SKILL pCell automated testing

Hi,

You could certainly write some foreach loop(s) or for loop(s) to iterate over your parameter sets and instantiate the pcell devices with those parameters, also changing the placement location from one iteration to the next, but I do not know how easy it would be to code the testing of the placed devices against expected results.  For example, you might use something like the following:

cv = geGetEditCellView()
pcell = dbOpenCellViewByType("pcellLib" "pcellDevice" "layout")
xstep = 1
x = y = 0
foreach((len wid) list(1u 1u 2u 2u 3u 3u) list(40n 90n 40n 90n 40n 90n)
  dbCreateParamInst(cv pcell sprintf(nil "I%d" x) x:y "R0" 1
    list(list("l" 'float len) list("w" 'float wid))
  )
  x = x + xstep
)

If you have lots of parameters or lots of combinations, then nest the for/foreach loops to acheive the result.  Also in that case you can increase the y by "ystep" after every few steps, for example when mod(x 5)==0 reset x back to 0 and increase y by ystep.In that case you will need to modify the instance naming scheme also, perhaps a combination of x and y? The above code is not tested, I just typed it in here, so it may have typos etc. but it should help to get you started.

You might find it easier to create the device instances automatically like the above (perhaps with a label underneath to say what the parameters were?) and then just visually inspect each instance - the hard work of creation and placement was done by the code...

I hope that this helps you.

Regards,

Lawrence.

Cadence also has a tool called "STEP" for automated testing such as this. You may want to contact your Cadence representative to find out more.

Regards,

Andrew.