characterization, modeling, and design of esd protection circuits

A.6. SOLVE Card 183
if the voltage bias condition on the open electrode(s) results in near-zero current for that
electrode (see VOPEN1, VOPEN2 below). Such an open-contact case would most
likely arise if the user wanted to extend a previous Tracer run in which voltage bias
conditions were used on the zero-current electrodes for the last simulation point.
If the loaded solution is from a simulation using a zero-current bias condition,
FIRSTSOLUTION=CURRLOAD should be used. In this case “current” should be
specified on a contact card for each open electrode. As in the
FIRSTSOLUTION=LOAD case, the existing inputfile load card is used by
Tracer, which means the correct “infile” should be specified on a load card directly
above the solve card in inputfile. Default: none.
• OPENCONT1 and OPENCONT2 are the numbers of electrodes (between 1 and 9,
inclusive) with a zero-current bias condition. There can be either zero, one, or two open
contacts. When a device has an open contact, the user does not have to worry about
convergence at low device-current levels. Tracer will automatically adapt the bias
conditions to guarantee convergence. Default: none.
• SIMULATOR is either PISC2ET (PISCES-2ET) or MD3200 or MD10000 (TMA-
MEDICI). It designates the device simulator to be used by Tracer. Other additions
may be made in the future. Default: PISC2ET.
• VOPEN1 and VOPEN2 must be used if and only if there is an open contact and
FIRSTSOLUTION=LOAD (voltage bias condition on open contact(s)). The values of
VOPEN1 and VOPEN2 are the voltages of the open contacts OPENCONT1 and
OPENCONT2, respectively, in the loaded solution file designated on the load card of
inputfile. If there is only one open contact, VOPEN2 should not be specified.
Defaults: 0.0.
A.6.4 Examples
1. The trace starts by solving an initial solution at zero bias and uses PISCES-2ET as the
simulator. Electrode 2 is an open contact.
solve opencont1=2 firstsolution=init simulator=pisc