Animation and 3D color display of multiple-variable data: Application to semiconductor design

The increasing complexity of digital simulations requires more effective techniques to display and interpret the voluminous outputs. Advanced digital processing workstations and high-resolution color monitors permit a wide range of new techniques for use in examining the global characteristics of each output variable and their interrelationships with other variables. In this investigation, animation, 3D display, and multiple-window imaging have been shown to be effective in interpreting multiple-variable data sets, both scalar and vector. These display methods are used in the solution of two specific semiconductor design problems: the avalanche breakdown of an n-MOSFET and an alpha particle hit on an npn transistor. With these techniques the user can more fully utilize the results of these long and costly computations, making these methods a powerful addition to existing techniques for imaging data.