VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING TOOLS FOR SEMICONDUCTOR FABRICATION EQUIPMENT

THE EXISTING METHODOLOGY OF DESIGN AND FABRICATION OF SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT IS AN EXPENSIVE AND TIME CONSUMING PROCESS. TO KEEP PACE WITH THE RAPIDLY ADVANCING SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY, IT IS NECESSARY TO DEVELOP A COMPUTER BASED ENVIRONMENT TO QUICKLY SIMULATE THE FEATURES OF THE MANUFACTURING EQUIPMENT BEFORE IT IS TURNED INTO A PHYSICAL PROTOTYPE. APART FROM ACHIEVING CONSIDERABLE SAVING IN TIME AND EXPENSE, VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING HAS THE ADDED ADVANTAGE OF BEING ABLE TO OPTIMIZE THE ENTIRE PROCESS. THE GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO INTEGRATE EXISTING SOFTWARE TOOLS FROM CAD/CAM, CFD, STRUCTURAL MECHANICS, COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND EXPERT SYSTEMS IN ORDER TO DEVELOP AN ENVIRONMENT CAPABLE OF SUPPORTING SYSTEMS LEVEL SIMULATION. IN PHASE I, A REVIEW WILL BE CONDUCTED TO ASSESS THE EXISTING SOFTWARE PACKAGES IN THE RELEVANT DISCIPLINES. THE CRITERIA FOR ASSESSMENT WILL BE THE CAPABILITY OF THE PACKAGE TO MODEL COMPLEX PROCESSES AS WELL AS ITS COMPATIBILITY IN AN INTEGRATED ENVIRONMENT. ALSO, A PRELIMINARY DEMONSTRATION OF CAD/CAM-CFD-GRAPHICS INTEGRATION WILL BE CARRIED OUT ON A TYPICAL CVD REACTOR. PHASE II WILL INVOLVE FURTHER INTEGRATION OF SELECTED PACKAGES AND DESIGN OF A VIRTUAL PROTOTYPE OF A CVD REACTOR. THE UTILITY OF THIS APPROACH WILL BE DEMONSTRATED IN COLLABORATION WITH ONE OF THE MANUFACTURERS OF SEMICONDUCTOR PROCESS EQUIPMENT. VIRTUAL PROTOTYPING WILL ELIMINATE THE NECESSITY FOR TIME CONSUMING AND PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE EXPERIMENTATION WITH HARDWARE. DESIGNS CAN BE OPTIMIZED BEFORE THEY ARE TURNED INTO PHYSICAL PROTOTYPES.