11/6/2016

Tutorial6: Layout Simulation in Design Architect

Mentor Graphics Tutorial 6
Simulation of Layout
IC Station / Design Architect / Eldo

Estimated Time: 1.5 hours

In this tutorial we are simulating the layout of the inverter we made in tutorial 5. Here, listed, are the procedure we will be following to
simulate the layout:
Extract the Calibre-Eldo netlist from the Layout in IC Station using Calibre PEX.
Create a symbol for the inverter in Design Architect.
Create a new schematic in Design Architect and place the created symbol, and add/connect Ports, VDD and GND.
Configure the placed symbol and link it to the extracted Calibre-Eldo netlist from the layout.
Netlist the schematic with inputs added to get an EldoSpice netlist. Check and correct the order of the ports in the EldoSpice netlist
according the the order of the Calibre-Eldo netlist.
Simulate the schematic.
Extracting the Calibre-Eldo Netlist
1. Invoke IC Station by typing ./ic from your home directory.
2. Open the inverter you made for tutorial 5 by clicking on File>Open>Cell on the menu bar, and browsing to the directory you saved
the file.
3. Click on Calibre>Run PEX on the menu bar to invoke Calibre PEX. A small window should pop up. Click Browse and select the
directory /usr/local/mentor/ixl_cal_2007.2_15.12 and click OK>OK.

Fig: Pop-up window to choose Calibre path.

4. Calibre PEX window should pop up along with Load Runset File window. Calibre saves all the information of the extraction in a runset
file. As we have never saved any runset files before, click cancel.
5. Click on the Rules tab in the left, and then on the button with the '...' to choose the rules for the extraction. Browse and choose the
file /usr/local/mentor/adk/technology/ic/process/ami05.calibre.rules.
6. Choose a PEX Run Directory. Calibre files created during the extraction is stored in this directory.
7. Click on the Outputs tab on the left to set the output file. Set the Format to Eldo, and Use Names From to Layout.
8. Click on the '...' button and name the output file and choose the directory where you want to save it. You will be linking this file to
the symbol you create in Design Architect. You will also be looking at the port order in this Calibre-Eldo netlist to arrange the order
of the EldoSpice netlist before simulation.
9. Press the Run PEX button on the left to start the extraction. Overwrite the inverter.calibre.db file if it asks you about it.

Fig: Calibre-Eldo Netlist file displayed after extraction.

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10. You should see a window like the one above. You can now close all the Calibre PEX windows. You can choose to save the runset file if
you wish. This runset file contains all the information about the extraction, and will make life easier if you want to extract the netlist
from the same file in the future.
Creating a symbol in Design Architect
1. Invoke Design Architect by typing ./daic from your home directory.
2. Create a new symbol by clicking on File>Open>Symbol from the menu bar. Browse to the directory where you want to save the
symbol and click OK. You can make new folders by clicking on Create New Folder button in the window that pops up. A blank window
should open with the name of the folder you chose.
3. Click on the Add Rectangle icon in the left panel. (Fifth icon from the bottom) Click and drag to make a rectangle around the text.

Fig: Rectangle created around the text.

4. Click on the Add Pin icon in the left panel to add ports to the symbol. Add PIN window should pop up, type 'IN' for the Pin Name,
leave all other settings to the default, and click OK. Then click one grid away from the left side of the rectangle to place the port.

Fig: Add Pin window

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Fig: In Pin/Port Placed

5. Place VDD pin on the top side of the rectangle and the GND pin on the bottom side. Make sure to change the Pin Placement to the
second and third button for the VDD and the GND pin respectively.
6. Place the OUT pin on the right side of the rectangle. Change the Pin Type to OUT and the Pin Placement to the fourth button.

Fig: Completed symbol of an inverter.

7. Go to File>Check Symbol to check for errors in the symbol. Correct any errors if there are any.

Fig: Checking created symbol for errors.

8. Go to File>Save Symbol>Default to save the symbol.
9. The symbol is complete.
Instantiation of the symbol in Design Architect.
1. Invoke Design Architect by typing ./daic if the software isn't already running.
2. Create a new schematic by clicking File>Open>Schematic. In the Open Schematic pop window, click browse and choose a folder to
save your schematic and click OK>OK. A blank Schematic should open.
3. Go to Add>Instance>Choose Symbol in the menu bar. Browse to the symbol you created and choose it.
4. Click on the ADK IC Library button on the Schematic Edit Palette on the right. Then add Portin, PortOut, VDD, and GND to the
schematic. Connect the placed objects to the symbol.
5. Right-Click>Name NET on the wires connecting the Portin and Portout and name then IN and OUT.

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Fig: Connecting the Portin, Portout, VDD and GND.

6. We need to add properties to the symbol to connect it to the Calibre-Eldo Netlist. Right-Click the symbol, then click on the small
arrow next to the Properties, and then on Modify Multiple. Edit Object Properties window should appear.
7. Type ELEMENT for the Name and X for the Value and click Apply.

Fig: Edit Object Properties window.

8. Add another property with Name: ASIM_MODEL and Value: INVERTER and click OK.
9. Click on File>Check Schematic in the menu bar to check for errors. Save the schematic after correcting the errors. Ignore the
warnings.
10. The schematic is ready for simulation.
Simulating the Schematic
1. Enter the simulation mode by clicking on the Enter Simulation Mode icon in the left panel. (Green Triangle icon). Click OK on the
pop-up window.
2. Click on the Setup Sim Session icon, the first icon, on the left panel, and then on Simulator/Viewer button. Choose your simulator
as Eldo and Viewer as EZwave in the pop up window.
3. Click again on the Setup Sim Session icon, the first icon, on the left panel, and then choose 'Environment...' this time. A window
should pop up. Choose 'Run Simulation and Display Waveforms' in the Auto-Run Simulation Setup section. Type the directory path
for the Simulation Depository. This is where the EldoSpice netlist will be saved. Click OK.

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Fig: Type the part for the Simulation Depository.

4. Setup the Library to ami05.mod by clicking on the Setup Lib/Temp/Inc icon, the second icon, and then on Libraries. Set the library
path to /usr/local/mentor/adk/technology/ic/models/ami05.mod either by typing it or browsing through it.
5. Click the Setup Lib/Temp/Inc icon, second icon, in the left panel and then on 'Include Files...' Browse to the Calibre-Eldo netlist
extracted from the layout using Calibre and choose the file. (Choose the file without any extension. If you had the default setting for
the output file in Calibre PEX then this file will have the extension pex.netlist) This links the Calibre-Eldo netlist to the symbol.
6. Then click on the Setup Analysis icon (third one from the top) to choose the type of analysis. Check the Transient analysis checkbox.
7. Select the IN net and add a Pulse Input. Set the Pulse Value to be 5, Pulse Width to be 50e-9 and Period to be 100e-9. Add a 5 and
0 DC inputs to VDD and GND. (Setup Forces/ICs--fifth icon from the top)

Fig: Schematic with inputs.

8. Ctrl-click to select all the nets in your symbol, then click on the Wave Outputs icon in the left panel. It is the ninth icon from the
top. Then click on 'Save Selected'.
9. Choose to Save the Voltage, uncheck the Plot item(s) checkbox on the popup window, and click OK.
10. To create an input EldoSpice netlist click on the Netlist icon (thirteenth icon from the top) in the left panel. A status window should
open and read Done
11. Using a text editor open both the Calibre-Eldo Netlist (file without an extension) and the EldoSpice netlist (*.spi) by browsing to the
directory you chose to save it.

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Fig: Calibre-Eldo netlist. Port order is IN, OUT, GND and VDD.

Fig: EldoSpice netlist. Port Order is OUT, GND, IN, and VDD.
12. Change the port order in the EldoSpice netlist to the order of the Calibre-Eldo netlist and save the file.

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Fig: EldoSpice netlist after correcting the port order.

13. Hit the Run Simulator icon in the left panel. (Green triangular icon)
14. EZwave window should appear. Browse through the graphs and open the V(IN) and V(OUT) graphs under TRAN to check your
inverter.
15. Your waveforms should look similar to the one below.

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Fig: EZwave window showing V(IN) and V(OUT) waveforms for the layout.

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