Apparatus, article of manufacture, method and system for simulating a

Abstract

A design apparatus, article of manufacture, method and system are disclosed for simulating mass-produced semiconductor device behavior. Drain-to-source current values are obtained from actual semiconductor devices in response to voltage levels at the drain-to-source and gate of a semiconductor device. Semiconductor device attributes, such as channel-length doping concentration are also measured. A device simulator and process simulator are calibrated based upon the actual drain-to-source current values and measured attributes. A process simulator is run in response to simulated process parameters to obtain a plurality of simulated mass-produced semiconductor devices having varying semiconductor attributes. A device simulator is then run using the plurality of simulated mass-produced devices to obtain a plurality of I/V curves based upon the plurality of simulated semiconductor devices. Worst-case I/V curves are then obtained from the plurality of I/V curves by analyzing drain-to-current values in the plurality of I/V curves associated with a predetermined voltage value. Parameters then may be extracted from the worst-case I/V curves in order to determine accurate worst-case semiconductor device designs. Manufacturing guard bands may then also be identified based upon the worst-case I/V curves and idealized I/V curves.