Requirements to a physical design support tool for microsystem technology

This paper describes the requirements and the realisation concepts for a design tool supporting the design stages related to the fabrication process of microsystem technology. Based on investigations performed by the authors the needs of potential users in the MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) designer community were specified. Analysing current design flows, methods and tools are presented that support the concurrent and interdependent specification of physical design as well as process sequences. Furthermore an appropriate general software architecture for new approaches in microsystems electronic design automation (EDA) software is presented