CAPCAL - A 3D capacitance solver for support of CAD systems

This paper presents a new program package named CAP-CAL. It provides a method for calculation of the 3-D electric field distribution due to multilayer metallization of advanced VLSI integrated circuits. Since a knowledge of capacitanes is mandatory for the prediction of switching speed, power consumption, and cross talk, it is a powerful tool for the circuit designer both for checking and for optimizing an IC layout. The finite difference method together with a multigrid solver was employed to permit easy program handling and full portability. The codes developed have been tested on various computers down to the size of a microcomputer and thus can be installed on every system currently in use for CAD. (IFT)