Electrical design rule checking method and device for integrated circuit

TECHNICAL FIELD

0001The present disclosure relates to the technical field of physical verification for an integrated circuit (IC), and in particular, to a method and a device for electrical design rule check (DRC) of an integrated circuit.

BACKGROUND

0002After a layout design of an integrated circuit is completed, a physical verification shall be performed on the layout of the integrated circuit. Physical verification usually includes DRC, LVS (Layout Versus Schematic), ERC (Electrical Rule Check) and the like.

0003In the related art, during physical verification of an integrated circuit, since electrical DRC is performed by a physical design engineer who is familiar with electrical DRC but is unfamiliar with circuit design, it may easily cause false check and over-design. In addition, electrical DRC includes check of various electrical items, especially in advanced processes, the number of check items is increasing and the requirement is increasing, therefore, it is time-consuming, labor-intensive and extremely error-prone.

SUMMARY

0004In view of this, the present disclosure proposes a method and a device for electrical design rule check (DRC) of an integrated circuit.

0005In a first aspect of the present disclosure, a method for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit is provided. The method comprises: acquiring a parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit; receiving a circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit and electrical DRC rules; and performing electrical DRC on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result and the electrical DRC rules.

0006In a second aspect of the present disclosure, a device for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit is provided. The device comprises: an acquisition module configured to acquire a parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit; a reception module configured to receive a circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit and electrical DRC rules; and a check module configured to perform electrical DRC on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result, and the electrical DRC rules.

0007The technical solution provided by embodiments of the present disclosure may include the following beneficial effects: a parasitic parameter netlist of an integrated circuit is acquired, a circuit simulation result and electrical DRC rules of the integrated circuit are received, and electrical DRC is performed on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit, the circuit simulation result, and the electrical DRC rules, so that a dynamic electrical DRC can be automatically performed based only on the acquired parasitic parameter netlist, the received circuit simulation result, and the electrical-related DRC rules without requiring the operator to manually write the code. Accordingly, the physical location in the integrated circuit where an error occurs during the electrical DRC can be precisely determined, thereby significantly improving the speed and accuracy of electrical DRC, reducing false errors of electrical DRC, and avoiding over-design of integrated circuits.

0008Compared with the related art where the operator performing the electrical DRC is limited to a physical design engineer who is familiar with the electrical DRC but is not familiar with the circuit design, the method of the present disclosure can reduce the requirements for the familiarity of the electrical DRC by operators who perform electrical DRC. Therefore, the electrical DRC can be conducted by the design engineers who are familiar with circuit design, thereby greatly improving the design quality of the integrated circuit. Moreover, since both the circuits design and the electrical DRC are conducted by the design engineers who are familiar with circuit design, instead of having to perform electrical-related DRC by someone else who has not designed the circuit, the design process of ICs can be simplified and the design efficiency of ICs can be improved, enabling the ICs to be rapidly productized and meet the signoff standards.

0009According to following detailed description of exemplary embodiments with reference to accompanying drawings, other features and aspects of the present disclosure will become clear.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

0010Drawings included in the specification and constituting a part of the specification together with the specification illustrate exemplary embodiments, features, and aspects of the present disclosure, and are used to explain principle of the present disclosure. <ul id="ul0001" list-style="none" compact="compact"><li><figref idref="f0001">FIG. 1</figref> is a flow chart illustrating a method for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment.</li><li><figref idref="f0002">FIG. 2</figref> is a block diagram of a device for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment.</li><li><figref idref="f0003">FIG. 3</figref> is a block diagram of a hardware structure of a device for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment.</li></ul>

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

0011Hereinafter, various exemplary embodiments, features, and aspects of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The same reference sign in the drawings indicates an element with same or similar function. Although various aspects of the embodiments are shown in the drawings, unless otherwise indicated, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

0012The dedicated expression "exemplary" herein means "serving as an example, embodiment, or illustration". Any embodiment described herein as "exemplary" is not necessarily be construed as being superior to or better than the other embodiments.

0013In addition, in order to better illustrate the present disclosure, numerous specific details are given in following specific embodiments. Those skilled in the art should understand that the present disclosure can also be implemented without certain specific details. In some examples, methods, means, elements, and circuits that are well known to those skilled in the art have not been described in detail in order to highlight a gist of the present disclosure.

0014<figref idref="f0001">FIG. 1</figref> is a flow chart of a method for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment. In a possible implementation, the method for electrical DRC according to the present disclosure may be applied to a reliability simulation platform, which can for example perform reliability analysis on the integrated circuit and determine a physical location where a reliability problem exists in the integrated circuit. Exemplarily, the reliability simulation platform is, for example, an existing transistor-level reliability simulation signoff platform. The reliability analysis on the integrated circuit includes, but is not limited to, reliability analysis of voltage-drop and electrical migration (EM) of a power supply and signal lines.

0015As shown in <figref idref="f0001">FIG. 1</figref>, a method for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to the present disclosure may include following steps.

0016In S110, a parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit is acquired.

0017In this embodiment, the parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit may be acquired by the following manners.

0018In a first manner, a circuit netlist of the integrated circuit and a layout of the integrated circuit are acquired, then the parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit is acquired by performing a physical extraction on the circuit netlist of the integrated circuit and the layout of the integrated circuit.

0019In a second manner, a parasitic parameter of the integrated circuit is extracted by a parasitic parameter extraction tool or other software tools, an extraction result is acquired after the parasitic parameter extraction tool performs parasitic parameter extraction on the integrated circuit, and the extraction result is the parasitic parameter netlist.

0020In S130, a circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit and DRC rules are received.

0021In this embodiment, the circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit may be a result of circuit simulation for the integrated circuit by a simulation tool, and may include various simulation output results. Exemplarily, the circuit simulation result may be a wave file such as an FSDB file, a PSF file and the like, or a text file such as a PWL file, a CSV file, a VCD file and the like. Based on the circuit simulation result, a signal change amplitude on an input end of each element of the integrated circuit, a signal change amplitude on an output end of each element of the integrated circuit, and a signal change amplitude on each parasitic element within a predetermined time period can be determined. Therefore, the circuit simulation result is a dynamic check result.

0022Electrical DRC rules may include, but are not limited to, electrical rules stipulated by various chip manufacturers. Table 1 shows a table of electrical DRC rules according to an exemplary embodiment. <tables id="tabl0001" num="0001"><table frame="all"><title>Table 1 Table of electrical DRC rules</title><tgroup cols="4"><colspec colnum="1" colname="col1" colwidth="39mm" /><colspec colnum="2" colname="col2" colwidth="32mm" /><colspec colnum="3" colname="col3" colwidth="36mm" /><colspec colnum="4" colname="col4" colwidth="15mm" /><thead><row><entry align="center" valign="top">electrical DRC rule (Rule)</entry><entry align="center" valign="top">Description</entry><entry align="center" valign="top">Voltage drop (Delta- V)</entry><entry align="center" valign="top">Space</entry></row></thead><tbody><row><entry>M2.S.2</entry><entry>Space between M2</entry><entry>NA</entry><entry>0.032</entry></row><row><entry>M2.S.18.0</entry><entry>Space between M2</entry><entry>>1.05V+10%</entry><entry>0.042</entry></row><row><entry>M2.S.18.1</entry><entry>Space between M2</entry><entry>>1.2V+10%</entry><entry>0.045</entry></row><row><entry>M2.S.18.2</entry><entry>Space between M2</entry><entry>>1.5V+10%</entry><entry>0.051</entry></row><row><entry>M2.S.18.3</entry><entry>Space between M2</entry><entry>>2.5V+10%</entry><entry>0.069</entry></row></tbody></tgroup></table></tables>

0023It should be understood by those skilled in the art that M2.S.2, M2.S.18.0, M2.S.18.1, M2.S.18.2, and M2.S.18.3 in Table 1 represent identifiers of the electrical DRC rules. The expression "Space between M2" in Table 1 indicates a space between two metal lines in a second metal layer. Accordingly, the electrical DRC rule identified as M2.S.18.0 is as follows: a voltage drop between two metal lines in the second metal layer should be greater than (1.05V+10%), and a space between two metal lines should be 0.042.

0024In S150, based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result and the electrical DRC rules, the electrical DRC is performed on the integrated circuit.

0025In this embodiment, the electrical DRC may be performed on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result and the electrical DRC rules of the integrated circuit. In a possible implementation, whether the integrated circuit complies with the electrical DRC rules is determined based on the parasitic parameter netlist and the electrical DRC rules of the integrated circuit. If it is determined that the integrated circuit does not comply with the electrical DRC rules, it means that there is an error in the electrical DRC of the integrated circuit. Then, based on the circuit simulation result, a physical location in the integrated circuit that does not comply with the electrical DRC rule, i.e., the physical location in the integrated circuit where there is an error during the electrical DRC of the integrated circuit is determined. Conversely, if it is determined that the integrated circuit complies with the electrical DRC rules, it means that there is no error in the electrical DRC of the integrated circuit.

0026In the method for electrical DRC of the integrated circuit according to this embodiment, the parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit is acquired and the circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit and the electrical DRC rules are received, then electrical DRC is performed on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result and the electrical DRC rules of the integrated circuit. Therefore, dynamic electrical DRC can be automatically performed based only on the acquired parasitic parameter netlist, the received circuit simulation result and electrical DRC rules without requiring the operator to manually write the code, moreover, the physical location in the integrated circuit where an error occurs during the electrical DRC can be precisely determined, thereby significantly improving the speed and accuracy of electrical DRC, reducing false errors of electrical DRC, and avoiding over-design of integrated circuits.

0027Compared with the related art where operator performing electrical DRC is limited to a physical design engineer who is familiar with electrical DRC but not familiar with circuit design, the method for electrical DRC of the integrated circuit according to this embodiment can reduce the requirements for the familiarity of the electrical DRC by operators who perform electrical DRC. Therefore, the electrical DRC can be conducted by the design engineers who are familiar with circuit design, thereby greatly improving the design quality of the integrated circuit. Moreover, since both the circuits design and the electrical DRC are conducted by the design engineers who are familiar with circuit design, instead of having to perform electrical-related DRC by someone else who has not designed the circuit, the design process of ICs can be simplified and the design efficiency of ICs can be improved, enabling the ICs to be rapidly productized and meet the signoff standards.

0028In a possible implementation, the above-mentioned method for electrical DRC of the integrated circuit may comprise: outputting a check result of the electrical DRC performed on the integrated circuit.

0029In this embodiment, after completing the electrical DRC of the integrated circuit, the check result may be outputted to the operator, so as to determine whether the integrated circuit complies with the electrical DRC rules.

0030<figref idref="f0002">FIG. 2</figref> is a block diagram of a device for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment. As shown in <figref idref="f0002">FIG. 2</figref>, the device may comprise an acquisition module 210, a reception module 220, and a check module 230.

0031The acquisition module 210 is configured to acquire a parasitic parameter netlist of the integrated circuit.

0032The reception module 220 is configured to receive a circuit simulation result of the integrated circuit and electrical DRC rules.

0033The check module 230 is connected to the acquisition module 210 and the reception module 220, and is configured to perform electrical DRC on the integrated circuit based on the parasitic parameter netlist, the circuit simulation result, and the electrical DRC rules.

0034In a possible implementation, the reception module 220 is configured to: receive a layout of the integrated circuit; and receive a circuit netlist of the integrated circuit.

0035The acquisition module 210 is configured to: acquire the parasitic parameter netlist by performing physically extraction on the circuit netlist and the layout of the integrated circuit.

0036In a possible implementation, the check module 230 is configured to: determine, based on the parasitic parameter netlist and the electrical DRC rules, whether the integrated circuit complies with the electrical DRC rules; and in response to determining that the integrated circuit does not comply with the electrical DRC rules, a physical location in the integrated circuit that does not comply with the electrical DRC rules is determined based on the circuit simulation result.

0037In a possible implementation, the above-mentioned device may comprise an output module (not shown) configured to output a check result of the electrical DRC performed on the integrated circuit.

0038Regarding the device in the foregoing embodiments, the specific manners in which each module operates has been described in detail in the above-mentioned embodiments of the method, and thus will not be further described herein.

0039<figref idref="f0003">FIG. 3</figref> is a block diagram of a hardware structure of a device for electrical DRC of an integrated circuit according to an exemplary embodiment. Referring to <figref idref="f0003">FIG. 3</figref>, a device 900 may comprise a processor 901, and a machine-readable storage medium 902 having machine-executable instructions stored therein. The processor 901 may communicate with the machine-readable storage medium 902 via a system bus 903. In addition, the processor 901 may execute the above-mentioned method for electrical DRC of the integrated circuit by reading the machine-executable instructions corresponding to the logic for the electrical DRC of the integrated circuit in the machine-readable storage medium 902.

0040The machine-readable storage medium 902 mentioned herein may be any one of an electronic device, a magnetic device, an optical device, or other physical storage devices, and may contain or store information such as executable instructions, data, and so on. For example, the machine-readable storage medium may be a random access memory (RAM), a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, a flash memory, a storage drive (e.g., a hard drive), a solid state drive, or any type of storage disks (e.g., CD, DVD, etc.), or similar storage medium, or a combination thereof.

0041The embodiments of the present disclosure have been described above, while the above description is exemplary only, but not exhaustive, and is not limited to the disclosed embodiments. Without departing from the scope and spirit of the described embodiments, those skilled in the art may make various modifications and changes. The choice of terms used herein is intended to best explain the principles of the various embodiments, practical applications, or technical improvements in the market, or to enable other ordinary skilled in the art to understand embodiments disclosed herein.