A model-based approach for process design and its application to the titanium salicide process

Process technology development constitutes a significant cost in manufacturing integrated circuits. In this paper, we present a model-based approach for developing new process technology rapidly and inexpensively, using the salicide process to demonstrate the concepts. This approach is applied to evaluate performance tradeoffs, to develop insight into the underlying process physics, to quantify the impact of the salicide process on the device and circuit performance, and to estimate the process variability. The key idea of this approach is to group a sequence of process steps into a process module, and build simple and accurate process models for the module. The paper also illustrates the use of this model-based approach in synthesizing optimal processes rapidly based on requirements, contributing to the reduction of technology development cost and cycle time.