INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (TCAD) IS THE APPLICATION OF COMPUTER TOOLS TO EXPEDITE THE DESIGN OF INTEGRATED CIRCUIT MANUFACTURING PROCESSES. MANY OF THE TOOLS WHICH ARE USED WERE EITHER DEVELOPED INDEPENDENTLY IN UNIVERSITIES OR IC MANUFACTURING COMPANY RESEARCH CENTERS. CONSEQUENTLY, COMPLEX TCAD TOOLS ARE DIFFICULT TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN. TCAD RESEARCHERS HAVE IDENTIFIED THE NEED FOR TCAD FRAMEWORKS. TAKING A LEAD FROM THE ELECTRONICS COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN (ECAD) INDUSTRY, TCAD RESEARCHERS HAVE ESTABLISHED A WORKING GROUP WITHIN THE CAD FRAMEWORK INITIATIVE (CFI) TO EXPLORE THE DEVELOPMENT OF STANDARDS FOR TCAD FRAMEWORKS. THIS WORK WILL IDENTIFY THE NEEDS OF THE TCAD COMMUNITY FOR A FRAMEWORK AND DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE EXISTING CDB/PREDITOR TOOLS AS A BASIS FOR THE FRAMEWORK. THE FRAMEWORK WILL BE COMPATIBLE WITH THE CFI STANDARDS. THE UNIQUE FEATURE OF THIS FRAMEWORK WILL BE ITS ADDITIONS TO SUPPORT MANUFACTURING ANALYSIS AND LINKS TO ECAD. THE TCAD DEVELOPERS HAVE IGNORED THESE ENGINEERS. THIS CDB/PREDITOR BASED FRAMEWORK HAS POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS FOR BOTH PREEXISTING AND FUTURE TCAD TOOLS. INTERFACES TO PREEXISTING TOOLS OFFER THE TCAD COMMUNITY A CONSISTENT GRAPHICAL INTERFACE AND DATABASE AMONG ALL TCAD TOOLS. THE FRAMEWORK ALSO EXPEDITES THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW TOOLS BY SUPPLYING THE GRAPHICAL INTERFACE, INTER-TOOL COMMUNICATIONS, AND DATABASE ROUTINES. THE ABILITY TO HANDLE STATISTICAL DATA ALLOWS THE FRAMEWORK TO ADDRESS THE NEED FOR TCAD INFORMATION IN MANUFACTURING ANALYSIS AND CIRCUIT DESIGN. THIS PHASE I PROJECT WILL RESULT IN A SOFTWARE SPECIFICATION FOR A TCAD FRAMEWORK. CONCEPT VERIFICATION WILL ALSO BE PERFORMED THROUGH IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SPECIFICATION USING CDB/PREDITOR.