Virtuosity: A Smart Extracted View

The Cadence® QuantusSmart View is the next generation of the Extracted View in the Virtuoso environment. The Smart View provides the same functionality as the Extracted View, but it uses a highly efficient and scalable storage mechanism. This means that Smart View can manage larger, more complex designs at advanced nodes with a reduced overall extraction run time and netlist size. In fact, the Smart View not only helps with faster netlist generation in Virtuoso® ADE Assembler and Virtuoso® ADE Explorer, you can also use it to view the parasitics in the layout within a desired threshold and also their net fragment names. You can also use the Smart View properties to analyze values and connectivity details of extracted parasitic elements.

Click here to download the Using Quantus Smart View in the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment Rapid Adoption Kit or search for it on Cadence Online Support. This details how to:

• Create a Smart View
• Set up ADE to use Smart Views
• Perform in and out-of-context Probing
• Display Parasitics in Layout
• Create Parasitic Reports

There is also a video to see all of this in action, but I'll outline the main features below.

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Out of Context Probing

A key benefit of using Smart View is the ability to automatically map information from the schematic name space to the post-layout(Smart View) name space. This means that you can reuse expressions created with schematic net and terminal names when simulating the Smart View and those net and terminal names will automatically be mapped to their equivalent post-layout names.

The TRAN test in this plot was simulated using the schematic view, the TRAN_EXTR_SV test was simulated using the Smart View. 

Using Direct Plot to select a terminal on the schematic from the TRAN_EXTR_SV test will plot the current from the Smart View without any need for user mapping.

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In Context Probing

Using Direct Plot to descend into the Smart View will open Virtuoso® Layout Suite. You can select a net in the Layout XL Navigator and select which terminals to plot.

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Displaying Parasitics

You can also just open the Smart View, choose Display Parasitics from the Smart-Parasitics menu. Here, you can toggle to view either the resistance or capacitance parasitics or both and choose the minimum and maximum thresholds. You can also choose to see the Node Names for the net fragments.

Zooming right into the parasitcs, you can see the parasitic values and the net fragment names.

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Overlaying the Layout

You can choose the Smart-Parasitics->Overlay Layout option to display the layout view in the background while keeping the Smart View in the foreground.

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Parasitic Reporting

With the integration of Smart View in Virtuoso, how you view parasitics going forward in Virtuoso is certainly set to change forever. But, what is not meant to change is the quick and easy way you have always been able to report parasitics. With Smart View too, you can report parasitics as efficiently as with Extracted View. Simply change the Extracted View in the Parasitic Setup form to point to the Smart View!

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Related Resources

• Rapid Adoption Kit

  • Using Quantus Smart View in the Virtuoso Analog Design Environment RAK

• Video

  • Using Smart View in the ADE Flow

• User Guides

  • Virtuoso ADE Assembler User Guide
  • Virtuoso ADE Explorer User Guide
  • Quantus QRC Extraction Users Manual 
  • Virtuoso Layout Suite XL User Guide
  • Virtuoso Parasitic Aware Design User Guide

For more information on Cadence circuit design products and services, visit www.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… Click Subscribe to visit the Subscription box at the top of the page in which you can submit your email address to receive notifications about our latest Virtuosity posts. Happy Reading!

Arja