Eaton- Avant! Team for VDSM IC Fab Process

Electronic News, March 1, 1999

Beverly, Mass. -- Eaton Semiconductor Equipment Operations (SEO), located here, announced last week a joint development project with Avant! Corp., Fremont, Calif., to leverage Avant!'s TCAD tools with its ion implantation database of dopant profiles. Joint activities will focus on advancing the predictive capabilities of semiconductor process simulation software to help chipmakers optimize very deep submicron (VDSM) integrated circuit (IC) fabrication processes.

According to the companies, the partnership is intended to support the semiconductor industry's drive to reduce cost and time-to-market with new and better IC design tools and practices.

Eaton said it will provide Avant! with access to its set of as-implanted dopant profiles, which cover leading edge applications in both high energy and ultra low energy regimes. Dopant profiles after furnace and rapid thermal annealing will also be shared to model dopant distribution during leading edge thermal processes. This database was created at Eaton SEO by internal programs to develop leading edge process technology for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

Avant! will provide Eaton SEO with its process and device simulation software, which Eaton will use to develop optimized, integrated process sequences for its customers.

Avant!'s TCAD process simulation software can be used to optimize IC fabrication processes. The software simulates subtle physical effects (e.g. transient enhanced diffusion) found in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing. Advanced simulation techniques model deep submicron device structures that allow inexpensive `what-if' experiments through simulation, minimizing the need for expensive processing of device wafers, the company said.