PHYSICAL DESIGN FLOW INPUTS

Physical Design Inputs

INPUT FILES FOR PD

Inputs for PD

The Inputs for Physical Design are:

.v or .vg (Synthesized Netlist) :

It contains logic interconnection of gates for all cells (std. cells, macros..,).
Contains list of nets
(*Net : Collection of 2 or more interconnected logic components).

.tf (Technology File) :

Manufacturing grid
Physical characteristics (min. height, min. width, min. area)
Electrical characteristics (current density) of layers and vias.
Colours and Patterns.
Units and Precisions.
Physical design rules like wire-wire spacing, min. width b/w layer and via.
Stipple patterns.
Line styles.
Device characteristics.
Coupling capacitances.
Capacitance models.
Dielectric values and thickness.

.sdc (Synopsys Design Constraints) :

Timing, Design and Area constraints.
Operating conditions.
Logic assignments
Multi voltage & power optimization constraints.
Clock definitions (creating master clock, generated clock, virtual clock)
input delay, output delay and in-out delays.
Min. and Max. delays.
Multicycle path and false path.
(*Clock : used for triggering i.e.,transferring of signal from source to destination).

.lib (logical LIBrary file) :

Timing information of all cells.
Functionality information. (for optimization).
Design rules like max. transition, max. capacitance and max. fanout.
Cell delays, setup time and hold time.
Wire load models.
Power information, PVT conditions, derating factor information.
(*Transition : change of one logic state to another.
*Fanout : capability of a logic to drive multiple similar logics).

.lef (Library/Liberty/Layout Exchange Format) :

Pin information.
Height and width, area (Top view info.).
Routing directions.
Pitch.
Antenna factors.
Blockage information.

.tlu+ (TLU plus) :
It contains the values of parasitic resistances(R) and capacitances(C) in order to calculate the net delay value for PnR.

.def (Design Exchange Format) :

Name itself indicates that the file is used for exchanging the design information.
contains the information regarding the position of cells, blockages, ports etc.., along with die and core information.
Basically, it contains all the information of the previous stage. We can import the previous stage design by just sourcing this file rather than copying the complete design.
Eg: .def of floorplan contains info. about macro placement, port placement, cut rows, physical cells, pg routing etc..,