Since its inception, the semiconductor industry has relied on costly, time-consuming physical experiments to resolve technical problems, improve designs and optimize process recipes in plasma-based manufacturing equipment. Lam’s VizGlow multi-physics plasma simulation software provides chipmakers a compelling alternative that can dramatically reduce material costs of experiments, speed up development, and shorten time to market. It’s a gamechanger and I’m thrilled to share that it just got better.
Created specifically for the semiconductor industry, Lam’s VizGlow software (part of the OverViz® platform) can perform large, complex plasma-flow simulations for any semiconductor process. Semiconductor manufacturers use VizGlow to drive concept development for new device designs, evaluate the operation of existing equipment, and analyze equipment faults. It is a powerful tool that can simulate new materials, chemistries and operating schemes during process development.
Today Lam announced the availability of VizGlow 3.0. The latest version of this powerful platform introduces a range of new features and improvements, including speeds up to 100x faster and significantly better user experience over previous versions.
VizGlow 3.0
VizGlow 3.0 is built on more than 15 years of expertise in plasma physics and can be used to solve the most difficult chip design and process recipe challenges. Unlike traditional tools, which combine isolated physics components, VizGlow is a comprehensive solution that seamlessly joins multiple physics solvers into a single data framework. This holistic approach drives more robust and accurate results during large-scale plasma simulations.
VizGlow enables faster, less costly design iteration using high-fidelity plasma simulation, which can serve as a virtual twin to the equipment being produced. The use of virtual twins allows chip designers to quickly make informed changes to their processes and speed product development. The software is fully parallelized, with an ability to solve large-scale, realistic plasma physics problems.
An unstructured computational mesh framework is the foundation of this software. It can approximate any shape and resolve geometric complexities associated with different reactor components. 3D cutaway views of simulated physics components can be generated to identify the source of wafer uniformity issues.
New Capabilities
Now available, VizGlow 3.0 provides superior scaling in high performance computing environments, better usability, faster solve time;
- Modeling of conducting dielectrics with realistic material properties;
- New graphical user interface that integrates all simulation workflow components including geometry, meshing, physics setup, and simulation monitoring into a single platform;
- New electromagnetic time-domain solver with full integration for external circuits; and
- Multi-frequency power control for electromagnetic and electrostatic solvers.
Driving Innovation
VizGlow is part of Lam’s Semiverse™ Solutions portfolio, which is designed to accelerate innovation and cross-industry collaboration in the semiconductor industry. We work closely with our customers to understand their semiconductor design challenges, anticipate the solutions they will need, and provide them with simulation capabilities ahead of industry requirements. Learn more about Semiverse Solutions, including VizGlow.