Automated extraction of capacitances and electrostatic forces in MEMS and ULSI interconnects from the mask layout

Efficient and accurate electrostatic simulations are required for extracting capacitance values and electrostatic forces in the design of MEMS actuators and ULSI interconnects. Typical simulations involve complex 3D geometries and various boundary conditions. The simulation of such devices involves the time-consuming and error-prone specification of the geometry, the construction of a 3D mesh suited to numerical computation, and an efficient and accurate electrostatic simulation engine. In this paper, we present a fully automated approach to electrostatic device characterization, using the mask layout and a process description as the input for the geometry definition. The presented solution allows one to perform automated electrostatic parameter extraction while requiring only minimal user interaction and also provides an estimation of the accuracy of the computed result.