Synopsys, Inc.

Wei-Chih Tseng

Zongwu Tang

Balkrishna R Rashingkar

Daniel Zhang

Neeraj Kaul

Yang-Shan Tong

Alex Miloslavsky

Anthony Y Tseng

Linni Wei

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that verifies an integrated circuit (IC) chip layout. During operation, the system receives a layout of an IC chip after the layout has gone through a place-and-route operation. Next, the system performs a lithography compliance checking (LCC) operation on the layout to detect lithography hotspots within the layout, wherein each lithography hotspot is associated with a local routing pattern around the lithography hotspot. Next, for each detected lithography hotspot, the system compares the associated local routing pattern against a hotspot database to determine if the local routing pattern matches an entry in the hotspot database, which stores a set of known hotspot configurations. If so, the system corrects the lithography hotspot using correction guidance information associated with the hotspot configuration stored in the hotspot database. Otherwise, the system corrects the lithography hotspot by performing a local rip-up and reroute on the local routing pattern, iteratively, until achieving convergence or given number of iterations.

Method and system for post-routing lithography-hotspot correction of a layout

A system that routes nets within an integrated circuit. During operation, the system receives a representation for the integrated circuit, which includes block boundaries for physical partitions of the IC generated from a hierarchical design placement of the integrated circuit. The system then classifies each net in the integrated circuit based on the location of pins associated with the net. Next, the system generates routing constraints for each net based on the classification of the net and applies a feedthrough constraint to the physical partitions to restrict nets from feeding through physical partition boundaries. Finally, the system routes each net using the routing constraints for the net and the feedthrough constraints for the physical partitions. This routing is performed based on these block boundaries prior to finalizing the hierarchical design placement, thereby facilitating early detection of congestion or timing violations which can be corrected early in the design process.

Method and apparatus for routing an integrated circuit

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Fremont, CA, United States of America

Wei-Chih Tseng