Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD

David Pennicard – University of Glasgow

01: Tutorial/StripDetector/n5_msh.grd : n5_msh.dat

10

20
Y [um]

30

DopingConcentration [cm^-3]
40 9.7E+17
2.9E+15
8.9E+12
50 -9.2E+12
-3.0E+15
-40 -20 0 20
-1.0E+18
X [um]
 Overview

• Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD software

• Building the device structure
• Running the simulation
• Viewing results
• Other software
 Example simulations – 3D detectors
• 3D detector – photodiode detector with electrode columns passing
through substrate
– Small electrode spacing gives fast collection, low Vdep
– Radiation hardness

Planar 3D
+ve +ve +ve -ve +ve

n-type n-type
electrode electrode
electrons

electrons
300
Lightly µm
doped
p-type
holes
silicon
holes
p-type
p-type electrode
electrode

Around
Particle Particle
-ve 30µm
 Example simulations – 3D detectors
Electric field pattern in a new device structure

Detail of electric field (V/cm) around top of

Structure of double-sided 3D device double-sided 3D device (100V bias)
Seperate contact to p-stop 0
each n+ column Inner radius 10um Electric
Outer radius 15um 20000
Dose 10 13cm-2
field (V/cm)
00
25 130000
10 90000
Oxide layer 60000
50 40000
00
30000
n+ column 20000
250um length 20
10000
10um diameter 0
10
p- substrate n+ 00

Z (um)
300um thick, 0
30
doping 7*10 11cm-3

p+ column
250um length
10um diameter 40
0
20 0 0

50

p+ 130000
On back side:
Oxide layer covered with metal 60
55um pitch All p+ columns connected together
30 00 0
0 10 20 30 40
D (um)

4000
400

00
Example simulations – 3D detectors

Current pulse produced

Capacitance-voltage over time as particle hits
characteristics detector
 Example projects – 3D detectors

Multiple depletion simulations find Multiple particle track sims map

Vdep for possible ATLAS 3D structures charge collection with hit position
(after radiation damage) (after radiation damage)

250
p+
Depletion voltage 3

Fit:

)
200

(ke-
2
V=0.07(X-13.5m) -1.5 14
12

ction
12
150 11
Bias (V)

e colle
4 10
10
8
100

Charg
5 6
25 9
4
6 20
7 2
50 8 15 25
0 0
20 2.0
Y(
10
15 4.0
m

0 n+ 10 m) 6.0
5
(
)

0 20 40 60 80 5 X 8.0
Electrode spacing (m) 00 10
6 12
14
 Basics of simulation
• The structure of a device is approximated by a “mesh”
consisting of a large number of discrete elements
– This can be 1D, 2D or 3D
– Choice depends on symmetry of device
• Differential equations describing the electric potential
and carrier distributions are applied to each element
– End up with very large number of equations!
• Choose boundary conditions for the simulation
– E.g. potentials at each electrode
• Solve the equations to find the potential and carrier
concentrations in each element
– Software uses a numerical solver – iterates repeatedly until
solution is accurate enough
 Simulation packages
Sentaurus Process (optional) {dios}
Process simulation Ligament can generate command files
for Process

Mesh, noffset3d create device meshes

using a command file
Create mesh Sentaurus Structure Editor (and MDraw)
create meshes with GUI

Sentaurus Device {dessis}

Run simulation
Inspect – Plotting graphs of electrode
currents etc.
View results Tecplot – Producing images of electric
field patterns etc. throughout device

Project control Workbench – Can run large numbers of

simulations conveniently
 Example of simulation flow
Strip detector simulation
Files available in SENTAURUS/Seminar/Introduction

*msh.bnd -
boundary file Graphs (images
or exported data)
*msh.cmd - *des.cmd –
command file command file
Inspect
*des.plt – current file
Sentaurus
Mesh
Device
*msh.grd – grid file *des.dat – plot files
(structure of mesh)
*msh.dat – doping file
Tecplot
(doping at each point)

Image files
(E-field etc.)
 Overview

• Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD software

• Building the device structure
• Running the simulation
• Viewing results
• Other software
 Mesh
• Mesh takes a “boundary” (.bnd) and command (.cmd) files as
arguments:
01: Tutorial/StripDetector/n5_msh.grd : n5_msh.dat

– mesh StripDetector N+ implant

Readout
Oxide layer contact P-spray
0
Note
variation in
mesh
spacing 10

20
Y [um]

30

DopingConcentration [cm^-3]
40 9.7E+17
2.9E+15
8.9E+12
50 -9.2E+12
-3.0E+15
-40 -20 0 20
-1.0E+18
X [um]
 Mesh input files
• StripDetector.bnd boundary file describes materials & contacts
Silicon "substrate" {rectangle [(-50,0) (50,300)]}

Oxide "TopOxide1" {rectangle [(-40,-0.5) (-10,0)]

rectangle [(10,-0.5) (40,0)]}

Contact "nplus2" {line [(-10,0) (10,0)]}…….

• StripDetector.cmd describes doping profiles and mesh refinement

– These are defined first, then placed
– Doping:
Definitions {
AnalyticalProfile "n-plus electrode"
{
Species="PhosphorusActiveConcentration"
Function = Gauss(PeakPos=0, PeakVal=1e18, ValueAtDepth=1e+12, Depth=1)
Lateralfunction=Gauss(Factor=0.8)
}
……
}
 Mesh input files
• Mesh refinements:
– Small elements = more accurate but slower simulation
– So, use refinement statements to get smallest spacing in regions with
doping profiles, high electric fields, charge generation etc.
– 3D simulations have more elements, and run far slower, so good mesh
design is crucial!
Definitions {
Refinement "n-electrode"
{
MaxElementSize = (2.5 2)
MinElementSize = (0.1 0.1)
Refinefunction = MaxTransDifference(Variable="DopingConcentration", Value=2)
}
……}

Placements {
Refinement "n-electrodes instance"
{
Reference = "n-electrode"
RefineWindow = rectangle [(-50 0), (50 3)]
}
.......}
 Mesh design considerations
• Boundary conditions
– Default boundary conditions are that E and carrier currents
perpendicular to boundary are zero
– So, boundaries should either be far enough from active region not to
have any effect, or along a line of symmetry
– Mesh design depends on application – a simple electric field simulation
can simply use the smallest repeating region of the device
• Mesh for simulating charge sharing in strip detector below: has 2 full
electrodes which we use to measure charge sharing, and 2 half-electrodes
to approximate the “rest of the device”
01: Tutorial/StripDetector/n5_msh.grd : n5_msh.dat

20
Y [um]

40

60

-50 0 50 100
X [um]
 MDraw
• Old graphical interface for designing meshes
• Can be used in “boundary” and “doping” modes
• Materials, contacts, doping and refinement regions can be drawn in
• Then, will call on “mesh” to build the mesh

• Downsides:
– Can’t be used for 3D meshes
– Can’t add parameters in Workbench
– Can’t be used with NOffset3D (see later)
 Sentaurus Device Editor
• New feature of Sentaurus TCAD
• Start with sde
• Can work in 2D and 3D modes
• Has functions for complicated shapes like circles, spheres etc.
– In command files or MDraw, these must be built up point-by-point, which
is very inconvenient
• Has a built-in command line, and can be controlled with scripts
– In 3D, easier than using mouse!
– Possible to insert parameters
using Workbench
Sentaurus Device Editor
 New mesh tool – NOffset3D
• noffset3d can be run using command files or through Structure
Editor, just like mesh
• Other mesh tool produce axis aligned meshes
• This tool produces unstructured meshes
– More effective for creating curved structures
• Input command files more complicated – see “Mesh Generation
Tools User Guide”
 Overview

• Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD software

• Building the device structure
• Running the simulation
• Viewing results
• Other software
 Sentaurus Device
• Takes mesh, applies semiconductor equations and boundary
conditions (in discrete form) and solves
• Physics models: Works by modelling electrostatic potential
(Poisson’s equation) and carrier continuity
Poisson  s .E   s  2  q( p  n  N )
Electron n 1
continuity  .J n  (G  R) where J p  q n E  qD p p
t q
Hole p  1 J n  qn E  qDnn
continuity  .J p  (G  R) where
t q
See Fichtner, Rose, Bank, “Semiconductor Device Simulation”, IEEE Trans. Electron Devices 30 (9), pp1018, 1983

• Different versions of physics models available

– Different models of mobility, bandgap…
– Generation and recombination rates may include avalanche effects,
charge generation by high-energy particles…
 Sentaurus Device – Command file
• Controlled by a file *_des.cmd
– Run with sdevice whatever_des.cmd
• File specifies the following:
– File - Input and output files
– Electrode - List of the device’s contacts
– Physics - Physics models used in simulation -
– Plot and CurrentPlot - Variables in included in output files
– Math - Controls for solver
– Solve - Simulation conditions

• See example command file

– SENTAURUS/Sim folders/Seminar/Workbench/StripDetector_des.cmd
– Simulates a strip detector – IV ramp followed by charge collection sim
 Sentaurus Device – Physics
• Basic physics models
– Mobility – reduced by doping concentration, velocity saturates at high
field
– Recombination – Shockley-Read-Hall: generation and recombination
due to defects in midgap
– EffectiveIntrinsicDensity – models narrowing of bandgap at high doping
concentration and high temps

Physics {
# Standard physics models - no radiation damage or avalanche etc.
Temperature=300
Mobility( DopingDep HighFieldSaturation Enormal )
Recombination(SRH(DopingDep))
EffectiveIntrinsicDensity(Slotboom)
}

• Alternative models for parameters such as mobility, recombination

etc. are available – see manual
 Sentaurus Device – Useful physics models
• Heavy Ion
– Flexible model for simulating charge generation produced by particle
HeavyIon ( (0um, 0um)
Direction=(0,1)
Location=(0,0)
Time=0.02e-9
Length = [0 0.001 300 300.001] 300um
wt_hi = [1.0 1.0 1.0 1.0]
LET_f = [0 1.282E-5 1.282E-5 0]
Gaussian
Picocoulomb )
}

– “Length” is an array. The width of the profile (wt_hi) and the charge
generation per unit distance (LET_f) are piecewise-linear
– In Math section, use RecBoxIntegr command to improve accuracy of
charge generation.
• RecBoxIntegr(5e-3 50 5000)
– When designing mesh, mesh spacing should be small compared to
width of ion track, to ensure accurate generation
 Sentaurus Device – Useful physics models
• Avalanche
– Recombination(SRH(DopingDep) Avalanche(Okuto))
– Simulates increase in generation from impact ionization
– Different models available, aside from Okuto – see manual
– In Plot, eAvalancheGeneration and hAvalancheGeneration
– If breakdown occurs during an IV ramp, simulation can become very
slow: set BreakCriteria in Math section

• Oxide charge
– Physics models can be specified for particular device regions by
inserting a separate physics section:
Physics(MaterialInterface="Oxide/Silicon") {
Charge(Conc=4e11)
}

– Oxide charge attracts layer of electrons to interface – need narrower

mesh spacing to model this accurately
– Oxide charge increases after irradiation
• Radiation damage – Talk tomorrow
 .plt files and CurrentPlot
• Sentaurus uses the word “plot” far too much – don’t get confused!
• *.plt files
– Contain the electrode potentials and currents throughout the simulation
– Can be graphed in Inspect to give IV curves, electrode signals, etc.
• CurrentPlot section allows you to add data to these files
– Hole density at back surface to test Vdep
– Max electric field as a rough guide to breakdown
CurrentPlot {
hDensity((25 295))
ElectricField(Maximum(Material="Silicon"))
}
 .dat files and Plot
• *.dat files
– Contain variables such as electric potential and carrier concs. at every
mesh point in the device
– Loaded into Tecplot to show electric field distribution, etc
– One .dat file is produced when sim finishes – commands in the Solve
section let you produce more
– “Plot” section allows you to choose which variables are added
• See manual – some physics models have particular Plot variables
Detail of electric field (V/cm) around top of
double-sided 3D device (100V bias)
Plot { 0
Electric
eDensity hDensity eCurrent/Vector hCurrent/Vector 20000

2 50
0
field (V/cm)
130000
Potential SpaceCharge ElectricField/Vector Doping 10
50
90000
60000
40000
} 00
30000
20000
20
10000
0
10
n+ 00

Z (um)
0
30

40
0
20 0 0

50

p+ 130000

60

30 00 0
0 10 20 30 40
D (um)

40000
40000

5000
 Math section
• Controls solving the simulation
– Many useful keywords are now default – not really needed in file!
• Extrapolate, Derivatives, RelErrControl, NewDiscretization
• Can choose numerical solver
– “Pardiso” is default, and works well
– Solvers user guide lists others
• Certain physics models use extra keywords
– E.g. RecBoxIntegr improves accuracy of charge generation from
HeavyIon or optical generation
• Can set break criteria (e.g. to stop simulation if device breaks down)
– BreakCriteria {Current(Contact=“pplus1" Absval=1e-6)
 Solve section
• Various different processes can be done
• Basic solve of Poisson equation, or Poisson Electron Hole
– Simply solves device under steady bias conditions applied
• Quasistationary
– Ramps a parameter (usually bias voltage) from one value to another in
series of steps
– At each point, device is solved for a “steady state”
– E.g. simulating an IV ramp for a photodiode, or response of a transistor
• Transient
– Simulation over time
– E.g. signals produced in a radiation detector when hit by a particle
• For both of these, we can control stepping conditions – see file
– Smaller step sizes
• During the solve, we can produce .dat files (so we can view the state
of the simulation at a particular moment)
 Solve
Solve {
# Get initial state of the device without a bias applied.
Poisson
Coupled{Poisson Electron Hole}

# Ramp-up the voltage to -100V in a series of small steps. While doing

this, create data files at 0V, 25V, 50V, 75V, 100V.
# The Quasistationary ramp is controlled by a variable sweeping from 0 to
1. So, the max step corresponds to 0.05*100V = 2.5V.
# As well as "Plot", you can Save and Load the state of the simulation.
Quasistationary (
InitialStep=1e-3 MaxStep=0.025 Minstep=3e-5 Increment=1.2
Goal {Voltage=-100 Name=pplus1 }
)
{
Coupled (iterations=8, notdamped=15) {Poisson Electron Hole}
Plot ( FilePrefix = "StripDetector_" Time = (0; 0.25; 0.5; 0.75; 1)
NoOverwrite )
}
……………
 Solve
……………………
# This statement creates a new current plot file, with its name starting with
"transient". This can be useful if you're doing a few different solve phases
NewCurrentPrefix = "transient_"

# Do a simulation over time, to get the current signal produced by the MIP.
The "iterations=8" means that if we take more than 8 iterations to solve a step,
it'll reduce the step size and try again
Transient(
InitialTime = 0.0
FinalTime=40.0e-9
InitialStep=0.5E-11
MaxStep=2E-9
Increment=1.1
Decrement=1.5
)
{Coupled (iterations=8, notdamped=15) { Poisson Electron Hole }
Plot (Time = (0.05e-9; 0.2e-9; 1e-9; 5e-9; 10e-9; 20e-9) noOverwrite
FilePrefix="StripDetector_transient")
}

}
 Solve – Iteration tips
• Sentaurus solves each step by an iterative process
• We set a limit to the no of iterations
– Success: move on to next step with increased step size
– Failure – try again with a smaller step
• Generally better to keep number of iterations small (say, 8-10)
– More accurate, and frequently quicker, to do small steps with few
iterations than large steps with many iterations
• “Increment” and “decrement” control changes in step size
– Default increment is 2 (double step size after success). If sim starts fine,
but we get repeated failure later on, useful to reduce Increment
• des.log files record output
– Typing dessisstat whatever.log will look through a log file and
summarise the information
 Mixed mode simulation
• In standard simulation, we have a single device with boundary
conditions
• Mixed mode simulates one or more devices, plus extra components
such as resistors, voltage sources etc., modelled by Spice
– See Compact Models User guide for details of components
– E.g. can have AC-coupled detector with strips biased through resistors
• Can do transient simulations with time-varying voltage sources
– E.g switching behaviour of a transistor
– CCD simulation – use HeavyIon to generate charge within one pixel,
then a time-varying voltage to transfer charge to next pixel
• Mixed-mode is needed to do C-V simulation
– “ACCoupled” command

• Main difference – Sentaurus file has to describe all the

devices present, and how they are connected
– See StripDetector_CV_des.cmd
– Sentaurus Device manual also has examples
 Mixed mode simulation file
Device strip { # Set up strip detector
Electrode { ……}
File {….}
Physics {…….}
}

File {
Output = "StripDetector_CV"
ACExtract = "StripDetector_CV"
}

# Describe all the components, and how they connect

System {
strip sample (nplus1=c1 nplus2=c2 nplus3=c3 pplus1=cp)
Vsource_pset vc1 (c1 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vc2 (c2 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vc3 (c3 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vcp (cp 0) {dc=0}
}
 Mixed mode simulation file
Device strip { # Set up strip detector
Electrode { ……}
File {….}
Physics {…….}
}

File {
Output = "StripDetector_CV"
ACExtract = "StripDetector_CV"
}

# Describe all the components, and how they connect

System {
strip sample (nplus1=c1 nplus2=c2 nplus3=c3 pplus1=cp)
Vsource_pset vc1 (c1 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vc2 (c2 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vc3 (c3 0) {dc=0}
Vsource_pset vcp (cp 0) {dc=0}
}
 Mixed mode – typical CV commands
Solve {
# Get initial state of the device without a bias applied.
.................

# Then, use a combination of Quasistationary and ACCoupled to do CV

sim while ramping bias to -100V
Quasistationary (
InitialStep=1e-3 MaxStep=0.025 Minstep=3e-5 Increment=1.2
Goal { Parameter=vcp.dc Voltage=-100 }
)
{ ACCoupled (
Iterations=10
StartFrequency=1e4 EndFrequency=1e4
NumberOfPoints=1 Decade
# Specify which nodes we look at AC behaviour between. Exclude all
voltage sources
Node(c1 c2 c3 cp) Exclude(vc1 vc2 vc3 vcp)
)
{ Poisson Electron Hole }
}
}
 Overview

• Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD software

• Building the device structure
• Running the simulation
• Viewing results
• Other software
 Inspect
• Creates graphs from *.plt files created by Sentaurus Device
– Contains electrode voltages, currents etc, and “time”
– Contains data produced by CurrentPlot (e.g. max electric field)
– Can graph any pair of data sets
 Inspect
• After creating a curve, can use File->Export->XGraph to export a file
with x,y data points
– Can then be used in other programs like Origin
• Can do mathematics on graphs using “new” button
– integr(<currentgraph>) to integrate a current pulse over time
• Scripting language is available to control Inspect
– *ins.cmd script file can be loaded
– See Inspect manual for language
– Scripts->Record allows you to carry out a series of steps by hand, and
writes the corresponding commands to a file
• Scripting language allows you to extract data from projects when
using Workbench
 Tecplot SV
• Can load *.grd and *.dat files
Detail of electric field (V/cm) around top of
– View meshes double-sided 3D device (100V bias)
– View field distributions etc produced 0
20000 Electric
by Sentaurus device field (V/cm)
00
25 130000
– Contour plots, vectors… 10 90000
60000
• tecplot_sv command 50
00 40000
30000
• Tecplot is a general-purpose 20 20000
10000
package for viewing 2D and 3D plots 10
0

n+ 00

Z (um)
– http://www.tecplot.com 30
0

– Synopsys then added on extra

functions 40
• Manuals 20 0 0
0

– Tecplot SV user guide only describes 50

extra functions (58 pages)
p+ 130000
– Tecplot User Manual describes
60
regular version of package (632

30 00 0
0 10 20 30 40
pages) D (um)

40000
4 0 00 0

65000
– Tecplot Reference Manual gives
script commands (320 pages)
 Tecplot SV
• Two different sidebars are available: Synopsys and
Tecplot
– Switch using the View menu at the top
• Synopsys sidebar - useful basic commands
– Basic commands for loading files, zooming, inserting
text/lines etc
– List of variables to plot, and ranges to set
• Can also add legend etc
– Menu to choose which material we apply commands to
– Options to make the following visible/invisible
• Mesh structure
• Boundary
• Vector plots (for quantities like E-field)
• Contour lines, flood
– (On right) options to make 2D cuts from 3D device
simulations
– (On right) display or hide p-n junctions and depletion
regions
 Tecplot SV
• Tecplot Sidebar
– Option to switch between 2D and 3D!
– “Zone style” gives lots of options for controlling
contours, vectors etc.
– Better tools for:
• Controlling contour lines and streamtraces
• Moving and rotating 3D objects
• Menus at top of screen – many, many options!
– Same features as sidebars, but often more control
• E.g. taking 2D slices at unusual angles
– Saving states and images
• Saving a “layout” file saves state of simulation
• Saving a “style” file just saves formatting – can load
another data set then the style file to apply formatting
– Recording and using macros
– Creating new variables using existing ones
• E.g can find the components of a vector in a particular
plane
 Overview

• Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD software

• Building the device structure
• Running the simulation
• Viewing results
• Other software
 Simulation packages
Sentaurus Process (optional) {dios}
Process simulation Ligament can generate command files
for Process

Mesh, noffset3d create device meshes

using a command file
Create mesh Sentaurus Structure Editor (and MDraw)
create meshes with GUI

Sentaurus Device {dessis}

Run simulation
Inspect – Plotting graphs of electrode
currents etc.
View results Tecplot – Producing images of electric
field patterns etc. throughout device

Project control Workbench – Can run large numbers of

simulations conveniently
 Sentaurus Process
• Process simulation
• Can be controlled interactively (series of commands) or with
command file
• Simple case – 1D simulation
– Start with, say, a doping implant
– Describe a series of processing steps (time, temp)
– Simulation finds the 1D doping profile after the stages
– Produces a .plx doping file, which can then be used in mesh
• 2D and 3D simulation
– Once again, need to describe a series of processes (implants,
annealing, etc.)
– In this case, also have to define masks used
– Also, simulation is carried out on a grid of points – similar considerations
to refinements in mesh design
– Finally, automatically produces input files for mesh
 Ligament
• Graphical interface to produce command files for Process
• Flow editor – create a list of process steps
• Ligament layout editor – MDraw-like package for defining “masks”
used for each process step
 Sentaurus Workbench
• Project control tool
• Allows you to repeatedly run multi-stage simulations using different
parameters each time
– This includes producing graphs of results or extracting data like CCE
• Tutorial next!
Set
simulation
flow
Browse
projects

Control
simulations
and extract
results
 Other information
• Synopsys website –
– https://solvnet.synopsys.com/amserver/UI/Login
– Can sign up to get a login ID. Can get all the manuals, plus some
simulation examples
• Sentaurus Device simulation examples
– $STROOT/tcad/$STRELEASE/lib/sdevice/GettingStarted
– Files corresponding to examples in SDevice manual
• Examples from this talk: SENTAURUS/Seminar/Introduction
– Basic strip detector simulation
• StripDetector.bnd/cmd files for mesh
• StripDetector_des.cmd file for Sentaurus Device
• The simulation has already been run, and output files are in the same folder
– CV simulation
• Uses the same mesh as before
• StripDetector_CV_des.cmd