Cervenka, J. (2004). Three-dimensional mesh Generation for device and process simulation [Dissertation, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://doi.org/10.34726/hss.2004.1458
Due to the progressive miniaturization of integrated circuits the exact and fast simulation of physical processes becomes more important. Parasitic effects begin to influence the device characteristics and existing models must be extended. Since these effects are not describable in two dimensions, the models must be extended to three dimensions and the simulation tools have to be adapted to three-dimensional requirements. Additionally, the grid generators must be extended for three dimensions. Since the necessary amount of data and computing time that is needed for the simulation increases enormously, it is inevitable to adapt the simulation meshes to the given requirements in order to obtain accurate simulation results even with limited resources. In this work the issue of three-dimensional grid generation for specific simulation problems in microelectronics is outlined. An adapted Delaunay grid generation approach for the electrical simulation of semiconductor devices has been developed. Since particularly a very high resolution of the mesh is necessary, global grid refinement methods are impracticable due to high resource consumption. With the developed method, the grid points are placed along computed equipotential surfaces. Since the positive characteristics of ortho grids are preserved, the grid lines near the surface match the contours of the geometry edges and no restriction on planar structures exists. Along these equipotential faces a high point-density can be selected within desired regions. A further advantage of this method is that the point-density can be tuned in relation to the direction, along three almost orthogonal axial directions, which results in controllable anisotropy.