Crosslight Software

Last updated

Crosslight Software, Inc.
Type Private
Industry Semiconductor device
Founded1995
Headquarters
Burnaby, British Columbia
,
Canada
Key people
Dr. Simon Li, Founder & CEO
Products Technology CAD
Website www.crosslight.com

Crosslight Software Inc. is an international company headquartered in greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Officially spun off from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) in 1995, [1] it provides Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) tools for semiconductor device and process simulations.

Contents

Crosslight's founder, Dr. Z.M. Simon Li (李湛明), is a pioneer [2] in the field of optoelectronic device simulation TCAD and based on this work, Crosslight claims to be the first commercial vendor of TCAD tools for quantum well laser diodes. Crosslight also licenses other technology from the Stanford University TCAD Group for semiconductor process simulations.

History

After its initial spin-off from the NRC, Crosslight launched its flagship product LASTIP, a 2D simulator for quantum well laser diodes. Based on its founder's research, [2] LASTIP predates other well-known tools in the field such as MINILASE. [3] By adding the ability to model quantum well active regions, LASTIP was also a significant step-up from earlier comparable efforts such as Hitachi's HILADIES. [4] As early laser diode TCAD tools were primarily developed by individual researchers for their own use, Crosslight claims that LASTIP's commercialization makes them first-to-market in this field.

Further improvements in the technology followed including the development of PICS3D for 3D modeling of optoelectronic devices, a feat which earned Crosslight the Laser Focus World Commercial Technology Achievement Award in 1998. [5] For non-laser TCAD applications such as solar cells and light-emitting diodes, a third tool called APSYS was developed. [6] [7]

In March 2004, Crosslight licensed the legendary 2D process simulator SUPREM-IV.GS [8] from Stanford University and extended it to 3D as the core of its process simulation tool CSUPREM.

In January 2010, Crosslight entered into a partnership with Acceleware with the intention of producing greater speed in thin film solar cell and image pixel sensor simulations. [9]

Since its founding, Crosslight has built up a worldwide base of industrial and academic users [10] and has sponsored research and academic projects at various universities and research institutes. [11] [12] [13] [14] [15]

Products

LASTIP

Laser Technology Integrated Program is Crosslight's flagship product and was intended to bring to the laser diode community a level of maturity equivalent to that seen in the silicon IC industry. It includes optical gain models for quantum well/wire/dot with different types of spectral broadening, Coulomb interaction for many-body effects, k.p non-parabolic subbands and models optical mode competition in structures supporting multiple lateral modes. [2]

PICS3D

Photonic Integrated Circuit Simulator in 3D, is a state of the art 3D-simulator for surface and edge emission laser diodes, SOA and other similar active waveguide devices. 2/3 dimensional semiconductor equations (drift-diffusion) are coupled to the optical modes in both the lateral and longitudinal directions. Optical properties such as quantum well/wire/dot optical gain and spontaneous emission rates are computed self-consistently.

APSYS

Advanced Physical Models of Semiconductor Devices, is based on 2D/3D finite element analysis of electrical, optical and thermal properties of compound semiconductor devices with an emphasis on band structure engineering and quantum mechanical effects. Unlike other TCAD tools used in the microelectronics industry, silicon is merely a special case of a more generalized semiconductor material library.

CSUPREM

(Crosslight-SUPREM) is a 3D process simulation software package based on the SUPREM.IV.GS code developed at the Integrated Circuits Laboratory of Stanford University.

PROCOM

(PROcesses of COMpounds) is a 2/3-dimensional process simulation software package for compound semiconductor growth by Metal-Organic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD). Given the deposition reactor geometry, chemical species and growth condition parameters, PROCOM predicts the semiconductor film growth rate, composition, thickness uniformity, dopant incorporation and defect distribution based on detailed chemical kinetics and mass/heat transfer models. [16]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moore's law</span> Observation on the growth of integrated circuit capacity

Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship linked to gains from experience in production.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laser diode</span> Semiconductor laser

A laser diode is a semiconductor device similar to a light-emitting diode in which a diode pumped directly with electrical current can create lasing conditions at the diode's junction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Photonics</span> Technical applications of optics

Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. Photonics is closely related to quantum electronics, where quantum electronics deals with the theoretical part of it while photonics deal with its engineering applications. Though covering all light's technical applications over the whole spectrum, most photonic applications are in the range of visible and near-infrared light. The term photonics developed as an outgrowth of the first practical semiconductor light emitters invented in the early 1960s and optical fibers developed in the 1970s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser</span> Type of semiconductor laser diode

The vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser, or VCSEL, is a type of semiconductor laser diode with laser beam emission perpendicular from the top surface, contrary to conventional edge-emitting semiconductor lasers which emit from surfaces formed by cleaving the individual chip out of a wafer. VCSELs are used in various laser products, including computer mice, fiber optic communications, laser printers, Face ID, and smartglasses.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molecular-beam epitaxy</span> Crystal growth process

Molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE) is an epitaxy method for thin-film deposition of single crystals. MBE is widely used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, including transistors, and it is considered one of the fundamental tools for the development of nanotechnologies. MBE is used to fabricate diodes and MOSFETs at microwave frequencies, and to manufacture the lasers used to read optical discs.

Silvaco Group, Inc., develops and markets electronic design automation (EDA) and technology CAD (TCAD) software and semiconductor design IP (SIP). The company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and has offices in North America, Europe, and throughout Asia. Founded in 1984, Silvaco is a privately held EDA company. The company has been known by at least two other names: Silvaco International, and Silvaco Data Systems.

Quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) are semiconductor lasers that emit in the mid- to far-infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and were first demonstrated by Jérôme Faist, Federico Capasso, Deborah Sivco, Carlo Sirtori, Albert Hutchinson, and Alfred Cho at Bell Laboratories in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Technology CAD</span>

Technology computer-aided design is a branch of electronic design automation that models semiconductor fabrication and semiconductor device operation. The modeling of the fabrication is termed Process TCAD, while the modeling of the device operation is termed Device TCAD. Included are the modelling of process steps, and modelling of the behavior of the electrical devices based on fundamental physics, such as the doping profiles of the devices. TCAD may also include the creation of compact models, which try to capture the electrical behavior of such devices but do not generally derive them from the underlying physics. SPICE simulator itself is usually considered as part of ECAD rather than TCAD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semiconductor process simulation</span> Modeling for semiconductor fabrication

Semiconductor process simulation is the modeling of the fabrication of semiconductor devices such as transistors. It is a branch of electronic design automation, and part of a sub-field known as technology CAD, or TCAD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semiconductor device modeling</span> Modeling semiconductor behavior

Semiconductor device modeling creates models for the behavior of the electrical devices based on fundamental physics, such as the doping profiles of the devices. It may also include the creation of compact models, which try to capture the electrical behavior of such devices but do not generally derive them from the underlying physics. Normally it starts from the output of a semiconductor process simulation.

A resonant-tunneling diode (RTD) is a diode with a resonant-tunneling structure in which electrons can tunnel through some resonant states at certain energy levels. The current–voltage characteristic often exhibits negative differential resistance regions.

A quantum well laser is a laser diode in which the active region of the device is so narrow that quantum confinement occurs. Laser diodes are formed in compound semiconductor materials that are able to emit light efficiently. The wavelength of the light emitted by a quantum well laser is determined by the width of the active region rather than just the bandgap of the materials from which it is constructed. This means that much shorter wavelengths can be obtained from quantum well lasers than from conventional laser diodes using a particular semiconductor material. The efficiency of a quantum well laser is also greater than a conventional laser diode due to the stepwise form of its density of states function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ferdinand-Braun-Institut</span>

The Ferdinand-Braun-Institut, Leibniz-Institut für Höchstfrequenztechnik (FBH) is a research institute, which is a member of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Scientific Community. The institute is located in Berlin at the Wissenschafts- und Wirtschaftsstandort Adlershof (WISTA), its research activity is applied science in the fields of III-V electronics, photonics, integrated quantum technology and III-V technology

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gerhard Klimeck</span>

Gerhard Klimeck is a German-American scientist and author in the field of nanotechnology. He is a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University School of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Archimedes is a TCAD package for use by engineers to design and simulate submicron and mesoscopic semiconductor devices. Archimedes is free software and thus it can be copied, modified and redistributed under GPL. Archimedes uses the Ensemble Monte Carlo method and is able to simulate physics effects and transport for electrons and heavy holes in Silicon, Germanium, GaAs, InSb, AlSb, AlAs, AlxInxSb, AlxIn(1-x)Sb, AlP, AlSb, GaP, GaSb, InP and their compounds, along with Silicon Oxide. Applied and/or self-consistent electrostatic and magnetic fields are handled with the Poisson and Faraday equations.

Roger John Malik is a physicist, engineer and inventor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven P. DenBaars</span>

Steven P. DenBaars is an American material scientist, electrical engineer, and academic. He is a professor of Materials and Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the executive director of the Solid State Lighting and Energy Electronics Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also a Fellow of National Academy of Inventors (NAI), and was selected as a Member of National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 2012 for contributions to gallium nitride-based materials and devices for solid state lighting and displays.

Karl Hess is the Swanlund Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC). He helped to establish the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at UIUC.

References

  1. ↑ Hill, Bert (September 27, 1996). "NRC Showcases Spinoff Companies". The Ottawa Citizen.
  2. 1 2 3 Li, Z.-M.; Dzurko, Kenneth M.; Delage, A.; McAlister, S.P. (April 1992). "A self-consistent two-dimensional model of quantum-well semiconductor lasers: optimization of a GRIN-SCH SQW laser structure". IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 28 (4): 792–803. Bibcode:1992IJQE...28..792L. doi:10.1109/3.135196.
  3. ↑ Grupen, M.; Hess, K. (November 1993). "The self-consistent simulation of the modulation responses of quantum well lasers". IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices. 40 (11): 2105–2106. Bibcode:1993ITED...40.2105G. doi:10.1109/16.239771. S2CID   110729912.
  4. ↑ Yamaguchi, K.; Ohtoshi, T.; Kanai-Nagaoka, C.; Uda, T. (July 3, 1996). "Two-dimensional device simulator for laser diodes: HILADIES". Electron. Lett. 22 (14): 740–741. doi:10.1049/el:19860509.
  5. ↑ Z. Simon, Dr. Li. "Algorithm models thermal effects in VCSELs". Laser Focus World, May 1997, Page 251.{{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  6. ↑ Li, Z.Q. ("Leo"); Li, Simon (July 2007). "Sophisticated models replicate the effects of tunnel junctions" (PDF). Compound Semiconductor. 13 (6): 29–31. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 8, 2011.
  7. ↑ "Carrier manipulation combats droop". Compound Semiconductor Magazine. May 30, 2012. Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2014.
  8. ↑ "Suprem-Iv.gs".
  9. ↑ "Acceleware Delivers 100X Speed Up for Solar Cell Simulations". FOX Business. January 19, 2010.
  10. ↑ Ray, Randy (March 7, 2011). "Crosslight scores with laser-testing software". The Ottawa Citizen.
  11. ↑ Opto-electronic Group, UBC http://mina.ubc.ca/lukasc_funding Archived 2011-01-30 at the Wayback Machine
  12. ↑ Semiconductor device group, NCUE http://blog.ncue.edu.tw/sdmclab/doc/722
  13. ↑ NUSOD http://www.nusod.org/
  14. ↑ Applied Nano & Bio photonics Group, University of Arkansas, http://comp.uark.edu/~syu/research-facilities.html Archived 2010-06-13 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ↑ University of Toronto Smart Power Integration & Semiconductor Devices Research Group, http://www.vrg.utoronto.ca/~ngwt/collaborators.html
  16. ↑ Li, Z.Q. (2004). "Chemical kinetics and design of gas inlets for III-V growth by MOVPE in a quartz showerhead reactor". Journal of Crystal Growth. 272 (1–4): 47–51. Bibcode:2004JCrGr.272...47L. doi:10.1016/j.jcrysgro.2004.08.112.
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