State-of-the-art TCAD: 25 years ago and today

In the past 25 years, process and device TCAD used in direct support of industrial process development has undergone radical change. In the era of Dennard scaling [1], TCAD efforts in manufacturers such as Intel could arguably be described as advanced applications work. However, with the advent of nanometer device dimensions, the need to calculate fundamental material properties on the fly, resolve quantum effects, and understand the role of atomic-scale defects has shifted TCAD from engineering towards research. Rigorous solutions to Schrodinger’s equations based on NEGF and DFT and semi-classical solutions of the BTE are now in routine use. Concurrently, aging continuum models such as drift-diffusion continue to be infused with more rigorous approaches to maintain accuracy while still affording the fast turn-around-time required by today’s development, which now involves a significant number of novel options under simultaneous consideration. This talk will contrast Intel’s TCAD environment of 25 years ago with today’s and give examples of studies which illustrate the evolution.