SummitView 1.0: a code to automatically generate 3D solid models of surface micro-machining based MEMS designs.

Abstract

This report describes the SummitView 1.0 computer code developed at Sandia National Laboratories. SummitView is designed to generate a 3D solid model, amenable to visualization and meshing, that represents the end state of a microsystem fabrication process such as the SUMMiT (Sandia Ultra-Planar Multilevel MEMS Technology) V process. Functionally, SummitView performs essentially the same computational task as an earlier code called the 3D Geometry modeler [1]. However, because SummitView is based on 2D instead of 3D data structures and operations, it has significant speed and robustness advantages. As input it requires a definition of both the process itself and the collection of individual 2D masks created by the designer and associated with each of the process steps. The definition of the process is contained in a special process definition file [2] and the 2D masks are contained in MEM format files [3]. The code is written in C++ and consists of a set of classes and routines. The classes represent the geometric data and the SUMMiT V process steps. Classes are provided for the following process steps: Planar Deposition, Planar Etch, Conformal Deposition, Dry Etch, Wet Etch and Release Etch.SummitView is built upon the 2D Boolean library GBL-2D [4], and thus contains all of that library's functionality.

GBL-2D Version 1.0: a 2D geometry boolean library.

“…GBL-2D is a software library of C++ classes and routines whose central theme is the performance of Boolean operations on 2D geometry data sets. It was originally developed as a geometric modeling engine for use with a separate software tool, called SummitView [1], that manipulates the 2D mask sets created by designers of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). These 2D mask sets are contained in MEM format files (see [2]).…”

“…The SummitView computer code [1] was developed to overcome the aforementioned problems of the 3D Geometry Modeler. A key aspect of this tool is that all geometric objects manipulated by the code are what can be called "2 1 2 D." That is, they consist of a 2D geometry with an associated thickness.…”

“…A key aspect of this tool is that all geometric objects manipulated by the code are what can be called "2 1 2 D." That is, they consist of a 2D geometry with an associated thickness. Using 2 1 2 D geometry allows the modeling problem to be completely solved using 2D data structures and 2D geometric routines. Functionally, SummitView performs essentially the same role as the 3D Geometry modeler.…”

“…Routines are provided that incorporate the Boolean operations: Union(OR), XOR, Intersection and Difference. A variety of additional analytical geometry routines and routines for importing and exporting the data in various file formats are also provided.The GBL-2D library was originally developed as a geometric modeling engine for use with a separate software tool, called SummitView [1], that manipulates the 2D mask sets created by designers of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). However, many other practical applications for this type of software can be envisioned because the need to perform 2D Boolean operations can arise in many contexts.…”

“…The GBL-2D library was originally developed as a geometric modeling engine for use with a separate software tool, called SummitView [1], that manipulates the 2D mask sets created by designers of Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS). However, many other practical applications for this type of software can be envisioned because the need to perform 2D Boolean operations can arise in many contexts.…”