Synopsys, Inc.

Jon Francis Bendicksen

Dick Liu

Zuo Dai

Ming Su

Randy Bishop

John Hapli

Friedrich Gunter Kurt Sendig

Bulent Basaran

Embodiments relate to using placement grids corresponding to repeating track patterns of metal layers in a region to place circuit elements. Each placement grid is defined by as a vertical pitch of a repeating track pattern of one metal layer and a horizontal pitch of another repeating track pattern of another metal layer. Each circuit element is assigned with a placement grid so that it can be placed in alignment with the assigned placement grid. By using the placement grids derived from the track patterns, routable placement of circuit elements can be performed automatically or manually with reduced efforts.

Placement of circuit elements in regions with customized placement grids

Roughly described, while manually dragging shapes during IC layout editing, editing operations determine which edges of which shapes are moving at what speed ratios. Based on the edge information and the DRC rules, the system calculates and keeps track of the minimum of the maximum distance the edges are allowed to move with the cursor without violating DRC rules, in four linear directions and all corner directions. Once a next cursor destination point is known, a DRC clean destination point is calculated based on the linear and corner bounds. If the next cursor position is beyond a the push-through distance ahead of the new DRC clean point, the editing objects are moved to the user's destination point. Otherwise, the editing objects are moved to the new DRC clean destination point, thereby stopping movement at that point.

Real time DRC assistance for manual layout editing

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New Bern, NC, United States of America

Jon Francis Bendicksen