IC WorkBench Edit/View Plus

Overview
IC WorkBench Edit/View Plus (ICWBEV+) is a powerful, hierarchical layout visualization and analysis tool. It allows viewing and editing GDSII and OASIS layouts from small IP blocks to full chip databases. ICWBEV+:

Quickly opens large GDSII and OASIS files with low memory overhead, and cache files drastically decrease the time for subsequent sessions
Provides easy debugging of the hierarchy and placement of cells and shapes
Shows fast, interactive shape connectivity
Supports the IC Validator (VUE) application to review and correct DRC and LVS errors
Defines TCAD simulation domains in hierarchical layouts for Sentaurus

PDF Download Datasheet

Figure 1: Hierarchical selection and editing in ICWBEV+

High Speed, High Capacity View and Editing
ICWBEV+ loads gigabytes of data in minutes and has unlimited file size capacity on 64-bit platforms. Fast zooming and panning ease exploration and analysis of the largest layout patterns. In addition, ICWBEV+ can overlay two or more layouts in a single view without merging the underlying layout files. Hierarchical selection and editing allow ICWBEV+ to select and edit shapes deep in the hierarchy without requiring the sub-cell to be opened as shown in Figure 1. Edit operations have undo and redo support.

Figure 2: Shape information tool tip and probe showing the hierarchy of layout shapes

Hierarchy Debug
Debugging layouts and their hierarchy is critical for the final design of large chips and ICWBEV+ provides a number of tools to do this as shown in Figure 2.

Control of the levels of hierarchy shown: ICWBEV+ can be configured to show any level(s) of the hierarchy, allowing better determination of the source of shapes
Shape information tool tip: ICWBEV+ includes a shape information tool tip to allow quick determination of the hierarchy of shapes and cells
Probe: ICWBEV+ allows more detailed information of the hierarchy in a location including the cell placement information

Advanced Features
ICWBEV+ implements the latest in user interface technology, and is architected to make the powerful ICWBEV+ capabilities easy and intuitive to use. Key features include:

Net tracing – ICWBEV+ can trace touching shapes based on a user defined connectivity list. This allows a quick check of opens/shorts in a layout
Support for user and site level customization
Hierarchical folder representation of all objects including layouts, rulers, and other markups, such as SEM images
Browser-like forward and back view history
User customizable hot keys for menus and commands
User customizable window and toolbar positions
Custom buttons to run user-created macros

Common Platform and User Modes
ICWBEV+ is built on the same code base as the IC WorkBench Plus product, but without the lithographic simulation. All lithography markup types are available for review in ICWBEV+. ICWBEV+ has user modes for different users including:

IC Validator: default set up and connections to IC Validator VUE through a single toolbar button
Sentaurus: Additional markups to support TCAD simulations, including stretch, and toolbar buttons to generate simulation domain information for Sentaurus

Interfaces