C++ design and implementation challenges in technology computer aided design frameworks

Interoperability of physical simulation tools is often cumbersome due to differences in domain representation. The Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) community (1) has realized this problem and is working on providing an object-oriented interface for representing and manipulating the state of a semiconductor wafer during process and device simulation, the Semiconductor Wafer Representation (SWR) [1, 2, 3]. We describe an implementation of components of a 3D SWR designed to support the needs of many TCAD simulators. A set of classes provide support for solid modeling operations, mesh refinement operations, and data interchange. A layered memory subsystem allows either uniprocess or client/server operation. Run-time type identification provides dynamic extensibility of data types.