Design analysis workstation for analyzing integrated circuits

Abstract

A design analysis workstation for performing design analysis of integrated circuits provides facilities for extracting design and layout information from digital image-mosaics captured during deconstruction of an integrated circuit. Each image-mosaic is displayed in at least one mosaic-view as a background image that is overlaid with at least one annotation overlay. An engineer analyst creates annotation objects on the annotation overlay based on information inferred concurrently from one or more image-mosaics. Concurrent display of a plurality of image-mosaics facilitates the understanding of interrelations between components on different layers. The design analysis workstation displays a plurality of cursors in respective views of mosaic-images, the cursors having lock-step motion to facilitate comprehension of the alignment of features on different concurrently displayed image-mosaics. The design analysis workstation provides facilities for performing operations on created annotation objects including grouping, cell definition, signal carrier creation, contact creation, signal propagation, net-list generation, etc. The advantages include annotation of image-mosaics using information derived from a plurality of concurrently displayed mosaic-views to facilitate tracing of interconnected busses and an understanding of interrelations between components.