How to instantiate Pcell with different cell name?

That shouldn't happen (the article was written by me, by the way). The spectre netlister should produce a unique suffix for each variant. It should look like this:

// Library name: mylib
// Cell name: bussetp
// View name: schematic
subckt bussetp_pcell_0 bus\<2\> bus\<1\> bus\<0\> hi lo
parameters busvalue=0
    vlo2 (mid2 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&4)>>2)
    vhi2 (bus\<2\> mid2 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&4)>>2
    vlo1 (mid1 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&2)>>1)
    vhi1 (bus\<1\> mid1 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&2)>>1
    vlo0 (mid0 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&1)>>0)
    vhi0 (bus\<0\> mid0 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&1)>>0
ends bussetp_pcell_0
// End of subcircuit definition.

// Library name: mylib
// Cell name: bussetp
// View name: schematic
subckt bussetp_pcell_1 bus\<7\> bus\<6\> bus\<5\> bus\<4\> bus\<3\> \
        bus\<2\> bus\<1\> bus\<0\> hi lo
parameters busvalue=0
    vlo7 (mid7 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&128)>>7)
    vhi7 (bus\<7\> mid7 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&128)>>7
    vlo6 (mid6 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&64)>>6)
    vhi6 (bus\<6\> mid6 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&64)>>6
    vlo5 (mid5 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&32)>>5)
    vhi5 (bus\<5\> mid5 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&32)>>5
    vlo4 (mid4 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&16)>>4)
    vhi4 (bus\<4\> mid4 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&16)>>4
    vlo3 (mid3 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&8)>>3)
    vhi3 (bus\<3\> mid3 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&8)>>3
    vlo2 (mid2 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&4)>>2)
    vhi2 (bus\<2\> mid2 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&4)>>2
    vlo1 (mid1 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&2)>>1)
    vhi1 (bus\<1\> mid1 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&2)>>1
    vlo0 (mid0 0 lo 0) vcvs gain=1-((busvalue&1)>>0)
    vhi0 (bus\<0\> mid0 hi 0) vcvs gain=(busvalue&1)>>0
ends bussetp_pcell_1
// End of subcircuit definition.

Note the different subckt names.

Have you got a custom nlSetPcellName function in your environment? Try getd('nlSetPcellName) to see if that returns non-nil (you could also try pp(nlSetPcellName) to pretty-print it). I'm wondering whether the default behaviour has been overridden.

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Really appreciate your replay and suggestion. 

After putting "getd('nlSetPcellName)" into CIW, it returns "funobj:nlSetPcellName". I don't quite understand this return result.

After putting "pp(nlSetPcellName)", it returns  SKILL script for "procedure(nlSetPcellName(cv paramNames paramValues)" and "nil" at the end.

Also, the version I am using is IC23.1-64b.ISR15.37 for your infomation.

Regards,

Yutao

Yutao,

That means that somebody has defined a custom function which prevents the unique naming of different variants (this is what happens if it returns nil). That's incorrect. 

You should find out who defined that in your environment - it's a custom addition.

You could add this at the end of the .cdsinit to disable it (this undefines the function):

putd('nlSetPcellName nil)

However, it's probably wise to find the definition of the function (which is presumably loaded from a .cdsinit or libInit.il file) and remove that incorrect definition of the function. If the function isn't defined, you would get the default unique naming per variant as I showed in my example above.

Regards,

Andrew

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for your explanation.

I attach the detail script below, which returns after inputting "pp(nlSetPcellName)" in CIW.

procedure(nlSetPcellName(cv paramNames paramValues)
let((name value
(pcell_suffix "")
)
foreach((name value) paramNames paramValues
when((name == "variant")
(pcell_suffix = strcat(pcell_suffix "_"
lowerCase(value)
))
)
)
strcat((cv->cellName) pcell_suffix)
)
)

After netlisting the test bench, above script grows to cover analog_cell, mcap etc, I am afraid it is generated by the PDK.

I will talk with AE and see how to deal with it.

Regards,

Yutao

Hi Andrew,

Just some follow-up.

I find nlSetPcellName function is used in a simrc file provided from PDK. I am not sure if I can remove that.

I added "putd('nlSetPcellName nil)" in .cdsini file in my home directory. But it does NOT work.

Thanks and regards,

Yutao