Automatic Snapping for Electronic Circuit Physical Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
The conventional electronic design process is inefficient due to iterative and resource-intensive methods, particularly in physical design verification, where designers often discover constraint violations only after completing the layout, leading to costly rework and lack of awareness about electrical parasitics during design creation or modification.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method and system that enables physical design with multi-patterning lithography techniques, allowing for automatic snapping of objects in a layout based on identified constraints, even with partial designs, to ensure compliance with complex spacing and other constraints in real-time, facilitating interactive and efficient design modifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If conventional sequential physical design and verification processes are used, then design completeness is achieved, but resource consumption and time required increase significantly due to iterative revisions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary constraint checking and automatic snapping of objects during the physical design creation process itself, rather than waiting until verification stage. This preliminary action ensures constraint compliance is built into the design from the beginning, preventing the need for iterative revisions and reducing resource consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The system provides real-time feedback during physical design by automatically checking constraints as objects are placed or modified. This feedback mechanism guides designers to make compliant placements immediately, eliminating the need for later verification iterations and reducing both time and resource consumption.
2Ease of operation
If constraint checking is performed only after layout completion, then design freedom is maintained during creation, but violation detection is delayed causing costly rework
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables continuous constraint checking throughout the physical design creation process, rather than performing it as a discrete post-completion step. This continuous action maintains design freedom while simultaneously providing immediate violation detection, eliminating the time delay associated with post-layout verification.
Solution Approach 2:
Constraint checking is performed preliminarily during the design creation process itself, allowing designers to receive immediate feedback about violations while still having flexibility to make corrections. This eliminates the delayed detection problem while preserving design freedom.
3Manufacturing precision
If detailed physical design is completed before verification, then design detail is achieved, but constraint violations are discovered too late requiring iterative revisions
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary constraint verification during the physical design process itself, checking constraints as objects are placed and modified. This allows detailed design work to proceed with immediate constraint feedback, eliminating the need for separate post-completion verification iterations and improving productivity.
Solution Approach 2:
Real-time feedback during detailed physical design provides designers with immediate information about constraint compliance, allowing them to make corrective adjustments during the design process rather than after completion. This maintains design detail while improving efficiency by preventing iterative revisions.
4Reliability
If conventional iterative design-verify-revision cycles are used, then constraint compliance is eventually achieved, but time and resources are wasted on multiple revision loops
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary constraint checking and automatic object snapping during the initial design phase, ensuring constraint compliance is established before verification. This preliminary action eliminates the need for multiple revision loops while maintaining high reliability of constraint compliance.
Solution Approach 2:
Continuous real-time feedback during design provides immediate guidance on constraint compliance, allowing designers to make single-pass corrections rather than undergoing multiple iterative cycles. This reduces time loss while maintaining reliable constraint compliance.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed are methods and systems for providing a constraint-driven environment for implementing a physical design of an electronic circuit with automatic snapping. In some embodiments, the method identifies or creates an incomplete layout. The method identifies an object and constraints for the object. The method then identifies an approximate position for the object in the layout and automatically snaps the object to a drop location based on the approximate position while complying with relevant constraint(s). The method may further align an object with another object with some spacing in between in some embodiments. The method may also perform automatic layer-to-layer snapping between two sets of objects such as cell instances, each having at least one object on multiple layers.