Checkmate

Checkmate is a program that will run DRC and ERC checks on an IC Station layout. It will also produce a netlist which can be simulated in ELDO. To properly run Checkmate you must be in the same directory as your layout. For EE571 this directory is a subdirectory under your home directory. You must also have a variable called EE571 defined in your .cshrc. This variable must be in your path statements as well. Also declare a variable PD as $EE571 in your .cshrc. Checkmate is the design rule verification system that we will use. To run checkmate on your layout type:

1. Check (layout_file) where (layout_file) is the name of your file. Checkmate will produce a (layoutfile).DRC file which contains any design rule violations your layout may have had.
2. From IC Station, you can click IC Rules, Database, Restore and choose the (layout).DRC file.
3. Selecting First or Next will cause IC Station to highlight the area where your error occurred.
4. When all of your errors have been corrected, type N2spi (layoutfile) to run a script which will convert the (layoutfile).N file to a (layoutfile).spi or (layoutfile).cir files which you can use to simulate your design in ESIM.

Calibre/Xcalibre

A DRC check can also be performed using Calibre in IC Station. To use Calibre to do your DRC checks, (and save you from having to exit IC to run Checkmate) do the following steps:

1. Change your MGC_HOME variable to /net/visi3/XVI0/ICFlow. Unset the MGLS_HOME variable by typing unsetenv MGLS_HOME. These two steps can be changed in a copy of your .cshrc which you can source to run Calibre.
2. In IC Station, click on Calibre(DRC) from the IC Palettes menu. Click Load Rules. Use the navigator to select the file $EE571/CM18S_6M.10c. Click OK.
3. Click Check.
4. Use the First & Next buttons to highlight any errors. Minimum coverage errors can be ignored.
5. Run Checkmate and N2spi to produce a netlist for simulation.

Xcalibre can be used to do transistor and RC netlist extractions. To run Xcalibre to extract transistor and RC netlists do the following:

1. Make sure the EE571 and PD variables are defined. Type Xcal (layoutfile) where (layoutfile) is the name of your ICStation cell. This will produce a netlist with a .net extension.
2. Type Net2Cir to convert the .net file to a .cir file. See the ESIM tutorial for instructions on *.cir files.