by:Maurice J.A. Delafosse is MEMS product engineer, DPFS department, at Dalsa Corp. in Bromont, Canada.
Gerold Schröpfer is director of European operations and foundry partner program for Coventor in Sarl Paris, France.

Dalsa Semiconductor and Coventor have published an article on the use of virtual fabrication for MEMS processing. Virtual fabrication process emulation backed up by experimental calibration is a more productive way to build integrated MEMS and CMOS systems than process simulation. It provides a link between fab and design, is a lower-cost and faster technique, and provides a unique method to understand and improve design and process interaction, and wafer control/inspection. It leverages the enormous knowledge and tooling that has been developed in CMOS semiconductor fabrication, and transfers that knowledge to the MEMS world.

(left) SEM image and (right) SEMulator3D image of process steps in the Dalsa MEMS process.