APR: Automated Place and Route Using Virtuoso Studio

Do you know you can place and route the complete layout using the APR flow?

"Are you still manually placing and routing analog devices, sacrificing precious design time and risking errors, when you could be leveraging automated tools to streamline your workflow and boost productivity?"

In the world of analog design, precision and accuracy are paramount. Yet, many designers still find themselves mired in the tedious and time-consuming process of manually placing and routing analog devices. The frustration is palpable: hours spent meticulously arranging transistors, wires, and components, only to have to redo it all when the design requirements change. But what if there was a better way?

Imagine having the power to automate the placement and routing of your analog devices, freeing you to focus on the creative aspects of design.

Welcome to the world of Device APR (Automated Placement and Routing) in Virtuoso Studio, where the drudgery of manual layout is a thing of the past. With Device APR, you can quickly generate constraint-compliant, LVS-correct, and DRC-following layouts that meet the stringent demands of modern analog design.

In this blog, we'll explore the benefits and capabilities of Device APR and show you how to revolutionize your analog design workflow.

The Virtuoso APR flow is a series of automated tasks that generate placed and routed layouts, enabling quick creation of constraint-meeting, LVS-compliant, and DRC-adherent designs. These layouts include base layer fill, necessary for advanced nodes, and can be used for parasitic extraction and re-simulation. This allows for early issue identification without waiting for final signoff. The layouts can also be easily modified and updated for final signoff.

The Virtuoso APR flow is designed for circuit and layout designers working with advanced node PDKs and CAD teams supporting such designs. The Auto P&R assistant is available in the Layout EXL and Layout MXL cockpits, while the Routing assistant is available in the Layout MXL cockpit.

Virtuoso Automated Device Placement and Routing Flow

Device-Level Placement

The Auto P&R Assistant in Virtuoso Studio streamlines the device placement process by leveraging advanced algorithms to group devices based on schematic constraints, optimizing placement for components like differential pairs and current mirrors.

The Device Level Placement process involves four key steps:

• Initialize Layout, which generates the layout based on the source schematic.
• Generate Groups, Constraints, and Grids, where circuit finders identify compatible structures and transfer information about WSPs, row regions, and diffusion grids.
• Place Devices, which supports two placement objectives - design compaction and better routability.
• Base Layer Fill, where gaps between devices are filled with dummy fill or polyfill to maintain instance continuity, ensure density requirements, and achieve DRC-clean design.

Device-Level Routing

The Routing Assistant feature streamlines the routing process for Advanced Node Designs by enabling users to plan and implement complex connections between nodes efficiently.

To achieve this, the feature involves a series of steps:

• Configuring router settings
• Generating width spacing patterns
• Checking routability
• Generating supply grids
• And finally, completing routing for all or selected nets

Additionally, users can generate meshes for critical nets, create trunks to connect instance pins, and analyze routing results using the Routing Results Browser, which provides detailed information on routing performance, including opens, shorts, wire lengths, DRC violations, and vias.

To learn quickly about this APR flow, explore the short training bytes in this channel: Auto Place and Route (APR) for Virtuoso Studio – Device Level vIC 23.1

In conclusion, the Auto Place and Route Assistant provides an interface suitable for initializing, placing, and routing designs to aid in the placement and routing for Advanced Node Designs.

Enroll in the Course Auto Place and Route (APR) for the Virtuoso Studio – Device Level to learn more about Automated Place and Route in Virtuoso Studio.

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About Knowledge Booster Training Bytes

Knowledge Booster Training Bytes is an online journal that relays information about Cadence Training videos, online courses, and upcoming webinars that are available in the Learning section of the Cadence Learning and Support portal. This blog category brings you direct links to these videos, courses, and other related material on a regular basis.

Sandeep O

On behalf of the Cadence Training team