Identify Cells by Layout

This tutorial will show you how to use the layout matcher to identify project cells by their layout. Only use if you have a gdsii library to compare against.

Import GDSII Files into the Reference Library

The first step is to import a library of GDSII files into the reference library.

  1. In the Cells, click the Golden Lib GDS button:

    goldenlibgds

  2. In the Golden Lib GDS window, click the Import Layout Reference Cells button:

    importbutton

  3. In the Import Reference Layout Cells dialog, specify a library name for the layouts to import. Set the layer number and data type that corresponds to the m1 layout, and the layer number and data type that corresponds to the text layer with the port names. Finally, set the directory the GDSII files are stored in, and click the Import button.

    importsettings

  4. In the Golden Lib GDS Results window, click the Manage Layout Reference Cells button:

    managebutton

  5. The imported layout reference cells can be viewed in the manager window:

    managedialog

    Click the Close button after verifying that the layout cells were imported correctly.

Settings

  1. Open a project.

  2. In the Golden Lib GDS Results window, click the Golden Lib GDS Settings button to bring up the settings window:

    settings

  3. Set the Reference Layout Library that should be used by the Golden Lib GDS.

  4. During the matching process, any match with a correlation score below the Minimum Correlation will automatically be discarded.

  5. During the matching process, any reference cell that has a width or height that differs by more than the Maximum Cell Boundary Difference from the target cell’s width or height will automatically be discarded. This constraint makes the matching process go much faster, because fewer correlations need to be performed.

  6. Click the Ok button to save the settings.

Device Properties

  1. In the Home tab, click the Device Properties window.
  2. Make sure that the Metal 1 layer has been specified in the project.
  3. Click the Ok button.

Compare Cell

  1. Select a target cell instance in the project.

  2. In the Golden Lib GDS Results window, click the Identify the selected cell button:

    identifybutton

  3. The possible matches will be displayed:

    identifyresults

Confirm Result

  1. Click the Confirm the selected match button to confirm the selected match as valid.

    confirmbutton

  2. The Confirm Match dialog displays the identified cell name and port mapping:

    confirmdialog

  3. Click the Confirm button to rename the cell and ports.