PDKs#

Process Design Kits (PDKs) for leading process nodes generally include hundreds of files, documents, and configuration parameters, resulting in significant startup times in porting a design to a new node. The SiliconCompiler project minimizes per design PDK setup efforts by offering a way to package PDKs as standardized reusable objects, and making them available as named modules which can be loaded by the use() function.

A complete set of supported open PDKs can be found in pdks. The table below shows the function interfaces supported in setting up PDKs.

Functions#

The table below shows the function interfaces for setting up PDK objects.

Function

Description

Arg

Returns

Used by

Required

setup()

PDK setup function

optional keyword arguments

PDK

use()

yes

make_docs()

Doc generator

Chip

PDK

sphinx

no

setup()#

A minimally viable PDK will include a simulation device model and a set of codified manufacturing rules (“drc”). For an example setup, see the Freepdk45 source code. An example of some of the fundamental settings are shown below.

from siliconcompiler import PDK
process = '<process_name>'

pdk = PDK(process)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'foundry', <foundry_name>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'node', <node_geometry>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'version', <version>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'stackup', <stackuplist>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'drc', 'runset', <tool>, <stackup>, <runset_type>, <file>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'lvs', 'runset', <tool>, <stackup>, <runset_type> <file>)
pdk.set('pdk', process, 'devmodel', <tool>, <modeltype>, <stackup>, <file>)

To support standard RTL2GDS flows, the PDK setup will also need to specify pointers to routing technology rules, layout abstractions, layer maps, and routing grids as shown in the below example. For a complete set of available PDK parameters, see the ['pdk', ...] section of the Schema.

chip.set('pdk', process, 'aprtech', <tool>, <stackup>, <libtype>, 'lef', <file>)
chip.set('pdk', process, 'layermap', <tool>, 'def', 'gds', <stackup>, <file>)

make_docs(chip)#

The make_docs() function is used by the projects auto-doc generation. This function is only needed if the PDK requires additional inputs to be setup correctly. The function should include a call to the setup function to populate the schema with all settings as shown below. The input to this function chip is a chip object created by the auto-doc generator.

def make_docs(chip):
  return setup()
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