The Victory TCAD Suite:

From process simulation and emulation, to re-meshing, to electrical and MixedMode simulation.

How to use it for fast, efficient, and accurate simulation of power semiconductor devices.

Introduction

Silvaco TCAD has been used by Tier 1 power device manufactures and designers for decades. The introduction of Victory Process, Victory Mesh, and Victory Device significantly increases the functionality and flexibility of the tool set available to designers. In this article we look at how some of the features of this suite of tools improve the efficiency of the design flow.

Key Concepts: In this article we go through, in detail, all the steps need to run the process, re-mesh, device, and MixedMode simulation of a trench-gated vertical IGBT. Some of the key concepts discussed are:

Process Simulation

  • In-deck mask definition
  • Using extract to verify implantation accuracy and channel characteristics
  • Geometric etching of rounded trenches
  • Physical, analytical, and imported doping
  • Mesh manipulation (adding/removing) during simulation

Mesh and Solid Modelling

  • Cropping of the structure
  • Stretching the substrate thickness
  • Conformal meshing
  • Delaunay (unstructured) remeshing and refinement

Electrical and MixedMode Simulations

  • Vth simulation and automated extraction of Vth
  • Output characteristics and extraction of forward voltage drop at a given current density
  • Breakdown voltage simulation and automated extraction of BV
  • Clamped inductive switching in MixedMode and automated calculation of turn-off losses

Post Simulation

  • Exporting of in-deck generated masks to GDS2