Export layout from Innovus to Virtuoso

Hi Anas,

if you are using LEF/DEF based flow, you cannot simply save the database as OA CellView. You will have to create a MSOA PDK first.

You can find more details about this on the support page. You can start here for example: Virtuoso Innovus Mixed-Signal Flow: Quick Reference to Basics and Most Referred Solutions

- Dimo

Hi Dimo, 

Thank you very much for your reply! 

My design is purely digital, would I still need the MSOA PDK? If so, can you please explain why?

Just to be clear, my design is purely digital and is synthesised by TSMC180 PDK using Genus.
I thought there should be an easy way of exporting the design into Virtuoso for verification. 

Do you recommend any other faster way of doing it?

Many thanks,

Anas

Hi Anas,

to open the design in Virtuoso, it needs to be in OpenAccess format. So one way to do this is your point 1:  create your OA view of the design by going over other formats, such as GDS, which you import in Virtuoso.

Option 2 is to directly write out OpenAccess from innovus, but this can only happen if you have MSOA PDK, so that Innovus already has everything in the correct format. If you work in the native for Innovus LEF/DEF based flow, it does have the information needed to create an OA database.

 If you do not have an MSOA PDK I suggest you to go with option 1. Creating the PDK yourself is not a trivial task.

- Dimo

Hello Dimo, 

Thank you very much for your reply! 

I have tried to import the design into Virtuoso through GDS file extracted from Innovus, but the layout on Virtuoso contains only cells, no traces, and no pins. 

This is what the layout looks like on Innovus: 

This is the imported layout on Virtuoso: 

I'm not sure what's going wrong here, is it the exporting process or the importing process? 

The layout is exported from Innovus by File -> Save -> GDS/OASIS, and the options are set as the following: 

The layout is imported into Virtuoso by File -> Import -> StreamIn, and the options are set as the following: 

Thanks for your help!

Many thanks

Anas

I have managed now to import the GDS file into Virtuoso. 
I have created a new library and referenced the tech lib to it, and it works. 

It wasn't clear to me that the mapping files for Innovus and Virtuoso are actually different! I was using the same mapping file, which resulted in the corrupted GDS file shown above. 

Thanks for your help!