Optimized Geometry Preprocessing for Three-dimensional Semiconductor Process Simulation

The growing importance to model three-dimensional effects has made geometry preprocessing the bottle neck to efficient three-dimensional simulation in many areas. Especially, for semiconductor process and device simulation, as well as interconnect applications two-dimensional methods which have worked well in the past have become obsolete. More efficient algorithms have to be employed for the vast amount of data in three dimensions. We present a new approach to deal with complex structures that can be automated and allows an optimal volume decomposition adapted to the simulation needs.