Patent ID: 6360190
Filing Date: 2002-03-19
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
A process for simulating the manufacture of semiconductor devices and for providing simulations of electrical characteristics of such simulated semiconductor devices by performing a plurality of matrix manipulations of terms representing physical properties of the simulated semiconductor devices, the matrices to be manipulated representing simultaneous linear equations that are to be solved by a matrix solver that uses an iterative method in which the matrices are preconditioned by incomplete LU-factorization, the method for generating fill-ins for the matrices comprising the steps of:a first step of dividing a simulated surface of a semiconductor model into a plurality of rectangles forming a mesh of predetermined size; a second step of assigning a numerical value to each mesh point of the mesh; a third step of setting equations representing a relationship among the plurality of numerical values; a fourth step of generating a coefficient matrix constituted by a plurality of principal diagonal submatrices each of which is arranged at each one of principal diagonal positions corresponding to each mesh point and representing a self feedback function to the mesh point, the coefficient matrix having rows and columns in numbers corresponding to the number of mesh points, and a plurality of non-principal diagonal submatrices each of which is arranged on any one of rows and columns passing through the principal diagonal positions corresponding to the mesh point and representing an interaction between the mesh point corresponding to the principal diagonal located on the same row or on the same column of the coefficient matrix with the non-principal diagonal submatrix and an adjacent mesh point connected to the mesh point through a mesh branch; a fifth step of performing calculation for the submatrices while regarding each submatrix of the coefficient matrix as one element, thereby performing incomplete LU-factorization of the coefficient matrix, wherein each of the principal diagonal submatrices is a square having rows and columns equal in number to equations set for a mesh point corresponding to the principal diagonal submatrix, each of the non-principal diagonal submatrices arranged in a row direction in correspondence with each of the mesh points is a matrix having rows equal in number to equations set at a mesh point corresponding to the principal diagonal submatrix located in the row and columns equal in number to equations set at an adjacent mesh point connected to the mesh point through a mesh branch, and each of the non-principal diagonal submatrices arranged in a column direction in correspondence with each of the mesh points is a matrix having columns equal in number to equations set at a mesh point corresponding to the principal diagonal submatrix located in the column and rows equal in number to the equations set at an adjacent mesh point connected to the mesh point through a mesh branch; and a sixth step of outputting a signal representing electrical characteristics of the simulated device.