Synopsys Sentaurus Tutorial

- For EE130/230A Project

Manish Raje
Peng Zheng
Fall 2013

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 1

CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION
The following material is being disclosed to you
pursuant to a non-disclosure agreement between
UC Berkley and Synopsys. Information disclosed
in this presentation may be used only as permitted
under such an agreement.

LEGAL NOTICE
Information contained in this presentation reflects
Synopsys plans as of the date of this presentation.
Such plans are subject to completion and are
subject to change. Products may be offered and
purchased only pursuant to an authorized quote
and purchase order. Synopsys is not obligated to
develop the software with the features and
functionality discussed in the materials.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 2

 Suggestion

Study this tutorial along with

the video (you can download it
from the course webpage) to
learn how to use Sentaurus.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 3

 Outline
Software Setups and Configurations
Introduction to Sentaurus TCAD
Basic Sentaurus Operations
Project Tips

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 4

 Software Setups
You can work on the project in the Cory 199
Lab which has Windows operating systems.
For working at home via Windows, you will
need to install Xming, Putty and WinSCP.
Users working on Macs (or Linux) must make
sure that they have X-11 forwarding enabled
(such as by using Xquartz). You can then ssh
into the servers via terminal and work on the
project.
For those who want to work from home: The
connection speed is going to be SLOW. Thus,
it is best to work on campus!
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 5
 Install Xming
An X11 Forwarding Software such as Xming (or
Exceed) is needed.

Successful running will display a

task bar on your desktop

Xming helps you forward the

GUIs from Unix system to your
PC

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 6

 Software Setups
You may also use Xming that is loaded on the
computer lab (1st floor of Cory Hall).

Putty
Putty is a remote login software, will
help you to log into Unix system
from a PC (Windows)

WinSCP
WinSCP can be downloaded online,
for free, and is used to transfer files
from your PC to the Unix.
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 7
 Servers and Performance
Instructional servers (login with the instructional
accounts):
bcom18.eecs.berkeley.edu
bcom20.eecs.berkeley.edu
icom1.eecs.berkeley.edu
hpse-(9-15).eecs.berkeley.edu (hpse-9 through hpse-15)
Only the above servers should be used since they have
the latest versions of software.
Do not wait until the last day!
We have prepared 10 servers for you, so pick one
with fewer users logged in.
Once again, since the simulations take time, it is best to
work on campus!
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 8
 Transfer of Project Folder to the
server side
Download the project folder from the class
webpage and unzip it.
Copy the unzipped project folder to the
instructional server by using WinSCP. Basically,
you just need to drag the folder into the home
directory on the instructional server (see next
page for details).

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 9

 Once you have logged in,
you can view the files in both
your PC and the home
directory of the server
Log in using your
instructional account!

Just select the files/folder

from your PC and copy to the
server
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 10
 Running Sentaurus
The first step is to use WinSCP to transfer the project file
which is downloaded from the EE130/230A course page.
- Once the file transfer is complete
Start Xming (or Exceed)
Start putty
Select the server you want to run your simulation
Log on the server
Input your Account name and Password

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 11

 Please check here !

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 12

Opening the project using Sentaurus
-After the file transfer, open Putty and log in to
one of the servers using your ee130 class
account.
-In the home directory use the command swb,
this will open Sentaurus.
-When asked to choose the STDB directory,
select the path that the project file is placed in
(remember to always make this same selection)
-The Sentaurus workbench will now open.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 13

 Sentaurus Workbench
Graphical user interface to unify all simulation tools
into a single experiment project flow
Used to organize projects and set up experiments
for both structure generation and device simulation

Technology Computer-Aided-Design Tools

Parameter row
Experiment column
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 14
 Unlocking Workbench
Double click 20nm-NMOS: the simulation modules
will show up on the work bench
If you cannot edit the value in the cell, then Right
click 20nm-NMOS projectunlock :This will
unlock the project for modification of values.
Technology Computer-Aided-Design Tools

Parameter row
Experiment column
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 15
 Sentaurus Structure Editor
Structure Editor (1) generates the device
structure (including the doping profiles) (2)
Defines the electrical contact and (3)
generates the meshing for numerical
simulations.

Parameters you may need to change/optimize for this project

Spacer length (Lsp, Units: um)
Channel Doping Concentration (ChanDoping, Units: cm -3)
Source/Drain extension depth (XjExt, Units: um)
MOSFET gate length (Lgate, Units: um) onlyfor Vt roll off
curve.
EE230A only: Surface Doping Concentration NS, Body
Doping Concentration NB and Peak Doping Position TSi
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 16
 Sentaurus Device
Sentaurus Device simulates the device
performance by solving multiple, coupled
physical equations based on the meshing.
Inputs: gate voltage (Vgs), drain voltage
(Vds), workfunction value

Common Physical models:

Si band structure (Ec/v, Nc/v and bandgap narrowing)
Fermi-Dirac Statistics
Poisson equation, continuity equation
Band-to-band tunneling, R-G current
Drift-Diffusion current, carrier mobility, velocity saturation
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 17
Sentaurus Inspect
Used to automatically extract critical
device performance parameters such as:
Vt_lin Id_lin
Vt_sat Id_sat I_OFF

Also used to plot the Id-Vg and Id-Vd

curves

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 18

 Simulation Status
Start Sentaurus, first select from the left project
column, right-click to preprocess.
Then you will find the nodes will display different
colors, suggesting they have different properties.
Here is a summary. Only colorful nodes will give
you the simulation output.

Ready means the current tool is free of syntax

errors (You should see this since you are not
allowed to modify the scripts).
Right-click a certain Ready nodes to run, after a
short period of time, you will find it changes to
done or failed.
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 19
 Basic Operations for the
project
Before running simulations, right click and
preprocess nodes (repeat every time after changing
any values)
Run the Xjext node.
To obtain values for Ion and Ioff, first run the Id-
Vg_sat SDEVICE node (n 13 for EE130, n 16 for
EE230A).
After the SDEVICE node has completed, run the
INSPECT node to extract values of Ioff, Ion.
For further information regarding the different
operation go to
http://www.synopsys.com/Tools/TCAD/CapsuleModule
/cmoscha.pdf
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 20
 Basic Operations for
Sentaurus Structure Editor
Now you can view your simulation results if the nodes
are done.
Right-click the last node in Structure editor, select
Visualize Sentaurus Visual(Select File) and choose
msh.tdr file to view your device structure.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 21

 Basic Operations for
Sentaurus Visual (S-visual)
This slide help you familiarize the usage of Sentaurus
Visual, this tool is for the visualization and
profiles/contours extraction purposes.

zoom-in tool
Parameters Precision
shown in plot Cuts
Slice-cutting

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 22

 To get the data field,
Export the results from SVisual: first zoom into the
region 0.002um below
the Si-SiO2 interface.
Use precision cut along
Use the desired y axis.
export
plot to
save the
plot as
an
image

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 23

To export the values of the doping
concentration obtained in the plot,
select the data curve, the go to Data
and select export XY data. The values
obtained are stored in a csv file which
can be transferred back to the user
side and viewed with excel.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 24

 Basic Operations for
Sentaurus Device
Right-click the done node in Structure Device,
select Visualize Svisual (Select File) and choose
des.tdr file to view your device performance
contours (vector fields).

Current Density
Linear region Saturation region

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 25

 Basic Operations for
Sentaurus Device Cont.d
Right-click the done node in Structure Device,
select Visualize Inspect (Select File) and choose
IdVg_des.plt file to view your device performance
curves.
Choose Log Y or
Device Linear Y here
Terminals
Most common plot
combination is gate:
OuterVoltage
Outputs Use cursors to read
the data value along
drain: TotalCurrent the curve

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 26

 Project Tips
Typical Performance Figure-of-Merits
Performance Specifications for this Project
Performance Optimization Hints for a
Short-Channel MOSFET

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 27

 Idsat, Ilin and IOFF
Vds=VDD
Idsat

Vds=20mV Ilin

IOFF, Idsat and Idlin

IOFF are extracted
automatically

VDD
EE130/230A 2013 Fall 28
Threshold Voltage (Vt)

Constant current definition

of threshold voltage

It = 100nA W/Lgate
W has default value of 1um for
2-dimensional device simulation
Vth
Vtlin and Vtsat are
extracted
EE130/230A 2013 Fall automatically 29
 DIBL and SS
DIBL is defined as the threshold
voltage difference divided by the
Sub-threshold Swing
drain bias between linear and
saturation region .

You are required to extract S

and DIBL manually, from
EE130/230Ayour
2013 Falloptimized device ! 30
 Performance Specifications
For students taking EE130, your goal is for the High-
Performance(HP) technology; and you have to meet the
following specs (at 20nm node):

- IOFF should be smaller than 100 nA/um.

- ION should be larger than 1.3 mA/um.

For students taking EE230A, your goal is for the Low-Stand-

by Power (LSTP) technology; and you have to meet the
following specs (at 20 nm node):

- IOFF should be smaller than 10 pA/um.

- ION should be larger than 360 uA/um.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 31

 Hints for Your Optimizations
Impacts of channel doping concentration (Nch): Increasing
Nch generally helps to reduce IOFF, until it touches the band-
to-band tunneling limits. On the other hand, high Nch will
degrade the carrier mobility values, resulting in a low ION.
Impacts of Junction Depth (Xj): smaller extension Xj helps to
reduce IOFF, however it will result in a larger Source/Drain
series resistance value to degrade ION.
Impacts of SiN spacer width (Lsp): Wider spacer helps to
reduce the impact from deep Source/Drain regions; however
it will also result in the larger series resistance problem.
So as you can see, there exist trade-offs to optimize ION/IOFF

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 32

 Project Hints
Since our performance targets are mainly for ION and IOFF,
so you should start working on the saturation-region
device simulation first.

Once you are able to meet the specs, then you should
perform the linear-region device simulation to get the
current and threshold voltage values, as well as to
measure the DIBL value.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 33

 Project Hints (Cond)
The next task is to study the Short-Channel Effect, by
changing the gate length ONLY. Perform the simulations in
both linear and saturation regions, and then plot the
threshold voltage values vs. gate length.
Lastly, you should run the last SDevice component, to
generate the Ids vs. Vds curves under 4 Vgs values. Then
take a look at the I-V curves to decide whether your device
performance is limited by the pinch-off or the carrier
velocity saturation.

EE130/230A 2013 Fall 34