Boolean operators

dick_freebird

Reading the tutorial "More Operations" (FSiC 2019 pg 23/62) I am a bit unclear about the notation

"a-b" (NOT)

I expect that this would be used like

c = a-b

I think this form's result might be "ANDNOT"? (a and not(b))

What if I wanted to make an actual "NOT" of a layer - is there a unary operator (like, say, !layer)?
Such that if I wanted to, I could make the ANDNOT operation by

c = a & !b

Just hoping for a little clarification

dick_freebird

Specifically I have one derived layer that is not-a & not-b & not-c - how can I ANDNOT them all when there's no "positive logic" item to subtract (ANDNOT) from?

Matthias

Hi Jim,

For "not" you always need a background layer (which is the chip's dimension). There needs to be a outer bound somewhere (no infinite space, sorry). You can take the layout's extension, but the cases I know always have some drawn boundary layer.

So "not a" can be implemented as "boundary - a".

And "not-a & not-b & not-c" is logically equivalent to "boundary - (a + b + c)". Which is also faster.

Matthias

dick_freebird

Thanks, Matthias,

My technology does not have a "boundary" / "bulk" layer but maybe I can fake it.

Am I correct that the "NOT" logic is really "ANDNOT"?

Matthias

Hi Jim,

yes, "NOT" is basically always "AND NOT". But I have not seen a layout so far without a boundary - every chip finally needs to have a physical size.

If you know the size, you can generate this layout inside your DRC:

boundary = polygons
# produces a rectangle on this layer with corners 0,0 and 2000,1000 (µm)
boundary.insert(box(0.0, 0.0, 2000.0, 1000.0))

If you want you can also make this layer "infinitely large" (like 20x20mm). There is a limitation by the database unit - you should not exceed a range of roughly -1e9 .. 1e9 database units.

Matthias

mikamar

Hi Matthias-

How can I make the above work on 2.5d?
I tried to use it in order to get the invert of a layer but it does not seem to work.
late edit: Found a boundary layer in my layout so I'm using it, but not sure all designs/techs will have such boundary layer

Thanks, Itamar

dick_freebird

My understanding is that any layer would do, even one
you make up yourself for no other purpose.

But technologies developed with a major CAD vendor
(or according to their normal practices) will probably
have a "bulk" or similar "valid chip extents" layer for
the usual, similar uses.

Probably can use anything as long as you clean up
after yourself. But a no-harm "freebie" (like bulk/drawing)
is likely best if you can find it or something like it.

boundary/drawing is a non-printing layer and should
be OK (unless its presence steps on some other rule).
You could do a quick search through the rules decks
to see whether "boundary" is likely to meddle, if left
laying about.

mikamar

Thanks for your comment dick_freebird.

In my company there are many designs (coming from major CAD tools vendors) and I think most of them have a bulk layer in the design, but not necessarily the same layer number in each design.

I would like to have a single 2.5d macro file for all designs on the same technology node but am not sure all different design files will each have a bulk layer or the same bulk layer number.

I tried the above (boundary = polygons, polygons.insert). All layers using boundary in the 2.5d macro do not get drawn in the 2.5d view.
Do you see the same on your side?

Thanks much,

Matthias

@mikamar Could you paste an example of what you are doing?