PeakView® EM Designer, EMD™ is the ultimate EM tool for the synthesis/optimization of passives based on templates called Pcircuits™, which allows the EM design of complex combined layouts, parametric analysis, and layout optimization techniques. PeakView® has an extensive library of PCircuits™, where designers select the desire geometry and dimensions (outer length, number of turns, trace width, etc), and PeakView® generates a DRC-clean layout based foundry technology information. This comprehensive library includes diffrerent types of T-coils, inductors, multi-layer spirals, transformers, mmWave couplers, co-planar waveguides, photonics transmission lines, etc. PCircuits™ are foundry- and process-independent as well as extensibly flexible allowing python-based script customization to meet their specific design needs.
EMD™ Simplifies and Accelerates the Design of Passive Devices
- EM Synthesis and Optimization Passives: From the extensive PCircuit™ library, users identify their desired passive geometry, they specify the design target and spatial constraints, and PeakView® delivers the final device layout for the expected performance.
- EM Designer Tools: The dimensions of passive devices (outer length, trace width, spacing, etc) can be varied through parametric sweeps, which provides a broader insight of the device performance.
- Accuracy, Performance and Capacity: EM Designer flow is based on PeakView®’s patented fullwave EM solver, guaranteeing a reliable model and minimizing design iterations.
- Physics-Based Modeling (RLCK): Compact RLCK models for EM devices called Physics-Based models (PBM™) are available, contributing to transient circuit simulations.
- Process Independent Pcircuit™: The same Pcircuits™ can be used for multiple processes. The required layer stacking profile is easily converted from industry standard layer information files (iRCX, ITF or ICT), hence its effortless to switch foundries or process nodes
- Circuit and EM Co-Simulation with ADE-XL: EMD™ is seamlessly coupled through EM co-simulation driven from Virtuoso® Analog Design Environment (ADE). Users are able to sweep parameters of synthesized devices within ADE, and PeakView® computes the EM results and updates the simulation net-list for each iteration of the sweep.
EMD™ Flow
EMD™ High-Performance Design Features
- PCircuits™: PeakView® offers a wide variety of templates called Pcircuits, which accelerate the creation of passive devices by adjusting simple parameters (trace width, outer length, arm separation, etc).
- Inductors: Symmetric, Octagon, Square, Circular, Bowtie/8-shaped.
- Transformers: Octagon/square transformers with flexible winding patterns, low-K transformers.
- T-Coils: Symmetric/Asymmetric with different coil dimensions, offsets for flexible K, opposite arms.
- Multi-Layer Spirals: Square, Circular, Octagon with tapered behavior for 1-,2-,3-layer spirals.
- Transmission Lines: Grounded Co-Planar Waveguides with shield ground plane and photonics T-lines
- Dynamic PCircuits™: These are the add-on structures for the Pcircuits™, such as guard rings, patterned-ground shields, metalfills, ground planes, etc, whose parameters are adjustable.
- Combo Cell: Combo Cell allows the user to design a device with multiple dynamic Pcircuits™, which improves the device performance to achieve the required specs. This allows the user to design more advanced passive devices to reach breakthrough specs.
EMD™ Design Environment Integration
- Circuit and EM Co-Simulation: EMD™ has a Circuit and EM Co-Simulation feature that can be driven from Virtuoso®’s Analog Design Environment (ADE). Designers only consider the circuit level behavior, and EMD™ generates new device EM models and inserts the models into the net-list automatically enhancing designer productivity
- Physics-Based Modeling (PBM): In addition to purely numerical n-port S-parameter models, PeakView EMD™ provides the option to generate compact RLCK models known as the Physics-Based Modeling (PBM) solution, which generate SPICE compatible equivalent sub-circuits for use in transient circuit simulations.
- DFM Support for Advanced Processes: EMD™ accurately simulate and extract complex metal slotting, stripping, via arrays and metalfills.
- Silicon Data Correlation: EMD™ simulations confirm excellent correlation to silicon data in advanced process nodes. It has been successfully deployed in characterizing a 20nm process node and verified within a 1-2% margin of error for inductance. A plot of silicon measurement vs. simulation for a single-ended total capacitance of a 1-turn inductor is shown in the following figure.
Total capacitance vs. frequency plot for a 20nm single-turn inductor (courtesy of TSMC)
Supported Formats
- EMD™ Setup
- iRCX format technology file from TSMC
- ITF format technology file from foundries
- EMD™ Input
- Standard Library PCircuit™
- User-defined PCircuit™
- EMD™ Output
- n-port, Physics-Based EM models.
- Cadence® library views, i.e. DRC clean layout, schematic symbols, etc.
- Multi-corner and temperature-dependent models.
- Platform
- Linux 64 bit, i.e. Redhat and SUSE
- LSF, NC-based computing farm