Integrated Technology CAD systems which provide process simulation,
device simulation, common services and miscellaneous task control
facilities are nowadays used worldwide. Some of them were developed by
extending existing integrated
Electronic CAD systems or computer integrated manufacturing (CIM)
systems. Thus it is very hard to distinguish between
advanced ECAD
,
CIM, and TCAD systems. Furthermore, there are many
TCAD approaches which emphasize certain aspects (like optimization)
and even integrate some simulators, but entirely lack
to fulfill any of the architectural criteria which will be presented in
the next chapter. Hence, despite their practical utility, these systems have
been left out of consideration. Other remarkable achievements which
unfortunatly lack a persistent implementation have also not been taken
into account.
For these reasons and because of the sparse published data,
the overview of existing systems given in
Table 1.2 is incomplete and may not accurately represent the current
status in all cases.
Table 1.1: List of TCAD systems and tool integration approaches,
alphabetically sorted by institutions
Some of the names
of the TCAD systems (especially of large industrial
systems) listed are not up to date. These systems grow and evolve
steadily and the various institutions often refrain from
inventing new names and from issuing version numbers as the systems are
used internally only.
In Table 1.2 internal means that the system is not used outside the institution listed. production means that the system is known to be in use somewhere. commercial means that the system is commercially available.
The systems listed exhibit an amazing variety of architectures and interesting features. A thorough discussion and analysis would easily exceed the scope of this work. But a very brief synoptic review and technical criticism of the systems listed will be given in Section 2.2. Despite the various shortcomings of most of these systems from a software point of view, each of them (and of many more unlisted TCAD components) is a remarkable achievement and a witness to thriving Technology CAD.