TO_Nov2024

The TO_NOV2024 repository is dedicated to the submission of open-source designs based on the IHP 130nm BiCMOS Open Source PDK, specifically for the November 2024 edition of the IHP OpenMPW program. In the future, this repository will be integrated as a submodule within the IHP-Open-DesignLib repository.

ReadTheDocs documentation for IHP-Open-DesignLib is here

Physical design constraint

1. Please align with the layout design rules which can be found here
2. The area granted to a community member is 2 mm^2 It includes the sealring.
3. The sealring can be found among klayout PyCells.

Submission process

To submit for our OpenMPW run you have to have a valid github account. Make a fork of this repository and then create a separate directory for your design next to the ExampleDesign (you can also make a copy and rename it). Structure your data according to our recommendations, update the documentation and push your files to your fork, then make a pull request.

Caution

On each PR a github action will be triggered to run a minimal DRC precheck (rejection test). Please consider it and do not upload many gds files.

Once you make a PR a github action will run a minimum set of DRC checks on each gds and gds.zip file. If the test passes it means that your design is manufacturable at our pilot line not ensuring the reliability. An example of a failure is shown on the following figure

The detailed report can be downloaded from a link, which can be found at the end of the section Details->Archive DRC Results as show on the image:

Tip

To be sure that the design meets the minimum DRC requirements we strongly recommend to run it using klayout DRC as shown below:

Tip

The DRC rejection test supports gds and gds.zip files. In a case of a large file (> 50 MB) you can split the zip file and upload multiple zip files. On linux you can perform it using the following command:

zip -s 50m -r file.gds.zip output_folder/

Directory structure

If you are a designer, we propose the following directory structure, which we and the community would appreciate you using. Please ensure that the design you submit is reproducible, meaning it should include all the information necessary to replicate the design.

📁<design_name>
 ┣ 📁design_data
 ┃ ┗ 📁tool1/format1/step1
 ┃  ┗ data
 ┃ ┗ 📁tool2/format2/setp2
 ┃  ┗ data
 ┣ 📁doc
 ┃ ┣ 📜specification
 ┃ ┣ ...
 ┗ 📁val <- validation/verification >

The first segmentation separates the design data from a documentation and verification/validation data.

Design data directory structure

The design data should be structured using tool/format/step specific scheme.

Here you can find some examples:

Example1

  📁design_data
   ┗ 📁xschem
   ┗ 📁ngspice
   ┗ 📁klayout
   ┗ 📁drc
   ┗ 📁lvs
   ┗ 📁gds

Example2

  📁design_data
   ┗ 📁verilog
   ┗ 📁sdc
   ┗ 📁lef
   ┗ 📁gds
   ┗ 📁lib
   ┗ 📁drc
   ┗ 📁lvs
   ┗ 📁reports
   ┗ 📁log

Documentation

In the doc folder the designer should provide the documentation. The best option would be any markdown language compatible with sphinx and thus ReadTheDocs system. It would make it easy to create a central point for documentation in the IHP-Open-DesignLib repository. We also provide a basic template for the documentation in the ExampleDesign/doc directory. To use it execute the following:

cd ExampleDesign
pip install -r requirements.txt
make docs

Go to source directory to modify the rst files.

Verification/validation data

Since one of the principal goals of the OpenMPW runs is a creation of a silicon proven designs we expect from the designers to measure and validate the submitted design and then open source measurements results. This directory at the moment of the submission is only a placeholder for future measurements data. A report from the measurements can be part of the documentation.