Signoff DRC

verification using
Calibre RealTime
Srinivas Velivala
Technical Marketing Engineer, Calibre
Interfaces
Design-to-Silicon Division

May 30, 2014

 Physical Verification Trends:
Continuously Increasing DRC Complexity

Double
Patterning

Pattern Match Pattern Match

On-grid checks On-grid checks

Pitch checks Pitch checks Pitch checks

Litho checks Litho checks Litho checks

Multi-dimension Multi-dimension Multi-dimension Multi-dimension Multi-dimension

checks checks checks checks checks

2002 2006 2008 2010 2012

130 nm 90 nm 65 nm 45/32 nm 22/16 nm

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 Growth in Signoff DRC Rules and Complexity

 10 times more checks at 14nm as at 28nm

checks
 Checks are complex & context sensitive
making it harder for designers to memorize

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 What is ?
 Interactive DRC/DP/Pattern
Match with signoff Calibre
Design Tool  Same decks, same engine, as
Calibre batch
Client  Two modes
— On-edit
OA RTM — in-window
 No exchange of files (GDSII)
between design environment
OA DB and Calibre RealTime
 Integrated with Laker 3 &
Pyxis Open

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 Calibre® RealTime: Custom Design
 90nm ~ 1100 checks & 5900 shapes  0.2 sec
 28nm: 2805 checks & 6649 shapes  0.3 sec

Standard – 10-20 sec RealTime – 0.2 sec

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 Benefits of Calibre RealTime

 Better layout design in less time

— Designers can concentrate on layout creation & optimization instead of spending
time to fix DRC errors
— No more tedious design rule interpretations & waiting for verification runs to
complete

 Reduces design cycle time

— Eliminates separate, time-consuming physical verification iterations

 Calibre sign-off confidence

— With usage of foundry-qualified rule decks, designers can have full confidence in
the results

 One Tool, One Interface

— Runs within the custom design tool as an integral part of design creation flow

 Immediate feedback as you edit the layout

— Interactive editing and verification of custom/AMS layouts ensures DRC-clean
designs in the shortest time possible

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 CALIBRE REALTIME
INTEGRATION

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 Calibre RealTime Integration
Tcl package (shared lib)

Laker Calibre Client Calibre Server

OA Memory Model

OA Database

Software from 2 vendors, working from a single memory model

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 3rd-party Integration Challenges
 Interactive speed requires direct access to the in-
memory data of the design tool
 In-memory API’s require binary compatibility
— Compilers and Linkers, including version
 OA enables tight 3rd-party integrations
— Published API
— Tiered – database, +plug-ins, +run-time model
— Supported by many custom design tools
 OA integration still requires cooperation, but is
manageable

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 SYNOPSYS LAKER CALIBRE
REALTIME INTEGRATION

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 Laker Integration: Key Technologies

 OA Observers
— Shape Observer: Triggered any time a shape is added,
deleted, modified, or moved
— Instance Observer: Triggered any time an instance of
a cell is added, deleted, or moved
 Laker’s Tcl APIs
— Used for tool-access APIs
— Loading C++ shared libraries for performance
– Used Tcl package mechanism to load shared library
– Requires platform and compiler compatibility

Used existing APIs for 90% of the integration

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 Laker Integration: Challenges and Solutions

 Provided toolbar for error navigation

— SpringSoft provided hooks to install a toolbar
 Layer mapping is not in OA memory model
— Used Tcl APIs to access layer mapping
 Visible and edited layer checks
— Used Tcl APIs to access information
 Software distribution
— RealTime code distributed with Calibre product
— Loaded into Laker through startup script

Cooperative development eased tight integration

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 Calibre RealTime Laker Video Demo

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 PYXISOPEN CALIBRE
REALTIME INTEGRATION

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 PyxisOpen Overview

 Native on OpenAccess PyxisOpen Platform

 Cockpit for our Edit Capability
automation tools Automation Core
PyxisOpen Custom Router

Placer*

Calibre
Advanced Floor Planner*

GUI and Constraint

Environment

*Future Products

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 PyxisOpen Custom Router
Works in any OA Based Design Flow

 Enables the Pyxis Custom

Router to run in any
OpenAccess flow
— Similar look and feel as Virtuoso
— Same PDKs & tech files
— Same display file
 Current Pyxis Custom Router
users have reported
productivity improvements
up to 10x over traditional
routing
 Qualified down to 28nm
with multiple tapeouts
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 Wire Editor

 Correct by construction interactive routing

 Via insertion supports multiple cuts
 Understands hierarchy
 Built-in checkers
— Calibre RealTime
— oaTech.db
— Shorts

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 Calibre RealTime Integration
 Sign-off quality DRC as
you edit, using standard
Calibre decks
 No stream-out required
 Setup and manage DRC
checking recipes
 Navigate and fix errors
in PyxisOpen
 Supports double
patterning during
manual editing

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 PyxisOpen Integration: Overview

 Software distribution
— RealTime code distributed with Calibre product
— Loaded into Pyxis Open as a plugin at startup
 Layer mapping is not in OA memory model
— Layer map parser & OA region query present in Calibre
Shared object
 Visible and edited layer checks recipe
— Used Pyxis Open built-in C++ APIs to access
information

Calibre RealTime PyxisOpen integration is faster

due to the direct use of C++ API
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 PyxisOpen Integration: Key Technologies

 OA Observers
— Shape Observer: Triggered any time a shape is added,
deleted, modified, or moved
— Instance/VIA Observer: Triggered any time an
instance of a cell or via is added, deleted, or moved
 Pyxis Open C++ APIs
— Used for tool-access APIs
— Used for dynamically running Calibre RealTime while
doing Interactive Routing
— Used for Check-recipe selection, Highlighting ,etc.
Calibre RealTime integration behavior is similar
across all platforms

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 Calibre RealTime PyxisOpen Video Demo

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 www.mentor.com

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 Calibre RealTime PyxisOpen Video Demo

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