Method of design analysis of existing integrated circuits
First Claim
1. A method of determining high probability locations of standard cells in an image of an IC layout comprising:
- extracting and characterizing features of the IC layout;
extracting a standard cell from the IC layout and using the standard cell as a template for comparison;
obtaining a coarse localization of possible locations of standard cells by comparing characterizing features of the template with characterizing features of the remainder of the IC layout; and
applying a fine filter to said possible locations to obtain said high probability locations.
5 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention involves a computationally efficient method of determining the locations of standard cells in an image of an IC layout. The initial step extracts and characterizes points of interest of the image. A coarse localization of possible standard cell locations is performed and is based on a comparison of the points of interest of an instance of an extracted standard cell and the remaining points of interest in the image. A more rigid comparison is made on the list of possible locations comprising a coarse match and a fine match. The coarse match results in a shortlist of possible locations. The fine match performs comparisons between the template and the shortlist. Further filtering is done to remove the effects of noise and texture variations and statistics on the results are generated to achieve the locations of the standard cells on the IC layout.
-
Citations
12 Claims
-
1. A method of determining high probability locations of standard cells in an image of an IC layout comprising:
-
extracting and characterizing features of the IC layout; extracting a standard cell from the IC layout and using the standard cell as a template for comparison; obtaining a coarse localization of possible locations of standard cells by comparing characterizing features of the template with characterizing features of the remainder of the IC layout; and applying a fine filter to said possible locations to obtain said high probability locations. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
-
-
7. Apparatus for determining high probability locations of standard cells in an image of an IC layout comprising:
a processor having access to said image and comprising; means for extracting and characterizing features of the IC layout; means for creating a symbolic representation of a standard cell from the IC layout and using the standard cell as a template for comparison; means for obtaining a coarse localization of possible locations of standard cells by comparing characterizing features of the template with characterizing features of the remainder of the IC layout; and means for applying a fine filter to said possible locations to obtain said high probability locations. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
Specification