Tips & Tricks

How to check what software version you are running

There is a very fast and easy way to verify what software version you are running for your ESI CFD applications. You most likely know that this information is available for the GUI by clicking on 'Help → About ...', and for solvers by looking in the output file.

Always Make Sure You Have a Good Mesh Quality

The mesh has a great influence on the solver convergence and solution of every CFD Simulation. The user is strongly advised to check the quality of a numerical mesh.

Copy/Paste Viewpoint tools

Usually, when performing a particular simulation, it is necessary to compare the results of similar models or the same model at different operating conditions. It is important that the two (or more) cases being compared be viewed from the same angle and at the same zoom level.

Using "Visual Scaling" for Models with Drastically Varying Length Scales

For models that have drastically varying length scales, it can be difficult to create the grid, setup a model, and post-process the results. CFD-GEOM, CFD-ACE-GUI and CFD-VIEW have a "Visual Scale" capability that can significantly help when working with these types of models.

Parametric Studies Using SimManager

Parametric studies are an important aspect of CFD analysis. Parametric studies are used to perform trend base analyses, optimize the deign of a device, and/or to study the affect of different parameters on a process (What if? type analysis).

How to Compare the Model Setup Between Two DTF Files

Have you ever wanted to find the differences between two DTF files? If you have, then you will probably be interested in a DTF utility included in your ESI Software installation. The utility is called dtf_diff and can be found in your UTILS_2009.0/bin directory.

CFD-ACE+ and CFD-TOPO Coupling

There is a growing demand and challenge in different industries, especially semiconductor and MEMS areas, to have increased wafer size with reduced feature size, i.e. high quality process uniformity.

DTF utility: the -vd and -ud options

The DTF utility offers several options for viewing and manipulating simulation data in a DTF file. Simulation data is essentially all settings that are not Volume Conditions or Boundary Conditions. By using a couple of DTF commands, you can update the data in the DTF file without opening it in CFD-ACE-GUI. In this tip, we will demonstrate how to use the -vd and -ud options of the DTF utility.

CFD-TOPO: A Tool for Feature Scale Simulation of Semiconductor Processes

CFD-TOPO is a simulation tool that predicts how the shape of entities change due to the combined effects of chemical species transport and surface reactions at gas-solid interfaces. This application provides a wide array of tools to analyze the steps of a semiconductor process on the feature scale of a device (typically the order of micro-meter).