Stick Diagrams

• Cartoon of a layout.
• Shows all components.
• Does not show exact placement, transistor sizes,
wire lengths, wire widths, boundaries, or any
other form of compliance with layout or design rules.
• Useful for interconnect visualization, preliminary layout
layout compaction, power/ground routing, etc.
Stick Diagrams

Buried Contact

Contact Cut

Contacts – between metals and other layers

Vias – between different metals.
CMOS Inverter:
5V 5v

Dep

Vout

Vin
Enh in

0V

0V
Stick Diagram - Example I: NOR Gate
Stick Diagram - Example II

Power

A Out

Ground
 NAND2 Layout

Vp

X
a.b

Gnd
a.b
a b

a b
Gnd
 NOR2 Layout
Vp
Vp

X X

ab
ab

a b X
Gnd X X
a b
Gnd
 General Layout Geometry
Vp

Shared drain/
source

Individual Shared Gates

Transistors

Gnd