SUZANA: a 3D CAD tool for anisotropically etched silicon microstructures
S. Büttgenbach, O. Than · 1996
This paper reports on a workstation-based simulation module for silicon anisotropic etching using a cellular automata model. Starting from 2D mask data, the program delivers a 3D solid geometric model of the etched structure, which can be transferred to other modeling tools like FEM. The capabilities of the CAD tool are demonstrated by comparing simulation results to realized microstructures. 1. Introduction The three-dimensional nature of microsystems implies that the required CAD tools are different from those used for the design of integrated circuits. The most important requirement for a microsystem CAD tool is that it should be able to derive 3D solid geometric models of microstructures from the process description and 2D mask data. With such a tool, the process parameters as well as the mask layouts can be verified before the beginning of the time- and cost-consuming microfabrication process. Furthermore, the 3D models can be used with other tools like finite e...