How to change via level with skill in IC6

Hi Eric,

I've not really played with this, but I think that you can find the via definition using something like techFindViaDefByName() and then use that as one of the arguments to the dbCreateVia() function. In IC 6.1.x vias are objects in the database, whereas in IC51 ad earlier vias are instances, so they do need to be treated differently in IC61x.

Hope this helps.

Lawrence.

 There are two types of vias in IC6, customVias which have cellViews and stdVias which do not have cellViews. My current tech file only has stdVias so I cannot include anything about customVias.

 As Lawrence implied, with IC6, if you want to put in a new via in place of the old, not modify the parameters on an existing one, you have to replace the via by creating a new via instanceusing dbCreateVia and delete the old.

Ted

Thanks for your replies.

OK for creating a new via which is stdVia. dbCreateVia has some argmuments. There is no problem for me to get l_point and t_orient from the original via. But I don't know how to get l_paramList. Is there a function to get those parameters ?

Eric

 The non default parameter values are stored on the via header for that instance:

instId~>viaHeader~>overrideParams

The default parameter values have to be  extracted from the viaDef

instId~>viaHeader~>viaDef~>params

Ted

Ted,

Thanks for your help. It works fine 

Regards

Eric

Hi Lawrence,

Based on what you mentioned the differenct between IC6.1.x vias are objects and IC51 are instance.   In this case, is a script in IC51 use  'leIsContact' to check if the via being selected and exist, what should I use accordingly in IC6.1.x?

 Thanks,

Kathy

Hi Kathy,

there is a function dbIsCellViewStdViaMaster() that may help, but there may be another way to approach the problem. In IC61x you can access the vias from the cellview database object, as well as the viaHeaders and viaMasters (and viaVariants) - perhaps you can come from one of these and check to see if the object in question matches?

Hope this helps.

Lawrence.

Kathy,

In IC5141 vias were just instances, and it determined which instances were vias based on them being defined in the tech file as a via. So the leIsContact function could be passed an instance, and then it checked to see if it was one of the registered vias.

In IC61 (because it's OpenAccess), vias are separate objects. So it's very easy to tell if a via is a via:

inst~>objType=="stdVia" || inst~>objType=="customVia"

or

member(inst~>objType '("stdVia" "customVia"))

take your pick!

Regards,

Andrew.

Thanks Lawrence and Andrew for your prompt reply!

I can find out my via is "stdVia".    Now, how can I found out this particular "stdVia" with it's col and row number?

Thanks,

Kathy

Kathy,

inst~>viaHeader~>?? 

You can see there's a viaDefName attribute, an overrideParams attribute (which is an assoc list of things like cutRows, cutColumns). The original (default) parameters are at inst~>viaHeader~>viaDef~>params - but they're just a simple list. So, for example:

paramNames='("cutLayer" "cutWidth" "cutHeight" "cutRows" "cutColumns"

"cutSpacing" "layer1Enc" "layer2Enc" "layer1Offset" "layer2Offset"

"originOffset" "imp1Enc" "imp2Enc" ;"cutPattern"

)

mapcar('list paramNames inst~>viaHeader~>viaDef~>params)

(("cutLayer" "Via1")
    ("cutWidth" 0.14)
    ("cutHeight" 0.14)
    ("cutRows" 1)
    ("cutColumns" 1)
    ("cutSpacing"
    (0.2 0.2)
    )
    ("layer1Enc"
    (0.06 0.06)
    )
    ("layer2Enc"
    (0.06 0.06)
    )
    ("layer1Offset"
    (0.0 0.0)
    )
    ("layer2Offset"
    (0.0 0.0)
    )
    ("originOffset"
    (0.0 0.0)
    )
    ("imp1Enc" nil)
    ("imp2Enc" nil)
)

So if you had this:

default=mapcar('list paramNames inst~>viaHeader~>viaDef~>params)
override=inst~>viaHeader~>overrideParams

cadr(assoc("cutRows" override)) => 2
cadr(assoc("cutRows" default)) => 1

Hope that helps!

Andrew.