VLS XL Back Annotation

Version IC6.1.7ISR5
IC6.1.7ISR5 VLS XL Back Annotation
Workshop
July 2016

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Author: Rose Mary Soto

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Table of Contents

1 Preparation for Back Annotation................................................................................. 4

2 Back Annotation in VLS XL.......................................................................................... 9
3 VLS XL Chaining Command & Dummy devices ....................................................... 16

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Preparation for Back Annotation
Start software and open a design

Action 1: cd BackAnnotate

Action 2: virtuoso &

The CIW (Command Interpreter Window) will appear.

Action 3: File → Close the “What’s New” window if it appears.

Action 4: In the CIW window select Tools→Library Manager

Action 5: In the Library Manager form, select library vxlwrkshp, cell halfcell, and
schematic. Double click on the schematic view to open it.

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Action 6: In the schematic Launch->Layout XL

Action 7: In the Startup Option form, click on Create New, Automatic and OK the form.
Use the picture below as a guide.

Action 8: In the New File form, click OK

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Action 9: In the layout view, change workspace to Basic, use the picture below as a guide.

Action 10: Click on the Generate Selected From Source icon or Connectivity->Generate-
>Selected From Source..

Action 11: In the Schematic select instance M3 which is the far left member of the
Diff pair, use the picture below a guide. You can also select instance M3
from navigator of schematic or layout.

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 Action 12: In the Layout, click on F3, then in the Generate Selected C o m p o n e n t s
form, click on Chain. Click to place the abutted chain of transistors, use the
picture below as a guide.

Action 13: Select Instance M2 in the schematic which is to the right of M3 or you can select instance M2
from the Navigator.

Action 14: Place the abutted M2 chain in the layout to the right of M3 as shown in the picture below.

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Action 15: Select Individually placement mode from the drop down menu of placement
mode in the Generate Selected Components form and click on M1 in navigator of
schematic. You do not want chaining at this point because you will be placing the dummy
on either side of the M2 and M3 chains.

Place one of the M1’s to the left of the M3 chain. When you place the transistor make
sure to overlap the metal1 regions so that M1 will abut to the M3 chain. Place the other
one to the right side of the M2 chain. Your final result should look like the picture below.

Action 17: Escape or Cancel the Generate Selected Components form.

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Back Annotation in VLS XL

One of the challenges in designing at smaller nodes is you do not know how many
dummy devices you need until you create the layout. In addition, those dummies can
become active, by active it means that at least one of the terminals is connected to a
signal. This addition usually ends up in a layout that is not XL complaint. Today in
VLS XL, you can add dummies with a few clicks and they can be ignored or back
annotated into the schematic.

Action 1: Click on instance M1.1 and M1.2 as pointed to in the picture below.

Action 2: RMB select Create Dummy With Net->VSS. You are prompted to “Point at
the reference point for the copy”. Click on instance M1.1

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Action 3: You will see instances at the end of your mouse; place the instances
above M1.1 and M1.2 as shown in the picture below

Action 4 Click on one of the dummy’s you just created and copy it. Place it as shown in
the picture below.

Note: You can use the regular copy command for these dummy devices and they will
remain XL complaint and have connectivity.

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Action 5: Select two dummy devices Dummy_I0 and Dummy_I1 as shown in the picture
below and in the Property Editor the top cyclic fields should be Instance and CDF
parameters

Action 6: In the Property Editor Assistant, Change Number of Fingers from 1 to 4. Use
the picture below as a guide.

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Action 7: In the Property Editor change from CDF Parameter to Properties

Note: When a dummy device is created in VLS XL, ignore and lvsIgnore properties are
automatically set to true as you can see in the Property Editor Assistant. It means VLS XL
will not attempt to bind it to anything. Connectivity and other properties are set so it
makes it easy to search for dummy devices in your layout.

Action 8: Create a chain by abutting the dummies created in the previous step to either
side of the M2 and M3 chains using move command as shown in the picture below.

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Then place the single transistor in the middle and abut both chains to it.

Final result

Action 9: In the layout, click on the “Back Annotate All Dummy Instances” icon pointed
to in the picture below or use Connectivity->Back Annotate -> All Dummy
Instances.

In the schematic zoom into the upper left hand corner as shown in the picture below.

Notice how in the schematic only one dummy was back annotated and the reason is
because if a dummy has all terminals assigned to power and ground then that
dummy is considered real and should be ignored, not back annotated. If the
dummy is abutted to a signal then it can no longer be ignored and the dummy
becomes an active device and is back annotated. The device that got back
annotated has source and drain attached to net a and the gate and bulk node are on
net VSS.
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Action 10: If you again click on Back Annotate all Dummy Instances icon then you will get message in
CIW as shown in picture below

Now, In the CIW window enter

envSetVal(“layoutXL” “lxDummyBackAnnotateAll” ‘boolean t)

Action 11: In the schematic delete the device that was back annotated.

Action 12: In the layout click on the Back Annotate All Dummy Instances icon again. Ok the LayoutXL
info window that comes up.

Notice that this time all 3 dummy instances were back annotated to the schematic and this
is because you do have a choice to back annotate all types or just the active ones.

Action 13: Delete the three dummy devices that were back annotated into the schematic.

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Action 14: In the layout select the far most dummy instance Dummy_I1 as shown in the
picture below. Select Connectivity->Back Annotate->Selected Dummy
Instances. Ok the Layout XL info box.

Action 15: Bring the schematic forward and notice that only the selected dummy device
Dummy_I1 was back annotated.

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 VLS XL Chaining Command & Dummy devices

Generate Chained Devices lets you chain devices interactively while you are editing a
layout. You can also chain dummy instances but you have to take a few things into
consideration. If in the Generate Chained Devices form, you select the use Device Order
check box, the dummies are treated as regular devices during the chaining operation and can
support abutment on one side or both sides depending on the state of the
chaindummyFlexBothEndNets environment variable. As a result, irrespective of their order,
the dummies are placed at the end of the chain and their initial connectivity is retained.

Action 1: Deselect all in the layout, bindkey control d. Then either in the Navigator or the
layout canvas select all three dummy instances Dummy_I0, Dummy_I1 and I2.

Action 2: Move the selected set above the other transistors as shown in the picture below.

Point is to unabut the dummy devices.

Action 3: Click on the Generate Chained Devices icon or Connectivity->Generate-

>Chained Devices

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 Action 4: Select all the instances in the layout, the three dummies and the M3, M2 and
M1 instances or you can select these instances from Navigator also.

Action 5: In the Generate Chained Devices form, Make sure all checked boxes are
deselected as shown in the picture below and click Apply.

Action 6: Click to place the new chain. Notice that you do not get a totally abutted chain
and in the next few steps that situation will be corrected.

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 Warning messages also appear in CIW as shown in picture below

Action 7: Use bindkey to undo the chain command bindkey u

Action 8: In the Generate Chained Devices form click on the Use Device Order check box.
Then click Apply.

Action 9: Click to place the new chain and notice that all instances are abutted including
center dummy device. The reason the center dummy instance is also abutted because the
environment variable chainDummyFlexBothEndNets is set to t (default) which means both
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sides of dummy device can change nets.

Note: If this environment variable is set to nil then only one side of the dummy device can
change nets and thus center dummy device will not be able to abut as shown in the picture
below

Action 10: Escape out of the Generate Chained Devices command.

This concludes our examination of back annotation. We hope you found the workshop to
be informative. If you have any questions, talk with the Cadence applications engineer
who is staffing this workshop or contact your Cadence account team.

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