The VISTA/SFC process flow representation provides a convenient format for defining large process flows as sequences of simulator-dependent and simulator-independent statements. It has been designed primarily for the purpose of chaining together and controlling independently developed, heterogeneous process and device simulators, focusing on an open concept that allows additional statements to be defined and added to the vocabulary easily.
A set of simulator-dependent statements forms the core layer for all process and device simulation applications. They provide direct access to simulator parameters and are primarily used during tool development and tool calibration. Atop of the system-near, simulator-dependent layer, layers for process-specific and equipment-specific statements are provided. Figure 5.2 shows the the structure of these layers.
Figure 5.2:
Simulator-specific, process-specific, and equipment-specific statements.
Only at the simulator-specific layer the numerical problem to be
solved is completely defined in terms of tool calls and respective
input parameters
.
For both the process and the equipment layers,
statements have to be mapped to simulator statements before actual
computation.