2.1 Opening Sentaurus Workbench Projects 2.2 Understanding Node Colors 2.3 Cleaning Up Project Directories 2.4 Running Projects 2.5 Selecting Nodes 2.6 Displaying Node Information 2.7 Viewing Output Results 2.8 Deleting Projects 2.9 Overview of Files Associated with Sentaurus Workbench Simulation Nodes

For this part of the module, the project SWB_nmos will be used. It is located in the directory Applications_Library/GettingStarted/SWB_nmos. Locate and select this project in the projects browser. Then, select Edit > Copy (Ctrl+C) and Edit > Paste (Ctrl+V) to copy the project under the $STDB directory or a subdirectory of it.

Then, double-click the copy of the project under $STDB. This opens the project and it appears in the right pane of the main window (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Main window of Sentaurus Workbench showing tool flow (black border), parameters (blue border), and simulation tree (red border). (Click image for full-size view.)

The tool flow refers to the sequence of simulation tools and their associated input files. In the SWB_nmos example, these are Sentaurus Process, Sentaurus Structure Editor, Sentaurus Device, and Inspect as seen in Figure 1. Below the tool flow, the project parameters (Type, Igate, and so on) and the corresponding simulation nodes ([n1], [n2], and so on) are listed.

To display node numbers: View > Tree Options > Show Node Numbers (or press the F9 key).

A complete sequence of simulation nodes (comprising all tools in the tool flow) form an experiment. In other words, an experiment is a complete horizontal line in the table view. Any number of experiments is possible for a given tool flow if parameters are used.

To the right of the tool flow, there are variables and electrical extracted parameters from the simulated Id–Vd characteristics: Vtgm, Vti, Id, SS, gm, Lgeff, Xj, Ygox, Tox (use the scroll bar to see them all). When the simulation is completed, the electrical extracted values appear in their respective columns.

Every simulation node in a project has a color associated with it that indicates its status. The color chart in the lower-right corner of the main window of Sentaurus Workbench (see Figure 2) shows what each color indicates.

Figure 2. Colors indicating different node statuses.

For example, when the project SWB_nmos is opened, the nodes are yellow, indicating that the nodes were simulated previously, and blue, which gives some information about the process and device steps. This is because a (successfully run) project was copied from the Applications_Library.

The format in which the Sentaurus Workbench project tree is displayed is very flexible and user controllable. You can display solely the tool flow, or the number the various simulation nodes, or display parameters (splits), variables, extracted values, and other details.

To use this feature:

Before running this project (SWB_nmos) from the beginning, clean up the project results from the previous run.

To clean up a project:

Figure 3. Cleanup Options dialog box.

Sentaurus Workbench deletes all files associated with the previous run, and the project is now ready to run. This is indicated by a change in the color of the nodes from yellow (done) to white (none).

To run a project:

Figure 4. Run Project dialog box.

Sentaurus Workbench proceeds to run the project, and the Project Log dialog box is displayed (see Figure 5) with real-time updates on the status of the project.

Figure 5. Project Log dialog box. (Click image for full-size view.)

As the simulation runs, the nodes change status from "none" (white) to "queued" (light green) to "pending" (bright green) to "running" (blue) and finally to "done" (yellow). If a node fails, it becomes "failed" (red).

To stop a running simulation:

After the project run is completed, all variables are extracted (Vtgm, Vti, and Id) and displayed to the right of the tool flow in the main window of Sentaurus Workbench.

Instead of entering which nodes to run in the Run Project dialog box, the nodes that need to run can be selected in the table (hold the Ctrl key to select multiple nodes), before clicking the Run button. For example, to run only the Sentaurus Process nodes associated with HaloEnergy=25, select nodes 10 and 13, and then click the Run button.

Figure 6. Selecting nodes in table. (Click image for full-size view.)

If you want to run an entire experiment (row), click the row number. Multiple rows can be selected as well.

To select all nodes to the right of a certain node, in other words, to run all nodes starting with a particular one, click that node and use Nodes > Extend Selection To > Leaves. Similarly, all nodes that need to be completed before a particular node can be run are selected using Nodes > Extend Selection To > Root. Other node selection criteria can be found in Nodes > Select.

To find the properties of any node, double-click the respective node. The Node Explorer is displayed (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Node Explorer for node 9. (Click image for full-size view.)

The Node Explorer displays the following information

The Node Explorer also displays all input and output parameters associated with the node on the left part.

The bottom part of the Node Explorer displays all files associated with the node. These can be categorized using the buttons on the left, or individual files can be selected using the file list. Text files can be viewed in the file viewer on the right.

A given node has several input and output files associated with it. These can be viewed by right-clicking a node and selecting Visualize. All text and log files can be viewed using the text editor SEdit by selecting them.

All output data files in the case of Sentaurus Process, Sentaurus Device, and Sentaurus Device Electromagnetic Wave Solver can be viewed using Tecplot SV, or a plot of .plx and .plt files in Sentaurus Device can be viewed using Inspect.

In addition, the information written to standard output, when a simulation is running, can be viewed by selecting Nodes > View Output (Ctrl+W).

An alternative method of viewing output is to click the toolbar button.

To delete the project SWB_nmos:

If an error message is displayed (see Figure 8), it means that the project must be closed before deleting it.

Figure 8. Error message dialog box.

In this case, click OK, and select Project > Close. (The project disappears from the main window.)

Now, repeat Steps 1–2, and click Yes in the dialog box that is displayed.

Master input files (that is, the input files that users write and that, in general, contain variables) are named _.cmd. For each tool, there is a default tool_label that is assigned to a tool instance. You can specify your own tool_label in the Tool Properties dialog box. The name tool_acronym is assigned automatically to the generic input file.

Table 1 lists the most commonly used tools, their default tool label, and tool acronym.

* Ligament Flow Editor and Ligament Layout Editor are not used as separate tool instances. Their tool label is determined from the calling tool. For example, if Ligament Flow Editor is used with Sentaurus Process, the tool label is fps. ** Sentaurus Band Structure and Sentaurus Data Explorer use input files with the extension .tcl.

The master input files with their default tool labels are, therefore, sprocess_fps.cmd, sdevice_des.cmd, and so on. If there is more than one instance of the same tool, a number is added to the default tool label.

A simulation project is launched in two steps:

The simulator is launched using the batch tool gjob, which produces two output files per simulation node: n@node@_.job and n@node@_sge.err. Information about the preprocessing of a project can be found in the file preprocessor.log. The simulator output files are named n@node@_. and pp@node@_.. For example, all files n3_fps. belong to Sentaurus Workbench node number 3 that performs a process simulation with Sentaurus Process.

Table 2 lists the most commonly generated files belonging to simulation nodes. These are the files that are listed in Sentaurus Workbench with the Node Explorer.

For some extensions, there can be more than one file, depending on the simulation task. Additional files are written by the simulators if users specify them in the simulator input file.

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