Virtuoso Spice In Device Map property is not honored

Nader,

That's actually a CDL netlist (not SPICE). CDL is based on SPICE and has some info embedded in SPICE comments (so the $[M1] is what is called the subtype). So you should import it as CDL, and then have your propMatch like this:

propMatch := subtype PR

propMatch := subtype M1

propMatch := subtype M2

That should then map the devices appropriately (I tested it).

Andrew.

Nader,

That's actually a CDL netlist (not SPICE). CDL is based on SPICE and has some info embedded in SPICE comments (so the $[M1] is what is called the subtype). So you should import it as CDL, and then have your propMatch like this:

propMatch := subtype PR

propMatch := subtype M1

propMatch := subtype M2

That should then map the devices appropriately (I tested it).

Andrew.

Hi Andrew,

Thank you for trying this out. I tried your approach and it worked indeed (Using subtype + CDL). However, the properties of the device (W,L) are ignored and not passed to the schematic view; all devices have the PDK default values (resistors and MOSFET devices). Please note that I am enabling "Trigger CDF Parameter Callback" option.

This is an example of my resistor and MOSFET map:

devSelect := resistor rm2
propMatch := subtype M2
termOrder := PLUS MINUS
propMap := w w l l
addProp := model rm2

devSelect := N nmos2v_mac
propMatch := subtype N
termOrder := D G S B
propMap := w w l l
addProp := model nch_mac

And these are examples of the netlist passed to 

M47 VSSESD 1 VDDESD VSSESD N L=0.18U W=34.5U AD=1.656e-11 AS=1.6215e-11 PD=6.996e-05 PS=3.544e-05 NRD=0.013913 NRS=0.0136232 sa=4.392e-05 sb=4.8e-07 sca=0.122669 scb=8.20968e-08 scc=9.08179e-13 $X=3330 $Y=49630 $D=0

R2 TAVDD AVDD 0.00138889 L=0.00003009 W=1.8e-07 $[M2] $X=65635 $Y=40840 $D=47

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Nader Sh.

Hi Nader,

The parameters with CDL import will be in upper case, so your propMap need some attention - you can see the unmapped parameters show up as user-defined properties on the instances. So (depending on the destination PDK), something like:

propMap := W segW L segL R r

propMap := W w L l

are likely to be needed.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Again thank you very much, indeed this was the problem and now it works fine. There is, however, one final problem I am facing when importing the netlist: I am getting the following errors in the CIW:

*Error* w is below minimum - setting to min

*Error* l is greater than max - setting to max

After debugging, I found out that the resistors are limited to a specific W & L in the PDK because the switch "Hard_constrain" is checked by default. When "Trigger CDF Parameters Callback" is checked, the numbers set are limited to the PDK maximum. According to the PDK manuals: to allow the values of W,L in the netlist "Hard_constrain" switch must be turned off. Is there a way I can use Virtuoso Spice-In and configure this?

This is my resistor causing the problem in the netlist: 

R1 2 VDDESD 1.93853e+06 L=0.00253009 W=4.2e-07 $[PR] $X=69635 $Y=50840 $D=47

Many thanks for your help.

Kindest Regards,

Nader Sh.

Hi Nader,

I suggest you contact customer support. In the TSMC PDK I looked at, that property is called HardCons and if I do:

addProp: HardCons nil

then it adds it as a string, not a boolean. You then get warnings in the CIW. I found CCR 753150 asking for the ability to set properties of different types, but it's not been implemented.

I think the only workaround right now is probably to write some SKILL code which post-processes the imported schematic, sets HardCons=nil on each instance and then calls the CDF callbacks - e.g. using How to call CDF callbacks procedurally from SKILL to update CDF parameters? (this is how you had to do it before the ability to trigger the CDF callbacks was added for SPICE IN).

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

I followed your guidelines with SKILL scripts and it worked!

Thank you very much for everything. Have a nice weekend.

Kindest Regards,

Nader Fathy