2.2.1 Device Simulation

Several simulation tools are available for electrical modeling, some of them are specialized to dedicated microelectronic devices, and are therefore often more efficient in terms of speed and memory consumption, while others are able to simulate arbitrary semiconductor devices. As an example, the MINIMOS [18] program is a quite efficient and accurate simulator which is more or less specialized to the simulation of MOS devices. On the other hand, its successor MINIMOS-NT [5] is a general purpose device simulator. It is able to even carry out mixed-mode simulations of circuits consisting of compact device models such as used in SPICE [66] and arbitrary shaped microelectronic devices modeled by two-dimensional simulation. Other examples of device simulation tools are DESSIS [39] as well as PISCES [59] and its commercial look-alike MEDICI [94].

The decision for one of these simulation tools will depend on various considerations. For an extensive usage of a device simulation tool in an automated TCAD environment, the stability of the device simulator is of major concern. Due to the complexity of the underlying device physics, some of the existing tools tend to lack a level of robustness which inhibits their usage within an automated procedure. Since MINIMOS-NT exhibits excellent properties in this respect and offers leading edge features in many respects, it is particularly well suited for extensive TCAD investigations.