A parallel multigrid solver applied to the simulation of thermal oxidation and diffusion processes

The complexity of the future processing models and the need for three-dimensional simulation require both efficient numerical methods and fast computers. In this paper, a general parallel PDE solver is presented, which has been adapted to the solution of so-called coupled problems. The numerical solution strategy exploits the optimal behavior of multigrid methods and the grid partitioning for an easy parallelization. As the typical thermal processes in VLSI process simulation can be considered as a coupled problem, the program has been applied to this important class of applications. The flow of the silicon dioxide is modeled as viscous flow. The impurity diffusion takes oxidation enhancement into account.