5.1 Overview
5.2 Probe Tool
5.3 Cutlines and Cutplanes
5.4 Plot Overlay
Sentaurus Visual provides functions to probe into the device structure for values of the existing physical quantities. It also provides tools that facilitate making cutlines and cutplanes through the structure to obtain data values. This section discusses the use of these tools.
After a device structure has been loaded into Sentaurus Visual, the values of the data fields existing on the structure can be sampled at each point of the structure using the probe tool.
To probe a point:
The probe tool makes a cross to indicate the location of the data sampling point, and the information on the data field values at the sampled point are displayed in the Probe panel (see Figure 1).
The Probe panel displays all of the available information about the selected point. At the top, it shows the point coordinates: x, y, and z. The Var Values tab shows the field values at the point. The Cell Info and Face Neighbor tabs show information about the finite-element composition and its neighbors.
To probe the field value at the mesh point, select the Snap to Mesh option, or hold the Ctrl key while you click the structure for data sampling.
To probe at an exact coordinate, click the Probe At button on the Probe panel. A dialog box is displayed where you can enter the coordinates of the point of interest (see Figure 2).
This section describes how to generate 1D and 2D cuts. In Sentaurus Visual, you can create a 1D cutline from 2D or 3D structures. Cutlines and cutplanes can be formed orthogonally to one of the Cartesian axes or can be created in an arbitrary direction. Cutlines and cutplanes can be moved and the cut plot is updated automatically. Sentaurus Visual provides the following tools for generating cutlines and cutplanes.
Button | Description |
---|---|
Displays the Cutlines and Cutplanes dialog box to generate non-orthogonal cutlines or cutplanes directly from a 3D plot. It allows you to specify the exact position of the cut. | |
Creates a cutline on a 2D plot in a custom direction. | |
Creates an orthogonal cut to one of the Cartesian axes. The result is a 2D plot of the cutplane if cutting a 3D plot, or an xy plot from a cutline on a 2D plot. |
On a 2D plot, an axis-aligned cut can be made along the x- or y-coordinate axis. To illustrate this, instructions are given for making a horizontal cut on two linked structures:
Download the following two files by right-clicking and selecting Save Target As:
Figure 6 shows the final xy plot comparing two NetActive concentrations along the cutlines.
Sentaurus Visual allows you to conveniently plot the band diagram, which shows the electron energy of the conduction and valence band edges versus a spatial dimension.
Open the following TDR file, which contains results from Sentaurus Device: nmos_des.tdr.
The band diagram can only be plotted for a 1D dataset that is typically created by making a cutline (see Section 5.3.1 Axis-Aligned Cutline). After making a cutline, a new xy plot is created.
To create a band diagram, select an xy plot, and click the toolbar button.
The dataset must have the following variables defined (variable names are italicized):
A confirmation dialog box is displayed to warn you that all existing curves on the selected xy plot will be removed. Click OK. The band diagram will be displayed (see Figure 7).
To follow this section, download the following file by right-clicking and selecting Save Target As: finfet_des.tdr.
A cutplane can be made on a 3D structure. To specify a cutplane, Sentaurus Visual needs the orientation of the plane and the point that belongs to the plane. For convenience, two types of cutplane with two different interfaces are supported in Sentaurus Visual: cutplanes orthogonal to the coordinate axis and cutplanes in a custom direction.
The three orthogonal cutplanes have dedicated toolbar buttons: , , .
To make a cut orthogonal to the x-axis, click . The cursor changes to a cross. Click a point on the structure to make a cutplane at that point. A new 2D plot is created in a new frame, and the cutplane position is marked on the original 3D structure with a gray transparent plane and label (see Figure 8). Clicking anywhere on the plane opens the Cutplane Properties panel, where the cut position and label properties can be edited. Changing the plane position automatically updates the 2D cut plot.
Note that cuts orthogonal to the coordinate axis also can be made in the Cutlines and Cutplanes dialog box, accessible by clicking .
The plot overlay function provides an intuitive way of comparing simulation results from two or more structures. It allows you to quickly identify differences in structure topology, mesh, junction location, or data fields by plotting one structure on top of another.
In this section, instructions are presented to compare the boundary and junction of two PMOS structures. To compare halo profiles, you will plot arsenic concentration profiles using contour lines.
To follow this exercise, download the following two files by right-clicking and selecting Save Target As:
Figure 11 shows the overlaid plots. The color associated with the structure changes the color of both the region boundary and the mesh.
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