Mississippi State University

Dallas Semiconductor

Standard Cell Tutorial

By: Wei Lii Tan

Advisor: Dr. Robert Reese
This revision: September 02, 2001
 Introduction
• This tutorial will guide you through creating a
standard cell library, and integrating that standard
cell library into the Cadence design flow.
• The following CAD Tools will be used in this
tutorial:
- Cadence ICFB
- Cadence Abstract Generator
- Cadence Design Planner
- Synopsys Design Compiler
- HSPICE
 Introduction
• The following conventions will be used in this
tutorial:
- File names will be in italics, e.g.
/ccs/issl/micro/users/tan/myfile.vhd
- User input (e.g. what you need to type)
will be in boldface, e.g. type swsetup
cadence-ncsu
• *important*All directories will start with
your_work_directory/add_stdcells, unless
specified otherwise.
How standard cell information is passed to different
CAD Tools

Layout

Cadence ICFB
GDS File LEF File
Abstract Generator
LEF File

Cadence Design Planner Cadence Silicon Ensemble

Guidelines to Creating a Standard
Cell Library
• A standard cell library must contain at least the
following cells to be able to implement any function:
- NAND
- NOR
- NOT
- DFF
• Additionally, you can expand the standard cell
library to include additional cells like Tie-high, Tie-
low cells, I/O Pads, and multiple-input gates (e.g. a
4-input NOR gate).
 Guidelines to Creating a Standard
Cell Library
• Dr. Robert Reese has a page that provides
excellent information on standard cell
guidelines. The webpage can be accessed at:
http://www.ece.msstate.edu/~reese/EE8273/lect
ures/stdcellroute/stdcellroute.pdf
. (You will need PDF reader)
• The following pages will discuss the
requirements for a standard cell.
Guidelines to Creating a Standard
Cell Library
• All cell layouts must adhere to DRC rules
for the technology in use. MOSIS provides
a website with rules for technologies
supported by MOSIS.
• To view the website, go to
http://www.mosis.org/Technical/Designrule
s/scmos/scmos-main.html
Guidelines to Creating a Standard
Cell Library
Vertical and Horizontal Routing Grids:
- Cell pins, with the exception of abutment pins (VDD
and GND) must be placed on the intersections of the
vertical and horizontal routing grids.
- Vertical and horizontal routing grids may be offset
with respect to the cell’s origin, provided that the
offset distance is exactly one-half of the grid spacing.
- The cell height must be a multiple of the horizontal
grid spacing; the cell width must be a multiple of the
vertical grid spacing.
 (a) Without Offset (b) With Offset

Horizontal Grid Spacing One-half Horizontal Grid Spacing

Horizontal Grid Spacing

One-half Horizontal Grid Spacing

Cell Origin

Figure 1: Horizontal Routing Grid Examples

 (a) Without Offset (b) With Offset

Cell Origin

Vertical Grid Spacing One-Half Vertical Grid Spacing

Figure 2: Vertical Routing Grid Examples

 (b) With Vertical and
(a) Without Offsets Horizontal Offsets

Figure 3: Sample Standard Cell Routing Grid

 What are Routing Grids For?
• The routing grids are where the over-the-
cell metal routing will be routed.
• The pins of your standard cells should
always lie on the intersections of the
horizontal and vertical routing grids.
Although some CAD tools will route to off-
grid pins, this may cause some other
complications.
(a) Line-on-line (b) Line-on-via (c) Via-on-via

Min spacing, can’t fit

Min spacing
another via here

Figure 4: Minimum Spacing between gridlines

(From Dr. Robert Reese’s Standard Cell Route Notes)
 Grid Spacing
• Grid spacing must be defined for each routing
layer.1
• Grid spacing needs to be at least line-on-via (Refer
figure 4), and are usually via-on-via. 1
• Remember that your cell height must be a multiple
of the horizontal grid spacing, and your cell width
must be a multiple of the vertical grid spacing.

1. From Dr. Robert Reese’s Standard Cell Route Notes

 Filler Cells
• Filler cells should be included in your
standard cell library – filler cells provide
continuity for your VDD/GND rails, as well
as for n-well.
• Without filler cells, some foundries will add
their own version of filler cells into your
design when fabricating your chip,
sometimes resulting in fabrication errors.
 Sample Standard Cell Library
• A sample standard cell library is located at
cadence/dfII/tutorial.
• The following are the particulars of the sample
library:
- Technology: ami06 ( = 0.3 m)
- Horizontal grid spacing: 3.0m (10), with
5 offset.
- Vertical grid spacing: 2.4m (8), with 4
offset.
- Horizontal routing layers: metal1, metal3.
- Vertical routing layer: metal2
 Sample Standard Cell Library
• The DFF cell in this standard cell library is a
double-height cell – it is two times as tall as the
other cells.
• Doing this allows for more area for the DFF cell
(DFF cells are generally bigger than the other
cells). It also allows for a more squared shape for
the DFF cell, as opposed to a rectangular shape if
the DFF cell was only single height.
• These traits lead to more efficient placing of
standard cells in a design.
Legend

Vertical
Grid

Horizontal
Grid

Cell Origin

PR Boundary

Figure 5: NAND2 gate from sample library

 Sample Standard Cell Library
• As shown in Figure 5, all the regular pins
(A, B and Y) are located on the intersections
of the vertical and horizontal grid.
• The GND and VDD pins are not located on
the intersections because they are abutment
pins, i.e. because of their shape and location,
these pins will automatically abut against
each other when the cells are placed side-by-
side.
 Accessing the Sample Standard
Cell Library
• Go to the cadence/dfII directory.
• Type swsetup cadence-ncsu
• Type icfb &
• Three windows will appear – The CIW
(Command Interpreter Window), Library
Manager Window, and an update
notification window. Close the update
notification window.
 Accessing the Sample Standard
Cell Library
• Go to the Library Manager window.
• Click on the Library ‘tutorial’.
• Under the list of cells you will see
DFFSRX1, FILL, FILL2, INVX1 etc. These
are the standard cells included in the library.
• The standard cells included in this library
all follow the guidelines talked about
earlier.
 DRC Verification
• To verify that the standard cells all adhere
to DRC rules for the technology in use, you
can use ICFB’s Design Rule Check (DRC)
function.
• All the standard cells (not the I/O pad cells)
in the Tutorial library have been checked to
pass DRC, but we will go through the
process for DRC checking for the NOR2X1
gate, as an example.
 DRC Verification
• In the Library Manager, open the Layout view of the
cell NOR2X1 for edit.
• In the Layout Editor window, click on Tools -> Layout.
• Click on Verify -> DRC. The DRC window will appear.
• In the DRC window, fill out the information as shown in
Figure 6 (next slide). Then, click on OK.
• DRC will take a few moments to run. After that you
should see a message in the CIW window reporting that
there were not DRC errors.
• If there were DRC errors found, the errors would be
highlighted in the layout window.
Figure 6: DRC Form
 DRC Verification
• Note: I/O Pads will rarely pass DRC
because they have special layout structures
to handle ESD.
 HSPICE Extraction
• Extracting to HSPICE, then simulating the
HSPICE model provides a fast and accurate
means verifying the functionality of the
standard cells.
• Taking the NOR2X1 cell as an example, we
will go through the process of extracting the
HSPICE model for that cell.
 HSPICE Extraction
• Open the Layout view of NOR2X1 for edit.
• In the Layout Editor window, click on Tools ->
Layout
• Click on Verify -> Extract. The Extractor form
will appear.
• Fill in the information for the Extractor form
according to Figure 7, on the next slide.
• Click on the OK button.
• After a few moments, the CIW should report that
the extraction has been completed.
Figure 7: Extractor Form
 Extracting a Hspice Netlist
After running the Extractor form, follow the
instructions below to generate a HSPICE netlist:
• Click on Tools -> Simulation -> Other. You should
see a new menu item - Simulation – appear on your
menu bar.
• Click on Simulation -> Initialize.
• Enter “nor2x1.hspice” for the simulation run
directory.
• Click on OK.
• Another Initialize Environment form should pop-up.
This one has the full set of options to choose from.
 Extracting a Hspice Netlist

• In the Initialize Environment form,

choose hspice for the simulator name.
• Enter “tutorial” for Library Name,
“NOR2X1” for Cell Name, and
“extracted” for View Name.
Figure 8: Initialize Environment Form
 Extracting a Hspice Netlist
• Go back to the Layout editing window, and click
on Simulation -> Options…
• Make sure the Use Hierarchical Netlister and
Re-netlist Entire Design boxes are checked,
and the others are left unchecked.
 Extracting a Hspice Netlist
• Go back to the Layout editing window, and click
on Simulation -> Netlist/Simulate…
• Make sure that the netlist box is checked, and
the simulate box is not. Also, check the Run in
background box.
• The remaining information should be already
filled in correctly for you. Make sure they match
up to that shown in Figure 9 (next slide).
Figure 9: Netlist and Simulate Form
 Extracting a Hspice Netlist
• Click on OK. Wait for a minute or so as ICFB
works in the background to generate the Verilog
netlist.
• A message telling you that the netlister has
succeeded should pop up after a minute or so.
• The HSPICE netlist will be located in the
directory that you specified as the run directory
(for our case, cadence/dfII/nor2x1.hspice), with
the filename netlist.
 Creating Abstracts
• The first step in integrating a standard cell
library into your design flow is creating
abstracts of the standard cells.
• Abstracts are simpler representations of the
standard cells – abstracts only include
information that is pertinent to the place-
and-route tools, e.g. metal and via layers.
• To generate abstracts from the cell layouts,
we are going to use a program called
Abstract Generator.
 Creating Abstracts
• Abstract generator comes as a part of the Silicon
Ensemble package. As such, it cannot directly read
ICFB library databases.
• The Openbook (refer Appendix A) documentation
for Abstract Generator suggests that you use a
utility called CDS2HLD_4.4 to convert ICFB
library databases to the HLD format used by
Abstract Generator. Unfortunately, I have not
gotten CDS2HLD_4.4 to work without errors yet.
• A more hassle-free method would be to export the
standard cell library to Stream (GDS) format, then
re-import the GDS file in Abstract Generator.
 Exporting to GDS Format
• To export to GDS format from ICFB:
• Go to the CIW.
• Click on File -> Export -> Stream…
• In the Virtuoso Stream Out form, enter the following
information:
Run Directory: .
Library Name: tutorial
Top Cell Name: (leave blank)
View Name: layout
Output File: ../gds_files/jennings.gds (Refer Figure 6, next slide).
• Then, click on the User-Defined Data button. A new form, the
Stream-Out User-Defined Data form will appear.
Figure 10: Virtuoso Stream Out Form
 Exporting to GDS Format
• In the Stream Out User-Defined Data
form, enter “stream.map” for the Layer
Map Table. Then, click on OK.
• The text file stream.map tells ICFB which
layers correspond to which GDS numbers.
When we re-import the GDS file back into
Abstract Generator, we are going to use the
same Layer Map file.
• Refer to Figure 11 (next slide) for the
Stream Out User-Defined Data form.
Figure 11: Stream Out User-Defined Data Form
 Exporting to GDS Format
• Now, back in the Virtuoso Stream Out Form (Figure
10), click on the Options button. A new form, the
Stream Out Options form will appear (Figure 12).
• In the Stream Out Options form, select “No Merge”
for the “Convert PCells to Geometry” field. This
flattens out any parametric cells in the cell library (For
the I/O Pad Cells). Then, click on OK.
• Click on OK in the Virtuoso Stream Out form. A
GDS file (cadence/gds_files/jennings.gds) containing
the standard cell library will be generated.
Figure 12: Stream Out Options Form
 Setting up Abstract Generator
• Before we use Abstract Generator, we need to set
it up so that it uses our technology file (i.e. ami06
technology).
• Usually your foundry will provide you with an LEF
(Library Exchange Format) file, which contains all
the technology specifications.
• If not, you will have to write the LEF file yourself.
The LEF file can be somewhat generated from
ICFB, but you will still need to modify it a little
before using it in Abstract Generator.
• Refer to Appendix A for help on information about
LEF file syntax.
 Setting up Abstract Generator
• An LEF file containing technology
information on ami06 technology is
included -
cadence/lef_files/ncsu_ami06_abgen.lef
• We will configure Abstract Generator
using this LEF file.
• Go to the cadence/abgen/tech directory.
• Type swsetup cadence-se
• Type lef2hld &
 Setting up Abstract Generator
• In the lef2hld form, enter the following information:
• Lef File Name(s): ../../lef_files/ncsu_ami06_abgen.lef
• Destination Library Name: jennings_ami06
• Make sure the Create Technology File box is checked, and the
Technology File Name is “./tech.dpux”.
• Refer to Figure 13 (next slide) for all other fields.
• Click on OK. This will create a tech.dpux file, and also a
‘jennings_ami06’ folder. These will provide Abstract
Generator with ami06 technology information. This will NOT
provide Abstract Generator with standard cell information
yet! The standard cells have to be imported via GDS format.
Figure 13: lef2hld Form
 What if I don’t have an LEF file
to start with?
• You can export technology specifications from ICFB
to an LEF file.
• In ICFB’s CIW window, click on File -> Export ->
LEF…
• In the ‘Write to LEF File’ form, enter
“../lef_files/ncsu_ami06_icfb.lef” for the LEF file
name.
• Enter “./lefout.list” for the Cell List File Name.
• Make sure that Logical only is checked for the output
mode.
• Refer Figure 14 (next slide) for other details.
Figure 14: Write to LEF File Form
 What if I don’t have an LEF file
to start with?
• Click on OK.
• This will generate an LEF file containing only the
technology information (no standard cell layouts are
included).
• This LEF file still has to be edited before being used by
the LEF2HLD utility.
• In the cadence/lef_files directory you should see two
files: ncsu_ami06_icfb.lef which you just exported from
ICFB, and ncsu_ami06_abgen.lef which is in the
correct format for use with LEF2HLD. Note the
differences between the two files.
 Using Abstract Generator
• To start up Abstract Generator:
• Type: swsetup cadence-se
• Go to the directory: cadence/abgen/run and
type: abstract –tech ../tech &
• This will bring up the abstract generator
screen. First, we need to import the GDS
file containing our standard cell layouts,
that we exported from ICFB previously.
Figure 15: Abstract Generator’s Main Window
 Importing GDS
• In the main window, click on File ->
Technology…
• After a few moments, the Technology File
Editor should appear. Click on Layers on
the left column, then click on Mapping on
the top row. (refer Figure 16, next slide)
Figure 16: Write to LEF File Form
 Importing GDS
• Now, click on the Map… button on the
right column. Another form, shown below,
should appear.
 Importing GDS
• Double-click on stream.map.
• This will add the correct GDS stream numbers to Abstract
Generator’s tech.dpux file.
• Go to the Technology File Editor window, and click on File
-> Save. Then close the Technology File Editor window.
• This process only has to be done one time. Once the correct
GDS stream numbers have been added, you can import other
GDS files without going through this process again, provided
all the GDS files you are importing share the same GDS
layer-number pairs.
 Importing GDS
• In the main window, click on File ->
Library.
• If you have more than one design library,
you will have to choose a design library to
be your current working library.
• However, since we only have one library
(the jennings_ami06 library), we will not
have that choice, and that library is chosen
automatically.
 Importing GDS
• Click on File -> Import -> Layout.
• The Import Layout form will appear (you
may have to resize it after it appears).
 Importing GDS
• Click on the Browse button. A browse form
will appear (Figure 17, next slide)
• The GDS file we are looking for is
cadence/gds_files/jennings.gds.
• Navigate through the browser to get to that
file. Use the button to go up one
directory level.
• Double-click on the file jennings.gds.
• Back in the Import Layout window, click
on OK.
Figure 17: Browse Import Layout File Form
 Importing GDS
• After a few moments, the standard cell
layouts contained in jennings.gds will be
imported into abstract generator. Notice that
the Core bin now has 17 cells.
• There are two cells we do not have to
process – PADBOX and PADBOXX.
These two cells are parametric cells
contained in all the Pad cells, but since we
had flattened all standard cells during the
GDS export process, we don’t have to
worry about these two cells.
Moving Cells into the Ignore Bin
• Click on PADBOX, then, holding the ctrl
key, left click on PADBOXX. This way you
will select both the cells at once.
• Click on Cells -> Move…
• The Move Selected Cells form will appear
(Figure 18, next slide). Click on Ignore, then
click on OK.
• The two cells will then be moved into the
Ignore bin.
Figure 18: Move Selected Cells Form
 Viewing Cell Layout
• In the main window, click on the Core bin once.
You should see that beside each cell, there is a
green tick mark in the Layout column. This
means there is a valid layout view for each cell.

• Let’s view the layout for NOR2X1. Click once on

NOR2X1, then click on Cells -> Edit -> Layout…
Figure 19: NOR2X1 Layout
 Viewing Cell Layout
• Figure 19 shows NOR2X1’s layout. Note that all
the metal layers are obscured by other layers.
• Since we are only interested in the metal and via
layers, let’s hide the other layers. On the layout
editing window, click on View -> Layers. This will
invoke the Layer Editor form.
• First, click on the None button beside the Visible
field. This turns all layers invisible.
• Now, in the Layer-Purpose column, find the
“metal1 drawing” entry. Click on it once, then
check the Visible checkbox. (refer figure 20, next
slide).
Figure 20: Layer Editor Form
 Viewing Cell Layout
• Do the same for all other purposes of metal1
(metal1 pin, metal1 net and metal1 boundary).
• Do the same for all layer-purposes of the
following layers: metal2 and text.
• Click on the Redraw button, then the Close
button. The Layout Editing window will now
only show the metal and text layers.
• All other editing windows you open after this will
now only show the aforementioned layers.
Figure 21: NOR2X1 Layout, with redundant
layers hidden.
 Abstract Generation - Overview
• There are three main steps in generating abstracts
– generating the Pins view, the Extract view and
finally the Abstract view.
• The Pins step maps text labels to metal layers,
designating certain metal blocks as pins (all pin
information is lost during GDS export, so we need
to re-instate that information).
• The Extract step merges metal blocks under the
same net into one single net – we will not be using
this function since we want our pins to be
specifically 3x3 lambda sized pins. It also changes
any metal.pin layer into metal.net.
 Abstract Generation - Overview
• The Abstract step copies the pin (net) information
from the Extract step, and generated blockages for
the metal and via layers (or any other layer that
you specify). These blockages will tell the place-
and-route tool (namely Silicon Ensemble) which
parts of the standard cell to avoid routing over
with certain layers.
• The resulting Abstract view contains only net and
blockage information.
• An LEF file will then be generated, using the
Abstract view of the standard cells.
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• Since all the standard cells are alike, we can
process them all at once.
• Click on DFFSRX1. Then, holding down the ctrl
key, left-click on FILL, FILL2, INVX1,
NAND2X1, NOR2X1, TIEHI and TIELO.
• Click on Flow -> Pins. The Pins form will appear.
• Enter the fields as shown in Figure 22 (next slide).
The next slide after that will explain what the
entries mean.
Figure 22: Pins Form (Map Tab)
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• Map Text Label to Pins: Notice we have entered
“((text drawing) (metal1 pin) (metal1 drawing))”
for this field.
• This tells Abgen to map any text in text.drawing to
metal1.pin shapes if there are any metal1.pin shapes
overlapping the text.
• If there aren’t any metal1.pin shapes overlapping the
text, then map the text to any overlapping
metal1.drawing shapes.
• This works for us because all our text labels are either
located over metal1.pin shapes (for our regular pins),
or over metal1.drawing shapes (for our vdd/gnd pins).
Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• We have entered “Y Q” for the output pin
names. This is because all our standard cells
have either “Q” as the output pin (for
DFFSRX1) or “Y” (for the rest of the
standard cells).
• In the exported LEF file, these pins will
have “output” as their direction.
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• The Pins step also generates Place-and-Route
Boundaries (PR Boundaries) for each cell.
• Click on the Boundary tab. The Pins form will
change to that of figure 23 (next slide).
• Choose “always” for the Create Boundary field.
• Fill in the values for “Adjust Boundary By”
according to that shown in figure 23.
• We are doing this because our standard cells
extend beyond the actual PR Boundary (Refer
back to Figure 5)
Figure 23: Pins Form (Boundary Tab)
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• Now, click on Run. Abgen will take a few
moments to generate Pins views for the selected
standard cells.
• After Abgen is done, you will see an exclamation
mark beside each selected cell, in the Pins
column. An exclamation mark means that there
was a warning (not an error) in the generation of
that view.
• To see what the warning was, click on a standard
cell (e.g. click on NOR2X1). Then, click on Cells
-> Report.
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• The report for NOR2X1 warns us that the
PR Boundary for NOR2X1 does not enclose
all cell view geometry. That is okay, since
we know we have some geometry that
extends beyond the cell’s PR Boundary.
• Click on OK to close the report window.
• If you click on the other standard cell’s
report windows, you will see the same
warning.
• This warning can be safely ignored.
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
• We have finished generating Pins views for
the standard cells. We will generate Pins
view for the Pad Cells later in this tutorial.
• If you want to examine what the Pins views
look like, pick a cell, then click on Cells ->
Edit -> Pins
Abstract Generation – Extract Step
• In the main window, select the standard cells DFFSRX1,
FILL, FILL2, INVX1, NAND2X1, NOR2X1, TIEHI and
TIELO.
• Click on Flow -> Extract. The Extract form will appear.
• Click once on the Extract Signal Nets box to de-select
it.
• Then, click on the Power tab to bring up the Power Net
menu. Click once on the Extract Power Nets box to de-
select it.
• Click on Run. This will run Extract on all the cells.
• To view the Extract view of a cell, select that cell, then
click on Cells -> Edit -> Extract.
Figure 24: Extract Form (Signal Tab)
Figure 25: Extract Form (Power Tab)
Abstract Generation – Abstract Step
• In the main window, select the standard cells –
FILL, FILL2, INVX1, NAND2X1, NOR2X1, TIEHI
and TIELO (do not select DFFSRX1 yet).
• Under the Blockage tab, make sure that “metal1
metal2 metal3 via via2” is entered for the “Create
detailed blockages on layers” field.
• Under the Site tab, enter “core” for the site name.
• Click on Run. This will generate abstracts for the
aforementioned cells.
 Figure 26:
Abstract Form
(Blockage Tab)
 Figure 27:
Abstract Form
(Site Tab)
Abstract Generation – Abstract Step
• The abstract generation for DFFSRX1 differs in
only one place: under the site tab, you should
enter “dbl_core”.
• Since the DFFSRX1 cell is a double-height cell, it
should have a different site name compared to the
other standard cells.
• Run the Abstract step for DFFSRX1.
• To view the Abstract view of a cell, select that
cell, then click on Cells -> Edit -> Abstract.
Abstract Generation – Abstract Step
• Notice that there are exclamation marks in the Abstract
column of the cells, in the main window.
• Select a cell (e.g. NOR2X1), then click on Cells ->
Report.
• The report for the Abstract step warns us that the vdd and
gnd terminals have no pins on the Metal1-Metal2 routing
grid.
• Refer back to Figure 5. This is true, since we have a
horizontal grid offset.
• We are not going to route to the vdd and gnd pins
anyway, since they are abutment pins.
• Therefore, the warning can be safely ignored.
 A Note about Warnings
• Warnings do not equal errors!
• Whenever you encounter a warning (or even an
‘info’ line), check its validity, and compare it with
what you know about the standard cells.
• If the warning is something that you know about,
and you know that it is okay, then you can safely
ignore the warning.
• Of course if there is genuine concern about the
warning you should go back to your previous steps
and fix whatever is causing the warning before
proceeding.
 Abstract Generation – Pins Step
(I/O Pads)
• Now we will generate the Pins view for the
remaining I/O Pad cells, except for the
PADFC cell.
• Select all the Pad cells except the PADFC
cell, then click on Flow -> Pins.
• Fill in the information according to figures
28 and 29 (the following 2 slides). Then
click on Run.
Figure 28: Pins Form (Map Tab)
Figure 29: Pins Form (Boundary Tab)
Abstract Generation – Extract Step
(I/O Pads)
• The Extract step for the pads are exactly the
same as the steps for the regular standard
cells.
• Run the Extract step on the pad cells
(except for PADFC).
Abstract Generation – Abstract Step
(I/O Pads)
• Select all the I/O Pads except for PADFC, then
click on Flow -> Abstract.
• Under the Blockage tab, clear out the “Created
detailed blockages on layers” field.
• Enter “metal1 metal2 metal3” for the “Create
cover blockages on layers” field.
• Under the Site tab, enter “IO” for the site name.
• Click on Run. This will generate abstracts for the
pad cells.
Figure 30: Abstract Form (Blockage Tab)
Figure 31: Abstract Form (Site Tab)
Abstract Generation (PADFC cell)
• The PADFC cell is a little different than the
other Pad cells, because as a corner cell, its
PR Boundary has different dimensions than
the other Pad cells.
• The following are the differences in the
options for the PADFC cell, compared to
the other pad cells.
Abstract Generation (PADFC cell)
• Pins Step:
• Make sure that ‘Always’ is chosen for ‘Create
Boundary’.
• Make sure that all the fields for ‘Adjust Boundary
By’ and ‘Fix Boundary To’ are left blank.
• The rest of the options are the same.
Abstract Generation (PADFC cell)
• Extract step: All options are the same.
• Run the Extract step for PADFC.
Abstract Generation (PADFC cell)
• Abstract step:
• Under the Site tab, the site name should be
“corner”.
• The other options are the same. Run the
Abstract step for PADFC.
 Why can’t we run all Pins steps,
then run all Extract steps etc.?
• The options in the forms (e.g. Pins form)
are different between the standard cells, and
the pad cells. When Abgen detects this, it
will try to re-run the preceding steps again,
using the most recent options.
• Thus, we need to complete all steps of the
abstract generation a subset of the cell
library, then only move to another subset.
 Cell Orientation
• All the cells in the core bin should have abstract
views by now.
• Select all the standard cells (exclude the Pad cells).
• Click on Cells -> Cell Properties
• Change property symmetry to X, then click on
Apply (refer figure 32, next slide).
• Click on OK to close the form.
• Having a symmetry of X means the cells can only
be flipped about the X-axis.
Figure 32: Cell Properties Form
 Cell Orientation
• Now, select all the pad cells.
• Click on Cells -> Cell Properties
• Change property symmetry to X Y R90, then
click on Apply (refer figure 33, next slide).
• Click on OK to close the form.
• Having a symmetry of X Y R90 means the
cells can be flipped about the X-axis and Y-
axis, and can also be rotated.
Figure 33: Cell Properties Form
 Setting LEF Units
• To set LEF units to be 100 (to be consistent with
our other CAD tools), click on File -> General
Options…
• In the General Options form, choose 100 for LEF
Units.
 Extracting to LEF Format
• In the main window, click on File ->
Export -> LEF.
• The Export LEF form will appear.
• Click on the Browse button, and save the
LEF file as jennings_cells.lef in the
directory cadence/lef_files
• Select Core for the “Export LEF for Bin”
field.
• Click on OK in the Export LEF form.
Figure 34: Export LEF Form
 Extracting to LEF Format
• A little modification is needed before the LEF file
can be used by Design Planner and Silicon
Ensemble.
• Using a text editor, open the file
cadence/lef_files/jennings_cells.lef for edit.
• Inside the LEF file, for all PAD macros, change the
CLASS entry from CORE to PAD.
• Also, for PADFC, change SIZE to ‘300 BY 300’,
and ORIGIN to ‘0 0’, change both FOREIGN
PADDVDD and ORIGIN to ‘0.000 0.000’.
Change ‘CORE’ to ‘PAD’
For PADFC only:
1. Change ORIGIN to 0 0
2. Change FOREIGN PADFC to 0 0
3. ChangeSIZE to 300 BY 300
 Setting up Design Planner
• This section will teach you how to set up Cadence
Design Planner to use the abstracts of the cell
library we just generated.
• Like Abstract Generator, Cadence Design
Planner uses the HLD format.
• The LEF2HLD utility is once again used to
convert from LEF to HLD format. This time,
though, our LEF file will contain not only the
technology specification information, but also
standard cell information.
 Setting up Design Planner
• Change to the cadence/dp_se/tech directory.
• Type swsetup cadence-dp
• Type lef2hld &
• In the lef2hld window (Figure 35, next slide),
enter “../../../lef_files/jennings_cells.lef” for the
LEF file name.
• Make sure the “Create Technology File” box is
checked.
• Fill in the other information according to Figure
35
Figure 35: LEF2HLD form
 Setting up Design Planner
• Take a look at the file cadence/dp_se/run/local.dpux
• Notice how the cell library, jennings, is declared. Also
notice how the design library, design_db is declared.
• You must always have a local.dpux file in your design
planner run directory to be able to utilize your
standard cell library and design library.
 Using Design Planner
• Refer to the Design Flow tutorial for
information on actually using Design
Planner and Silicon Ensemble with your
standard cells. At this point, you should be
able to go use Design Planner and Silicon
Ensemble with your newly integrated
standard cell library.
 Other Cellviews in ICFB
• We will not discuss the additional cellviews
that should be included in your standard cell
library in ICFB, for various purposes.
• Type swsetup cadence-ncsu
• Go to the cadence/dfII directory, then type
icfb &
• In the Library Manager window, select
the tutorial library.
 Other Cellviews in ICFB
• Besides the layout cellview, other relevant
cellviews that should exist for your standard cells
are:
- abstract (for importing DEF files back into
ICFB)
- schematic (for schematic-level simulation)
- symbol (for simplified representation in
schematics)
- verilog (for verilog extraction)
• All views must have the same input/output ports.
 The Abstract View
• This view is NOT the abstract views that we
generated using Abstract Generator. This is just an
exact copy of the layout view.
• When we import DEF files back into ICFB (from a
place-and-route tool like Silicon Ensemble), ICFB
will use the abstract views of cells. Refer to the
Design Flow tutorial for more information about this.
• All the abstract view in ICFB needs to be is a replica
of the layout view. You can use the Library Manager
to copy the layout view to its respective abstract view,
or simply open the layout view for edit, then save as
its abstract view.
 The Schematic View
• The schematic view is useful when we want to
generate schematic-level designs for simulation
purposes.
• It also helps the user understand how the circuit
works. The functionality of complex standard
cells, like DFFs, may be hard to determine just by
looking at the layout – having a corresponding
schematic views helps greatly in the understanding
of the circuit.
• Schematic view are great for debugging purposes.
If something is not working right for the layout
view, simulate the schematic view to see what
happens in that particular situation.
 The Symbol View
• The symbol view can be inserted into
schematics to represent the schematic of
that particular standard cell.
• It consists only of the input/output ports of
the cell, and some text information.
• The symbol view is also used in certain
extraction tools (e.g. verilog extraction) as a
start view.
 The Verilog View
• The verilog view is one of the stop views
for verilog extraction. It is basically a
replica of the symbol view.
• Note that FILL and FILL2 do not have
verilog views. This is because during
verilog extraction, we do not want to extract
filler cells.
 Synopsys
• This concludes the Cadence section of this
tutorial. The remainder of the tutorial will
deal with integrating the standard cell
library for use with Synopsys Design
Compiler.
 Synopsys Design Compiler
• Synopsys Design Compiler will take a VHDL or
Verilog behavioral model, and output a Verilog
gate-level model using the user-defined standard
cells.
• To be able to do that, it needs information about
the standard cells in the form of a library (.lib) file.
• The file synopsys/run_syn/jennings.lib contains
information corresponding to out sample standard
cell library. The following slides will briefly
explain the Synopsys .lib format. For a more
complete description of the .lib format, please refer
to the help files pointed to in Appendix A.
 The .lib file
• The general format for a .lib file is:

[general and global attributes]

[cell1
- general attributes for cell1
- input pin characteristics (capacitance etc.)
- output pin characteristics (capacitance, timing etc.) ]

[cell2
- general attributes for cell1
- input pin characteristics (capacitance etc.)
- output pin characteristics (capacitance, timing etc.) ]

[cell3 etc.]
 Cell Name

Footprint Area

Input Pin
Information Output Pin Function

Output Pin
Information
 Compiling the .lib file
• Before Design Compiler can use the .lib file, the .lib
file needs to be compiled into a .db format.
• Go to the synopsys/run_syn directory.
• Type swsetup synopsys
• Type dc_shell
• At the dc_shell prompt, type: read_lib jennings.lib
• Then, type: write_lib jennings
• Then, type: quit
• This will compile jennings.lib and produce a file
called jennings.db, which will be used by Design
Compiler.
 Compiling the .lib file
• Note: In the second command you typed,
“write_lib jennings”, the target ‘jennings’
corresponds to the library declaration in the
first line of your .lib file.
 Appendix A: How to get help
documentation
• Besides the Help menu available on all applications
discussed in this tutorial, there are other sources of help
available.
• Design Planner and Silicon Ensemble: On the ECE or
ERC server, launch netscape and go to:
file:/opt/ecad/cadence/v4.45/dsm_dp_3.4d/hld1x/doc/H
elp.html
• This site (only accessible on ECE or ERC servers)
contains plenty of information on Design Planner,
including LEF and DEF Format Syntax, a design
flow guide etc.
 Appendix A: How to get help
documentation
• OpenBook: Silicon Ensemble and Abstract
Generator
• In the terminal window, type: swsetup cadence-se,
then type: openbook &.
• When the Openbook window appears, click on Go ->
Index.
• For Silicon Ensemble help: Go to the S section. There
will be a few Silicon Ensemble sections. The one that
would probably be most useful for purposes of this
tutorial will be the Silicon Ensemble Reference.
 Appendix A: How to get help
documentation
• For Abstract Generator help:Go to the A
section. Then, click on the Envisia
Abstract Generator User Guide link.
 Appendix A: How to get help
documentation
• OpenBook: ICFB
• In the terminal window, type: swsetup
cadence-ncsu, then type: openbook &.
• This will bring up help for ICFB-related
topics.
Appendix A: How to get help
documentation