Semiconductor device modeling

Hierarchy of technology CAD tools building from the process level to circuits. Left side icons show typical manufacturing issues; right side icons reflect MOS scaling results based on TCAD. Credit: Prof. Robert Dutton in CRC Electronic Design Automation for IC Handbook, Vol II, Chapter 25, by permission.

Semiconductor device modeling creates models for the behavior of the electrical devices based on fundamental physics, such as the doping profiles of the devices. It may also include the creation of compact models (such as the well known SPICE transistor models), which try to capture the electrical behavior of such devices but do not generally derive them from the underlying physics. Normally it starts from the output of a semiconductor process simulation.