A model-based approach for process design and its application tothe titanium salicide process

摘要

Process technology development constitutes a significant cost innmanufacturing integrated circuits. In this paper, we present anmodel-based approach for developing new process technology rapidly andninexpensively, using the salicide process to demonstrate the concepts.nThis approach is applied to evaluate performance tradeoffs, to developninsight into the underlying process physics, to quantify the impact ofnthe salicide process on the device and circuit performance, and tonestimate the process variability. The key idea of this approach is tongroup a sequence of process steps into a process module, and buildnsimple and accurate process models for the module. The paper alsonillustrates the use of this model-based approach in synthesizing optimalnprocesses rapidly based on requirements, contributing to the reductionnof technology development cost and cycle time