the deposited layer is not critical.
Knowing that the polysilicon layer
thickness grown in the NMOS process is
2000 Angstroms,
Angstroms, it is possible to substitute
this with conformal polysilicon deposition.
We can now close TONYPLOT by clicking
on the top right hand corner and select
Close.
Close.
Then, to set the conformal deposition step,
pull down the Commands menu and select
the items Process Deposit Deposit...
ATLAS

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Deposition for
Polysilicon Gate
The ATHENA Deposit menu will appear.
From the Deposit Menu, the Conformal
deposition is the selected by default.
In the Material field, Polysilicon is also
selected.
Set its thickness to 0.2.
0.2.
In the Grid specification parameters, click
on the Total number of grid layers
layers
checkbox and set its value to 10.
10.
It is always useful to set several grid layers
in a deposited layer.
In this case, 10 grid layers are needed in
order to simulate impurity transport
through the polysilicon layer which will be
shown later.
ATLAS

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Deposition for
Polysilicon Gate
Add a comment Conformal Polysilicon
Deposition
Deposition in the Comment field and click
on the WRITE button.
The following lines will appear in the text
window:
# Conformal Polysilicon Deposition
deposit polysilicon thick=0.2 divisions=10
Continue the ATHENA simulation using the
Cont button on the DECKBUILD control.
history06.str
history06.str structure file is produced
once deposit step is completed.
Highlight this structure again by selecting
the menu items Plot Plot Structure....
Structure....
from the Tools menu of DECKBUILD.

ATLAS

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Deposition for
Polysilicon Gate
A three layers structure is created as
shown.
After viewing, close TONYPLOT.

ATLAS

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Polysilicon Gate
Definition
After depositing the polysilicon, the next
step in the process simulation is the
polysilicon gate definition.
In this tutorial, we will use a polysilicon
gate edge at x = 0.35 m and set the center
of the gate at x = 0.6 m for the initial grid.

Etched

Therefore, polysilicon should be etched to

the left from x = 0.35.

ATLAS

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Polysilicon Gate
Definition
After depositing the polysilicon, the next
step in the process simulation is the
polysilicon gate definition.
In this tutorial, we will use a polysilicon
gate edge at x = 0.35 m and set the center
of the gate at x = 0.6 m for the initial grid.

Etched

Therefore, polysilicon should be etched to

the left from x = 0.35.
To define the polysilicon gate, pull down
the Commands menu and select the items
Process Etch Etch....

ATLAS

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Polysilicon Gate
Definition
After depositing the polysilicon, the next
step in the process simulation is the
polysilicon gate definition.
In this tutorial, we will use a polysilicon
gate edge at x = 0.35 m and set the center
of the gate at x = 0.6 m for the initial grid.
Therefore, polysilicon should be etched to
the left from x = 0.35.
To define the polysilicon gate, pull down
the Commands menu and select the items
Process Etch Etch....
The ATHENA Etch menu will appears as
shown.
From the Etch menu, click on Left
Left for the
Geometrical type field.
ATLAS

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Polysilicon Gate
Definition
Next, pull down the Material menu and
select the material Polysilicon.
Polysilicon.
Set the Etch location to 0.35.
0.35.
Add the comment Poly Definition
Definition for the
Comment field.
Click on the WRITE button and this will give
the following statement:
# Poly Definition
etch polysilicon left p1.x=0.35
Continue the ATHENA simulation using the
Cont button and plot the etched structure.

ATLAS

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Polysilicon
Oxidation
After defining the polysilicon gate, the next
step is to perform polysilicon oxidation
prior to doping of the polysilicon by ion
implantation.
The oxidation recipe will be a wet oxidation
for 3 minutes at 900oC and 1 Atmospheric
pressure.
pressure.
Since the oxidation is on a patterned (non(nonplanar) and undamaged polysilicon, the
method used will be the fermi and
compress methods.
The fermi method is used for undamaged
substrates with doping concentrations <
1x1020 cm-3.
whereas the compress method is used to
model oxidation on nonnon-planar structures
and for 22-D oxidation.
ATLAS

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Polysilicon
Oxidation
To perform this oxidation step, the Diffuse
menu is used.
Invoke this menu by pulling down the
ATHENA Commands menu and select the
items Process Diffuse....
The Diffuse menu will appear.
From the Diffuse Menu, change the Time
from 11 to 3 and the Temperature from 950
to 900.
900.
From the Ambient field, click on the Wet O2
box.
Uncheck the HCL checkbox.
Click on the Models setting from the
Display field. The models available will then
be displayed.
ATLAS

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Polysilicon
Oxidation
Check on the Diffusion model as well as the
Oxidation models.
The Fermi and Compressible boxes are by
default selected.
Change the comment in the Comment field
to Polysilicon Oxidation
Oxidation.
Click on the WRITE button.
And the following Diffuse statement will
then be added into the input file:
# Polysilicon Oxidation
method fermi compress
diffus time=3 temp=900 weto2 press=1.00

ATLAS

- 59 -

Polysilicon
Oxidation
Continue the simulation using the Cont
button and plot the structure as shown.
Thus, it can be seen that the poly oxidation
step has formed oxide layer on top of the
polysilicon and also on the substrate.

ATLAS

- 60 -

Polysilicon
Doping
After the polysilicon oxidation step, the
next step is to dope the polysilicon with
phosphorus so as to create a n+ polysilicon
gate.
gate.
Here, the dose of the phosphorus used was
3x1013 cm-2 with an implant energy of 20
KeV.
KeV.
To perform the polysilicon doping step, pull
down the Commands menu and select
Process Implant... to invoke ATHENA
Implant menu as shown.

ATLAS

- 61 -

Polysilicon
Doping
After the polysilicon oxidation step, the
next step is to dope the polysilicon with
phosphorus so as to create a n+ polysilicon
gate.
gate.
Here, the dose of the phosphorus used was
3x1013 cm-2 with an implant energy of 20
KeV.
KeV.
To perform the polysilicon doping step, pull
down the Commands menu and select
Process Implant... to invoke ATHENA
Implant menu as shown.
From the Impurity field, change the
implantation impurity from Boron
Boron to
Phosphorus
Phosphorus.
In the Dose field, enter a value of 3 using
and a value of 13 in the Exp: field for the
exponent.
ATLAS

- 62 -

Polysilicon
Doping
Enter 20 for the Energy field, and the Tilt
field and Rotation field remain as 7 and 30
respectively.
The Dual Pearson model will still be used
and the Material type remains as
Crystalline.
Crystalline.
Finally, replace the Comment field with
Polysilicon Doping
Doping.
And click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 63 -

Polysilicon
Doping
The following implant statements will
appear in the text window as shown:
# Polysilicon Doping
implant phosphor dose=3e13 energy=20
crystal
Continue the ATHENA simulation using the
Cont button and plot the history file as
shown.
From TONYPLOT, pull down the Plot menu
and select Display
Display
The Display (2D Mesh) will appears.
Click on the Contours icon follows by the
Apply button.

ATLAS

- 64 -

Polysilicon
Doping
The Net Doping of the structure will appear
as shown.
To view the implanted phosphorus contour
plot, pull down the Define menu and select
Contours
Contours
The TONYPLOT:
appear.

Contours

menu

will

By default, Net Doping is being selected.

Pull down the Quantity menu and select
Phosphorus from the list.
Click the Apply button follows by the
Dismiss button to close the Contours
menu.

ATLAS

- 65 -

Polysilicon
Doping
Click on the Dismiss button again to close
the Display (2D Mesh) menu.
The contour plot of the implanted
phosphorus doping profile is as shown.

ATLAS

- 66 -

Spacer Oxide
Deposition
Next, we will proceed to deposit the spacer
oxide before performing the source and
drain implants,
Here a spacer oxide with a thickness of
0.12 m will be deposited .
This can be accomplished using the
ATHENA Deposit menu.
Invoke this menu by selecting Commands
Process Deposit Deposit...
Pull down the Material menu and select
Oxide from the list.
Then, set the material thickness to 0.12.
0.12.
The Total number of grid layers
layers used in
this case will also be 10.
10.
ATLAS

- 67 -

Spacer Oxide
Deposition
Change the comment to Spacer Oxide
Deposition
Deposition in the Comment field
Then, click on the WRITE button.
The deposit statements will appear in the
DECKBUILD text window as follows:
# Spacer Oxide Deposition
deposit oxide thick=0.12 divisions=10
Continue the simulation using the Cont
button and plot current structure with
meshes as shown.

ATLAS

- 68 -

Sidewall Spacer
Oxide Formation
To form the sidewall oxide spacer, a dry
etch step has to be performed. This is done
using the ATHENA Etch menu.
From the Commands menu, select the
chain Process Etch Etch... and the
ATHENA Etch menu will appears as shown.
From the menu, click on the Dry
thickness
thickness for the Geometrical type field.
From the Material field, select Oxide.
Enter 0.12 for the Thickness field.
Add the comment Spacer Oxide Etch
Etch for
the Comment field.
Click on the WRITE button.
ATLAS

- 69 -

Sidewall Spacer
Oxide Formation
This will give the following Etch statement:
# Spacer Oxide Etch
etch oxide dry thick=0.12
Continue the ATHENA simulation and plot
the etched structure as shown.

ATLAS

- 70 -

Source/Drain
Implant
Now, we will perform the source/drain
implant to form the n+ source/drain of the
transistor by implanting arsenic.
In this tutorial, the dose of arsenic used is 5
x 1015 cm-3 at an implantation energy of 50
KeV.
KeV.
To perform this implantation step, the
ATHENA Implant menu will be used again.
Invoke the Implant menu and perform the
following:
Change the implantation impurity from
Phosphorus
Phosphorus to Arsenic
Arsenic for the Impurity
field.
In the Dose field, enter a value of 5 and a
value of 15 in the Exp: field.
ATLAS

- 71 -

Source/Drain
Implant
Enter 50 for the Energy field, 7 for the Tilt
field and 30 for the Rotation field.
Change the Comment field to Source/
Drain Implant
Implant.
Click on the WRITE button and the implant
statements will appear in the text window as
follows:
# Source/Drain Implant
implant arsenic dose=5e15
crystal

ATLAS

energy=50

- 72 -

Source/Drain
Annealing
The source/drain implant is then followed
by a short annealing process in nitrogen
for 1 minutes at 900 oC and 1 atmospheric
pressure.
pressure.
This annealing process can be carried
using the Diffuse menu as shown.
From the Diffuse Menu, set the Time to 1
and the Temperature to 900.
900.
From the Ambient field, click on the
Nitrogen box.
Check on the Diffusion model and Uncheck
the Oxidation model.
Change the comment to Source/Drain
Annealing
Annealing in the Comment field.

ATLAS

- 73 -

Source/Drain
Annealing
Click on the WRITE button.
The following diffuse statement will appear
in the text window:
# Source/Drain Annealing
method fermi
diffus time=1 temp=900 nitro press=1.00
Continue the simulation and plot the Net
Doping of the structure as shown.
Next, we would like to see the change in the
Net Doping before and after the annealing
process. To do this,
From the TONYPLOT of the Source/Drain
Annealed structure, pull down the File
menu, follows by the Load Structure
Structure

ATLAS

- 74 -

Source/Drain
Annealing
The Load Structure menu will appear.
Type in the previous history file generated
during the source/drain implant step (i.e.
.history12.str)
.history12.str) in the Filename field.
Then, pull down the Load menu and select
overlay and then Dismiss as shown.
The source/drain implant structure i.e.
.history12.str
.history12.str will then overlay onto the
annealed structure i.e. .history13.str
.history13.str as
shown.
Notice that the subtitle of the plot indicates
Data from multiple files
files.

ATLAS

- 75 -

Source/Drain
Annealing
After the two structure plots
onto each other, perform a
selecting the Tools menu in
follows by Cutline

are overlay
Cutline by
TONYPLOT

The Cutline menu will appear.

Click on the Keyboard icon.
And enter the following values for X and Y
as shown:
Start X: 0.1
End X: 0.1

Y: -0.05
Y: 0.2

Once done, hit the [Return

[Return]] button on
keyboard and TONYPLOT will prompt you
for Confirmation.
Confirmation. Click on the Confirm
button.
ATLAS

- 76 -

Source/Drain
Annealing
This result in the generation of a oneonedimensional plot on the right hand side as
shown.
From the 1D plot, it can be seen that the
short annealing process has moves the
dopants away from the surface of the MOS
structure.

ATLAS

- 77 -

Metallization
After forming the source/drain region, the
next step is to metallize this region.
In this tutorial, the metallization step is
done by, first forming the contact window
in the source/drain region;
And next, depositing and patterning the
Aluminum.
To form the contact window in the
source/drain region, the oxide layer is etch
to the left at x = 0.2 m, using the ATHENA
Etch menu as follows:

ATLAS

- 78 -

Metallization
From the Etch menu, click on Left
Left for the
Geometrical type field.
Enter 0.2 for the Etch location field.
Add the comment Open Contact Window
Window
for the Comment field.
Click on the WRITE button.
The following Etch statement will appears
in the DECKBUILD text window:
# Open Contact Window
etch oxide left p1.x=0.2
Continue the ATHENA simulation and plot
the etched structure as shown.
ATLAS

- 79 -

Metallization
Next, an aluminum layer of thickness 0.03
m will be deposited onto the structure
using the ATHENA Deposit menu as
follows:
Select Aluminum from the Material menu,
and set its thickness to 0.03.
0.03.
For the Grid specification parameters, set
the Total number of grid layers
layers to 2.
Add a comment Aluminum Deposition
Deposition in
the Comment field.
Then, click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 80 -

Metallization
The following Deposit statements will
appear in the DECKBUILD text window:
# Aluminum Deposition
deposit aluminum thick=0.03 divisions=2
Continue the simulation using the Cont
button and plot the structure as shown.

ATLAS

- 81 -

Metallization
Finally, the aluminum layer is etch to the
right starting from x = 0.18
0.18m using the
Etch menu as follows:
From the Etch menu, change
Geometrical type field to Right.
Right.

the

From the Material field, change the Oxide

material to Aluminum.
Aluminum.
Enter 0.18 for the Etch location field.
Change the comment to Etch Aluminum
Aluminum
for the Comment field.
Click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 82 -

Metallization
This will give the following statement:
# Etch Aluminum
etch aluminum right p1.x=0.18
Continue the ATHENA simulation and plot
the etched structure as shown.

ATLAS

- 83 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
In this session, we will extract some of the
device parameters of the half NMOS
structure.
These include the:
a.

Junction Depth

b.

N++ Source/Drain Sheet Resistance

c.

LDD Sheet Resistance under oxide

spacer

d.

Long Channel Threshold Voltage

All these can be done by using the Extract

menu in DECKBUILD.
DECKBUILD.

ATLAS

- 84 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
To extract the Junction Depth:
Depth:
Pull down the Commands menu and select
the Extract
Extract item.
The ATHENA Extract menu will appears.
Pull down the Extract list and select the
Junction depth.
depth.
Type in nxj for the Name field.
For the Material field, the Silicon material is
by default selected.
On the Extract location field, X location is
by default selected. For the Value field,
enter 0.2 and then click on the WRITE
button.
ATLAS

- 85 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as follows:
extract name=
name=nxj
nxj xj material=
material=Silicon
Silicon
mat.occno=1 x.val=0.2 junc.occno=1
In this Extract statement:
name="nxj" is the name for the extracted
junction depth;
xj indicates that junction depth is to be
extracted;
material="Silicon" is the material containing
the junction. In this case, the material is
Silicon;
Silicon;
mat.occno=1 instructs the simulator to
extract the junction depth at the first
occurrence of Silicon layer;
x.val=0.2 instructs the simulator to extract
the source/drain junction depth at x=0.2
x=0.2m;
ATLAS

- 86 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
junc.occno=1 is to extract the junction
depth at first occurrence of the junction.
In a more complex structure, there may be
more than one junction within the same
material layer.
source

drain

p Well

n substrate

For example, an n+ source/drain region

within a p well on an n substrate would
have 2 junctions.

ATLAS

- 87 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
junc.occno=1 is to extract the junction
depth at first occurrence of the junction.
In a more complex structure, there may be
more than one junction within the same
material layer.
source

p Well

n substrate

drain

junction 1
junction 2

The first junction is between the source

and p well region; while the second
junction between the p well and n substrate
region,
ATLAS

- 88 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
junc.occno=1 is to extract the junction
depth at first occurrence of the junction.
In a more complex structure, there may be
more than one junction within the same
material layer.
source

p Well

n substrate

drain

junction 1
junction 2

Since the NMOS structure has only one

junction.
Therefore,
the
junction
occurrence number in this case is optional.

ATLAS

- 89 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
Next, to extract the N++ Source/Drain Sheet
Resistance:
Resistance:
Invoke the Extract menu again as shown.
Then, perform the following:
Pull down the Extract list and select the
Sheet resistance.
resistance.
Type in n++ sheet res
res for the Name field.
For the Extract location field, with the X
location selected, enter a value of 0.05.
0.05.
Then, click on the WRITE button when
done.

ATLAS

- 90 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as follows:
extract name="n++ sheet res" sheet.res
material="Silicon" mat.occno=1 x.val=0.05
region.occno=1
In this statement:
sheet.res indicates that sheet resistance is
to be extracted;
mat.occno=1 and region.occno=1 specify
both the material occurrence number and
the region occurrence number to be 1;
x.val=0.05 tell the extract routine where the
n++ region is.
This is done by giving the location of a
point within the region at x = 0.05 m.
ATLAS

- 91 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
Next, we shall extract the LDD Sheet
Resistance under the oxide spacer.
Referring to the simulated structure as
shown, it is reasonable to extract the LDD
Sheet Resistance at a point under the oxide
spacer along x = 0.3 m.
Therefore, invoke the Extract menu again to
defined the extract parameters as follows:

LDD Sheet Resistance

under oxide spacer

X = 0.3 m

First, enter the Name field as ldd sheet res.

res.
Next, change the value of the Extract
location field to 0.3,
0.3, with the X location
selected.
Finally, click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 92 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as follows:
extract name="ldd sheet res
res sheet.res
material="Silicon" mat.occno=1 x.val=0.3
region.occno=1
Finally, to extract the Long Channel
Threshold Voltage of the NMOS at x = 0.5
m:
Invoke the Extract menu again as shown.
Change the Extract field from
Resistance to QUICKMOS 1D Vt.
Vt.

ATLAS

Sheet

- 93 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as follows:
extract name="ldd sheet res
res sheet.res
material="Silicon" mat.occno=1 x.val=0.3
region.occno=1
Finally, to extract the Long Channel
Threshold Voltage of the NMOS at x = 0.5
m:
Invoke the Extract menu again as shown.
Change the Extract field from
Resistance to QUICKMOS 1D Vt.
Vt.

Sheet

Click on the NMOS for the Device type field,

For the Name field, type in 1dvt.
1dvt.
ATLAS

- 94 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
Check on the Qss field, and enter a value of
1e10.
1e10.
On the Extract location field, enter a value
of 0.5.
0.5.
Click on the WRITE button when finished.
The Extract statement will appear in the
text window as follows:
extract name="1dvt" 1dvt ntype qss=1e10
x.val=0.5
In this statement:
1dvt instructs the Extract routine
extracts the 1D threshold voltage;

ATLAS

to

- 95 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
ntype is the device type. In this case, we
have a nn-type transistor;
qss=1e10 is the trapped charge, Qss, which
is given as 1 x 1010 cm-2
x.val=0.5 is the point that lies within the
channel of the device.
Also, note that for 1dvt extraction, the
default gate bias is set to 0-5 V with the
substrate at 0V and a default device
temperature of 300 Kelvin.
Kelvin.

ATLAS

- 96 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
Now, we can continue the simulation by
clicking on the Cont button.
And all the extracted values will appears in
the output window as shown.
From the output window, it can be seen
that the extracted value for:
a. Junction Depth is 0.595944um from the
top of first Silicon layer at x = 0.2
0.2m.
b. N++ Sheet Resistance is 28.6859 /
x = 0.05 m.
c. LDD Sheet Resistance is 1667.6 /
= 0.3
0.3m.

at

at x

d. Long Channel Threshold Voltage is

0.325191V at x = 0.5 m.
ATLAS

- 97 -

Extracting Device
Parameters
These extracted information are also
written to the file results.final
results.final in the
current working directory.

ATLAS

- 98 -

Reflecting Half
NMOS Structure
This tutorial has been building one half of a
MOSFETMOSFET-like structure.
It is necessary to obtain the full structure
before exporting the structure to a device
simulator or setting electrode names.
To obtain the full structure:
Pull down the Commands menu and select
Structure follows by Mirror.
Mirror.
The ATHENA Mirror menu will appear.
Click on the Right box for the Mirror field
follows by the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 99 -

Reflecting Half
NMOS Structure
And the Structure statement is written into
the text window:
struct mirror right
Continue the simulation and plot the
resulting full NMOS structure with Net
Doping as shown.
From this figure, it can be seen that the
right half of the structure is a complete
mirror copy of the right part, including
node coordinates, doping values, etc.

ATLAS

- 100 -

Specification of
Electrodes
To enable biasing in the device simulator
ATLAS,
ATLAS, it is essential to label the electrodes
for the NMOS transistor.
The electrodes of the structure can be
defined using the ATHENA Electrode menu.
To invoke this menu:
Pull down the Commands menu and select
Structure follows by Electrode...
The ATHENA Electrode menu will appears.
By default, the Specified Position box is
selected in the Electrode Type field.
For the Name field, type in source.
source.

ATLAS

- 101 -

Specification of
Electrodes
Click on the X Position and set the value to
0.1 as shown.
Then, click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 102 -

Specification of
Electrodes
Click on the X Position and set the value to
0.1 as shown.
Then, click on the WRITE button.
And the following Electrode statement will
appear in the input file:
electrode name=source x=0.1
Simliarly, define the drain electrode using
Electrode menu as follow:
Here, the Name field is change to drain and
the X Position is set to 1.1.
1.1.
Click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 103 -

Specification of
Electrodes
The second Electrode statement will then
appears in the text window as shown:
electrode name=drain x=1.1
To define the polysilicon gate electrode,
use the Electrode menu again as shown.
Change the Name field to gate and the X
Position is set to 0.6.
0.6.
Click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 104 -

Specification of
Electrodes
The third Electrode statement will then
appears in the text window as shown:
electrode name=gate x=0.6
In ATHENA,
ATHENA, a backside electrode can be
placed at the bottom of the structure
without having a metal region there.
To specify a backside electrode, click on
the Backside box from the Electrode Type
of the ATHENA Electrode menu as shown.
And type in backside for the Name field.
Click on the WRITE button when done.

ATLAS

- 105 -

Specification of
Electrodes
The final Electrode statement will then
appears as shown:
electrode name=backside backside
In this statement, the syntax backside
specify that a flat (zero height) electrode
will be placed at the bottom of the
simulation structure.
Continue running the input file and the
following notes can be seen from the
output window.
With the specification of the electrodes, the
NMOS structure is completed.
The last session will describe on how to
save this final structure file.

ATLAS

- 106 -

Saving
Structure File
Although, the DECKBUILD History function
saves structure files after each process
step.
However, in many cases it is necessary to
save and initialize structures independently.
To save or load a structure, use the
ATHENA File I/O menu by selecting the
Commands menu follows by File I/O...
The File I/O menu will appears.
For the Format field, click on the Save box
and specify nmos.str for the File name.
name.
Then, press the WRITE button.

ATLAS

- 107 -

Saving
Structure File
The following line will appears in the input
file:
struct outfile=nmos.str
Finally, continue running the input file and
plot the nmos.str structure file as shown.

ATLAS

- 108 -

NMOS Device Simulation Using ATLAS

Getting Started
With ATLAS
To start ATLAS under DECKBUILD, type:

deckbuild as&
The -as option instructs DECKBUILD to
start ATLAS as the default simulator.
After a short delay, DECKBUILD will appear.
As can be seen from the DECKBUILD output
window, the command prompt is now
ATLAS instead of ATHENA.

ATLAS

- 110 -

NMOS Device
Simulation
In this session, we shall perform the device
simulation of an NMOS structure.
Here, the following will be demonstrated:
1.

Generation of simple Id versus Vgs

curve with Vds = 0.1V.

2.

Extraction of device parameters such

as Vt, Beta and Theta.

3.

Generation of Id versus Vds curves

with different Vgs

ATLAS

- 111 -

Defining Structure
in ATLAS
A device structure can be defined in Three
different ways in ATLAS:
1.
An existing structure can be read in
from a file. This structure can have been
created by another program such as
ATHENA or DEVEDIT.
2.
The input structure can be transferred
from ATHENA or DEVEDIT through the
automatic interface feature of DECKBUILD.
3.
A structure can be constructed using
the ATLAS command language.
The first and second methods are more
convenient than the third method and are to
be preferred whenever possible.
In this tutorial, we shall use the first method
to read in the NMOS structure that was
previously created by ATHENA.
ATLAS

- 112 -

Loading NMOS
Structure
First, we shall define the Mesh statement to
loadload-in the NMOS structure that was
previously created by ATHENA.
To do so:
Pull down the ATLAS Commands menu and
select Structure follows by the Mesh
Mesh item.
The ATLAS Mesh popup window will appear
as shown.
From the Type field, click on the Read from
file
file box.
Next, specify the structure file name as
nmos.str
nmos.str in the File name field.

ATLAS

- 113 -

Loading NMOS
Structure
Press the WRITE button to write the Mesh
statement into DECKBUILD text window as
shown.
go atlas
#
mesh infile=
infile=nmos.str
nmos.str

ATLAS

- 114 -

Models Command
Group
Since the NMOS structure has already been
created in ATHENA, we shall skip the
Structure Specification Command Group
and start with the Models Specification
Command Group.
Group.
In this command group, we have to specify
the Models,
Models, Contact Characteristics and
Interface Properties using the Model
statement, Contact statement and Interface
statement respectively.

ATLAS

- 115 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying the Models
For simple MOS simulation, the parameters
SRH and CVT define the recommended
models.
SRH is the Shockley Read Hall recombination
model while the CVT model is the inversion
layer model from Lombardi.
This CVT model sets a general purpose
mobility model including concentration,
temperature, parallel field and transverse
field dependence.
For detailed information on these models,
you can refer to the ATLAS User
Users Manual
Volume I.
I.

ATLAS

- 116 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying the Models
To define these two models for the NMOS
structure:
Pull down the ATLAS Commands menu and
select Models follows by the Models item
The Deckbuild: ATLAS Model popup will
appear as shown.
By default, the Mobility
Mobility model is selected
under the Category field,
Click on the CVT box under the MOBILITY
field.
For the Print Model Status Field, the Yes
Yes
box is selected by default. This instruct
ATLAS to print the model status while
running in the runtime output.
ATLAS

- 117 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying the Models
You can change the default value of the CVT
model by clicking on the Define Parameters
button follows by CVT
CVT
The ATLAS Model CVT popup will appears
as shown.
Modify the parameters if necessary and
then click Apply when done.
To add the recombination model:
Pull down the Category menu and select the
Recombination
Recombination option.

ATLAS

- 118 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying the Models
Three different recombination models will
then appear as shown.
These includes the Auger model, SRH
(Fixed Lifetimes) model and SRH (Conc.
Dep. Lifetimes) model.
Select the SRH (Fixed Lifetimes) model for
the NMOS structure.
Next, click on the WRITE button and both
the Models and Mobility statements will
appear in the DECKBUILD text window as
shown.
Before proceeding, save the input file by
pulling down the File menu Save As
As
The Save As
As popup window will appear.
ATLAS

- 119 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying the Models
Type in nmos_devsim.in
nmos_devsim.in as the File name
and click on the Save button.
The input file is now saved.

ATLAS

- 120 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying Contact Characteristics
An electrode in contact with semiconductor
material is by default assumed to be Ohmic.
Ohmic.
If a work function is defined, the electrode is
treated as a Schottky contact.
The Contact statement is used to specify
the metal workfunction of the electrodes.
To specify the workfunction of the nn-type
polysilicon gate contact using the Contact
statement:
Pull down the Commands menu and select
Models follows by the Contacts item.
The DECKBUILD: ATLAS Contact menu will
appears.
ATLAS

- 121 -

Models Command
Group
Specifying Contact Characteristics
Enter the Electrode name as gate
gate.
Click on the
polysilicon.

n-poly

box

for

nn-type

Then, click on the WRITE button and the

Contact statement will appear in the input
file:
contact name=gate n.poly

ATLAS

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Models Command
Group
Specifying Interface Properties
To specify the interface properties of the
NMOS structure, the Interface statement is
used.
This statement is used to define the
interface charge density and surface
recombination
velocity
at
interfaces
between semiconductors and insulators.
To defines a fixed charge of 3 x 1010 cm2 at
the interface between silicon and oxide:
Pull down the Commands menu and select
Models follows by Interface
Interface
The DECKBUILD: ATLAS Interface menu
will appear.
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Models Command
Group
Specifying Interface Properties
Enter 3e10
3e10 for the Fixed Charge Density
field as shown.
Click on the WRITE button to write the
Interface statement into DECKBUILD text
window:
interface s.n=0.0 s.p=0.0 qf=3e10

ATLAS

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Numerical Method
Command Group
Next, we shall select the type of numerical
methods to be used for the simulation.
Several different methods can be used for
solving the semiconductor device problems.
For the MOS structure, the dede-coupled
(GUMMEL),
(GUMMEL), and fully coupled (NEWTON)
methods are used.
In simple terms, the Gummel method will
solve for each unknown in turn keeping the
other variables constant, repeating the
process until a stable solution is achieved.
On the other hand, the Newton method,
solve the total system of unknowns
together.

ATLAS

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Numerical Method
Command Group
The Method statement can be included by:
First, pulling down the Commands menu
and select Solutions follows by Method
The Deckbuild:
appears.

ATLAS

Method

menu

By default, the Newton option is selected in

the Method field.
field.
Select the Gummel option as well.
The default setting of the Maximum number
of iterations is 25.
25. Change this value if
necessary.
Press the WRITE button when done.
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Numerical Method
Command Group
The Method statement will appears in the
DECKBUILD text window as shown.
This statement will cause the solver to start
with Gummel iterations and then switch to
Newton,
Newton, if convergence is not achieved.

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Solution
Command Group
In this group, we need to include:
1. The Log statement to save the log files
which
contains
all
the
terminal
characteristics calculated by ATLAS;
2. The Solve statement for solving different
bias conditions; and
3. The Load statement for loading the
solution files.
In this tutorial, the first objective is to obtain
a simple Id versus Vgs curve for the NMOS
structure.
To achieve this objective, from the
Commands menu, select Solutions follows
by Solve
Solve
The DECKBUILD: ATLAS Test menu will
appear.
Next, click on the the Props
Props button.
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Solution
Command Group
And this invoke the Atlas Solve Properties
menu.
For the Log file field, change it to nmos1_
nmos1_
as shown.
Click OK when done.
Next, right click the mouse anywhere in the
Test window and select Add new row.
row.
This add a new row into the worksheet as
shown.
Move the mouse over the gate
gate parameter,
follow by right clicking on the mouse. A list
of electrode names will appear. Select
drain
drain as shown.

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Solution
Command Group
Then, click on the value under the Initial
Bias column and change it to 0.1.
0.1.
Next, move the mouse within the worksheet
region again, right click on the mouse and
select Add new row
row again.
This adds another new row as shown.
For the gate
gate row, move the mouse over
the CONST type, right click the mouse and
select VAR1
VAR1.
Change the Final Bias value to 3.3 and Delta
value to 0.1 as shown.
Click the WRITE button when done.

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Solution
Command Group
The following statements will then appears
in DECKBUILD text windows:
solve init
solve vdrain=0.1
log outf=nmos1_0.log
solve
name=gate
vgate=0
vstep=0.1

vfinal=3.3

a. The statements as shown above start

with the solve init
init statement.
This statement provides an initial guess for
the potential and carrier concentrations at
the zero bias (or thermal equilibrium) case.
b. The second Solve statement i.e. solve
vdrain=0.1
vdrain=0.1 will perform a dc bias of 0.1V at
the drain electrode.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
The following statements will then appears
in DECKBUILD text windows:
solve init
solve vdrain=0.1
log outf=nmos1_0.log
solve
name=gate
vgate=0
vstep=0.1

vfinal=3.3

c. The Log statement is use to save all the

simulation results calculated by ATLAS in
the nmos1_0.log file.
d. Finally, the last Solve statement will ramp
the gate voltage from 0V to 3V with a bias
step size of 0.1V

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Extracting Device Parameters
In this workshop, the second objective is to
obtain some of the device parameters such
as Vt,
Vt, Beta and Theta.
Theta. To do this:
Pull down the ATLAS Commands menu and
select Extract follows by Device
Device
The ATLAS Extraction menu appear as
shown.
By default, Vt is being select in the Test
name field.
Also, user can modify the default extract
expression if necessary.
Click on the WRITE button.
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Solution
Command Group
Extracting Device Parameters
The Vt Extract statement will then appears
in DECKBUILD text windows as shown:
extract name="vt"(xintercept(maxslope
(curve(abs(v."gate") , abs(i."drain")))) abs(ave(v."drain"))/2.0)
Next, invoke the Deckbuild:
Extraction menu again.

ATLAS

Then, click on the Test name field and

change it to Beta as shown.
Click on the WRITE button.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Extracting Device Parameters
The Beta Extract statement will then
appears in DECKBUILD text windows as
shown:
extractname="beta"slope(maxslope(curve
(abs(v."gate"),abs(i."drain"))))*(1.0/abs(ave(
v."drain")))
Finally, invoke the Extraction menu again
and change the Test name field to Theta as
shown.
Click on the WRITE button and the Theta
Extract statement will then appears:
extract name="theta" ((max(abs(v."drain"))*
$"beta")/max(abs(i."drain")))$"beta")/max(abs(i."drain")))-(1.0(max(abs
(v."gate")) - ($"vt")))
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Extracting Device Parameters
Before running the simulation, we need to
use the Tonyplot statement to plot the
simulation results.
To automatically plot the Id versus Vgs,
simply type:
tonyplot nmos1_0.log
After the last Extract statement.
Now, we can start running the simulation.
Press the run button to start the device
simulator.
Once the simulation is completed,
TONYPLOT will automatically be invoked
with the Id versus Vgs characteristics as
shown.
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Solution
Command Group
Extracting Device Parameters
Also, the extracted device parameters i.e.
Vt,
Vt, Beta and Theta can be seen from the
runtime output as shown.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
The final objective of this tutorial is to
generate families of Id versus Vds curves
with different Vgs
In order to stop the previous nmos1_0.log
nmos1_0.log
from
saving
the
later
terminal
characteristics, we need to add another Log
statement as follows:
log off
Then, invoke the Test menu to define the
gate bias by pulling down the Commands
menu and select Solutions follows by
Solve
Solve
Click on the Prop
Prop button and change the
Write mode field to Line
Line. Click OK when
done.
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
Double click on the gate
gate row, then right
the mouse and select Delete marked row.
row.
Next, mouse the mouse over drain
drain, right
click the mouse and select gate
gate from the
list.
Then, change the initial bias of gate to 1.1
Click on the WRITE button and the Solve
statement will appears:
solve vgate=1.1
In order to save the output from this
solution in a solution file,
Type the outf=solve1
outf=solve1 option in the Solve
statement as shown:
solve vgate=1.1 outfile=solve1
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
Duplicate the Solve statement solve
vgate=1.1 outfile=solve1
outfile=solve1 for 2 times as
shown.
Then, change the vgate to 2.2 and 3.3 while
the outfile to solve2 and solve3 as follows:
solve vgate=2.2 outfile=solve2
solve vgate=3.3 outfile=solve3
Next, we will use the ATLAS Test menu
again to set the Solve statement for ramping
the drain voltage from 0 V to 3.3 V.
Select Commands Solutions Solve
Solve
to invoke ATLAS Test menu.
Click on the Prop
Prop button and change the
Write mode to Test
Test and Log file to
nmos2_
nmos2_. Click OK when done.
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
In the worksheet area, change the Name
from gate
gate to drain
drain, the Type from
CONST
CONST to VAR1
VAR1, the Initial Bias
Bias to 0,
Final Bias
Bias to 3.3 and Delta
Delta to 0.3.
0.3.
Click on the WRITE button.
The following statements are as shown
below:
solve init
log outfile=nmos2_0.log
solve name=drain vdrain=0 vfinal=3.3
vstep=0.3
Next, we will load in the solution file i.e.
solve1
solve1 of the gate bias at 1.1V using the
Load menu and replace it with the solve
init
init statement. To do so,
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
First, highlight the solve init
init statement.
From the Commands
Solutions Load
Load

menu,

select

This invoke the ATLAS Load menu.

Type in solve1
solve1 for the File name.
name. Click on
Format field and select the SPISCES format.
Then, press the WRITE button.
A prompt will appears as shown. Click on
Yes, replace selection
selection button.
The load infile=nmos2_0.log
infile=nmos2_0.log statement
will then replace the solve init
init as shown.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
Therefore, the following Load,
Load, Log and
Solve statements:
load infile=solve1
log outfile nmos2_0.log
solve name=drain vdrain=0 vfinal=3.3
vstep=0.3
will solve the Id versus Vds for Vgs = 1.1V and
save the results in the nmos2_0.log
nmos2_0.log file.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
To solve the Id versus Vds for Vgs = 2.2V and
3.3V:
Simply duplicate the Load,
Load, Log and Solve
statements for 2 times.
Then, change the input file name from
solve1
solve1 to solve2
solve2 and solve3
solve3.

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
Also, change
nmos3_0.log
nmos3_0.log
shown:

the log file name to

and nmos4_0.log
nmos4_0.log as

load infile=solve2
log outfile nmos3_0.log
solve name=drain vdrain=0 vfinal=3.3
vstep=0.3
load infile=solve3
log outfile nmos4_0.log
solve name=drain vdrain=0 vfinal=3.3
vstep=0.3

ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
To plot all the 3 log files results in a single
plot, type the following Tonyplot statement:
tonyplot overlay nmos2_0.log nmos3_0.log
nmos4_0.log -set nmos.set
In this statement:
a. The overlay option is to overlay all the 3
log files in a single plot;
b. The set option is used to load the set file
and restore the display to the condition that
TONYPLOT was in when that set file was
created.
Finally, type the statement:
quit
to quit from the simulation
ATLAS

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Solution
Command Group
Generating Families of Curves
We can now continue running the
simulation by pressing the Cont button on
the Deckbuild control.
Once
the
simulation
is
completed,
TONYPLOT will automatically be invoked
with the families of Id versus Vds
characteristics as shown.

ATLAS

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