How to generate warning messages for transient analysis?

 Hi Anna,

in the ADE gui you can use the "Simulation -> Device Checking"   interface.  It will create "assert" statements in your netlist

(See "spectre -help assert" ).

Here an example where I check a node voltage of a resistor if it exceeds a volatage range with a time limit:

Check_net assert expr="(V(R0:1) )" min=1 max=2 duration=1u message="Voltage Exceeds Maximum" level=warning

"Check_net" is just a name. "level" can be also "error" which will stop the simulation.

 Regards,

Marc

Hi Marc,

Thank you very much for your detail explanation. It is exactly that what I need.

Regards,

Anna 

Hi Marc,

I generated warning messages. It works when I use level=error in netlist - however it does not work at all if level=warning. Could it be ICFB issue ?

I use version: 5.10.41_USR5.90.69 .

Here is an example:

1. Warning message

****************************************************************************************

//Device Checks created using ADE Device Checking Interface
check1 assert dev=PM0 param=vth min=-0.5 max=-0.459 duration=1u \
    message="warning" level=warning

//End Device Checks
tranCheckLimit checklimit checkallasserts=yes enable=[ "check1" ] start=0u \
    stop=25u severity=warning
tran tran stop=30u write="spectre.ic" writefinal="spectre.fc" \
    annotate=status maxiters=5

*******************************************************************************************

 spectre completes with 0 errors, 0 warnings, and 0 notices

2. Error messages

//Device Checks created using ADE Device Checking Interface
check1 assert dev=PM0 param=vth min=-0.5 max=-0.459 duration=1u \
    message="error" level=error

//End Device Checks
tranCheckLimit checklimit checkallasserts=yes start=0u stop=25u \
    severity=error
tran tran stop=30u write="spectre.ic" writefinal="spectre.fc" \
    annotate=status maxiters=5

******************************************************************************************

Error found by spectre at time = 1.53 us during transient analysis `tran'.
    ERROR (SPECTRE-4011): check1: error. Instance PM0, Parameter `vth' having value -842.113 mV has exceeded its lower bound `-500e-03'.

 Thanks,

  Anna

Hi Anna,

I just checked this in IC614, but I think it's the same in IC5141 (just didn't have a chance to check). Go to Simulation->Options->Analog and find the parameter checklimitdest (in IC614 this is in the Check Tab, under the Device Checking Options). It's probably set to psf, but if you set it to "both" you'll see the warnings in the log file (unless you specify a separate file for the violations).

By having it in the psf (the default), you can do Results->Violations Display and interactively look at each violation.

Regards,

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

Thank you very much.

You are right it's the same in IC5141.

I set "checklimitdest" parameter to "both" and now I can see the warning messages in log file.

Regards,

Anna 

Hi Marc and Andrew,

Thanks a lot once again for your help.

Regards,

Anna

Hi

Does anyone know how to annotate the max./min. voltage over and beyond the stipulated  threshold defined in the check file? I see warnings when the voltage is breached but I also want to which of the warnings are most serious, because I typically have to sift through 1000s of such warnings per simulation. 

 I use IC 6.1.5.

Thanks

Nanda 

Hi Andrew,

May I have a question for Device Checking on IC5141.

When I select Device and select the one from schematic which I want to check, eg. pmos25. But there is no parameter list to select which there should have V(d), V(g) or something. I search all CDF settings for this device but nothing found. Could you please give an assumption that where can define the parameter list.

Thanks,

Xin

The Forum Guidelines ask you not to post on the end of old threads.

The list of parameters is found by running a small spectre simulation (with the analyses disabled). If that's failing for some reason, the UI won't work.

I suggest you contact customer support for this.

Kind Regards,

Andrew.

Hi,

Do you know if it's possible to check asserts/reliability for only specific transistors or blocks when you have a huge schematic?

Regards,

Venkat