Files in mc-set
Files used and created by Output data file format
Graphing
Files used and created by the mc-set program
The files content and format is continuosly being updated), and for this reason in some places 2 different files are used to store the same data, in different format, or some of the formats described are outdated. Some of the files have already been converted, and others still used in their old formats.
In all cases, the new (and future) file format is a text readable file, using an XML structure.
| File name | Name template | Purpose and comments |
| Configuration parameters | mc-set.ini | Stores configuration information and user preferences for running the program. Located in the Program Files folder, under DLM-Enterprises\\ |
| Materials list | *.mat (old ver.) *.xmf (new) |
Data about the materials that can be used in the definition of a specimen. Only one material file can be used for a particular specimen, but there is no limit on the number of materials included in a material file. The materials file has all the material related data, used both in the simulation and in further calculations (such as EBIC and CL). |
| Specimen | abcdefg.spc | The specimen file consists of the geometrical definition of the specimen cross section, using for each separate area a possibly different material (from the materials list file). The number of layers or regions in a specimen is hard coded in the program to 10, but can in principle be any number. |
| Experiment parameters | abcdefg.exp | The experiment parameters file consists of information about the specimen (name of a specimen file) along with the SEM experimental conditions used (such as beam tilt and beam width), and the program specific parameters (such as number of electrons and calculation mode). Having defined a complete experiment parameters file it is possible to run a simulation. |
| Results | abcdefg.r?? abcdefg.r??_XML |
Where the ?? in the file are replaced by a running serial number starting from 00 and up to 99. Each number corresponds to one simulation run, in which the same experiment parameters file is used. The change in serial number corresponds to different values of the scanning variable used in the simulation. The results stored in such a file include some average results related to backscattering, energy deposition in the various layers, information about the specimen and its layers, calculation parameters used. |
| Energy matrix | abcdefg*.e?? | For each *.r?? it is possible to generate during the simulation a corresponding *.e??, which contains the three dimensional data about the energy dissipation in the specimen. With array dimensions (currently) of 100 in each direction, this corresponds to 1,000,000 number of 4 bytes each (long integers), giving a constant file size of 4,000,000 bytes. This is the file used for further calculations with the simulation results. |
| Electron trajectories data | abcdefg*.t?? | For each *.r?? it is possible to store the details of the trajectories used in the graphics plot. This is done for all plotted electron trajectories, and include the trajectory step number, the electron position (x,y,z) and its energy. The size of this file varies depending on the experiment and the conditions set for plotting trajectories. |
| Electron trajectories graphics | abcdefg_??.BMP | For each *.r?? it is possible to store the IMAGE of the trajectories in the graphics plot. This is done for all plotted electron trajectories, at the end of the simulation run. It is mostly convenient to create a series of images for an animation sequence, using the scan variable program option. |
| Backscattered electrons data | abcdefg.b?? | This file contains information about each of the backscattered electrons in the simulation run. This can be used to calculate the properties of the backscattered electrons, such as energy and angular distributions. The data for each backscattered electron consists of coordinates and remaining energy for the electron at the last calculated position (before backscattering), at the before the last position, at the deepest position in the specimen (maximum penetration). These files are used for the calculation of the spectrum: dN/dE for a range for energies, the number of electrons per energy step. |
| Transmitted electrons data | abcdefg.w?? | This file contains information about each of the electrons in the simulation run that are transmitted through a suitable thin specimen. These files are used in calculations of energy angular distributions, using the spectrum procedures available. Data for each transmitted electron consists of coordinates and remaining energy for the electron at the last calculated position within the specimen, and at the before the last position (for exit angle calculations). |
| Calc and plot data | abcdefg.xls | This is a workbook (a collection of spreadsheets) in excel format, with one sheet per simulation run (serial running number). For the one experimental parameters file (abcdefg.exp) there will be one workbook, with possibly as many spreadsheets as simulation runs. For each simulation run, it is necessary to load the data into the spreadsheet, an operation taken care by excel macros written in the master sheet of the workbook. |
| Temporary transfer file to excel | abcdefg.tmp | Used to create the data in csv format for upload to excel. Results from processing the abcdefg.rxy and the corresponding abcdefg.exy files. |
Output data file format
The following is the format of the excel file produced by each simulation run. The simulation run appends each run for the same specimen into an excel workbook, alowing the data between the runs to be easily compared.
The data at the end of the file is calculated by the simulation program from the 3D energy deposition matrix, and is the depth dose in this case (which is plotted by excel).
In this data, various parameters relevant to the simulation are printed, along with some of the simulation results. For example, under the simulation conditions of stop electron energy of 5050 eV it can be seen that only about 47% of the electron energy has been deposited.
SI_TIME.R05 CONTENTS
Dose smoothing factor 2
Sim run at 12/10/99 16:06
Sim time [sec] [sec] 12
Exp name SI_TIME
Exp filename C:\\0\\SIMULA~1\\mc-set \\DATA\\SI_TIME
Exp last update 12/10/99 16:04
Exp Comment Time resolved energy deposition
Spec filename C:\\0\\SIMULA~1\\mc-set \\DATA\\SI.SPC
Spec name SILICON
Spec last update 12/10/99 16:01
Spec comment silicon specimen for time resolve
Electrons [nmbr] 5000
Calculation mode Plural scattering JOY95 HK
Beam voltage [kV] 10
Beam tilt [deg] 0
Beam position x,y,z [um] 0.00 0.00 0.00
Beam diameter [A] 0
Plotting depth [um] 1.5
Electron stop [eV] 5050
BS electrons data output YES
Energy matrix file YES
SE data output NO
Transmitted electrons NO
Material Si Silicon
Atomic number, mass 14 28.09
Density [gr/cm3] 2.32
Coords (x,y,z) [um] -10.00 -10.00 0.00
Coords (x,y,z) [um] 10.00 10.00 10.00
BS electrons [nmbr] 705
[ratio] 0.14
BS energy [eV] 5226016.96
[%] 10.45
Exit electrons [nmbr] 705
[%] 14.1
Exit energy [eV] 5226016.96
[%] 10.45
Energy not in plot [eV] 66450.1
[%] 0.13
Energy in matrix [eV] 23672754.66
[%] 47.35
Total trajectory ste [nmbr] 164332
Energy in layers Layer nmbr Energy [eV] [%] of t [%] of s
0 23492527 46.99 100
axis labels Depth dose [eV/um]
Depth [um]
title mc-set Depth dose
Data start
0 36974099
0.015 34364444
0.03 32341955
0.045 30193977
0.06 31439554
0.075 32582154
0.09 33529643
0.105 33992866
0.12 34125021
0.135 34285488
0.15 34720310
0.165 35638977
0.18 36261266
0.195 36530332
0.21 36450666
0.225 36673510
0.24 36996910
0.255 37054799
0.27 36966132
0.285 36992355
0.3 37175377
0.315 36801332
0.33 36122799
0.345 35344866
0.36 35246621
0.375 34796999
0.39 34361021
0.405 33633866
0.42 32885266
0.435 32093510
0.45 31111599
0.465 30286154
0.48 29445754
0.495 28810532
0.51 27704332
0.525 26487532
0.54 25302577
0.555 24789910
0.57 24149555
0.585 23319621
0.6 22197977
0.615 20819444
0.63 19549288
0.645 18237755
0.66 17263888
0.675 16250555
0.69 15342910
0.705 14553732
0.72 13701688
0.735 12645688
0.75 11469910
0.765 10204310
0.78 9144066
0.795 8096532
0.81 7339910
0.825 6638777
0.84 5888177
0.855 5012355
0.87 4029999
0.885 3132777
0.9 2324621
0.915 1698088
0.93 1188954
0.945 781643
0.96 475243
0.975 248043
0.99 104065
1.005 23399
1.02 8532
1.035 2133
1.05 0
1.065 0
1.08 0
1.095 0
1.11 0
1.125 0
1.14 0
1.155 0
1.17 0
1.185 0
1.2 0
1.215 0
1.23 0
1.245 0
1.26 0
1.275 0
1.29 0
1.305 0
1.32 0
1.335 0
1.35 0
1.365 0
1.38 0
1.395 0
1.41 0
1.425 0
1.44 0
1.455 0
1.47 0
1.485 0
Data end
Graphing mc-set data using Excel
Various types of graphs can be produced from the results from
- from the energy deposition matrix from one simulation it is possible to obtain the various electron doses
- from the transmitted electrons: their energy and angular distribution (see spectrum calculation)
- from the backscattered electrons: the energy and angular distribution (see spectrum calculation)
The creation of the above graphs follows a similar pattern:
- data is processed in
mc-set - the results are written to a temporary ascii (text) file
- excel is activated via
mc-set , using a data file (exisiting results file or a standard template file) - procedures in the data file read the temporary file created by
mc-set - newly created data is appended to the current workbook in the form of an additional spreadsheet
- the index of the data file is updated to include the new spreadsheet
For each experiment there is one data file that is produced. The various conditions in a batch simulation are included in the same data file.
The following images describe the process of creating data in excel, and of manipulating the excel data itself. Further textual information will follow describing the various procedures.
If something is not clear, please use the contact us page to ask questions.
