Recently, a large North American IDM changed over to exclusively using PCircuits as a means for defining their parameterized passive devices. During the short-lived evaluation period, this particular IDM transformed three unique inductor architectures and the desired physical parameters to vary into a PeakView PCircuit description for each device type. Each simple 2-3 page PCircuit description replaced many, many, many pages of complex PCell Skill scripts.

The resulting three PCircuits were then used to synthesize 59 unique implementations. The PCircuit coding and EM synthesis for all 59 device types took less than one day. The resulting EM models were then compared to measured data for all 59 cases and against other EM simulation tools. PeakView consistently matched measured data and selected EM simulations results.

This IDM’s EM design practice now includes thorough EM design exploration through various parameter sweeps gain good understanding of what to expect from the devices in-silicon performance. The ability to rely on EM simulation instead of costly, time-consuming test chip development/measurement approach has open the gates to designer creativity with regards to device design. The design and use of multi-port (4,5,6...) devices and/or combo-devices realized as novel implementations that greatly reduce area without compromising performance are becoming the norm.

PCircuits are technology independent. So once a device is defined, it is usable in any technology. PCells require each cell to be recast for each process technology. Using PCircuits instead has saved money and time!

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Specification

Individual inductor architectures are specified as parameterized PCircuit descriptions. PCircuit descriptions are written in the open-source object oriented Python scripting language. Even the most complex, demanding design rules including metal fill and wide metal slotting/striping rules can be quickly and elegantly captured inside a PCircuit. PCircuits are easily shared amongst design teams making deployment of proprietary structures to the designer’s desktop a snap!

PCircuit Description

PeakView EM Synthesis