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Design Notes
AWR Design Rule Check
This project shows all the rules AWRDE supports and the new DRC UI functionalities. The new DRC interface has the ability to Area DRC, jump through errors, flag the violations as checked or false, compare the current layout with a reference gdsii file, and save and reload the error files.
This example shows the DRC rules supported by the AWR DRC. If you are using an integrated 3rd party DRC engine (Assura or Calibre), the user interface is the same regardless of the DRC engine used.
Overview
In this example, there are 19 different layout examples to show all the DRC rules supported in AWRDE. For each DRC rule there are 2 sets of shapes. The shapes on Left side violate the rule while the one on the right does not. DRC rule file is located in the same folder as this example. The rules file is also imported into the project in Data Files folder.
AWR DRC supports the following rules:
- Minimum width
- Separation
- Overlap
- Extension
- Notch
- Jog
- Minimum Polygon Area
- Polygon Holes
- Polygon on Grid
- Minimum Angle
- Maximum Vertices
- Maximum Side Length
- Resize Polygons
- Boolean Operations
- Specify a DRC Group
- Specify a Constraint Region
- ERRORTEXT
Run DRC
Follow the instructions below to get familiar with the AWR DRC rules and the functionalities
- Make sure that the Layout view of schematic AWR_DRC is opened or activated.
- From the menu, choose Verify > Design Rule Check. The Desing Rule Check window displays.
- Click Load Rules File... and browse to the location of this example. Locate the drc_rules.txt file and click Open. All the rules in the rule file will be displayed in Design Rule Check window.
- Uncheck the top 4 rules.
- Click Run DRC.
- After the DRC run is completed the results window displays. Click Window > Tile Verticle. Double click the first rule violation in Polygon DRC Violations section in the results window and notice that the layout is zoomed into where the violation is. Expand the + node for the first rule violation, this lists all the errors. Double click the first error in the list and notice that the layout is zoomed into where the error is. Also pay attention to number of errors in Checked Violations and False Violations section.
- Make the layout window active. Choose Verify > Next Error. Notice that the layout zooms into the next rule error. Also notice where the highlight is in the results window.
- Choose Verify > Next Rule Errors and observe.
- Choose Verify > Next Error and observe.
- Right click the currently highlighted error in the result window and select Checked Error. Notice that this error is removed from the Polygon DRC Violations section. Notice the number of errors in Checked Violations section.
Area DRC Check
- From the menu choose Verify > DRC Check Area. The area select tool is activated. Click in the layout window, hold the left mouse button down, and drag the mouse to create a rectangle specifying the area DRC.
- In the DRC window, select DRC check area for area DRC run.
- Run DRC.
Save and load DRC Results
- From the menu choose Verify > Save DRC Errors to save the errors in a text file.
- From the menu choose Verify > Load DRC Errors and browse to the drc error file. This will load the drc errors in the layout window and all the all the drc functions work as in the fresh drc run