Importing Files from ASITIC (CIF files) Into Cadence

I was rather amused to see you say "in this version of Cadence" when you didn't say which version you're using. Not that "Cadence" is a tool or the name of the release - that's the company name. I assume you are talking about the "IC" stream and the tool is Virtuoso?

CIF (Caltech Intermediate Form) is a rather old format for describing layout data, which is text-based. It had the benefit of being quite simple, but the downside of having a lot of variants because it was text and easy to change. It's rarely used in the industry with stream (a.k.a GDS) and increasingly OASIS formats being prevalent.

There used to be a CIF interface in the IC5141, but it was not ported to Open Access due to lack of use - so it hasn't been in any release since IC6.1.0 (which came out in 2006). So it's hardly a new thing!

Probably for now you'd be best using a third-party conversion tool. Normally I'd point people at Artwork Conversion Software (a Cadence connections partner), but a quick google search for CIF to GDS offers some other choices - for example, the KLayout tool.

Andrew.

Sorry Andrew, my mistake, I meant Cadence Virtuoso and it is version 6.

In any case, I used KLayout to convert the CIF file to a GDS file.

When I streamed this into Virtuoso as a GDS file, it had "no intelligence" - meaning it did not map the metal and other layers from the GDS file into Cadence.

Do I need a layer map file for use in Cadence Virtuoso - I know there is an option for this.

What is the format of this layer map file - are there any examples of what this layer map file looks like anywhere ?

Thank you again.

Streaming in a stream (GDS) file requires a layer map file, because stream uses a number for each layer, and there needs to be something to tell it which layer name to map it to. Normally this layer map file is in the technology library and is picked up automatically - usually it's a good idea to create the destination library and attach it to your technology library - and then stream into your destination library. Check inside the technology library to see if there's a layer map file (it will be called libName.layermap where libName is the name of the library). 

As for the layer map format, this is covered in the documentation. To find it, I'd suggest clicking on the "?" or "Help" button (depending on which version  you're using) on the File->Import->Stream form and it will then take you to the right manual. In the version I'm using (IC6.1.7.500.21) it is clearly accessible through that first link.

BTW, "version 6" hardly narrows it down. There have been 8 major versions (6.1.0 through to 6.1.7) over the last 12 years...

Regards,

Andrew.