A standard-cell library for a Sea-of-Gates : an experience with ICStation and ICBlocks

The aim of the present work was to port a standard-cell library for a Sea-of-Gates (a “SOG” is a pre-diffused circuit where just the “metal“ layers are missing) from “CIF” files existing in a competitors format to Mentor Graphics library format. Obviously, neither “ICStation“ nor “ICBlocks“ have been designed to handle standard-cells on a “SOG“. Therefore, many practical problems arose. In particular, we noted that “ICBlocks“ when routing did not always respect the grid parameters we set, resulting in “DRC” errors of “poly-via” type between elements of the “SOG“ and the routed interconnects.