1.1 Overview
1.2 Starting Sentaurus Structure Editor
1.3 Graphical User Interface
1.4 Input and Output File Types
1.5 Creating a Simple Structure
Sentaurus Structure Editor is a structure editor for 2D and 3D device structures. Its operational modes are 2D structure editing and 3D structure editing.
The process emulation mode of Sentaurus Structure Editor has been superseded by the 3D process simulation capabilities of Sentaurus Process. Using the process emulation mode of Sentaurus Structure Editor is discouraged. See the Sentaurus Process module, Section 11. Special Focus: Three-Dimensional Examples.
From the graphical user interface (GUI), 2D and 3D device models are created geometrically, using 2D or 3D primitives such as rectangles, polygons, cuboids, cylinders, and spheres. Rounded edges are generated by filleting, 3D edge blending, and chamfering. Complex shapes are generated by intersecting primitive elements.
The GUI of Sentaurus Structure Editor features a command-line window, in which Sentaurus Structure Editor prints script commands corresponding to the GUI operations.
To start Sentaurus Structure Editor on the command line, type:
> sde
In Sentaurus Structure Editor, structures can be generated or edited interactively using the GUI. The main window is organized into different areas. The menu bar, toolbars, and lists are in the upper part of the main window; the view window is in the center; and the command-line window is in the lower part of the main window.
The menu bar consists of the following menus:
Menu | Description |
---|---|
File | Load, save, and print functions |
Edit | Change existing geometric objects |
View | Visualization preferences and auxiliary views |
Draw | Drawing and basic object creation, preferences |
Mesh | Define a meshing strategy, call the meshing engine, visualize the generated mesh and data fields |
Device | Define doping profiles |
Contacts | Define and edit contacts and contact sets |
Help | Version information |
Each toolbar contains a set of predefined shortcuts and buttons, which can be selectively added to or removed from the toolbars.
The element lists are used to select the objects to be operated on:
The view window displays the current device. The result of all interactive operations is reflected immediately in the view window. Right-click in the view window to display the shortcut menu:
Command | Description |
---|---|
Selection Level | Controls which type of object can be selected by clicking (Select mode). Options are Auto Select, Body, Face, Edge, Vertex, and Ref/Eval Window. |
Toggle Visibility | Activates or deactivates a light source for shading 3D objects. |
Contacts | If the selection level is set to Edge or Face, contacts are assigned to the selected objects. It is also used for the creation of new contact sets. |
Delete | In many contexts, the object can be deleted by selecting this command. |
Properties | Displays a window with information about the selected object. |
Hide | If the selection level is set to Body or Ref/Eval Window, the selected entities are hidden. |
Show All | All the previously hidden bodies and Ref/Eval windows are redisplayed. |
The command-line window displays the Scheme script commands corresponding to most GUI operations. Scheme commands can be entered directly at the prompt. This feature is useful in conjunction with copying script commands from and to a text editor, when creating and testing Scheme scripts.
In Sentaurus Structure Editor, you can initialize a new model from the beginning or load a previous model to edit, and the result can be saved. The main input and output files supported by Sentaurus Structure Editor are:
(journal:step #t)instructs Sentaurus Structure Editor to stop the continuous execution of a script and to step through the remaining script line by line.
When File > Save Model or File > Save Model As is chosen, Sentaurus Structure Editor saves (1) the model geometry in an ACIS format file (.sat), (2) the Ref/Eval windows and parameters in a Scheme file (.scm), (3) the refinement- and doping-related information in a command file (.cmd), and (4) the structure in a TDR boundary file (_bnd.tdr).
The TDR boundary file is obtained using the command:
(sdeio:save-tdr-bnd (get-body-list) "name_of_file_bnd.tdr")
To open a TDR file, in a terminal window, launch the TDR file viewer with the command:
svisual "name_of_file.tdr"
Sentaurus Structure Editor supports two distinct ways to create or edit a device structure:
In addition, Sentaurus Structure Editor has another extremely flexible way to generate a device structure. This method accepts a hybrid of both GUI-based and script-based inputs and is possible using the command-line window. Since each GUI-based operation displays its corresponding Scheme command in the command-line window, all previously executed commands, either GUI-based or script-based, can be recalled, edited, and reexecuted.
To create a structure consisting of one silicon and one oxide cuboid:
The last Scheme script command appears in the command-line window:
(sdegeo:create-cuboid (position 0 0 0) (position 1 1 1) "Silicon" "region_1")
To access the command-line window, click in the area. All previous commands printed in this window can be edited and reused. To illustrate this, edit the last command so that it becomes:
(sdegeo:create-cuboid (position 0 1 0) (position 1 2 1) "SiO2" "region_2")
Press the Enter key. Another cuboid made of the material SiO2 is created (see Figure 3).
The process of defining a complex device structure involves experimentation, which can lead to untidy code. Sentaurus Structure Editor supports a method to clean up the script:
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