IC Packagers: Off-the-Shelf Component Support for IC Package Designs

30 Sep 2021 • 2 minute read

In Allegro® Package Designer Plus prior to the HotFix 019 of release 17.4-2019, any component of type IC in the design shows up in Die-stack Editor. If these are off-the-shelf components, you do not want to see them in Die-stack Editor. To stop such off-the-shelf components from appearing in Die-stack Editor, you would change the Class definition of the component to discrete. However, changing the Class definition breaks other integration flows like simulations and syncing with logical design applications. In HotFix 019 of 17.4-2019 release, Allegro Package Designer Plus provided a new mechanism to achieve this without changing the Class definition. You can now add a new property, Comp_Subtype, to mark a die as an off-the-shelf component. In this blog, we will discuss this property and its uses in detail.

Adding a Property to Mark Dies as Off-the-Shelf

You can mark any die as an off-the-shelf component by assigning the Comp_Subtype property to it, and then assign an appropriate value to the property by following these steps:

Right-click any component that needs to be marked as an off-the-shelf component in the design.
From the pop-up menu, choose Property Edit to open the Edit Property dialog box.
Select the Comp_Subtype property to add it to the selected component.

In the following image, note that the Comp_Subtype property can be assigned one of the several available values from the Value drop-down list.

For off-the-shelf components, select PACKAGE_DIE as the value.

A die with this property value does not show up in Die-stack Editor.

Let’s look at the other values available for the Comp_Subtype property.

DIE	Assigned by default to all new standard dies created in Allegro Package Designer Plus using commands, such as die generator or die text in. These components will be shown in Die-stack Editor.
BGA	Assigned by default to all new standard packages created in Allegro Package Designer Plus using either BGA generator or BGA text in commands.
LGA	Can be assigned to components of Class IC or IO. Packages can be assigned as type LGA.
QFP	Can be assigned to components of Class IC or IO. Packages can be assigned as type QFP.
QFN	Can be assigned to components of Class IC or IO. Packages can be assigned as type QFN.
CONNECTOR	Can be assigned to components of Class IO. This value is not supported for Class IC or Discrete.
RESISTOR	Can be assigned to components of Class Discrete. This value is not supported for Class IC or IO.
CAPACITOR	Can be assigned to components of Class Discrete. This value is not supported for Class IC or IO.
INDUCTOR	Can be assigned to components of Class Discrete. This value is not supported for Class IC or IO.

The above-mentioned property values are the foundations for future enhancement in the tool. You can select a value according to the usage of the component.

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