Detailed Description
The following description is an example of the present invention. The general principles of the present invention are intended to be illustrative, but not limiting, of the scope of the invention, which is defined by the claims.
It will be understood that, although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms, and these terms are only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer and/or section from another element, component, region, layer and/or section. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of some embodiments of the present disclosure.
It is noted that the following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of the invention. The particular examples and arrangements of components set forth below are presented for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Moreover, the following description may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. However, this repetition is for the purpose of providing a simplified and clear illustration only and is not intended to limit the scope of the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed below. Moreover, the description below of one feature connected to, coupled to, and/or formed on another feature, and the like, may actually encompass a variety of different embodiments that include the feature in direct contact, or that include other additional features formed between the features, and the like, such that the features are not in direct contact.
Fig. 1 is a flowchart of a detection method 300 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the detection method 100 is suitable for evaluating a standard cell within a library of standard cells. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the standard cell library is used to store a plurality of types of digital standard cells, and the detection method 100 is used to evaluate whether the digital standard cells in the standard cell library violate the design rule, so as to be modified or disabled.
As shown in fig. 1, step S101 is first executed to obtain a first type standard cell from the standard cell library, that is, the first type standard cell is used as a target cell for evaluation, which is hereinafter referred to as a target evaluation cell. Next, step S102 is executed to obtain at least one second-type standard cell from the standard cell library, and combine the target evaluation unit and the at least one second-type standard cell into a test unit.
Fig. 2A-2B are schematic diagrams of a test unit 200 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 2A, the test unit 200 comprises a target evaluation unit 211, a second type standard cell 212 and another second type standard cell 213, and the target evaluation unit 211, the second type standard cell 212 and the second type standard cell 213 are arranged along a first direction as shown by F in FIG. 2A. As shown in fig. 2A, the target evaluation unit 211 is disposed between the second type standard cell 212 and the second type standard cell 213, and the second type standard cell 212 and the second type standard cell 213 are respectively disposed at two sides of the target evaluation unit 211.
As shown in FIG. 2B at F, the target evaluation unit 211 is placed in a first direction, and the second-type standard cells 212 and 213 are placed in a second direction, for example, the first direction mirror-rotated by 180 degrees. In other words, the first-type standard cell 211 as the target evaluation unit is located in the middle without any rotation, the directions (or angles) of the second-type standard cells 212 and the second-type standard cells 213 with respect to the first-type standard cells 211 are changed, and the second-type standard cells 212 and the second-type standard cells 213 are still disposed on both sides of the first-type standard cells 211. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the detection method 100 is performed by the test units 200 shown in fig. 2A and 2B individually or sequentially.
Fig. 3A-3B are schematic diagrams of a test unit 500 according to another embodiment of the invention. According to other embodiments of the present invention, in step S102, one first-type standard cell as the target evaluation unit and at least one other first-type standard cell in the standard cell library may be combined into a test cell.
As shown in fig. 3A, the test unit 500 includes a target evaluation unit 311, a first type standard cell 312, and a first type standard cell 313. As shown in FIG. 3A by F, the target evaluation unit 311, a first-type standard cell 312, and another first-type standard cell 313 are placed in a first direction. As shown in fig. 3A, the target evaluation unit 311 is disposed between the first-type standard cell 312 and the first-type standard cell 313, and the first-type standard cell 312 and the first-type standard cell 313 are disposed on both sides of the target evaluation unit 311, respectively.
As shown in fig. 3B at F, the target evaluation unit 311 is still placed in the first direction, and the first-type standard cell 312 and the first-type standard cell 313 are placed in the second direction, for example, the first direction mirror-rotated by 180 degrees. In other words, the first-type standard cell 311 as the target evaluation unit is still placed in the middle without any rotation, the directions (or angles) of the first-type standard cell 312 and the first-type standard cell 313 with respect to the target evaluation unit 311 are changed, and the first-type standard cell 312 and the first-type standard cell 313 are still placed on both sides of the target evaluation unit 311. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the detection method 100 is performed by the test units 200 shown in fig. 3A and 3B individually or sequentially.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, the at least one test unit 200 may be combined with the at least one test unit 300 to perform the evaluation method 100. According to another embodiment of the present invention, in step S102, any standard cell in the standard cell library may be used as a target evaluation unit, and then combined with a plurality of types of standard cells to generate the test cell 200 and/or the test cell 300, and then the evaluation method 100 is executed. According to another embodiment of the present invention, in step S102, a plurality of standard cells in the standard cell library may be simultaneously used as the target evaluation unit and constitute a test unit with the plurality of standard cells, and the evaluation method 100 may be simultaneously performed. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first type of standard cell as the target evaluation unit can be combined with at least one type of standard cell in the standard cell library into the test unit 200 or the test unit 300, but not limited to one type. According to another embodiment of the present invention, the first type of standard cells as the target evaluation unit may be combined with at least one type of standard cells in the standard cell library to form a test unit, and the at least one type of standard cells are not necessarily disposed at two sides of the first type of standard cells.
Returning to fig. 1, when the test cell assembly is completed, step S103 is performed, the test cell is wired, and in step S104, it is determined whether the target evaluation cell would cause a violation of the design rule. Design rules are usually provided by the manufacturer, including, for example, the spacing between two wires needs to be greater than 1 micron, the width of a metal line in a certain layer needs to be greater than 0.032 micron, etc. When it is determined that the target evaluation unit does not cause violation of the design rule, step S105 is performed to directly use the target evaluation unit. When it is determined that the target evaluation unit would violate the design rule, step S106 is executed to adjust the distance between the target evaluation unit and the other standard cells. Taking the situation shown in fig. 2A-2B as an example, step S106 includes adjusting the distance between the target evaluation unit 211 and the second type standard cells 212 and 213. Taking the situation shown in fig. 3A-3B as an example, step S106 includes adjusting the distance between the target evaluation unit 311 and the first- type standard cells 312 and 313. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the adjustment of the inter-standard cell pitch is performed in units of unit adjustment intervals (sites). Step S106 further includes generating a pitch instruction file according to the adjusted pitch, so as to use the first type standard cell to which the target evaluation unit belongs according to the pitch instruction file during subsequent layout and routing, for example, setting the pitch between the first type standard cell and other standard cells to be greater than the adjusted pitch.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the pitches of the target evaluation unit and the other standard cells are adjusted in step S106, step S107 is performed to add 1 to the number of times of pitch adjustment of the test cell. After step S107, step S108 is executed to determine whether the number of pitch adjustments to the test cell exceeds a threshold value. When the adjustment number exceeds the threshold value, step S109 is executed to disable the target evaluation unit. When the adjustment times do not exceed the threshold value, step S110 is performed to route the test units after the pitch adjustment. After step S110, step S111 is executed to continuously determine whether the target evaluation unit after adjusting the pitch would cause a design rule violation. When the target evaluation unit after adjusting the pitch does not violate the design rule any more, step S312 is executed, and the first type standard unit to which the target evaluation unit belongs is used in combination with the pitch guidance file. When the adjusted target evaluator still causes a design rule violation, the process returns to step S106.
According to many embodiments of the present invention, each standard cell in the standard cell library may be combined with other standard cells to form at least one test cell, and the at least one test cell may be evaluated simultaneously using the detection method 100, and only the pitch of the test cells that would cause a design rule violation is adjusted.
According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the detection method 100 determines for the first time whether a standard cell will violate a design rule, and determines that the standard cell will not violate the design rule, the standard cell can be used normally (directly) when designing an integrated circuit. According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the detection method 100 disables a standard cell, the standard cell is not used in designing the integrated circuit. According to another embodiment of the present invention, after the detection method 100 adjusts the spacing between a standard cell and other standard cells, it is determined again whether the standard cell will violate the design rule, and if it is determined that the standard cell will not violate the design rule, the standard cell is used in combination with the spacing rule file generated by the detection method 100 when designing the integrated circuit.
Fig. 4 is a block diagram of an electronic computing device 400 according to an embodiment of the invention. As shown in fig. 4, electronic computing device 400 includes storage medium 410 and processor 420. The storage medium 410 is used for storing a computer program, and the processor 420 is used for storing the computer program of the storage medium 410 and executing the detection method 100 shown in fig. 1, wherein the operation steps of the detailed detection method 100 are as described above, and are not repeated herein.
According to many embodiments of the invention, the storage medium may include, but is not limited to, a non-transitory tangible configuration of an article made or formed by a machine or device, including, for example, a hard disk, any other type of disk including floppy disks, optical disks, compact disk read-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk readable (CD-RWs), and magneto-optical disks, storage media such as read-only memories (ROMs), Random Access Memories (RAMs) such as Dynamic Random Access Memories (DRAMs) and Static Random Access Memories (SRAMs), erasable programmable read-only memories (EPROMs), flash memories, electrically erasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), Phase Change Memories (PCMs), magnetic or optical cards, or any other type of storage medium suitable for storing electronic instructions.
The detection methods of the present invention may also be embodied in the form of program code that is transmitted over some transmission medium, such as over electrical wiring or cabling, through fiber optics, or via any other form of transmission, wherein, when the program code is received and loaded into and executed by a machine, such as a computer, the machine becomes an apparatus for practicing the invention. When implemented on a general-purpose processor, the program code combines with the processor to provide a unique apparatus that operates analogously to specific logic circuits.
The detection method provided by the invention is beneficial to evaluating the winding capacity of the standard cell and correcting or forbidding the winding capacity before automatic layout and wiring, so that the standard cell can be correctly used and the standard cell which is easy to violate the design rule can be avoided when the placing step of automatic layout and wiring is carried out, the iteration times of automatic layout and wiring are reduced, and the time required by design is greatly shortened.
In addition, the detection method provided by the invention has foresight on the winding capacity of the standard cell, and can provide use suggestions for the standard cell in the early design stage. In addition, all standard cells with winding problems are not forbidden, and new use suggestions are provided, so that the selectivity of the standard cells is stronger.
Although the embodiments of the present disclosure and their advantages have been disclosed above, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can be made herein by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Moreover, the scope of the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps described in the specification, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein. Accordingly, the scope of the present disclosure includes the processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, and steps described above. In addition, each claim constitutes a separate embodiment, and the scope of protection of the present disclosure also includes combinations of the respective claims and embodiments.