Automation in Layout using SKILL Script

Abstract

In today’s world automation is everywhere, which helps the human race to focus on more such amazing works to continue. Layout designing is one of the tedious and most time consuming part in a VLSI design. Cadence Virtuoso provides the user an interface to design a layout. It also provides us with a scripting language to automate or modify the interface according to users convenience and that scripting language is called SKILL. SKILL was originally built from the LISP language, which is a programming language for AI. It is object-oriented and can be used with other programming tools. SKILL can be employed to do tasks such as Customization of Virtuoso user interfaces. E.g. create menus, forms, bind keys, etc., Automation of tedious tasks. E.g. global replacement of a device for all cells in a library, Customization of .cdsinit file, writing of compare procedures for LVS, Customization of extracted view. Programmers can customize and extend their design environments with SKILL’s highlevel programming environment, which handles many system programming operations, such as working with memory. In this project thesis, we will discuss the ways through which we can make process of layout designing much easier and so that the team migrating from one node to another does not have to do tedious time consuming work and can invest their time in betterment of the design. We will locate the cells which are non-compliant to vt values with the new nodes and the no net pathseg or fills those which are overlapping the other pathseg of same metal.We will create a universal migration converter through which the design data of one node can be compared with with design data of another node and results can be calculated according to it.