RAK Clarity3DLayout Cut-and-Stitch Flow

Clarity 3D Layout Cut and Stitch Flow
Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK)
Product Version Sigrity 2021

July 2021
Copyright Statement
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Clarity 3D Layout Cut and Stitch Flow: RAK
Contents
Purpose ....................................................................................................................... 4
Audience ...................................................................................................................... 4
Download ..................................................................................................................... 4
Terms .......................................................................................................................... 4
Overview ...................................................................................................................... 5
Lab 1: Geometry and Model Setup .......................................................................... 6
Lab 2: Solver Settings ............................................................................................ 16
Lab 3: Cut and Stitch Setup ................................................................................... 20
Lab 4: Starting the Simulation and Viewing Results ............................................... 31
Summary ................................................................................................................... 36
Support ...................................................................................................................... 36
Feedback ................................................................................................................... 36

Purpose
This kit is intended to provide users a working knowledge of the latest Clarity 3D-EM
layout workflow for the Cut and Stitch technique. The technique has been developed to
extract a fast and accurate solution for smaller geometry, which would otherwise take
more time to extract.
Audience
This document is intended for Package (PKG) and Printed-Circuit Board (PCB) engineers
who are interested in extracting models for differential vias.
Download
RAK testcase database, Scripts and References can be found at ‘Attachments’ and
‘Related Solutions’ sections at the end of the PDF file.
This RAK pdf can be searched with the document ‘Title’ on https://support.cadence.com
Terms
3D-EM Three Dimensional Electromagnetic
PKG Package
PCB Printed-Circuit Board
Cut-n-Stitch Cut-and-Stitch

Overview
The Cut and Stitch flow is used to divide a long channel into few sections where different
solvers can be used in each different section to speed up computations. This enables the
overall simulation to be performed in a shorter amount of time with very high accuracy.
This RAK includes four lab exercises that cover the following topics:
 Automatically generating ports

 Using the Cut and Stitch flow to divide up a long channel
 Specifying the field solver for each zone
 Running the Cut and Stitch simulation
 Reviewing the final stitched results
Each lab shows how to use the tool for specific tasks. User sets up the geometry to
execute the cut-n-stitch technique. The technique divides the region of interest into
several regions as depicted below.

Lab 1: Geometry and Model Setup

In this lab, user sets up an S-parameter extraction for a long, high-speed channel. Using
a full-wave 3D field solver for the entire geometry will take a larger amount of computing
resources and a longer time to solve. This lab will show how to apply different solvers to
different sections of the problem without sacrificing too much accuracy, if any at all.
To launch the Clarity 3D Layout GUI, perform the following steps:

1. On Windows platform:
 Click on Start > Cadence Systems Analysis Sigrity 2021 and click on Clarity
3D Layout. When the Choose License Suites window pops up, check Clarity
3D and click Close.
2. On Linux platform:
 Navigate to the <installation_directory>/tools.lnx86/bin
directory
 Type clarity3dlayout in the command line. The Clarity 3D Layout GUI will
appear as shown below.
 You may be prompted to select a license. If so, choose the Clarity 3D from the
list and then click the Close button.
Note: You can select multiple licenses or click Choose all to select all licenses.
However, only the first selected license will be checked out.

The Sigrity Suite GUI is displayed, as shown below.
3. Click New from the File Menu. Alternatively, click the New ( ) icon on the
toolbar.
4. This will create a new layout, Untitled, with four metal layers in the stackup.

5. Under Layout Setup, choose Load Layout File.
6. Navigate to the Cut-and-Stitch_RAK directory and open the cutandstitch.spd

file.
7. Under Simulation Setup, choose Enable Clarity 3D Layout Full-Wave

Extraction Mode.

8. We will be working in mm in this RAK. Go to Tools > Options > Edit Options,
select Grid and Unit from the Layout section, and change the Layout Unit to
mm.
9. Select the OK button to save this setting and close the window.
10. In the Workflow pane under Layout Setup, select Check Stackup
For any simulation, it is important to ensure that proper materials are used. The
Stack Up window should appear as shown below.

11. Click Cancel to close this window without saving changes.
12. In the Workflow pane under Layout Setup, select Select Nets > Skip setup P/G
nets.
This step brings up the Net Manager on the right side of the GUI. If Net Manager
does not come to the front, click on the Net Manager tab at the bottom right.

13. Assign differential pairs to the two indicated nets, SATA_RXN1 and SATA_RXP1:
a. Ctrl+left-mouse-click OR Shift+left-mouse-click to select multiple entries.
b. Right-mouse-click on one of the selections and select Classify > As Diff

Pair.
14. Assign SATA_TXN1 and SATA_TXP1 as another differential pair. Ensure there is
a pair marker next to each differential pair. This Diff Pair assignment will make
plotting differential results much easier.

15. Ensure the two differential pairs and GND are selected with a check next to them.
PowerNets and Unnamed Net(s) do not exist in this design. They can be toggled
on or off without affecting the simulation.
16. Select Generate Port(s) under Simulation Setup. This starts the Port Setup
Wizard.

17. Choose Automatic port setup for package and click Next.
18. Choose Vertical Port and click Next.
19. Choose both U31 and J11 and click Next.

20. Choose Only generate ports for enabled nets.
21. Enter a Vertical Port Height of 0.3mm.
22. Deselect Add plane to cover full package.
23. Click Next.
24. Enter 0.25 for Diameter (mm).
25. Enter 0.1 for Height (mm).
26. Enter 7e6 for Solder conductivity.
27. Check Add solder mask layer box.
28. Enter 0.02 for Thickness (mm).
29. Enter 3.8 for Er.
30. Enter 0.026 for Loss Tangent.
31.
32. Click Finish.
33. The Port window should appear as shown below. There should be a total of eight
ports.
34. Close this window by clicking the X at the top-right.

Lab 2: Solver Settings

In this lab, user sets up parameters for the solver to extract the database used in Lab 1.
35. Select Frequency Settings under Clarity 3D Layout Simulation Options.
The goal here is to set simulation options that will complete the simulation within
the time allotted for this RAK. The results will not be very accurate using these
settings. It is generally recommended that solution frequency be set to at least half
of the maximum frequency.
36. Ensure the Options window appears as shown below.
a. Set Solution Frequency to 1e9.
b. Set Fmin(Hz) to 1e8.
c. Set Fmax(Hz) to 1e10.
d. Set Sampling Mode to Linear.
e. Set Step(Hz) to 1e7.
f. Set Advanced Frequency Sweep to TRUE.
g. Set AFS Convergence to 0.01.
h. Click the Refresh button.
i. Deselect Save Fields.

37. Click OK to save and close this window.
38. Choose Solver Options under Clarity 3D Layout Simulation Options.
Again, the goal here is to complete a simulation run within the allotted time. It is
generally recommended to set the Max Number of Adaptive Mesh Iterations
much higher. We are using a value to limit the number of iterations for the purposes
of this lab.

39. Ensure the Options window appears as shown below.
a. Set Metal Type to Metal_Skin_Impedance.
b. Set Zero Metal Thickness Threshold to 0 mm.
c. Set Low Frequency Solution to Disabled
d. Set Basis Function Order to FIRST.
e. Set Max Number of Adaptive Mesh Iterations to 3.
f. Set Adaptive Refinement Percentage to 30%.
g. Set Target Delta S to 0.02.
h. Set Min Number of Adaptive Iterations to 1.
i. Set Min Number of Converged Iterations to 1.
j. Set Reuse Mesh File to FALSE.

41. Choose Geometry Options under 3D-EM Simulation Options.
42. Ensure the Options window appears as below.
a. Set Number of Points for Via, Wirebond, Pad, Circular Shape, Other,
and Solder Ball/Bump to 6.
b. Set dx+, dx-, dy+, and dy- to 2 mm.
c. Set dz+ and dz- to 1 mm.
d. Deselect Use Conformal Outer Box.

Lab 3: Cut and Stitch Setup

In this lab, user sets up the cut-n-stitch flow to extract the database used in Lab 2.
44. From the menu, choose Tools > Options > Edit Options.
45. Choose Processing under Layout.
46. Set Margin under Cut by Nets Options to 3 mm. This controls the automatic
cutout operation.

48. From the menu, choose Setup > Cutting Boundary > Summary.
49. Click the Auto Generate(by nets) button. This operation creates a cutting polygon
around the four signal nets using a margin of 3mm as set in the Options window.

50. Close the Edit Cutting Boundary window by clicking the X at the top-right. The
generated cutting polygon around the four signal nets can be visualized as below
51. Select Enable Cut and Stitch under the Cut-Stitch Options to enable the
options below it.
52. Select the Cut and Stitch Options. This shows the port dimensions that will be
used.

53. Check the Automatically launch cut models and stitch solutions.
55. Select CuttingZones Setting under the Cut-Stitch Options.
56. Click on the Import from Cutting Polygon button.
This brings the cutting polygon into the workflow. If you still have the Cutting
Boundary Summary window open, notice how the auto-cut polygon has moved
from it into this window.

(Optional) If you still have the Edit Cutting Boundary window open, you can close
it at this time by clicking on the X at the top-right corner. Leave the Edit Cutting
Zones window open.
57. In the Layer Selection pane, choose Signal$TOP.
Tips:
• Zoom in by scrolling the mouse wheel.
• Pan by using the arrow keys or by click+dragging the center mouse button.
58. Right-mouse-click the first CuttingZone in the list and check if Split Zones is
enabled.

59. Zoom into this section of the layout. Left-mouse-click+drag to draw a line from
outside the cutting boundary to the other side. The line will become perpendicular
to the traces. After releasing the mouse button, select Split CuttingPolygon By
Line.
60. Ensure the Edit Cutting Zones window now has two entries.
This last operation should have generated CuttingZone_1 and CuttingZone_2. If

your names are different from those indicated, it is okay.

61. Pan and zoom into this section of the layout. Notice the name of the cutting zone
is indicated in the layout
62. To create a cutting zone boundary with more lines, right-click on CuttingZone_1
and select Split Zones with multi lines.

63. Draw the multi-point line as shown below. The line pushes it to be drawn
perpendicular to the traces it cuts, then you can only choose among allowed points.
a. Left-mouse-click at each vertex starting from outside the blue polygon. It is

blue because the CuttingZone is selected on the Edit Cutting Zones
window
b. After the last vertex, double-click to end the multi-point line and choose Split
CuttingPolygon By Polygon.
64. Fixing mistakes (Optional): If you have made any mistake during these
operations, you can merge the cut regions by selecting multiple zones in the Edit
Cutting Zones windows, right-clicking one of them, and choosing Merge selected
Zones.
Note: Zone numbering is not sequential.

65. Your layout should now appear as shown below.
66. Choose the solver for each region by double-clicking and changing its Solver field.
For the sake of time, we will only choose one section to be solved using Clarity
3D solver. The other two zones should be set to Hybrid. Close the window.
67. Select Generate spds under Cut-Stitch Options.

68. In the pop-up window, click Yes to save the file before performing this operation.
69. Clarity 3D Layout has created three separate layout files, one for each section.
The next pop-up window asks if you want to inspect each separate file in a new
Clarity 3D Layout program instance. Select No.
Note: You may also receive a Warning pop-up saying, “Short circuits found!
Please see the error output window for detail.” This is due to the shorting of
REF_plane and GND. Click OK to dismiss this error.
70. Right-mouse-click on any zone and select Check Port Connection. If you have
closed the Edit Cutting Zones window, select CuttingZones Setting under Cut-
Stitch Options to reopen it.

71. Visually inspect the port locations.
If the display has not updated, left-click on one of the zones in the list. Zoom in to
ensure that each zone has port names between cutting boundaries. In the example
shown below, i5 on the left is matched with i5 on the right. If the internal port names
do not appear here, there is a problem with the cut zone that should be addressed.

Lab 4: Starting the Simulation and Viewing Results

In this lab, user sets up the simulation to extract the same database used in Lab 3.
72. Click Simulation > Set up Computer Resources on the workflow pane to set up
the computer resources for simulation.
The Setup dialog box is displayed, as shown below.
Note: The Computer name is disabled in the Setup dialog box and is the
computer name.
73. Specify the number of CPU cores in the CPUs field.
74. Click the >> button to add the settings to the right pane.
75. Click Save to save the settings.
76. Click Ok to close the Setup dialog box.

You can also distribute the simulation to a remote server. To do this:
a. Select the Enable Remote Simulation check box.
The Computer name field is enabled.
b. Specify the IP address of the server in the IP Address field.
c. Specify the port number in the Port field.
d. Enter the name of the remote server in the Computer name field.
e. Specify the number of CPUs in the CPUs field.
f. Click Save.
g. Click Ok.
For information on how to perform distributed processing, refer to the

Clarity 3D Layout User Guide.
77. In the workflow pane, select Simulation > Start Simulation.
If your computer has less than 32GB of memory a pop-up window will appear
saying the result might result in meshing failure and asking if you want to continue.
Select Yes.
78. Monitor the progress in the Output window. The implementation of cut-n-stitch is
calling other instances of Clarity 3D or Hybrid engine in series, depending on the
zone settings.
In the following screenshot, you see the mesh adaptation steps occurring for
CuttingZone_2.

79. Once simulation completes, you will see the concatenated results for the three
models. Your results may be slightly different since simulation was not allowed to
converge due to time constraints as mentioned before.
80. Left-click the S1 data set in the Network Parameters pane and, then, left-click
the Channel Filter button.

81. In the Channel Filter window, deselect Return Loss and select Insertion Loss.
82. Press OK to save and close this window.
The displayed results are now single-ended insertion loss.
83. From the first dropdown menu, choose Differential Channel View.

84. The results should appear as shown below. Notice that we did not have to do a
differential pair assignment. This is due to the earlier definitions made in the Net
Manager where we already assigned those differential pairs.
85. Feel free to try some of the other plotting views as shown in the previous plots.
Below is an example of plotting the Smith Chart of S-Parameters for Return and
Insertion losses.

Summary
This RAK provides users with a working knowledge of the latest Clarity 3D Layout
workflow for the cut-n-stitch technique. Users can use the concepts to speed up extraction
of S-parameters.
Support
Cadence Support Portal provides access to support resources, including an extensive
knowledge base, access to software updates for Cadence products, and the ability to
interact with Cadence Customer Support. Visit https://support.cadence.com.
Feedback
Email comments, questions, and suggestions to content_feedback@cadence.com.


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Clarity 3D Layout Cut and Stitch Flow

Rapid Adoption Kit (RAK)

Product Version Sigrity 2021

Learn more at Cadence Support Portal - https://support.cadence.com

Learn more at Cadence Support Portal - https://support.cadence.com

PCB Printed-Circuit Board

Learn more at Cadence Support Portal - https://support.cadence.com

 Automatically generating ports

Learn more at Cadence Support Portal - https://support.cadence.com

Lab 1: Geometry and Model Setup

To launch the Clarity 3D Layout GUI, perform the following steps:

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The Sigrity Suite GUI is displayed, as shown below.

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5. Under Layout Setup, choose Load Layout File.

6. Navigate to the Cut-and-Stitch_RAK directory and open the cutandstitch.spd

7. Under Simulation Setup, choose Enable Clarity 3D Layout Full-Wave

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11. Click Cancel to close this window without saving changes.

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a. Ctrl+left-mouse-click OR Shift+left-mouse-click to select multiple entries.

b. Right-mouse-click on one of the selections and select Classify > As Diff

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18. Choose Vertical Port and click Next.

19. Choose both U31 and J11 and click Next.

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20. Choose Only generate ports for enabled nets.

21. Enter a Vertical Port Height of 0.3mm.

22. Deselect Add plane to cover full package.

23. Click Next.

24. Enter 0.25 for Diameter (mm).

25. Enter 0.1 for Height (mm).

26. Enter 7e6 for Solder conductivity.

27. Check Add solder mask layer box.

28. Enter 0.02 for Thickness (mm).

29. Enter 3.8 for Er.

30. Enter 0.026 for Loss Tangent.

32. Click Finish.

34. Close this window by clicking the X at the top-right.

Lab 2: Solver Settings

35. Select Frequency Settings under Clarity 3D Layout Simulation Options.

36. Ensure the Options window appears as shown below.

a. Set Solution Frequency to 1e9.

b. Set Fmin(Hz) to 1e8.

c. Set Fmax(Hz) to 1e10.

d. Set Sampling Mode to Linear.

e. Set Step(Hz) to 1e7.

f. Set Advanced Frequency Sweep to TRUE.

g. Set AFS Convergence to 0.01.

h. Click the Refresh button.

i. Deselect Save Fields.

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37. Click OK to save and close this window.

38. Choose Solver Options under Clarity 3D Layout Simulation Options.

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39. Ensure the Options window appears as shown below.

a. Set Metal Type to Metal_Skin_Impedance.

b. Set Zero Metal Thickness Threshold to 0 mm.

c. Set Low Frequency Solution to Disabled

d. Set Basis Function Order to FIRST.

e. Set Max Number of Adaptive Mesh Iterations to 3.