general questions
the customer's database must go through drc sign-off procedure before taping out for pilot run or production. we reviewed this procedure and found that the cycle time was very inconsistent due to the various formats of the database. to shorten the cycle time and improve the productivity and the efficiency, we would like to ask customers for their cooperation in unifying the format of their tape out database.
currently, three different formats are used for tape-outs. they are gdsii, mebes, and cflt. thus, we do not support tapeouts in cif or other formats. please see table 1 below for the differences in their characteristics.
feature |
hierarchy |
file size |
|
gdsii |
standard transportation format |
keep |
small |
mebes |
mask house format |
flatten |
large |
cflt |
cats (eda tools) format |
flatten |
large |
hjtc provides an official layer-mapping table for customers to facilitate gdsii data transferring.
hjtc provides an official layer-mapping table for customers to facilitate gdsii data transferring. hjtc strongly recommends customer to use the official layer mapping in a gdsii database taped out to hjtc. it will save drc sign off time and make the result correctly.
hjtc's customer design support department (cds), provides drc, lvs and lpe command files for both logic and mixed-mode processes in 0.18um and above technologies. they can be downloaded from hjtc's website ( my.hjtc.com.cn) please check the web for command file availability.
hjtc also cooperates with all mainstream eda tool vendors (cadence, mentor and synopsys) in allocating resource and finding out possible solutions for hjtc's customers.
|
cadence |
mentor |
synopsys |
sequence |
magma |
spring soft |
drc |
assura |
calibre |
hercules |
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* dracula |
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lvs |
assura |
calibre |
hercules |
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* dracula |
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lpe |
assura rcx |
xrc (xcalibre) |
arcadia |
columbus |
blast fusion |
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* dracula |
|
star rcxt |
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fire&ice (qx) |
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hyperextract |
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tf |
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laker |
* dracula only supports 0.18um process and above. |
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for those command files that are not listed, the customer can request them through their hjtc customer engineer (ce).
the ce will evaluate and then forward the request to the customer design support department (cds) . cds will arrange resource to support it and reply the possible release date for the ce to inform the customer as reference.
to prevent problems during the drc/lvs/lpe execution, the customer should verify the following items:
1. examine the consistency of the command file and the design rule by inspecting the specification name and the version number.
2. read the header of a command file carefully. important information (listed below) can be found in the header section. for example:
a. general information including spec name, version, originator, adaptive version of eda tools, etc.
b1. specific rules which are not implemented in the drc command file.
b2. the device table that lists all available device definitions in the lvs command file.
c. direction of command file usage. for example, option setting to include or exclude a set of special checks, generating methodology of an input layer (n implant could be a drawn layer or a derived layer generated by tooling).
please refer to the definition in related tlr or global rule.
if there is no definition in tlr or global rule :
for 0.18um and above technology, hjtc recommends 0.01um as customer's layout grid. hjtc will use 0.001um as verification grid in order to check customer's database to gain better precision.
for the neutral standpoint, hjtc does not recommended any flow for customer. customers could decide their own flow by consider what tools they have.
for a normal lvs & lpe (new created) case is about 2 ~ 3 weeks, if related dsm is available.