Voltus-FI: How to automate the creation of selfheating-aware EM/IR text reports after every run

Hi Henry,

If your emir.conf is complete, you should be able to get all text reports once APS simulation has finished. Can you paste the contents of your emir.conf here?

Regards,
Saloni

Hi Saloni,

This is the content of the emir.conf file, please check if it is correct:

net name=[IDUT.*] analysis=[vmax vavg imax iavg iavgabs irms]
spf aliasterm = "ppode_ulvt_mac 1=S 2=G"
spf aliasterm = "pch_ulvt_mac 1=d 2=g 3=s"
spf aliasterm = "pch_mpodeulvt_mac 1=d 2=g 3=s"
spf aliasterm = "npode_ulvt_mac 1=S 2=G"
spf aliasterm = "nch_ulvt_mac 1=d 2=g 3=s"
spf aliasterm = "nch_mpodeulvt_mac 1=d 2=g 3=s"
time [128p 200p]
solver method=[direct]
emirutil autorun=[true]
emirutil print_em_report=[net=all_nets type=acrms_sh filename=acrms_sh.txt]
emirutil print_em_report=[net=all_nets type=avg_sh filename=avg_sh.txt]
emirutil print_thermal_report=[type=metal filename=thermal.txt]
net name=[IDUT.*] analysis=[selfheating]

Regards,

Henry

Hi Henry,

Your emir.conf is sufficient only to produce EM reports without any self-heating effect. I understand that you have been able to generate the SHE reports through Voltus-Fi console by loading the database and setting up variables like shXMLFile and shParamFile correctly. So to get the reports directly after simulation, all these options should have been a part of emir.conf. So, you need the below settings in emir.conf:

emirutil shEMEffect=[beolT]

emirutil cds.lib=/path/to/cds.lib

emirutil view=[lib= cell= view=]

emirutil shXMLFile=/path/to/file created by Spectre

emirutil shParamFile=

emirutil qrc_output=[runDir= runName= ]

Which IC version are you on? A relatively newer version can mean you can enable TMI option in ADE form which will add cds.lib and layout view information directly to emir.conf. If you use ICADV12.3 ISR14 or later, then the path to shXMLFile won't need to be specified either.

Regards,
Saloni

Hi Saloni,

Thanks, this is very helpful.

Our Setup > EM/IR Analysis... GUI form has limited entry fields. I managed to add the additional lines (emirutil) to the emir.conf file by import (append) a side file. With our current flow, the selfheating-related variables are loaded in the post-run viewer and the sh-EM reports are printed. I am going to experiment loading them in the pre-run emir.conf, and report back if it works.

Our version is ICADV12.3-64b.500.9  Is this older than ISR14?

Regards,
Henry

Hi Henry,

Yes, you are using ISR9. The version number for ISR14 will be ICADV12.3-64b.500.14.

Regards,

Saloni

Hi Saloni,

With the additional emirutil parameters defined, there is a batch command emirreport executed in the sh_EM run. In there, an lib object file 'libddbase_sh.so' was not found, but it is in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH paths of the Virtuoso session. We run wrapper scripts when starting virtuoso, and perhaps the batch command was executed in a new shell that did not get the wrapper scripts' settings.

If this is the case, is there a way to define env variables before emirreport is executed?

Thanks for your help.

Henry

In the vfi.log:

INFO: Starting Voltus-Fi Batch Mode Application.
Command run is:
******************************************************************
/tools/cds/mmsim17.10.isr2.lnx86/tools.lnx86/sev/bin/64bit/emirreport -c /<...>/emir.conf -db /<...>/psf/input.emir0_bin -outdir /<...>/psf/
******************************************************************
Voltus-Fi version being used is as follows:
******************************************************************
 Voltus-Fi batch mode application (64-bit) - High Capacity Power IR/EM - v06.17-e460_1 ((09/01/2017 04:10:14))
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
 Copyright (c)  Cadence Design Systems, Inc.  1996 - 2014
******************************************************************
ERROR: Could not access LibDef plug-in for oaLibDefSystem: #4: Shared Library Not Found: Error loading library 'libddbase_sh.so'. libddbase_sh.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

Hi Henry,

emirreport gets launched right after Spectre simulation (and generation of EMIR binary data), so it should see the same environment as Spectre run. For SHE flow, voltus-fi (emirreport) needs to call Virtuoso in batch-mode to read layout shapes, so the environment should be consistent.

I am not sure how you run your flow but is it possible that the environment variable LD_LIBRARY_PATH has a different value when Virtuoso is launched, as compared to when/where Spectre is run?

Regards,

Saloni

Another thing to check would be if the SPECTRE installation has been properly configured. Can you check if share/oa link at the root of the SPECTRE installation is not pointing to the OA installation it came with, or if $OA_HOME has been set somewhere. Sometimes such errors come up because the variable OA_HOME has been set but it shouldn't be set at all.

Regards,

Saloni

Hi Saloni,

Thanks. After some changes to the flow, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is now inherited by the Spectre run and VFI batch run. the .so errors are now gone and vfi batch mode is able to run.

Despite having emirutil option "cds.lib" set to my cds.lib path in the emir.conf file:

   emirutil cds.lib=<some_path>/cds.lib

I get an error message about empty lib path in vfi.log:

   ERROR: Unable to open library my_sandbox_emshe at path : Empty Lib Path.

Is the option name "cds.lib" correct,  and is my VFI version recent enough to use it? My version is:

   Voltus-Fi batch mode application (64-bit) - High Capacity Power IR/EM - v06.17-e460_1 ((09/01/2017 04:10:14))

Regards,

Henry

Hi Saloni,

Thanks. After some changes to the flow, the LD_LIBRARY_PATH is now inherited by the Spectre run and VFI batch run. the .so errors are now gone and vfi batch mode is able to run.

Despite having emirutil option "cds.lib" set to my cds.lib path in the emir.conf file:

   emirutil cds.lib=<some_path>/cds.lib

I get an error message about empty lib path in vfi.log:

   ERROR: Unable to open library my_sandbox_emshe at path : Empty Lib Path.

Is the option name "cds.lib" correct,  and is my VFI version recent enough to use it? My version is:

   Voltus-Fi batch mode application (64-bit) - High Capacity Power IR/EM - v06.17-e460_1 ((09/01/2017 04:10:14))

Regards,

Henry