Virtuosity: Auto Device Array - A One-Stop-Shop for Modgens

27 Feb 2020 • 4 minute read

Hello everybody! I'm back with a new blog on Virtuoso^® Module Generator, popularly known as Modgen.

It's been a busy few months for us, here at Cadence. We’ve developed several new, interesting tools and features for layout automation during this time.

In this blog, I'm going to talk about one such feature, a personal favorite—the Auto Device Array form—an easy, intuitive, and powerful interface to create and customize Modgens.

The Motivation

The semiconductor industry has come a very long way since the invention of transistors 72 years ago. The first transistor was of the size of our palm, and now we are talking about transistors that are only a few nanometers wide! Such a massive scaling down of transistors has come with its own set of challenges. To overcome these challenges, we’ve constantly developed new methods of automation in both digital and analog areas.

Modgen is a custom IC and analog automation tool that lets you create highly matched arrays of devices directly in the design canvas and enables you to customize these arrays as per your requirements. It has been our constant endeavor to upgrade and enhance Modgens to suit your requirements.

The process of creating and customizing very large arrays of Modgens can be time-consuming when done incrementally. For example, you would first define a pattern, then the spacing and alignment settings, and then the guard ring structures. These tasks, when performed manually, will also require some intermediate automatic processing time to ensure that the array is built accurately.

We’ve developed a simple yet powerful interface—the Auto Device Array form— that lets you quickly create and customize Modgens, all-at-once, without launching the Modgen Editor environment.

This form is now available in ICADVM18.1 ISR9!

An Inside Look

The Auto Device Array form integrates key options from the Modgen Placement and Routing toolbars. You can select a set of instances and, with a single click, create a completely placed and routed Modgen by applying the default form settings. You can also use the options in the form to customize the placement and routing settings before generating the Modgen. It's as simple as that!

The Auto Device Array form can be invoked from the Constraint Manager of both the schematic and the layout cellviews. So, the feature is beneficial to Layout Engineers and Circuit Designers alike.

Here's a quick list of what you can do using the Auto Device Array form:

Create and customize Modgens easily: A simple interface that lets you create a Modgen with a single mouse click. You can also customize the Modgen intuitively.
Set different pattern presets: You can choose from a range of preset pattern types for your Modgens.
Change the aspect ratio: You can either specify an aspect ratio or let the tool smartly adjust the aspect ratio as per the selected custom pattern.
Add dummies: Add dummies around Modgens and customize them as per your requirements.
Abut instances: Achieve maximum abutment for a given Modgen pattern.
Specify the spacing and alignment settings: Options to specify the horizontal and vertical spacing and alignment settings.
Add guard rings: A single click is all it takes to add the required type of guard ring around a Modgen.
Store the Modgen information into an easy-to-read template file: Options to save and load Modgen settings in a template file. Want to know more about this? Check it out here.
Route the pins and terminals inside the Modgen using the pin-to-trunk router: An intuitive interface to create topology and routing constraints.

Indeed, the Auto Device Array form is a one-stop-shop for everything related to Modgens. Explore to know more!

The Auto Device Array form integrates well with the Automated Device Placement and Routing flow. We’ll talk more about this in our next post, so stay tuned!

Related Resources

Blogs

Rapid Adoption Kits

User Guide

Virtuoso Module Generator User Guide

For more information on Cadence circuit design products and services, visit www.cadence.com.

Contact Us

For any questions, general feedback, or even if you want to suggest a future blog topic, write to custom_ic_blogs@cadence.com

About Virtuosity

Virtuosity has been our most viewed and admired blog series for a long time that has brought to fore some lesser-known, yet very useful software and documentation improvements, and also shed light on some exciting new offerings in Virtuoso. We are now expanding the scope of this series by broadcasting the voice of different bloggers and experts, who would continue to preserve the legacy of Virtuosity, and try to give new dimensions to it by covering topics across the length and breadth of Virtuoso, and a lot more… To receive notifications about new blogs in this series, click Subscribe and submit your email ID in the Subscriptions box.

Happy Reading!

Aneesh Shastry