corner analysis in ATE-XL, Virtuoso 6.1.0. Spetre model has no section.

Hello, Andrew,

Thank you very much for the reply. The version I am using right now is IC6.1.0.243. I am sorry I have never got a chance to attend any ADE-XL training and furthermore the internet browser in our UNIX server has some problem and therefore I cannot read Cadence documentations. Let me describe what I want to do for the corner analysis in my case:

Basically, everything is pretty standard. For several kinds of circuits, I need to look at their certain performances at all five corners. In each corner, I want to vary the temperature as well as the supply voltages. For these, I do know how to set them to variables and give them different values for different corners in ADE-XL.

The real problem is the model file. Totally, there are 60+ model files (*.scs) in the tech I am designing with. Three files are special: design.scs, fixed_corner.scs and process.scs. 'fixed_corner.scs' has all the corner paramters but no seperation among different corner groups. All other files seem to be aimed for specific devices, like dgcap.scs, dgnfet.scs, dgvnfet.scs, egncap.scs. Also, there are files for ESD moduling. Usually, ADE-XL automatically loads design.scs, fixed_corner.scs and process.scs. When I go to the corner setup form in ADE-XL, I set up the variables on the left hand side of the form and add them to the right and do "Expand corner. Since neither of the model files has any sections, I cannot specify certain corner parameters for different temperature and supply voltage combinations. In the 'value' conlumn behind each model file, 'Whole_File' and 'Exclude_File' are the only options I got.

In other words, what is confusing me is that, if I don't have to use sections, how could the simulator know for each corner, which group of corner parameters should be used ? For instance, at ff corner, I am able to set the values of teperature and supply voltage, say 0C and 1.05V, but as I got no section selectable, how do I know that the simulator actually runs simulations with corner parameters that have names ending with '_ff' but not '_tt' or something else? Not to mention that, for sf and fs corner, the temperature and supply voltages will be set exactly the same with those in tt, then how possibly could the simulator know how to identify each of them without designer specifying the corner parameter sections?

Therefore, if it is not too much trouble, could you please get more detailed and give some hint on how exactly to do setup for corner analysis? Thank you very much for your time!

Hello, Andrew,

Thank you very much for the reply. The version I am using right now is IC6.1.0.243. I am sorry I have never got a chance to attend any ADE-XL training and furthermore the internet browser in our UNIX server has some problem and therefore I cannot read Cadence documentations. Let me describe what I want to do for the corner analysis in my case:

Basically, everything is pretty standard. For several kinds of circuits, I need to look at their certain performances at all five corners. In each corner, I want to vary the temperature as well as the supply voltages. For these, I do know how to set them to variables and give them different values for different corners in ADE-XL.

The real problem is the model file. Totally, there are 60+ model files (*.scs) in the tech I am designing with. Three files are special: design.scs, fixed_corner.scs and process.scs. 'fixed_corner.scs' has all the corner paramters but no seperation among different corner groups. All other files seem to be aimed for specific devices, like dgcap.scs, dgnfet.scs, dgvnfet.scs, egncap.scs. Also, there are files for ESD moduling. Usually, ADE-XL automatically loads design.scs, fixed_corner.scs and process.scs. When I go to the corner setup form in ADE-XL, I set up the variables on the left hand side of the form and add them to the right and do "Expand corner. Since neither of the model files has any sections, I cannot specify certain corner parameters for different temperature and supply voltage combinations. In the 'value' conlumn behind each model file, 'Whole_File' and 'Exclude_File' are the only options I got.

In other words, what is confusing me is that, if I don't have to use sections, how could the simulator know for each corner, which group of corner parameters should be used ? For instance, at ff corner, I am able to set the values of teperature and supply voltage, say 0C and 1.05V, but as I got no section selectable, how do I know that the simulator actually runs simulations with corner parameters that have names ending with '_ff' but not '_tt' or something else? Not to mention that, for sf and fs corner, the temperature and supply voltages will be set exactly the same with those in tt, then how possibly could the simulator know how to identify each of them without designer specifying the corner parameter sections?

Therefore, if it is not too much trouble, could you please get more detailed and give some hint on how exactly to do setup for corner analysis? Thank you very much for your time!